Commissioning tutorial part 3: Assigning controllers

Now that we've created a site, the next step is to assign some control systems. Sites play an important part in the security model for controllers: once you have added a controller to a site, that controller cannot be added to another unless removed from its current site by an owner.

To assign a controller to our site, we use its attached QR code and the zencontrol Commissioning application.

Open the zencontrol Commissioning Android application and select the site which you created in Part 2 from the list to open the Site Dashboard.

We'll come to using most of these features eventually, but for now select "Control system" to list the controllers which have been assigned to the site.

We can assign a new control system by selecting , after which we'll have the opportunity to select the type of control system we're adding. For now the three options are Physical, Emergency cloud and Wireless self test.

In this tutorial we're interested in adding physical control systems, so leave that option checked and press to open the camera on your device and scan in the control system's attached QR code. Once the camera has identified the QR code we'll be presented with a short form where we can label the controller and designate its floor.

Here we're introduced to a few important concepts:

Labels

The control system Name here is an example of a label, which is a short string of text which has different purposes depending on where it is and what it's called. Most things in the zencontrol system have an attached label of some kind, and using them properly will help ensure that sites are user-friendly, offsite-commissionable and maintainable going forwards.

Identifiers

Everything in the zencontrol system can be referenced by an identifier, which is a string of numbers between 0 and 999999, separated by dots, eg. 100.24. The more sections the identifier has, the more specific it is. The format is as follows:

[control system].[device location].[instance number] (for ECDs)

[control system].[device location].[device type identifier] (for ECGs)

Some examples:

• To refer to control system 106, we can simply use 106
• To refer to device location 45 on controller 106, we can use 106.45
• If the above device were a four-button switch input, we could refer to its first instance as 106.45.1

Floors

A floor is a section of a building where control systems can be physically located. Their main purpose is to help to break large buildings down into manageable sections (many functions can be filtered or applied by floor), but they also house some other characteristics such as ceiling height which can be used for more advanced analytics.

Create a floor by pressing and assign the label and fitting identifier as in the above screenshot, then finish assigning the control system by selecting . Repeat the process for any additional controllers, giving them unique identifiers and sensible names and then return to the control system list to see that they have all now been added.