Category Archives: LonWorks

LonWorks is the platform. LonTalk is the protocol underneath it. ISO/IEC 14908 is the standard that defines both, and it calls the protocol CNP.

These guides work from the four published parts rather than from vendor summaries — the protocol stack, the twisted-pair channel, the power line channel, and the rules for carrying the protocol over IP. That means real numbers: field widths, node limits, timing constraints, wiring distances, and the conformance thresholds a device has to meet.

Most of what’s written about LonWorks treats it as a building automation topic. It is that, but it has also run substation station buses, rail control, and forecourt systems. Where it matters, these guides say which figures come from the standard and which come from the vendor world on top of it.

LonTalk Addressing: Domain, Subnet, Node, Group and Neuron ID

Every LonTalk packet carries both a source and a destination address, and both live in the same header. There is no separate layer-2 addressing underneath — the standard folds routing and naming into one address field. Get the structure of that field straight and most of the network’s limits, quirks, and failure modes stop being mysterious. This is… Read More: LonTalk Addressing: Domain, Subnet, Node, Group and Neuron ID »

LonWorks Protocol: LonTalk, ISO/IEC 14908, and How the Network Actually Works

Walk into a plant room and you will see three names on the same equipment. LonWorks on the panel label. LonTalk in the manual. ISO/IEC 14908 in the submittal package. They are not three protocols. LonWorks is the platform — chips, transceivers, tools, devices. LonTalk is the protocol those devices speak. ISO/IEC 14908 is the published standard that… Read More: LonWorks Protocol: LonTalk, ISO/IEC 14908, and How the Network Actually… »