Cloud documentation

How to set up, run and troubleshoot remote device management in Cloud: sites, devices, portals and the people who use them.

Overview

  • Quick start: Set up a site from scratch: redeem a voucher, connect your first device, and invite the people who will use it.
  • How Cloud works: How remote device management is organised: sites and the three modes they run in, how devices connect out, and who owns a site.
  • Terminology: Plain definitions of the words this documentation uses: site, device, controller, task, action, site plan and Control Panel.

Sites

  • About Sites: What a site is, what the sites list and map tell you at a glance, and where to find every topic covering what is inside one.
  • Site settings: Set the contact details, notes and map location that fixes the local time a site schedules against, and choose notifications.
  • Managing devices: Add a device to a site with a device key or from your control software, read its connection status, and replace or remove it.
  • Fixtures: See RDM fixture status across every controller in a site, and check the firmware, hardware and project file prerequisites it needs. Only where the portal has RDM.
  • Users: Invite people to a site by email, tell active, invited and suspended users apart, and re-invite or remove someone later.
  • Roles: Roles are named sets of permissions: create and scope them, assign and revoke them, and see where a user got their access from. Only where the portal has user roles.
  • Permissions: Control what each user can see and do in a site and on its devices, and tell a permission granted here from an inherited one.
  • Tasks: A task groups actions that run across several devices at once: create one, run, edit or delete it, and check device compatibility.
  • Task actions: Every task action available, listed by device family, with what each one does and which controllers and hardware support it.
  • Scheduling: Run tasks automatically at times you choose, with daily, weekly, monthly or yearly recurrence, in the local time of the site.
  • Control Panel: Build a simple page of buttons and overrides for the people who use a system day to day, without giving them the rest of the app.
  • On Device Schedules: Put a schedule on the controller itself so it keeps running while the site is offline, and track how each device picks it up. Only where the portal has On Device Schedules.
  • Subscription: Check the plan, renewal date and identifier of a site, extend the subscription, redeem a voucher, and read every recorded change.
  • Activity logging: Generate a log of how and when users interacted with a site, filter it by date, action and attribute, and read the raw JSON.
  • API keys: Issue an API key so an external system can reach a site without a person signing in, scope its permissions, and mind the rate limits. For portal owners. Only where the portal has API keys.

Devices

  • About devices: What each tab on a single device covers, why the tabs on offer differ from one device to the next, and how to rename a device.
  • Overview: Read what a device reports about itself: hardware and software versions, temperatures, network settings, time, and its project.
  • Triggers: List the triggers in the project a device is running and fire one remotely, optionally testing its conditions before it runs.
  • Spaces: View the spaces on a device live, and override the active scene, intensity master or colour, queueing edits before committing.
  • Tags: View the tags on a device live, switch the active tag in a tag set, and disable the schedule while a manual override stands.
  • Status: Check the current state of the fixture groups, timelines and scenes in a project, sorted and refreshed while you watch them.
  • Fixtures: Monitor RDM fixture status on a device, poll on a schedule, replace a faulty luminaire remotely, and get told when one drops. Only where the portal has RDM.
  • Files: Upload project and firmware files to a device, transfer them now or at a scheduled time, and request the file it is running.
  • Firmware: Browse the firmware compatible with a device and transfer a version to it now or at a scheduled time, without uploading a file.
  • Log: Read the log messages a device publishes, change the level it logs at, and control how many lines arrive and when they refresh.
  • IO: See the status that IO modules attached to a device report, and where to check whether a particular module reports status at all.
  • Output: Watch the live output levels of a controller by protocol and port, refreshed on demand rather than continuously.
  • Advanced: Beacon, reset, format or set the clock on a device, adjust its watchdog, and set how long it must be offline before an alert.
  • Remote Devices: See the remote devices joined to a controller, sync their firmware to match it, and spot ones on the network it does not know.

Portals

  • About Portals: What a portal adds above individual sites: your own branding and domain, multi-sites, portal-wide lists, and optional features. For portal owners.
  • Multi-sites: Combine several sites into one multi-site, so a central team can drive and override all of them from a single Control Panel. For readers with multi-site access.
  • Administration: Administer many sites at once: grant permissions at portal, multi-site or site level, and see which grants unlock a feature. For portal owners.
  • Portal-wide lists: The portal-wide Sites, Multi-sites and Users lists, covering every site, multi-site and person, including people in no site yet. For portal owners.
  • My files: Send one file to every device of the same model across a portal, in a single transfer instead of visiting each site in turn. For portal owners. Only where the portal has portal-wide file uploads.

Reference

  • Vouchers: A voucher carries a site plan and a duration: choose a plan by points, buy one, and redeem it against a new or an existing site. Only where the portal has vouchers.
  • Supported devices: Every device family that can be managed remotely, by manufacturer, with the points each one contributes to the site plan total. Only where the portal has a published supported devices list.
  • Signing in: Sign in with an email address and password, and set up the extra methods a portal may offer: two-factor codes, passkeys and SSO.
  • User options: Everything in the user menu: profile details, password, two-factor authentication, passkeys, notifications and open sessions.
  • Designer actions: Three trigger actions that let a controller reach back into the cloud: raise a site notification, run a site task, or rerun one.
  • Notifications: Get told when a device changes state, through the bell, a log of the last 90 days and email, delivered instantly or as a digest. Only where the portal has notifications.

Troubleshooting

  • Device will not connect: A device stuck on Connecting is nearly always network configuration: check its default gateway, DNS servers and outbound route.
  • Network requirements: What a device needs from a network to reach the cloud: the addresses and port it uses, how traffic is secured, and data usage.
  • Subscription FAQs: Common questions about vouchers, plans and renewals, including why adding a device can push a site into Standby, and upgrading.