Owner's Manual (Complete)

The Home Control Assistant
1
Chapter 20
Control User Interface
The Control Interface – sometimes called the “Touch Screen Interface” even though it works well
on non-touch screens - is an alternative user interface that can be used to control HCA. Instead of
the standard HCA User Interface – sometimes called the Development User Interface - which
looks like many other Windows programs with a ribbon at the top and status bar at the bottom, the
Control User Interface looks completely different.
Aside from appearance, the major difference between the Control Interface and the Development
Interface is that the Control Interface is only designed for viewing and controlling devices in your
home..
Using the Control Interface you can view your home, control devices, and start and stop programs.
You can’t add or delete devices, change schedules or programs, or modify any elements of your
design.
If you don’t have an actual Touch Screen you may be tempted to ignore this feature. Please don’t!
The Control Interface is a simple way for everyone in your home to work with HCA and not to
“break” anything by inadvertently deleting devices or modifying schedules.
Also, using the Client-Server features of HCA, having a client configured to use the Control
Interface is a very handy way to have a “public” machine in your home accessible to everyone.
What does the Control UI look like?
Before getting to far into discussion of the Control Interface features, let’s first look at it to get a
general idea of its concepts.
Yes, believe it or not, this is produced by the same HCA.exe as you already use. To engage the
Control Interface, press the
Control Interface button in the ribbon Home category.
The display first shown when starting the control interface is called the “
Home” page.