Setting up fixtures

Modified on Tue, 26 Sep, 2023 at 8:38 AM

Setting up fixtures¶

The smartsensors and lighting fixtures need to be identified and assigned to the locations where they are physically located. This will ensure that they operate according the behaviors set up for the locations. The term Fixtures is used to refer to any smartengine endpoint or lighting fixture associated with it.

Tip

Ensure that the smartengines are clustered and appear as online on the smartengine dashboard. Check the network connectivity and device and clustering configuration to resolve any issues.
Any issues with lighting fixture hardware, its connection to the smartsensor/smartgateway or cabling from smartengine endpoint to the engine should be resolved before proceeding for optimal experience. See the Fixture Discovery to learn more about this.
In case of any issues, you may use the Manage Devices application in the smartmanager for more information.

Fixture Discovery¶

The fixtures or smartengine endpoints are connected to the one or more ports on a smartengine. The smartengine automatically detects the presence of an endpoint when one is connected and communicates with it to determine the expected profile of the fixture connected to the endpoint. This information is then used to operate the fixture. The following steps are involved in this process on a smartengine:

Automatically detect smartsensor, gateway or wall controller connected to a port
Establish communication channel with the endpoint
Determine the profile information (or fixture type) from the endpoint.
Validate that the profile requirements (for example, number of ports) are satisfied, and test for open circuits as well measure the maximum power usage.
Errors in cabling or wiring the fixture will result in the failure in one of the above mentioned steps. In case of any errors, the connection is reset and smartengine will reinitiate the discovery. This will cause the connected light to be turned off.
If smartsensor module is connected to smartgateway, then it is also detected and identified.
The smartengine receives motion and sensor data from smartengine endpoint.

Until a fixture has been assigned to a location, it is considered an uncommissioned fixture and is held in a special reserved system defined location (Unassigned).

Tip

The LEDs on smartengine endpoints turn red when the fixture is in uncommissioned state.
All uncommissioned lighting fixtures operate at 85% light level when any motion is detected by an uncommisioned smartsensor.
Lights stay on unless no motion is seen by any uncommissioned smartsensor for 30 minutes.
Uncommissioned wall controllers are disabled to prevent any presses from turning off all fixtures.

Warning

The fixture resets during fixture discovery (and error recovery) will result in fixtures (and smartengine endpoint leds) being turned on and off.
If fixture connection is deemed unstable (after 30 successful discoveries) the fixture is disabled. This behavior is enforced only on commissioned fixtures. The fixture may be reset through smartmanager to recover from this condition.

Identifying fixtures¶

In order to assign fixtures to the correct location, you must identify the fixture — correlate the serial number of smartengine endpoint to the actual fixture by providing it a name. There are different ways to identify the fixtures:

Blink the fixture in the smartmanager and locate the blinking fixture physically. Clearly this option can be used for a few fixtures, but is not scalable for large scale deployment.
Use the flashlight naming process to identify and name each individual fixture.
Complete the process of importing the fixture and location information from a spreadsheet. The process for importing the information for locations and fixtures was discussed with the creation of locations.

Flashlight naming¶

Flashlight naming is a smartmanager guided process which allows you to associate a name with each smartengine endpoint as you point a flashlight at it. The software detects the flashlight and assigns a name comprising of a specified prefix and sequence number (incrementing as you go from one sensor to the next).

Flashlight Naming procedure

The Flashlight Naming process may be initiated by launching the Flashlight Naming dialog from the bottom action bar on the Uncommissioned Fixtures tab.
This process can be employed on fixtures that have not been commissioned (assigned to a location). The dialog provides you the list of eligible fixtures and you may select all or a subset of the fixtures (* an example would be fixtures connected to a subset of engines that you know serve a specific area of implementation.)
Upon selection of the fixtures, the smartmanager checks whether selected fixtures are capable of detecting flashlight. If space is too well lit the flashlight detection may not be possible. It also tries to determine optimal light sensor setting based on the existing light detected by the fixtures.
In case of any failed fixtures, please return to the first step and try again (failed fixtures are automatically disabled)
Once the tests are completed, you are required to specify a prefix and a starting sequence number and start the process.
- The selected light fixtures turn to 20% light level, and the leds on the sensors and wall controllers blink red.
- When flashlight is aimed at a sensor, upon detection of the flashlight, the sensor led turns green and the light level goes to 85%.
- This fixture is assigned a name starting with the configured prefix and with sequence number as suffix. The sequence number is incremented with each flashlight detection.
- For wall controllers, you may press any button instead of flashing light at it.
- Note that if a sensor is not connected to a lighting fixture, the sensor response is the same as described above.
When you have completed a location, you may proceed to the next step which will move the fixtures in the new location that you can assign an appropriate name to before saving.
You may then move on the next set of fixtures in a new location.

Verifying fixtures imported from spreadsheet¶

The process for importing the location and fixture information through a spreadsheet was discussed in an earlier section. The dialog creates the new locations and also saves information about which locations are expected to have fixtures and where those fixtures are expected to be connected (engine and port). In addition the name to be associated with the fixture is recorded.

The smartengine can then correlate the information from the spreadsheet with the actual fixtures discovered on the engine and port. However, it is possible that there may be inconsistencies in the actual cabling as compared with the data in the spreadsheet. Therefore, the fixture configurations (location assignment and name) have to be completed by verifying the fixtures in each location.

Verifying fixtures in each location

Navigate to the Commissioned Fixtures tab in the Fixtures section of the Commission System application in smartmanager.
Use the location tree in under the Fixtures section in the left side navigation to visit each location
If a location has list of fixtures imported that need to be verified, the Imported Fixtures tab shows the list of fixtures that were imported for the location from the spreadsheet.
Use the Confirm Fixturesdialog to complete this process. The dialog will show the list of
- Actual fixtures discovered that were matched with engine and port connections as specified in spreadsheet
- Fixtures specified in spreadsheet that were not found connected
You may blink the connected fixtures to visually test the fixtures in the location
Finally you can confirm the fixtures that need to be assigned the name and location permanently.

Updating the fixture characteristics¶

Each smartsensor or gateway is provisioned with a default fixture type identifier (also referred to as profile identifier or PID). This identifier defines the characteristics of the expected fixture connected to the smartsensor or gateway. These characteristics include, the fixture attributes like number of port, LED drive current for each port, support for color tuning, etc. The default PID assigned to the sensors and gateways are special type called generic PIDs that can support a set of defined smartengine ready fixtures from different vendors. You should update the fixture PIDs to the one corresponding to the specific fixture vendor and model.

Changing the Fixture Type

Visit the Overview tab of the Fixtures section of the Commission System application.
The different fixture types that have been discovered by the smartengine are visible on the page along with a count of the number of fixtures.
Against each generic fixture type, the ... button on the right provides an action to Update fixture typewhich launches a dialog to complete the process.
This includes selecting a set of fixtures, and assigning vendor and model that best fits them.
Please note warning below if you are selecting a fixture that is not compatible.
This process will result in resetting the fixtures and lights will turn off and come back on after fresh discovery.
For fixture types that are not generic, a similar option is available to reset specific fixtures to default generic option.

Warning

The fixture type or PID update must be done with caution to make sure that correct fixture type is assigned to a given fixture. Incorrect PID setting will result in fixture being operated in ways it is not expected to be. As an example, if a fixture that is not capable of color tuning is assigned a color tuning capability, the light outputs will be significantly different and uneven.
This is particularly important when forcing the PID to a possibly non compatible PID as it may permanently damage the fixture.

Setting up wall controllers¶

smartengine provides support for different kinds of wall controllers:

Multi-button scene controllers powered by smartengine which may be configured to activate specific lighting scenes or perform dimming actions.
Standard SPST/SPDT switches connected to the smartsensor to perform dimming or on/off actions.

The multi-button scene controllers come in various configurations such as :

1, 2 or 4 button controller configured with appropriate mechanical parts
8 button controller
5 button controller with integrated environmental sensor.

These consume a single port on a smartengine. The different types of scene controller in the installation show up as different fixture types in Overview tab of the Fixtures section in Commission System application. The ... button associated with the fixture types corresponding to these scene controllers can be used to launch dialogs to perform customizations of the buttons for all switches of a given type.

The wall switches connected to standard SPST/SPDT switches are not visible in the system unless they are pressed at least once. By default they are assumed to operate as on/off switches. The smartmanager sensors with these dimmers are shown as a part of the Fixture Extensions (GPIO) section. The actions associated with each type can be used to reconfigure the behavior (dimming or on/off) to be associated with each type.

Note

This section showing the SPST/SPDT connections appear only once the switches are pressed. This action is necessary once for the software to detect the presence of this extension.

Calibrating light sensors¶

In spaces where plenty of external daylight is available, smartengine can turn down the light levels of individual fixtures based on the amount of light detected by the light sensors. The smartengines will adjust the fixture light levels in coordination with data from the light sensors (which includes the ambient light it sees) to ensure that the space receives desired light level (as configured).

In order to enable this capability, the light sensors must be calibrated so that they establish a baseline sensor settings for different light levels. This must be done when there is no external light in the space (preferably in the night, though one may block off all lights through other methods as well). All the locations in a contiguous space (section of a floor perhaps) are calibrated together.

Calibrating the light sensors in a location

Light Sensors can be calibrated by launching the Calibrate Sensors dialog from the action bar in the Sensors Settings tab under Fixtures section of the Commission System application in the smartmanager. It is available when a specific location has been selected.
Multiple locations (typically the adjacent ones) can be selected in the dialog and then calibration is initiated.
Only smartengine endpoints which have light sensors and are connected to light fixtures participate in the process.
During the process, the light levels are adjusted from 0 to 100% in increments of 10 and light sensor readings are recorded for future use.
The calibration process takes a little time as a result.

Adjusting motion sensitivity¶

The smartsensors have capability to automatically detect motion based on Digital Passive Infrared (DPIR) technology. There may be special instances that require the motion sensitivity of individual sensors to be adjusted (or be completely disabled). This can be performed using the Configure Motion Sensitivity dialog that can be launched from the action bar (same as Calibrate Sensors above)

Note

There are dedicated models of the sensors for use in close range motion detection (e.g., hoteling or desk islands) where a higher density of sensors are deployed, but each is responsible for small coverage areas.