Owner's Manual (Complete)

The Home Control Assistant

Chapter 14

Visual Scene Editor (VSE)

The Visual Scene Editor (VSE) is a way to program Insteon devices so that they can initiate or

respond to a

scene. A Scene is a collection of devices that respond together when the scene is

activated or deactivated. Devices in a scene control themselves to a specific level at a specified

rate according to how that scene has been programmed. The advantage of a scene is that scenes

are activated and deactivated with one command regardless of how many devices participate in the

scene. This can make a lot of devices respond simultaneously after only a single command is sent.

Inside each device is a area of memory called the

linking table. This table contains one or more

entries for each scene and how that device participates in the scene. It’s the VSE’s job to update

the linking tables in your devices are scenes are added, deleted, and modified.

The VSE is a simple, yet powerful way to create and visualize a scene. At a glance you can see

which devices are transmitters and which devices are receivers. Using a simple drag and drop

mechanism you can add or remove devices from the scene.

It is important to note that you can use HCA to program scenes that HCA will never initiate. For

example, suppose you want a KeypadLinc button to control a lamp module. You can set this scene

up as described in the KeypadLinc and LampLinc documentation – with all those “press and hold”

and “press the set button” directions. But by using the VSE you can create and program that scene

without getting out of your chair. In this case what the VSE writes to the device’s linking tables is

exactly the same as you would have created with the manual method. This can make programming

a whole house full of Insteon devices a simple and not arduous task.

The VSE is only used with Insteon devices. It can’t be used with X10, UPB, or IR devices.

Using the VSE: The basics

Before describing all the details on starting the VSE and creating scenes, let’s just jump into using

the VSE so you can see in general how it works. All the details on creating scenes and starting the

VSE are covered in detail in later sections.

For now, let’s focus on one start method. Right click on an Insteon device and select VSE from

the popup menu. The display pane of HCA is used for the VSE.