RollCall is a feature recently added to ControlSoft It allows you to have groups of devices checked periodically to see if they are working. The results of this test can be ed to an engineer or Dynalite Dealer and optionally ControlSoft can run a macro in response to a box not responding. ControlSoft useable control technology

RollCall is found under the edit menu. It may be greyed out. To turn it on you must ensure that you are least running ControlSoft Advanced Version and that Rollcall option is ticked on the Config screen. ControlSoft useable control technology

ControlSoft The screen which appears may be slightly daunting at first glance but a quick tour should prove it to be fairly simple. useable control technology

ControlSoft Starting at the top - you can name the RollCall or select from the list of RollCalls that you may have saved. useable control technology

ControlSoft The busy looking listbox here simply lists all Dynalite Devices. This has been put in for you. When you are adding a box to a rollcall, you select the device type from this list useable control technology

ControlSoft I have selected CE12 Channel Dimmer. I have entered the Box number as 5 and given the box a description/location. useable control technology

ControlSoft Pressing the Enter key, puts that device/box in the list of Rollcallable Devices useable control technology

ControlSoft I have some UPANs in our office also. Ill select Universal Panel - notice the right list box has gone blank - because we havent entered any devices of this type yet. useable control technology

ControlSoft I will enter three into here like this. What about our 12Channel 902 though.. And anything else.. useable control technology

ControlSoft Selecting All Devices at the top of the left-hand list, will show all Rollcallable Devices that we have entered. useable control technology

ControlSoft Unticking the Show All Devices checkbox, limits the list on the left to only Device types that we have entries for. useable control technology

ControlSoft Ok, so we go in and enter as many of the important devices on the network as we like. But we may not really want to rollcall all of them - or we may want to rollcall some more often than others. useable control technology

ControlSoft First we need to give our Rollcall a name. For this example - were going to rollcall all UPANs in this huge job.. ( all three of them..) Lets give the RollCall a meaningful name: Check all UPANs useable control technology

ControlSoft Then we just check the check boxes we want to include in the RollCall. We can check any device we want - but given the name we picked - well just select all the UPANs, and leave the 902 out of it. useable control technology

ControlSoft In practice we may have many many boxes listed, so we might select Universal Panel in the left window to limit the choices in the right window and make finding things a whole lot easier. useable control technology

ControlSoft So thats pretty easy so far. Lets assume a box wags school one day though. What Action do we want to take? If it were an important dimmer, we may want to run a macro to turn on lights from other dimmers? Either way we want to know that a box is not responding... useable control technology

ControlSoft And both of those things can be done. Either run a macro (only if a box does not respond) and/or we can someone a report of the results whether everything is ok (for peace of mind) or if one or more devices did not respond. useable control technology

ControlSoft It just so happens I have a macro named: UPAN not operative which brings lights to full in Area1 (to wake the engineer up?) and play a.WAV file on the computer as a warning. I also want to know about it so I have it me the details of which panel is the culprit. useable control technology

ControlSoft Now we have the RollCall saved as a component. You probably know what to do with it. Put it in a macro and assign it to a button or have the Scheduler do it once a day, once a week or whatever you like. Remember too, a RollCall can include any combination of devices. useable control technology

ControlSoft When a RollCall is activated - it produces a progress screen like the one above. Notice it will attempt to find each box up to three times. If the Box responds, the version number will be returned for that box. useable control technology

ControlSoft In this example - we find all the boxes ok. So the version numbers are returned and tries left only gets down to 2. You can see what ControlSoft is doing when you look at the Monitor window. useable control technology

ControlSoft To demonstrate what happens when a box does not respond, Ill add another UPAN to our RollCall that doesnt exist in our office. (saves me getting out of my chair to disconnect one..) So well run this again with a UPAN box 3 included.. useable control technology

ControlSoft Notice that it never responded with a version number and that tries left has fallen to zero. That UPAN did not respond. useable control technology

ControlSoft Looking at the monitor you can see that Box 3 was tried 3 times. Notice also our RollCall Action took place and set Area 1 to Preset 1 ( to wake our Engineer! ) My just made a you have mail noise also. useable control technology

ControlSoft We have a new message and it has an Attachment. The Subject summarizes that one box did not respond correctly. useable control technology

ControlSoft When we open the attachment in Microsoft Access, we see the results tabulated for us and of course the description/location of the UPAN at fault.

ControlSoft Murray and the lads at Dynalite Queensland have sold RollCall as an important feature for the Engineers at the Versace Hotel in Queensland. RollCall offers a new way of guaranteeing reliability of Dynalite Systems. Use of Actions by Macros and/or also give quick response to problems before they become apparent. Comments and suggestions are as usual, always welcome. Best Regards, useable control technology