Lighting using HAI, Upstart, PC Access and the H@me app

I know that is a lot for the title, but heres the deal. I finally got my PC to link to the PIM so I could use Upstart for my UBP lighting. I got that all set up and thought things were good, except somehow the OPII does not recognize any of my changes or additions. So now I cant use my new features with the controllers and also, none of the changes are on my H@me app on my phone either.

Also, is the H@me app supposed to know if the light are on or off? Everytime I load the app and click on lighting, it shows that everything is off, even if its really on.

I have a similar setup so maybe i can help..

first: what brand(s) of UPB equipment are you using? is it all HAI, or do you also have PCS, SAI, etc?
next: if you're using HAI, are you using HLC (HAI's convention for assigning UPB ids and links by room)? If you have a mix of HAI and non-HAI units, note that you can configure the non-HAI units so they follow HAI's convention and so you should be able to have them interoperate.

if you're using HLC, then the Omnipro has out-of-the-box support for status tracking. do be aware: the OPII HLC status tracking appears to work by having it watch for specific links triggered from the UPB units, so in the beginning the OPII doesn't know the actual state of these units (because no links have been picked up by the OPII yet). see if turning the UPB units off and on once resolves your issues.

FWIW I have noticed my OPII's status tracking isn't always correct but i haven't had a chance to dig in more closely. I think I don't have something set up correctly on my non-HAI units.

FWIW I've found HLC to be a bit constraining (e.g. there is a standard link which is assigned to rocker down, which i assume is what the OPII uses for status tracking, and that prevents me from assigning another link to that event to let me do something else). i should be able to use the OPII's programming to work around these limitations (e.g. hai program which triggers another link when that rocker down event occurs), but i haven't got around to it yet.

Also, If someone could provide some guidance as far as naming rooms and the devices. I know you have to name the device, but can you name the room in PC Access?

If I name a light "Cans" then the controller wont show what room those cans are, i.e. Kitchen Cans, Lv Rm Cans...

Yes, I am using all HAI's devices and using the HLC convention.

Anyone?

Just starting to play with UPB, Upstart and OmniPro II. I have only purchased a simply automated starter kit.

I am not sure how it would look but it appears that the methodology of a "room" was to use first of 8 devices to define the room and name the UPB controller the same.

But this doesn't really give you good verbiage for a description of one device in a set of 8 other than maybe just also using the description under the name.

I am currently going to test with hallway cans in that I currently do not have these switches automated and I guess I will learn as I configure each one.

I wish I could help you more though...

H@ome is a simple app. that is not going to know a light's state unless it polls them all, which it doesn't. For me it had a bunch of other bugs, to the point where I didn't really trust it, but you get what you pay for. I purchased WebLink III which runs on a Windows Home Server and works, but its a fair bit more money.

If you are JUST using HAI to control your lights, naming isn't very important, but if you go the UPStart route, link naming is important. I create links for the whole house, inside, room and device, so a bedroom light will respond to All lights Off, Bedroom Lights Off, and Bedroom Ceiling Light Off, for example. For device name, I'd always use room_device, and keep them short but descriptive. I have several lights in each room and its important to keep your naming consistent, so think about it fully before starting.

10Seconds said:

Also, If someone could provide some guidance as far as naming rooms and the devices. I know you have to name the device, but can you name the room in PC Access?

If I name a light "Cans" then the controller wont show what room those cans are, i.e. Kitchen Cans, Lv Rm Cans...

Click to expand...

There isn't any good way to name a room. You have to find some way to include the room name, or an abbreviation of it, in the device name. This can admittedly be difficult considering that the controller only allows 12 characters for device names. Then again, using the console for everyday device control isn't the way you want to go about it anyway.

However... if you have a 5.7e and/or 10p, and Automation Studio, you can add your PC Access configuration file to your screen definitions, and AS will pick up all of the long descriptions that you entered into PC Access and add those to the screens.

pete_c said:

I am not sure how it would look but it appears that the methodology of a "room" was to use first of 8 devices to define the room and name the UPB controller the same.

Click to expand...

Well, that really has to do with the way that HAI manages scene switches and the UPB links that scene switches employ. The first unit number in a room (in other words, all of the addresses which, if 1 is subtracted from them, are divisible by 8) is reserved for a scene switch in rooms that are defined as HLC. There are six UPB links reserved for each HLC-type room, which the scene switch (if there actually is one in the room) will use to control the devices in that room.

Also: I've noticed a misconception among some of the HAI newbies. The controller does not use device names to identify UPB devices in the network; in fact, it doesn't care at all what devices are named. It identifies them by the UPB address (which is the same as the unit number). So changing the room name or device name in Upstart will not cause the controller to "find" a device that it could not identify previously.

Yes, I've learned that its just the unit number which matters.

While its true that an HAI panel control devices and links just by number, the short names and sometimes the long names are used throughout the HAI world to control these devices. You don't turn on device 23, you turn on "Bedrm Lamps", at least that is the way my panels and Omni Touch's display it. And some go even further. Software like WebLink III keeps an even longer name like "LivingRoom Ceiling Fan." So yes, names are important, and when you get 75+ devices, you'll see they are REALLY important, and how the HAI panel operates internally doesn't change that.

I see that the H@me app got updated from version 1.0 to 1.1 I think. It doesn't mention any fixes or extra features, just an added message saying that the app will be advanced to ver. 2.0 soon, which will cost money, and the free app will be removed. I also found it interesting that the author noted that the new 2.0 version would add features and stability improvements. In other words, if you want it to work and not crash, your going to have to pay for that. Still even if this app costs money, it will still be likely MUCH cheaper than anything HAI offers.

If you are using HAI HLC there is no need to use Upstart.

So what would be the justification relating to using HAI UPB or SA UPB considering the modules are priced around the same?

Personally I like the speed of adding and manupulating a SA device using Upstart versus adding a device with say with HAI PCA (Syncing names etc?)

I know there are features with the SA devices that are not replicated with the HAI panel.

As I want the HAI Omni Pro II to be the "Master" controller of my UPB lighting would it be beneficial to just stick with HAI UPB HLC versus maybe confusting matters programming with Upstart then syncing lights with the HAI Omni Pro II?

In addition to the HAI panel being the "Master" I want HS to be a secondary controller for additional events. So I was going to sync the names of the UPB devices so that they are the same on HS and HAI panel. Initially though using a secondary UPB controller then later maybe using HS's plugin interface to the HAI panel.

The HLC method is fine if you want to stay within the confines of that. You need all HAI switches, and you use room controller like HAI sets up for you. If that is all you want, the HAI method is easy and it works, but it is very limited to just that.

If you use UPStart its more work but you can do much more. The HAI panel can still control it all, so that's not really the issue, its more about programming. If your not the tech type, and just want a few scenes for each room, the HAI way is fine. If you want more control, use UPStart where you can create links and do much more. If you don't mind buying all HAI switches, start with HLC, but if it leads to a bunch of "I wish I could ...." then you can switch to UPStart, you just can't really mix the two.

One more thing. There seems to be this mistaken belief that in UPStart "mode" that the panel can't control UPStart links. NOT TRUE. The panel can activate or deactivate ANY links created with UPStart. You just access links by their link number. A bit of a pain, but not that bad.