Scenes on eDLT

Hi all.

I just got my first eDLT to play with (I already have a half-dozen older DLT's deployed). I've jumped right in to configuring it in toolkit, and mostly doing OK, but I see there are quite some significant differences with the way scenes are managed on this unit.

First off, let me say that I have only ever used local scenes - I've never yet encountered a need to remotely trigger scenes in other units. So up until now, I have never had to configure a trigger group/action selector on any of my local scenes.

I see that is no longer the case, in the eDLT, I've setup a scene in the unit, but I see that if I don't set the trigger group/action selector, then the scene manager will not save it and instead throws up a warning. OK, I can live with that, so I select each of them from the drop-downs, so I can now at least save the scene.

The next difference I'm still trying to figure out, is how the scene label & dynamic label selections are supposed to work... I see that "Scene Label" is a new property of a scene (the option is not there in the scene dialog for an original DLT) and I note that this property is not free text, but a selection from a pre-set (and fixed) list. OK, so there's an entry on the list that's appropriate, so I choose a scene label... Then I have the option to set up to 4 dynamic labels, and since I do want the unit to display my specific label, which is different to the "Scene label" chosen above, I've entered my chosen text in label 1... Here's how my scene information looks....



So, when I go back to the unit config, key settings page, when I set the label type, I have the choices:

Scene label works exactly as one would expect, so in this case the eDLT displays "All Off" in that widget. - However, I don't want that, I want my dynamic label, but when I try to select that:

Nothing there... I have set label 1, variant 1 to "Alt Av" but I cannot see/find that on the display settings.... - can anyone tell me what's going on here? Am I just misunderstanding something?

Lastly (for now) I notice that the display text for lighting widgets is left-justified on the eDLT, but the label for the scene is right-justified, which makes the final display look a bit scrappy, is there a way I can set all the widget displays to be properly aligned with each other?

Oh, actually, one more observation... when I'm creating lighting widgets, I see the dynamic label associated with the lighting group in question in the 'Label' field, but the Screen Representation does not show it, - it just displays an "eDLT" label in its place... is that right? - kinda defeats the object of having the WYSIWYG screen representation right there on the unit config dialog doesn't it?

TIA

Paul G.

 

Aha... progress... searching through the forum I came across a few helpful posts... - I hadn't realised that the "scene label" items are actually editable... - it's not at all obvious that's the case... I'm assuming that also applies to other areas where there is a pre-populated drop-down list of label items... (I'm going to go & test).

My question regarding the justification alignment remains, is my only option to use the X offset on the edit DLT Label dialog? - if I do that, I suspect that will screw up labels on older DLTs as the resolution/spacing etc is very different between the 2 types of display... - I'd like to be able to mix & match DLT and eDLT units, and some may be using the same dynamic labels... the older DLTs obviously have the more restrictive display, and my labels are all setup to be "right" on those units. An option in the eDLT config to set left/centre/right justification for all labels on that unit would be ideal...

Cheers

Paul G.

 

One more query if I may... - when I have a scene button, with my now appropriate scene label (see above) -- I'm typically not using the 2nd line "status Text" - not really sure what's appropriate for a scene, so for now at least I'm leaving that blank.... That means the scene label is top-justified... - is there any way to center that vertically?

Cheers

Paul G.

 

OK, I think I answered a bit more of the puzzle myself... I figured out that I can pad the scene label and status text strings out with trailing spaces to move the visible text to the left on the display - it works on the Screen Representation and also works on the actual eDLT screen too. Now I just need to experiment with the amount of padding to get it all to line up nicely. It is a shame in this regard that the toolkit screen emulator does not show the dynamic labels I have assigned to some of the other widgets - I have to keep downloading to the unit to check the alignment by trial & error.

 

Even better, - by switching from dynamic labels to static text labels for all the widgets, they are all nicely right-justified with no padding required, AND they appear properly on the Screen Representation. Ergo, it seems the advice is not to mix static and dynamic labels on the same page. (Actually it seems to be best to avoid dynamic labels altogether). That gets the appearance pretty much where I want it, but I still have a couple of questions re functional issues... With the key function choices available on a scene widget, I'm currently using the off/on function to trigger a single scene (all my switches have an all off function on the last button) - it works to trigger the scene when I press the right-side of the button, however pressing the left side clears the indicator, but does nothing else with the groups, which seems a bit of a waste, so is there a nice way to have another scene on the other side of the button? - ideally without having to "cycle" through them & then do a long press to activate it? - I would for example combine all on with all off, then the label wouldn't need to change (label = "All on/off") press left to set the all on scene, press right to set the all off scene.. - is that doable?
Also, I don't seem to have quite the same control over the key indicators as on other units... - again with my All Off scene that I have on all my switches, I set the indicator to always off, I can't yet see how I do that on the eDLT - other than pressing the left side of the same button, which as mentioned above clears the indicator without affecting the groups - but I don't want to have to that because (a) it's pants, and (b) I hope to use the left side of the button to set another scene as described above. So the question is: on the eDLT can I set "always off" for an indicator on a scene button without affecting the other buttons?

TIA chaps!

Paul G.

 

Hmm.... so close! - creating another scene in the unit for the all on state, then setting the scene widget to:-
function: Cycle down/Cycle up, and the radio button selection to scene cycle, I can have the button cycle between the 2 scenes without having to do a long press to select. - it isn't a fixed mapping whereby left-press=scene 1, and right-press=scene 2, but rather either side will cycle through both, but I guess I can live with that. If only I can figure out how to kill the indicator when the all off scene is set... - I never could see any logic in having an indicator on to indicate that all groups are off!
Also, it seems I can't have 2 scenes in the same unit with the same name - I was thinking to set the scene name of both scenes to "All on / off" such that the display doesn't change when the 2 scenes are being cycled through, but it won't let me save them. It's tricky with a scene cycle like this, - I might want to get funky with the names, & call the OFF scene ON and vice-versa - because on the display, the scene that is actually SET is displayed, thus if I've just activated the All OFF scene, the display shows "All Off" (and the indicator is lit), - but in actual fact that doesn't represent the function of the next button press - i.e. the display shows all off, but the next button press will set all ON... so to correctly indicate to the user what actually pressing the button will do, I should reverse the names... make sense?

Paul G.

EDIT: I sort of got around the naming issue: I have named the all off scene "All On / Off" and I called the all on scene "All Off / On" - thus when either scene it set, the display on the unit indicates what the next press will do - the first word after "All" is the next active function - so when all off is set, and all the groups are indeed off, the display of "All On / Off" - with on being first after the "All" suggests to the user what the next press will do, whilst retaining both on/off in the label also suggests to the user that it's going through a cycle...