Word Explanation

[qwertz1]

Hello,
can somebody explain this follow words/things to me? I Found them on the controller list on this side and they are all MySensor Functionalities:

What is Heartbeat support?
Ack support, What means ACK?
OTA support means Over the air? But what could I do with this?
Request? The controller can send a request to a server or something like this?

Many thanks for helping!

[AWI]

@qwertz1

• Heartbeat support: the sensor can send a "heartbeat" message to the controller to let it know it's alive. The heartbeat message does not update values. Not all controllers can interpret the message.
• Ack: when you enable ack in a message the receiving node "acknowledges" the message by returning it. It is a way to make sure that the message arrived at it's destination. Some controllers can resend and/or report. This is used mostly for actuators (lights/ motors) to be it is switched on/off.
• OTA (over the air) means you can update the firmware (sketch) on the MySensors node without wiring it to the computer.
• Request: the controller supports "requesting" values. i.e. a node/sensor can request a last known value from the controller (or other node). Typical usage is to request a last know switch state from the controller after a node/ sensor powers up. Another usage ( at least for me) is requesting all kinds of information from the controller for remote display (V_TEXT).

I hope it clears the sky for you..