HAI Rooms and UPB addressing

[Ranger Digital]

I set up over 90 loads in upstart, SA units. I just wett around the house and assigned them as I installed them over a period of weeks. Now, for months I have not been able to get them to work right through PCA.
 
The units are set up in PCAccess  exactly like I have them in Upstart. The address for each switch matches exactly to a unit number in PCA.  I have created all the rooms and assigned the right switches to each room in PCA. Even tried adding the fake controller as the first switch in room. However, PCA is addressing the units incorrectly. IE, Unit 1 is address 1 in room 1, but Unit 2 is address 2 but in room ONE. That's not the way I want it! My addressing in upstart has nothing to do with what ROOM its in. Am I gong to have to go back to every switch and re-address it? I  hope not! Is there a way to change "annotation" in PCA under units? That's the part that's mucking everything up!
 
I will play with taking house code format and changing it to UPB but I think that will limit my polling. The knowledge base is confusing and not clear to me. Are there more clear instructions somewhere? This may have been covered already in the forum but those pesky three letter searches are not so great, lol.

 

[Ranger Digital]

This is really bizarre. In the HAI app, the rooms are actually showing up correctly. They were not before, lol.  But in PCA is still shows, ie, master bed AND master bath as room "7". I guess it doesn't mean anything really.
 
However, I still cannot control the lights via the app. I have the address and password set up right in Unit dealer settings. PIM in jack three and jumper is in the first position. I have reset the PIM but might not be doing it right.
 
Maybe my issue is the fake controller in each room? under rooms settings?

 

[Frunple]

If you're using HLC for the coding format, you have to use HLC numbering. Sounds like you're not.
In HLC each room has 8 units, the first being a controller. If you aren't using a controller you have to skip the first in each room BUT still give it a name or the other units in that room will not show.
If you want to use UPB format, you can then use upstart and number them any way you like.

 

[Ranger Digital]

OK, so I DO have to reprogram every switch in Upstart to MATCH HAI. I thought I could get away with matching HAI to upstart. Well, crap! LOL
 
Yup, rearranged rooms in the beginning to only have a max of 8 in eash room each with a fake controller. Its odd though, they all show up correctly in the HAI iphone app. Just none are controllable. yet.

 

[Ranger Digital]

Actually, I don't need to reprogram them. Not sure why, but when I look at annotations in the UNITS menu of PCA, they are all correct now. Looks like my issue is in control, not the unit/numbering set up. Earlier today I deleted the first FAKE controller in each room, downloaded, that didn't work. I added the fake controller back, same first slot and voila, everything is numbered correctly and all shows up right. Now, to figure out why I can control anything.
 
I have:
House Code A
X-10 3 phase NO
UPB Address; correct
UPB password: correct
UPB status time 5
UPB Transmit count 2
Expansion enclosures 0
 
Is the expansion enclosure correct? I will have to look that one up as I don't recall that part.
 
Also I have expansion set up for serial three to UPB. I did some type of reset months ago on the HAI PIM per automated outlet instructions.
 
Am I missing something? I just cant wait to get this communicating with Total Control so I don't have to get off my azz and just use the remote for lights.

 

[Desert_AIP]

HLC is a strict unit allocation scheme.
You HAVE to assign the units to rooms as specified in the scheme.

You HAVE to have the first unit of each room block named as well, even if there is no room controller there.

In PCAccess you need to tell the controller the units are HLC vice UPB. Each room is a pair, so room 1&2, 3&4, etc. you have to turn each pair you are using on to HLC mode.

You can have virtual rooms, and reassign the room links to do different things than the default 80-60-40-20 dimming scheme.
But the unit allocation is hard coded.

By virtual rooms I mean you can group like things.
For instance all of the fans in my house are in one "room", called Fans.
The room on and off links turn them all on or off.
Link A turns on the Master Bath fan, Link B turns on the Guest Bath fan, link C turns on the Powder Room fan and link D turns on the Laundry Room fan.

Have you read the HAI knowledge base HLC articles?

 

[Ranger Digital]

HLC is a strict unit allocation scheme.
You HAVE to assign the units to rooms as specified in the scheme.
 
What scheme? Those matrix pages in the knowledge base?

You HAVE to have the first unit of each room block named as well, even if there is no room controller there.
 
My understanding is you HAVE to have a controller there even if it is a fake one. No?

In PCAccess you need to tell the controller the units are HLC vice UPB. Each room is a pair, so room 1&2, 3&4, etc. you have to turn each pair you are using on to HLC mode.
 
I have everything set to HLC. I have no idea what the pairing means? I don't see that anywhere.

You can have virtual rooms, and reassign the room links to do different things than the default 80-60-40-20 dimming scheme.
But the unit allocation is hard coded.

By virtual rooms I mean you can group like things.
For instance all of the fans in my house are in one "room", called Fans.
The room on and off links turn them all on or off.
Link A turns on the Master Bath fan, Link B turns on the Guest Bath fan, link C turns on the Powder Room fan and link D turns on the Laundry Room fan.

Have you read the HAI knowledge base HLC articles? Yes, every article. The matrix spreadsheets I m not understanding quickly.

 

[Desert_AIP]

By "scheme" I mean the unit ID and room allocation.
Yes the matrix allocation scheme.
HLC is nothing but a structured allocation of UPB IDs and Links.
That structure is hard coded into the controller, and the expected behavior follows some rules and the allocation convention.
But if you look at the UPB signals in UpStart you can see that they are just normal UPB links and commands going back and forth.
It's not as mysterious once you understand the convention.
I would ignore the HSS info initially.  That caused a bit of confusion for me until I started playing with the links.

These are the most pertinent articles

http://kb.homeauto.com/default.asp?id=547&Lang=1&SID=

http://kb.homeauto.com/default.asp?id=637


Room 1
Units 1-8
 
Room 2
Units 9-16
 
Etc.
That is HARD CODED.
In order for status tracking to work properly you have to use this convention.
The way the controller works, whenever it sees one of the six room links (ON, OFF, A, B, C, D), the controller waits the UPB delay setting in PC Access, then sends out status requests to all of the unit IDs of the room the link is associated with.
 
In PCAccess, when you tell it to use HLC or UPB, the rooms are paired. 
So if you want Room 1 to be HLC, Room 2 will automatically be setup as HLC.
So every 16 units are organized together.
This pairing also holds true for things like response to the ALL ON and OFF commands.
 
Yes, the first unit of the Room HAS to have a name.
There does not have to be a physical device with that unit.
But if there is a physical device, it HAS to be a room controller, it can't be a normal switch.
The HLC convention expects a room controller in that spot.
If you don't have a physical room controller, you have to have one named.
If you don't have a name in that slot, then the controller assumes there is no room, and so the other 7 unit IDs are ignored when controlling, even if they are assigned in PCAccess.
 
So Room 1, Unit 1; Room 2, Unit 9; etc., HAS to be the room name.
If you have any devices in units 2-8, unit 1 has to have a name.
 
 
The matrix spreadsheets detail the Unit ID allocation by room and several requirements such as the naming the room.
They also show the default link programming.  That can be modified.  As I stated above, the controller will update the status of all units in a room to their actual levels anytime a link is transmitted.
So even though Link 3 (Room 1 A) has a default of 80% dimming for all room units, if you program two room units to respond at 50% and two units to be off when receiving that link, the controller will accurately reflect the true status.
 
Recommendation:
In PCAccess I name both the HLC and UPB links.  Since UPB uses plain language labels it is a bit easier to program with them.
You can program using the UPB Links commands and PCAccess will geenrally convert it to the proper HLC link.
Lets say you want Link A to be a scene for dinner time.  You can name UPB Link 3 (Room 1 Link A) "Dinner Time".
In PCAccess when you select UPB Command, Link "Dinner Time" activate, PCAccess will change it to Room 1 Link A.
 
You can use a link from a room to update the status of the room, especially useful when using cross room links.
 
Advanced:
I have few scenes that activate multiple units across rooms.  The controller will only send the status request to the 8 units in the room from which the link originated.  This can make status tracking of the other units problematic.  So I will send a room update link as well.  I usually use Link D as the room status link.  I don't program any units in the room to respond to it, so there is no apparent change.  But when the controller sees the link, it sends out status updates to the room.
 
So for instance I have a scene that affects the Kitchen, Dining Room and Family room.  I program the behavior I want for all of the units in UpStart. 
When I send the Link A (which is allocated to the Kitchen scheme), all of the units respond as desired, and the controller requests status to update the Kitchen. 
In PCAccess, I also tell the controller to watch for Kitchen Link A and send Link D for the Dining Room and Family Room.
When Link D goes out, the controller AUTOMATICALLY sends out status updates for the Dining Room and Family Room and status tracking is updated. 
Even though no actual lighting change occurs with Link D.
 
So I don't have to send out individual status requests for each unit, and take up a lot of programming lines. 
I use the default hard coded behavior of the controller to take care of it for me.

 

[Ranger Digital]

OK, great detail. THANKS! I will have to redo all my addressing in Upstart now.