Owner's Manual (Complete)

Glossary
2 The Home Control Assistant
group
A collection of devices that you want to control as one system (unit). A group can have its own
house code and unit code, and be controlled from the HCA or with a control panel. For more
information, see the Groups chapter.
HCA
An abbreviation for the Home Control Assistant.
home
What the Home Control Assistant refers to your design as—your house, your home.
house code
Part of the address for your device, this is set on the module, and referenced in HCA. The house
code works with a unit code.
Insteon
A protocol for sending and receiving signals over the powerline.
Magic Module
The name for a specific piece of hardware manufactured by Elk Products and supported by HCA.
Also used to refer to all the various hardware items in the Magic Module family.
members
Groups have members. These are the individual devices within a group. Group members can be
devices or programs, but
not another group.
module
Refers to the electric switch that you plug in to the wall socket, and to which you connect a device.
See the Devices chapter for more information.
PIM
Powerline Interface Module. The name given to the UPB powerline interface. Also called a CIM
PLC
Powerline controller. The PIM is often referred to as a PLC. The PowerLinc also is called a PLC
Powerlinc
The name very over used by SmartHome to name just about anything – from a power adapter to
the Insteon PowerLinc.
primary address
The address assigned to a device or controller.
program
A series of instructions for HCA that allow it to control several devices in sequence and be
scheduled or activated remotely. Programs are logical, and sequential, and can be set up to have a
delays or waits, and may have conditional steps. Programs have names, and can be started when
HCA receives one of the triggers defined for it. For more information on creating programs, see
the Programs chapter.
program elements
Each action that the program executes (does) is an element.
You draw programs by placing elements in the programming canvas, and link them together by
drawing connecting lines. The program begins with the “Start Here” element and flows from
element to element following the connecting lines in the direction of the arrows.
properties
Nearly all things in HCA have properties, that allow you to determine how the design works.
repeat
An element that allows one or more elements to be executed (done) a number of times.