Control4 - HDL Driver - Manual

1 Control4® – HDL® Lighting Interface

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Control4® – HDL® Driver

Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................................................... 2

Test before you install ................................................................................................................................. 2

Maintaining the Control4 lighting experience ..................................................................................... 2

Using Control4 Keypads to control HDL lighting ............................................................................... 3

Using HDL Keypads .................................................................................................................................... 3

Controlling single channels of light ..................................................................................................... 3

Setting Scenes .............................................................................................................................................. 3

Scenes in Control4 ................................................................................................................................... 4

Limitations ....................................................................................................................................................... 5

Copy the driver files ................................................................................................................................. 5

Add the ‘cloud’ driver to your project.............................................................................................. 6

Adding Dimmable Lights ......................................................................................................................... 7

Adding Blind and Shades ........................................................................................................................ 8

IP Interface .................................................................................................................................................... 10

Test the Operation ....................................................................................................................................... 11

Warnings ........................................................................................................................................................ 12

Troubleshooting .......................................................................................................................................... 13

Addressing ................................................................................................................................................. 13

Connections ................................................................................................................................................ 13

Activating the Driver .............................................................................................................................. 13

Purchasing a permanent license.......................................................................................................... 14

Limitations ..................................................................................................................................................... 14

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Introduction

The I-Coders HDL interface for Control4® allows you to control and monitor all single channel lighting functions of a single HDL network.

In order to use this d r i v e r y o u must be competent in the i n s t a l l a t i o n and pro gramming of a HDL network. It assumes you have a good working knowledge of the HDL S-Bus Configuration Software and understand the c o n c e p t s of functions and in tens i t ies.

This driver i s what is known as a ‘cloud’ driver. The cloud defines the HDL network to which you can a d d D im m e d Lighting, Switched Lighting and M o to r i z at i o n Relays. When you add these elements to your project you have the ability to directly address them to match your functions within HDL.

Test before you install You test deploy using this d r i v e r w i t h Control4 and HDL in your o ff ice or shop before you attempt to install on site. We strongly recommend that you follow the e x a m p l e s presented here in a demo environment to gain confidence with the system. We will have little or no sympathy for anyone attempting to install this on a client’s site without having tested it offsite first.

We will provide support during UK hours: 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday. However we cannot guarantee that there will be someone for you to talk to the moment you call as we are a small company. We will attempt to answer any queries via email within 24 working hours, please create a support ticket via our website.

Maintaining the Control4 lighting experience Our driver a l l o w s you to maintain the C o n t r o l 4 lighting experience and t reats the H D L dimmers in the s a m e way as native Control4 lighting devices.

All scenes of lighting are maintained within Control4 and t h er e is no need to program the HDL system for anything other than direct control. However if you wish to define your scenes on the HDL network this is also p o s s i b l e .


Using Control4 Keypads to control HDL lighting Control4 keypads can b e used to control the H D L lighting. These can b e programmed to set levels, switch a circuit on or off or to recall a lighting scene defined within Control4. Each l ight ing circuit is associated with a channel. Within Co ntro l4 you can program a key on a Control4 keypad just as you would if you were using Control4 lighting products. Please refer t o the help included with Composer on how to program Control4 keypads to control lighting.

Using HDL Keypads However it is more likely that the ‘light switches’ in the p r o p e r t y will be HDL keypads and our examples later in this document assume this is the c a s e .

Using t h e H D L keypads obeys the rule of using standalone subsystems wherever possible. If the Control4 system should fail for any reason the lighting in the p r o p e r t y should still work to a certain extent.

Controlling single channels of light If a key on a HDL keypad is used to control a single channel of light it should be programmed in the u s u a l manner within the HDL S-Bus Configuration software. You can c h o o s e from any of the standard functions for dimming or switching the i nd iv i dual channels . As the levels on the lighting channels change they are reported to Control4. As you raise and lower the levels the sliders on the Control4 lighting screen will move accordingly.

Setting Scenes

You have the choice either of defining the scenes in Control4 or in HDL. The former requires some special coding for the HDL switches and wi l l also mean that scenes will only work when the C o n t r o l 4 system is installed and pro gramm ed. The latter may require a D M X u n i t on the HDL system in order to store advanced s c e n e s but will ensure they are available before the C o n t r o l 4 system is commissioned.


Scenes in Control4

If you want to set and maintain scenes within Control4 you can program these keys in the conventional manner.

Scenes can also be programmed in S-Bus the conventional method, i.e. through the attached Dimmer, then selecting ‘Scene Select’ and ‘Area’; as shown below.


Limitations

1. Speed

The HDL interface is not particularly high speed (even over a network connection). Large scenes can take a few seconds to send to the HDL network. Like scenes defined natively within HDL, when the levels change within a scene all the channels do not necessarily finish their changes of intensity concurrently.

2. Fade T i m i n g s

HDL has fixed speeds of fade. The Control4 interface shows more options than those built into HDL. The driver wi l l convert the C o n t r o l 4 fade time to the nearest available HDL fade time.

3. Popcorn Effect

The HDL system is unicast. When a scene is recalled individual commands are sent out to each lighting channel. This means that channels will start fading one af te r a n o t h e r . This is the same behaviour that you would notice in a native HDL system.

Copy the driver files You must copy all of the . c4i files in the z i p package to your My Documents/Control4/drivers folder on your PC. If you fail to copy all four f i les the driver will not work.

These drivers are the Controller – this i s the m ain ‘c loud’ part of the d r i v e r a n d then the other lighting and b l ind elements.


Add the ‘cloud’ driver to your project First you need to add the H D L cloud part of the driver to your project . You only need to add o ne i n st a nc e of this driver t o each project regardless of the number of lights, rooms or switches you may h a v e .

Open Composer in System Design view find the ‘IP I n t e r f a c e ’ You can then find the item under: Device Type: -- others-- M a n u f a c t u r e r : i - C o d e r s Add the HDL UDP Cloud to your pro ject For example: once added to the ‘Home Cinema’, it would appear as below.


Adding Dimmable Lights For each HDL dimmer circuit in the building that you want to control and monitor you need to add an HDL Dimmer to the c o r r e c t room in your pro ject .

These are found on the My Drivers tab under: Device Type: Light Manufacturer: i -Coders

As each of these outlet lights are added to the project give them a recognizable name. This is the name that will identify the circuit on the touchscreens, OSD and remo te control.

When you have added the l igh ts for a room you will end up with a list similar to that shown on the right.

Now for each of these circuits you need to define which channel number they are on the HDL Network.

To do this, highlight the l i g h t in system design and o n the properties page.

Now enter the S-Bus Subnet ID, Device ID and Device Channel ID to correspond to the relevant channel. Then p r e s s TAB and the Set Cancel button pair will appear. Click the Set button to associate this lighting circuit with the specified HDL lighting channel.

That completes the s e t up for a dimmable lighting circuit.


Adding Switched Lights

If you have lighting in the p r o p e r t y which is not dimmable (just switched on and o f f ) you can a d d th is as a relay. This will ensure that the c i r c u i t will appear on the lighting pages of the C o n t r o l 4 UIs but will not be shown with a dimming slider.

To do this, add the H D L Relay light interface rather than the Dimmer shown above. Then s e t the correct channel number and application to the circuit as shown above.

Adding Blind and Shades As well as switched lighting you may a l s o be using HDL relays for other devices such as motorised blinds and shades.

These elements should not appear under Lighting on the user interfaces but either under the Comfort or House pages. In order to do this we h av e created and e l em e n t called Blinds which can t h e n be associated with the C o n t r o l 4 motorization elements.

Start by adding a HDL Curtain control ler to the project. This is found under: Device Type – Blinds Manufacturer - i-Coders.

Double click this a n d to add i t to the p r o j e c t .

You should now rename this t o match the device you are controlling. In this example we are using it to control a blind.

You now need to associate this with the H D L channel address that’s been assigned to this relay channel. As before simply type the c h a n n e l number in the bo x provided, press tab and then click on the S e t button.


We have now effectively created something similar to the relay you would find on the b a c k of an HC300 controller. This won’t appear on any of the Control4 user interfaces until we h ave associated one o f Control4’s elements with it.

To do this select one o f the e l e m e n t s from Contro l4 ’s Motorization section under ‘My Drivers’. For this particular example we wi l l select the Blinds element from the list. Double click this and add this to your project. Then rename it to match the relay.

Switch to the Connections view and highlight the Blinds element – the last item we added to the project.

You will see this has a Relay INPUT. You then need to connect this to the Relay OUTPUT of the HDL relay we defined earlier. Drag and drop the Input to the Output to make the connection.

This blind will now appear in the correct part of the Control4 user interface.


IP Interface The i-Coders driver is only compatible with 1 IP interface port on the system.

You will need to first confirm the S-Bus IP address and the Control4 IP address, the socket port interval is for the timed response to and from the S-Bus driver. (Using more than 1 IP interface port will cause the Controller to crash, and require a reboot.)

This should not be set more than 1500 milliseconds, otherwise long delay will occur for all stacked up messages and possibly cause a controller crash.


Test the Operation Double click one o f the l i g h t s in your project and the Composer control window will appear. Here you can switch the light on and off. If it is a dimmer you can also set the level of the light and see this reflected on the light. You can also test items connected to HDL relays which should switch on when the level is set above zero (unless you have set a different switch on percentage for that channel within t he HDL software)

You can move the dimmer slider to the desired position and when you let go the light will change to the selected intensity. Nothing happens whilst you are moving the slider. This is because Control4 only sends a light level command when the s l i d e r is released.

Test all of your real HDL lighting channels before moving onto the next stage. We’ll test the channels that fire scenes when the scenes have been created.


Warnings Ensure S-Bus is connected before using Control4 for lighting

If you do not have the netwo rk Interface connected to HDL and the Control4 controller Control4 commands will get stacked up. All the button presses, on/off level commands will be queued up by the controller until the connection is made. One of two things will happen.

Either the Controller will create such a large queue of commands that it will crash, or when the HDL network is attached all of these commands will be sent to the HDL network. The client will then either think the house is haunted or the system is dangerous. If this happens then you should power-cycle the Control4 controller running Director.

Do not use more than 1 Network interface for programming

You will need to first confirm the S-Bus IP address and the Control4 IP address, the socket port interval is for the timed response to and from the S-Bus driver. (Using more than 1 network port will cause the Controller to crash, and require a reboot.)


Troubleshooting There are three main causes of most problems with the operation of the interface.

Addressing Make sure that the c h a n n e l numbers you use in HDL are the same as the o n e s you associate the lights with in Control4.

Ensure you have the correct Subnet ID and Device ID.

Connections Check yo u connected the d r i v e r both physically and in Composer to the correct network port on your controller.

Is the IP interface connected to the H D L network, is the IP interface lights flashing red and green?

If not check your HDL network and reboot the IP interface by disconnecting and reco nnect ing the H D L cable.

Now check by double clicking on one of the Outlet Lights in system design to see if it can be switched on and off.

If the lights switch On and Off from the Composer interface the problem lies with the programming of the keypad. Work through the examples again. Other

If other problems occur go through the process of disconnecting the HDL cable from the IP interface waiting and plugging it back in again. Then re init ia l ize the interface from within Contro14.

Activating the Driver Drivers will not work until they are activated. In order to activate a driver y o u must have a dealer account with us. You can r e g i s t e r at: www.i-coders.com

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Purchasing a permanent licence To purchase a permanent licence login to your dealer account and make your purchase through our website.

You will automatically receive your l icence key within a few minutes of purchase. Your licence key will also appear in your dealer account.

Carefully copy and paste the Licence key into the Activation Key field and press Set.

Limitations This driver has only been tested on the IP interface: SB-DN-1P

i-Coders cannot guarantee it will work on any other variations or models.