HAI 8-button House Status Switch

[compuryan]

Hello,

I'm trying to program my house status switch and I have followed the information in the user guide but cannot seem to link other HLC units to the status switch's buttons. When I initiate the linking process, both the chosen button on the status switch flashes and the unit I am trying to link also flashes its LED but nothing else happens. I'm thinking perhaps I need to "configure" the status switch with the OmniPro panel in order to register it on the network before it will link to other units on the network, however I can find no documentation which outlines the process, if any, to do this. I'm not sure if I program it as a room or a regular unit and if so, does it matter what room the unit "belongs" to? Am I missing something? Otherwise I'm thinking maybe the only way to do what I want to do is to use UPStart which is fine I guess but I've been trying to avoid dealing with it as everything else has programmed just fine through the omnipro panel.


Thanks in advance for any advice on this,

Ryan

 

[Desert_AIP]

In PCAccess, the first unit of each room must be named, regardless of whether or not a room controller will be physically installed/configured.

Switches and House Controllers can not be configured as the first unit in a room. The first unit of each room is dedicated for Room Controllers only.

The House controllers are usually the 8th unit in a room.

 

[compuryan]

None of those links are working for me, don't know why. Firefox says they are loop-redirecting. Can't find any relevant articles in the KB myself either.

But anyway, all my units and rooms are labelled in PC access. So you're saying I just need to pick any room and make the House controller the 8th unit in that room, and that will allow me to link units to it?

 

[Desert_AIP]

Type "HLC" in the KB

http://kb.homeauto.c...p?id=547&Lang=1

http://kb.homeauto.c...p?id=637&Lang=1

http://kb.homeauto.c...p?id=546&Lang=1

From the last link:

When the HSS is to be used to track/control 8 rooms, it is configured as the 8th unit in any or all (if desired) 8 rooms. Since 8 rooms equal 4 house code assignments, that means that every 4 house codes have 8 dedicated links reserved for HSS switches. See if the below makes sense:



House Codes 1-4 = Rooms 1-8 – Any HSS configured to Units 8, 16, 24, 32, 40, 48, 56, or 64 would use Links 193-200.
House Codes 5-8 = Rooms 9-16 – Any HSS configured to Units 72, 80, 88, 96, 104, 112, 120, or 128 would use Links 201-208.
House Codes 9-12 – Rooms 17-24 – Any HSS configured to Units 136, 144, 152, 160, 168, 176, 184, or 192 would use Links 209-216.
House Codes 13-16 – Rooms 25-31 – any HSS configured to Units 200, 208, 216, 224, 232, 240, or 248 would use Links 217-224.


If a HSS is desired to be used as a macro executer, it would be configured as the 2nd-7th unit is any room. There are 8 links dedicated for any HSS used in this manner – Links 243-250. In summary, when using the HLC scheme, links are applied in the following manner:



Links 1-186 – assigned to any switch or room controller configured in Rooms 1-31, respectively (NOTE: Links 187-192 would be applied to any switch/room controller configured to Units 249 and 250).
Links 193-224 – assigned to any HSS configured properly to function as a house controller in Rooms 1-31, respectively.
Links 241 and 242 – assigned to the Top/Bottom rockers on every switch.
Links 243-250 – assigned to any HSS configured to function as a macro-executer.
Links 225-240 – free for use as programmed.

If you want to use it as a House Controller - switching ALL ON/ALL OFF for 8 rooms, make it unit 8 (or the 8th unit of a room).

If you want to use it as a link transmitter or "Macro Executer", it should have a unit number between 2-7 (or the equivalent in other rooms).

 

[compuryan]

those links do work... anyway I will work on this and report back if there are further problems.

Thanks.

 

[Desert_AIP]

From your OP.
Yes you must configure the HSS first. It has to have a unit ID, network info, etc.

From the User Manual:

Configuring HLC Devices
HLC devices can be configured using an Omni console or OmniTouch touchscreen connected to the OmniPro II controller.
When configuring HLC devices, the following information is programmed into the HLC device:
Network ID (UPB Network ID configured in OmniPro II controller)
Network Name (HAI Lighting)
Unit ID (Unit Number of respective unit)
Unit Name (which is the name description given to the respective unit in the OmniPro II controller)
Room Name (using HLC, the name of the first unit in the respective group is used; otherwise the room number is used)
Links (every device in each room is programmed with 6 consecutive Links, starting with Link 1; for example, every device
in Room 1 is programmed with Links 1-6, Room 2 is programmed with links 7-12, etc.)
Other configuration information
When configuring HLC devices using an Omni console or OmniTouch touchscreen, each device (unit number) must first be
assigned a name in the OmniPro II controller. HAI recommends that you first configure your OmniPro II controller (naming all
of the HLC units) using the HAI PC Access Software, and then download the information to the OmniPro II controller.

 

[compuryan]

OK so I managed to get it working, however not exactly how I would like it to be working for my application.

Really what I would like to have is the ability to configure individual units onto each button, rather than entire rooms. A couple of reasons for this. 1, I want to be able to control only certain lights in each room, while not interfering with certain units, such as lamps, that are on automated programs. 2, I would like to be able to combine multiple rooms of these specific on each button as I have far more than 8 rooms of lighting control. For instance, I would like units in all bathrooms to be linked to one button on the HSS. I'm guessing I need to break out the UPStart software to get this kind of configuration, if it's even possible to set up the system this way? By following the directions in the included manual it appears to provide instructions on adding individual units to buttons but like I said in the original post, I can't seem to make it link using that configuration.

Thanks,

Ryan

 

[Desert_AIP]

The UPB serial protocol for links is different than unit commands.
The 8 button controller is essentially a link transmitter. It can't send unit commands.

The automatic prgramming of HLC is meant to ease installation and get it up and running rapidly. But it doesn't provide the best functionality.
You have to use UPStart to get the most of the UPB lighting system.

1)
There are three ways to do what you want.

In UPStart, reprogram the default behavior for the A,B,C,D links. Instead of the room graduated light levels you can make these A = fixture 1 on, B = fixture 2 on, C = fixture 1 and 2 on, etc. You have to manually configure the switches to respond to the links the way you want. For instance, in my Kitchen the A,B,C,D links operate groups of lights for different "scenes", Evening Time, Dining, Eat in the Nook, Late Night. The ON/OFF links control the entire room. But the default on levels set in the switches are not necessarily 100%. This method should track the status of the lights as long as they are all in a single logical "room".

In UpStart, use the free program link numbers from the HLC protocol and create links for the loads you want to control. Then manually program the switches to respond to the links and the controller to send the links.

In UpStart, use the free program link numbers from the HLC protocol and create links for the loads you want to control. Then manually program the the controller to send the links. In PCAccess, program the controlelr to send the unit commands in response to the received links.
This method takes additional programming lines but has the advantage of maintaining status tracking.

2)
A "room" of lights doesn't have to be a physical room. For instance, all of the exahaust fans in my house are in one "room", even though they are in 4 separate physical rooms. Same with all guest bedroom lights, the guest baths, etc. The "room" inside the controller is a logical construct, a group of lights that are tracked together.
If you get into UPStart you can tailor the behavior of these groups on a more logical and user friendly basis than the base line HLC organization.