Adding Zones and Scenes

A SimplySNAP lighting installation controls lights through the use of Zones, Behaviors, and Scenes. Each serves a different function, and it's important to understand how they combine to provide users with maximum configuration and control.

What is a Zone?

A zone is a user-defined logical grouping of lights. SimplySNAP has two zone types, Control Zones and Daylight Harvesting Zones. Control Zones allow grouped lights to be controlled with a single command from the GUI or a sensor through a behavior. Daylight Harvesting Zones automatically adjust light levels of grouped lights based on the amount of natural light in the daylit zone. Lights can belong to multiple control zones and one daylight harvesting zone. You're free to create and group lights in any way you choose. There is one default, non-removable control zone "All", which applies to every light in the system. A zone is often named after the function of the grouping, such as "Emergency Lights", "Parking Lot", or "First Floor".


What is a Behavior?

When a Control Zone is activated, the Zone's associated Behavior is activated. A Behavior is an instruction for how the system reacts to a sensor event or a combination of factors. The power of a SimplySNAP lighting system is centered in automation. Rather than always having a user control lighting, you can use sensors to let your lighting system respond to changes within its environment. Behaviors are triggered by manual switches, motion detectors, and photocells.


What is a Scene?

A Scene is a grouping of Control Zones, with specified behaviors for each of those Zones. This allows you to issue commands to a number of lights where each light is at a different brightness or activation method. Depending on the needs of your installation, you might have a scene for a normal business day, an energy saver scene for evenings, or an emergency scene for disaster drills.

Adding Control Zones

When you're first configuring your lighting solution, you'll need to decide how you want lights to behave over the course of a day, and then create Control Zones to group those lights accordingly. It's helpful to create the Control Zones that you'll use before you configure the lights and sensors that will be in the zone, so you can easily add the lights and sensors as they're configured. A light can be a member of multiple control zones, but sensors can only be in a single zone.

  1. In the navigation menu, click the Lights and Sensors menu item in the Devices sub-menu, then click the + Add Zone button.

  2. Enter the desired Zone Name.

  3. Select the 'Control' option.

  4. Click the Add Zone button to create the Zone.

  5. On a successful save, the newly added zone(s) will appear in the content area of the Lights and Sensors page.

Adding Daylight Harvesting Zones

Daylight Harvesting Zones use a daylight sensor to detect the amount of natural light in a particular area and automatically control the light level of the electric lights to help save power. More information about how Daylight Harvesting works and how it is commissioned can be found at Setting Up Daylight Harvesting.

  1. In the navigation menu, click the Lights and Sensors menu item in the Devices sub-menu, then click the + Add Zone button.

  2. Enter the desired Zone Name.

  3. Select the 'Daylight Harvesting' option.

  4. Click the Add Zone button to create the Zone.

  5. On a successful save, the newly added zone(s) will appear in the content area of the Lights and Sensors page.

Adding Scenes

  1. Click the Scenes menu item in the left menu.

  2. Click the Add Scene button.

  3. Enter a Name for the scene in the field provided.

  4. Click the Add Behavior button and select a Behavior to associated with the scene.

  5. Select one or more Zones button, to assign the behavior to.

  6. Click Done to complete the behavior section. Repeat as needed for multiple behaviors.

  7. Click the Create Scene button to create the scene, or the Cancel button to exit without creating the scene.

Note

A Scene can control up to eights Zones.