Practice English Speaking&Listening with: CommandFusion System Commander Quick Start Guide / Tutorial

System Commander that is a windows application that is used to configure CommandFusion

Automation hardware.

It features automatic discovery of hardware which allows you to scan the

CFLink devices on the network and easily configure and test them.

It makes updating firmware easy

and the powerful rules engine allows automated macro triggering to be

configured.

All communications handled by System Commander use the openly documented

CFLink protocol available to any user of CommandFusion hardware.

System Commander that can be downloaded from the CommandFusion website.

It is a portable program that does not require installation,

Simply unzip it to any location on your computer and run the executable file.

when you first launch System Commander

you will be presented with an interface that is separated into four sections as

well as the main menu bar.

The CFLink the devices section

shows the online status with a button to toggle online offline mode,

and a button to perform a new scan for CFLink devices.

Below the button, is a tree of automatically discovered CFLink devices

which can be selected to bring up the configuration options.

Below the device tree is a form for sending test commands

via the CFLink network.

The main area of the program is used to configure and test the selected

CFLink device.

When you select a device in the tree,

the main section will fill with a list of tabs relevant to the device.

Each tab contains options and tools for configuring and testing specific aspects

of each device, such as configuring general properties,

setting up rules or schedules,

or testing connectivity of relay's, IO ports and other control ports.

The last section across the bottom of the interface is the communication log.

This area logs all incoming and outgoing traffic in and easy to read format.

The log is great for debugging communications as well as copying

commands for use outside of System Commander.

The automatic discovery feature allows you to scan for CFLink devices

on the network,

as well as select and configure them.

System Commander can automatically discover devices in 2 ways,

the first is bought the local network using UDP broadcast

communications

To do this you must have a Command Fusion LAN Bridge.

The second why is via RS232.

This can be done with any device that has an onboard

RS232 port.

Let's take a look at the UDP discovery mode first.

So, as i mentioned, for any hardware to be in this mode we must have a

LAN Bridge connected to our network.

If you do not have to do you have a DHCP enabled on your network, the

LAN Bridge will default to a self assigned IP address.

We then need to check that System Commander is configured for UDP

discovery.

To do this,

choose network,

then settings from the main menu.

make sure that ethernet communication is enabled

and UDP is selected.

Other settings in this window are not required for UDP auto discovery.

After we have configured our UDP settings we can go back to the main

window, and click the offline button.

This will switch us to online mode and begin the discovery process.

This takes only a second or two, and once System Commander has picked up the LAN Bridge

it will also discover all other devices connected to it on the

CFLink network.

We can also enable online mode by clicking on network,

then go online.

Or using the F12 shortcut key.

If we want to use RS232 discovery feature,

we need to do things a little differently.

First we need to make sure that the device we're connecting to is in program

mode.

This is done by pressing a button on top of the CommandFusion hardware labeled

setup

or COM mode, depending on which piece of hardware you were using.

Now we will connect the RS232 port on your device, to the COM port

on your computer.

If you don't have any COM ports available, then you can use a third party

RS232 to USB adaptor.

In System Commander,

choose network then settings from the menu.

Ensure that com port communication mode is enabled.

Then select the appropriate COM port that your device is connected to.

Once again we then switch to online mode and auto discovery process will

begin.

As you can see, it will not only pick up the device you are directly connected to,

but it will also discover any other the devices connected via the CFLink network.

Devices with a green indicator are working correctly, devices without

valid firmware installed showing with a red indicator.

It may take a little longer for a device with invalid or no firmware to

appear in your hardware tree, as these devices will not respond to

discover requests, but instead auto announce them self on power up and

regular intervals.

When you first get your CommandFusion hardware, the first thing you should do

is checked to see if your devices have the latest firmware installed.

We can check the firmware version ofa device by selecting it in the device tree.

Under the general tab we can see the basic details of our hardware,

CFLink ID,

serial number,

firmware version,

and mac address if applicable.

So take note of the firmware version listed,

and then go to firmware.commandfusion.com and select the appropriate

device.

This will take you to another page, which lists current firmware number.

If this number is larger than that on your hardware, then it is time to update it.

To download the firmware, click on

.ZIP file then click RAW.

The Firmware will then download your computer.

You will then need to unzip it before it can be used.

We will assume for this video that our hardware has all the latest hardware installed.

For more details on how to update firmware, see our firmware updating video.

CommandFusion hardware communicates with each other over a peer to peer bus

called CFLink.

This bus requires each device to have its own unique ID for communications.

This ID, is called the CFLink ID.

From the factory,

all devices of the same model all come out with the same CFLink ID.

Unlike other control systems, during auto discovery, System Commander will report

any ID conflicts on the CFLink network,

and handle assigning uniqie ID's to allconflicting devices.

The end result is no more conflicts and a healthier CFLink network without having to

manually connect individual devices to assign their ID.

Afterdevices have been discovered, you can click on them in the

CFLink devices tree to bring up the configuration options.

Each CFLink device has a few general settings but can be configured

or viewed.

Settings common to all CFLink devices are the CFLink ID, serial number,

and firmware version.

Devices with an onboard serial port will allow you to set up the

communication settings for the RS232 serial port.

The LAN Bridge will also show options specific to ethernett collectivity such

as MAC address and standard LAN setting.

The LAN Bridge also features a real time clock which can synchronize with

the time server or be manually configured.

After making any changes to the configuration use the save button to save the

the new configuration to the device memory.

The restet button will force the device to reboot,

while the refresh button will request the configuration properties from the

device and update System Commander with the current details.

Devices with control ports such as relays, IO

IR or serial ports,

Can be tested using the System Commander interface.

simply select the device from the CFLink devices tree, and choose the

tab that relates to the port you want to test.

For example, the CF Mini has four relay ports we can test.

There are options to test all aspects of the CFLink protocol for relays

including basic on and off commands,

as well as toggle and pulse commands.

The interface will also show the live state of each relay with an indicator

graphic that turns on when the relay is closed.

For IR ports, you can choose the port and format of IR data to test,

including the on onboard database which has a wizard built in to

find the right command.

Pressing the send button will send the IR data, allowing you to easily test

IR commands.

For IO ports, we can see their current input or output state,

as well as trigger their output state when the port is configured in one

of the output modes.

Each CFLink device has an onboard microprocessor capable or performing

rule based macro triggering.

Creating a network of distributed intelligence.

rules allow each device to respond to events and trigger a macros to run across

the CFLink bus.

So as an example, an event like a dry contact closing can trigger a relay to close

and send the specific IR command.

Is important to note that the rules should be configured on the device that

will be directly receiving the event data.

For example,

If the event that will be used to trigger a macro is a dry contact input

on a CF Mini,

then the rule should be configured on the CF Mini.

If the event was a specific incoming string from an RS232 Port,

than the rule should be configured on the device with the RS232 port

being used to receive the data.

To create rules, we first set up the macros that will be triggered by adding

them to the device that will receive the events.

In this example we will be creating a macro to lower a projector screen,

turn on a projecter and turn on a Bluray player.

We will call this macro System Start Bluray.

Now we need to add each action in order that we want them to be performed.

First we want to turn on the projector, because this can take a while to warm up.

The projector is controlled by the on board RS232 port of the LAN Bridge.

So we can go to the action builder, and select on board COM.

The target device list will then automatically fill with any CFLink devices

on the network with an on board RS232 port.

Select the LAN Bridge, thenfill out the RS232 command that

needs to be sent to power up the projector.

Press OK,

and notice to the CFLink command is automatically built for you.

Now we can press OK and continue adding the next action for the macro.

The next action is to lower the projector screen.

This is done, using a relay connected to a CF Mini.

The relay ports will automatically populate based on the ports available

below on the target device.

In our case, we want to pulse relay three one second.

Press OK and again the CFLink command is automatically generated

for you.

We want this command to happen without any delay, so leave the delay

set to zero.

Lastly, we want to fire an IR command to turn on the bluray player.

We will use the CF Mini's on board IR database, and the action builder

to automatically create the IR command to send.

Select IR - Action type.

Choose the device we want to send the IR from,

in our case, IR port 1 of a CF Mini.

Choose DBA format,

and press the build button to bring up the IR database wizard.

Enter the device details - Samsung,

Bluray player,

try codeset 0199,

and choose the discrete power on command, rather than power toggle.

Press OK to automatically generate the CFLink command.

We can then enter a delay if we want to,

which would add a pause between the projector screen down command,

and the bluray power on command.

But in this case, we dont need to delay the IR command.

So we just press OK to finish adding the last action to the macro.

Now we want to add the rule which will cause the macro to be started.

In our case, we want the system startup macro to be truggered whenever a button on

a wall switch is pressed, which is hooked up to an IO port of a CF Mini

configured as a dry contact input.

When the wall switch is pressed, we can use the communication log to see the

incoming CFLink data format that we need to use to trigger our macro.

Clear the log,

then find the command of the wall switch being pressed.

Right click, and copy the CFLink command.

Now i had the rule by pressing the add rule button.

Give the rulea name relating to the input event,

and paste the command into the search string field.

Then select the macro you want to fire and press OK.

Before the rule will become active,

we need to save it to the device memory.

Press the save to device button to begin this process.

The progress bar will pop up, just above the log area to show the save progress.

After this is done,

you can use the load from device button to double check that

the data was saved to the device correctly.

The CommandFusion LAN Bridge features an onboard real-time clock that allows

macros to be performed based on a simple, yet powerful scheduling system.

Schedules can be configured to run once off,

daily,

weekly or monthly with customisable options such as days of the week or month,

recurrence rates and specific months of the year.

There is also a holiday schedule mode to randomly trigger actions in the macro for

a set period of time.

This can be used to simulate occupancy, while the home owner is away.

To demonstrate scheduling, we will configure a schedule to power down a projector

and retract a motorised ceiling mount at 6pm every weekday.

The first step is to create the macro you want to perform.

Add the macro and given in name.

Then add each action to the macro.

First, we want to send an RS232 command to power down the projector.

Use the action builder, and select the on board COM action type.

The target device in our example case will the the onboard

RS232 port of the LAN bridge.

Then enter the RS232 command we want to send and press OK.

The CFLink command will be automatically generated for you.

Press OK again to finish adding the action to the macro.

Now repeat the process for the command to trigger the motorised projector mount to retract.

In our example case

this is down by pulsing relay port one of a CF Mini to close

for one second.

So choose the relay action type

and CF Mini target device.

Then select port one

and said if the pulse for one second.

Pressing ok again it will add the action to the macro.

Now that we have finished creating the macro, we need to set up a schedule that

will be used to trigger this macro.

First click the add schedule button,

give it a name related to what the schedule is being used for.

In our case,

daily room off.

We want this rule to trigger every weekday,

so we select the weekly tab

and tick each weekday.

And labor to recur every week.

Next we want to change the action type to you trigger macro,

and select the macro we want to perform.

Then we can put the start date and time.

The schedule will recur every week from this start date.

So we will just leave it as today's date.

The start time we want to use is 6PM.

We do not need to use any of the advanced settings in this example.

So leave them disabled.

Press ok to finished creating schedule.

Now that the schedule has been created we need to save it to the LAN Bridge

before it will become active.

Click the save to device button to start this process.

A progress bar will pop up just above the communications log to show the

save process.

Once it's complete,

you can use the load from device button

to ensure that all schedules were successfully saved to the device.

To test the schedule,

we can change the real time clock manually to a time near the scheduled start time.

and reset the LAN Bridge for the new time to take effect.

Wait for the schedule time to come around and use the communications log

to what's what is happening on the CF Link bus.

All CommandFusion hardware with IR ports can send IR codes in a variety of ways:

Using the on board IR database,

sending IR code strings in pronto hex format or our proprietary

IR format.

Or by uploading IR files to the device and recalling the codes

via their function name.

To upload an IR file to a device, the file needs to be created using our

IR Learner software.

Learning IR commands is covered in a separate tutorial video.

After the IR file has been created,

select the device you want to upload it to you in the System Commander CFLink

device tree.

Then select the manage IR files tab.

If this tab is not visible,

then the device you have selected is not capable of sending IR commands.

Next click the add file button and browse for the IR file you want to

upload.

The IR functions tree

will then be populated with a list of commands stored in the IR file.

Before any of these commands can be used the IR file needs to be saved to the device

memory by clicking on save to device button.

A progress bar will popup above the communication log showing the upload

progress.

Once it is complete, the iR has can be tested by selecting a command from the

IR function tree.

Then selecting a port number from the test stored IR codes area,

and pressing the send button.

The test command window in the bottom left corner of System Commander can

be used to send any CFLink command to devices on the network.

This is great for testing specific commands.

Any hex bites you want to send

should be entered in the format shown on screen.

See our CFLink documentation for more details.

That's the basics of using System Commander to configure

CommandFusion hardware.

For other videos covering features in detail, checkout the System Commander playlists

on YouTube, or visit our support page.