LonMark® International has released LonMark Resource Files version 14.00, providing extensive new enhancements to the LonMark interoperability standards. This set of files is a combination of standardized network-oriented data types and device-oriented configuration-property types for industries such as facility automation, home automation, locomotive controls/monitoring, and indoor/outdoor lighting.

Standardized data types are important because integrators cannot seamlessly connect two devices without the data types being the same (e.g., temperature-to-temperature, pressure-to-pressure). LonMark Resource Files also define the units of the information being carried across the network – like Celsius for temperatures – regardless of the units shown on a user panel.

The LonMark Resource Files are used to present the standard network-variable types (SNVTs) and standard configuration-property types (SCPTs) in machine-readable form for use with many off-the-shelf software tools to develop, install, maintain and monitor control networks based on the ISO/IEC 14908 suite of standards. Collections of network variables and configuration properties are used to profile application-specific device functions, such as thermostats, air-handling units, street lights, restaurant equipment, and domestic clothes washers—allowing for interoperable communications between devices of different vendors. The binaries of these functional profiles are included in the LonMark Resource Files.

            The files are available to anyone to use without license fees or royalties. The LonMark Resource File installer can be used stand-alone or embedded as part of a vendor’s software installation setup. For more information and to download the installer, please visit www.lonmark.org/LMRF.