Owner's Manual (Complete)

The Home Control Assistant 1

Chapter 21

Design Tools

There are several tools in HCA that can make managing your home design a bit easier.

This chapter describes these tools and includes:

 Using the X10 House and Unit Code Inventory

 Viewing X10 settings

 Changing X10 settings

 Using the Program Flag Inventory

 HCA Status dialog

 X10 Reception

 X10 Test

 Communications Monitor

 File Inventory

Using the X10 House and Unit Code Inventory

You need to think carefully before setting the house codes and unit codes for modules in your

home, because the way you assign codes can make it harder or easier to work with your design. It

is smart to assign the same house code to items in the same room, or with similar functions (such

as outdoor lights), and easier to control your home if you choose sequential numbers for devices

that are located or used together. The logical codes and sequential listings are easier to remember,

and easier to control.

Keeping track of all your devices, groups, and programs can be a daunting task. You could walk

around and check each device and its codes, writing each on a master list, or you could use the

device, program, and group properties dialogs to construct a list of all house and unit codes.

However, HCA makes it easy, and does this for you. The House Code and Unit Code Inventory is

a fast and efficient way to check the codes that you have used in your home design. It shows you

which device, group, or program you have assigned each code to. It also gives you a way to

change the codes as you review them.

There are several reasons that this tool can be a helpful for you.

 You may find that after installing new devices in your home for the first time, your choices

need to be changed—perhaps more than once.

 If you later add a new device to your home, it is important that you don’t choose settings that

conflict with another module.

The inventory dialog box provides easy access to all the codes. To show this dialog box, press

“Unit Code Inventory” button in the Protocols category.