PCS PulseWorx Gateway User manual

Gateway User Guide
Version 1.5
14-March-2016
19201 Parthenia Street, Suite J
Northridge, CA 91234
P: 818.701.9831
F: 818.701.1506
[email protected]
www.pcslighting.com

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Downloads........................................................................................................................................1
Initial Setup ......................................................................................................................................1
Configuring your UPB home file design for use with smart phones, tablets, or the PCS Windows App ..........3
Exporting the UPB network design to the Gateway............................................................................6
Remote access using the PulseWorx-App Windows Application .........................................................8
Security considerations ................................................................................................................... 11
Remote access using the application for iPhone and iPad ................................................................13
Remote access using the application for Android............................................................................. 17
Virtual Keypads...............................................................................................................................22
Using time-based schedules in the Gateway ................................................................................... 24
Calendar or Weekly scheduling.................................................................................................................24
Choosing the scheduling mode .................................................................................................................25
Editing schedules .....................................................................................................................................26
Single device control ................................................................................................................................28
Calendar scheduling.................................................................................................................................29
Calendar scheduling: Pairing one or more days with a schedule ................................................................30
Calendar quick configuration....................................................................................................................31
Working with schedules in UPStart when not connected to the Gateway ..................................................32
Working with schedules using the iPhone or iPad ............................................................................ 34
Working with schedules using the Android application .................................................................... 38
Resetting the Gateway.................................................................................................................... 41
How to reset the Gateway to factory defaults...........................................................................................42
How to remove all users and passwords without a full factory reset – Manual method..............................42
How to remove all users and passwords without a full factory reset – UPStart method..............................44
Network Considerations..................................................................................................................46
How to set the Gateway to DHCP mode without a full factory reset ..........................................................47
How to assign the Gateway a static address if no DCHP server is available.................................................48
How to assign the Gateway a specific static IP address..............................................................................49
How to exit the Gateway from “Boot loader mode”..................................................................................49
Accessing the Gateway from outside the firewall............................................................................ 50
Port Forwarding.......................................................................................................................................51
UPStart considerations.................................................................................................................... 52

Connection Catalog ..................................................................................................................................52
Upgrading the PulseWorx Gateway Firmware ................................................................................. 55

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Introduction
The PulseWorx Gateway is a Powerline Interface Module much like the PulseWorx PIM-R RS-232
version that contains an IP Web server and a Timed Event Controller. This all-in-one device makes it
easy to enable UPStart Configuration Software or other IP based devices to communicate with a UPB
network and devices via a hardwired or wireless LAN network or even over the internet.
Downloads
The latest version of this User Guide, the PulseWorx Windows Application, the newest version of
UPStart, and any Gateway firmware updates are all available from the PCS PulseWorx web site. You
will find all these downloads under Support on the Master Download list under the category Gateway.
Initial Setup
As an IP network device, the Gateway must be assigned a IP network address. This happens in one of
two ways: by the Gateway requesting an IP address from the router (actually, from a DHCP server
usually implemented in the network router, DSL or cable modem) or being assigned a fixed IP address
manually. When possible it is best to perform the initial setup by having the network assign an IP
address to the Gateway. To change to a static IP address see the section on Network Configuration.
The initial setup of the Gateway is a multi-step procedure. The Quick-Start Guide also details this
procedure so you may want to refer to it as well.
1. Plug the Gateway in and connect the Gateway Ethernet connection to your router with any standard
Ethernet cable to give it access to your network.
2. Wait at least 1 minute before continuing. The Gateway is ready when the yellow (left) LED to the left of
the network cable is solid yellow and the green (right) LED to the right of the network cable blinks
randomly green. When the LEDs act that way then it has acquired an IP address and is ready to
communicate. The Gateway takes some time (about a minute) to initialize and establish the proper
connection with the router when first connected.
3. If you haven’t not already installed the latest version of UPStart on your PC, you should do so now and
then start it. Gateway support is available in UPStart version 8.0 and later.
4. In UPStart press the “Configure” button in the “Powerline Interface” panel of the “Network” ribbon
category

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5. Select “PulseWorx Gateway” from the “Interface Type” dropdown.
6. Press the “Discover PulseWorx Gateway” button. This should locate the Gateway’s IP address and port.
If it doesn’t find it then try again. If that still doesn’t work you will need to use other means to find out
the IP address – for example, look at your router device table. The default port used by the Gateway is
2101.
7. Once the IP address is found - or entered - then press the “Connect” button. You should leave the
username and password blank for now. You will see a “connection” dialog that shows the version
numbers of the two parts of the Gateway firmware. Close the dialog with “Close”.
8. Open your home UPB file into UPStart. You may have already had the UPB file open, which is also OK. If
you are starting a brand new home UPB file you may do this after you are connected to the Gateway.
9. Select in the ribbon the “PulseWorx Gateway” category. Press the “Location” button and set the location
by entering your zip code and then pressing the “Zip Code Lookup” button. If you are not in a location
covered by a US zip code then use the manual configuration button and enter all the necessary
information in that dialog. The location is necessary because the Gateway has an Astronomical Real
Time Clock inside and the location is necessary to determine Sunrise and Sunset every day.
Note: As soon as you press the “Location” button you may get a popup that says that the table isn’t
found. That’s as expected with a new Gateway, just clear the popup with OK. Once you close the
location setup dialog then several tables are generated and stored and a series of messages tell you
that. Just close those popups as they appear.
10. Press the “Time” button in the PulseWorx Gateway” ribbon category and in the time setting dialog
select the “Set to current time” option and press the “Set Gateway Clock” button. Close the dialog when
done. There is a battery backup for the real time clock in the Gateway so power outages will not affect
the clock once it is set. The battery will maintain the clock with no power for over 5 years and longer if
the Gateway is plugged in most of the time.
11. Press the “Users” button. Again, you may get a message saying the table doesn’t exist and if you do just
close the message popup. Enter a single user name and password. Write down the user name and
password so they are not forgotten. For now, just enable all the options for thus user by ticking each
box. You can enter additional users later. More about users and privileges are described later in this
User Guide. Close the dialog with OK.
12. At this point the Gateway is fully functional and all the same facilities of UPStart that worked with a
serial or USB connected PIM are functional. You can use Upstart to make or change an installation.

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Configuring your UPB home file design for use with smart phones, tablets, or
the PCS Windows App
When your UPB network design appears in a remote application (applications on Smart Phones or
Tablets) icons represent each room and within the room icons represent each device. Unlike the icons
used by UPStart these should represent the actual devices controlled. For example, you may have a
switch controlling a chandelier or track lighting and it would be nice if the icons for the switches show
that.
You should take a few minutes to configure what icons will appear on the Phone/Tablet. In the
“Gateway Export” panel there is a button labeled “Room Icons”. Press that to open the room icon tool.
It shows for each room in your design what icon is used for that room. This may not be correct since
initially it guesses an icon based upon the room name. You can change the icon selected by pressing
the “Change” button on the line for the room. This opens the icon selection tool. The currently
selected icon is shown in the upper left. Just select the icons you want and then close the tool with OK.
For device icons you need to open the properties of the device. In the properties for a device is a tab
labeled “Remote Access”. Remote Access means access from Smart Phones or tablets. For simple
devices like switches and one-channel modules there is only a single icon to select. The icon choice is
displayed and changed in the same manner as room icons. From this tab you can also change the text
that shows below the icon. Normally this is just the device name but you can change it if you want. In
the icon selection tool, the icon label is shown at the top of the dialog in an edit box. Additionally, if

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you don’t want this device to be seen on the application display – maybe it is something you never
want to control remotely - you can disable the “Show Icon” option by “un-ticking” the checkbox.
For a two channel device like the PCS OCM2 (Output Control Module) you can select an icon and icon
label for each channel. If you are only using a single channel of the device, you can un-tick the unused
channel so it doesn’t show on the application display.
For an Input module (ICM, TCM, DBM) you can name each input and those appear on the application
display to show the state of the input. Again, you can choose to show 1 input, both inputs, or no
inputs.
Next, make sure that any keypads in your design have engraving info specified that gives the name for

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each button. These button names are seen in the remote applications in popup keypads where you can
virtually “push” keypad buttons”. For this purpose, the button size and font choices don’t matter.
Once you have room icons, device icons, and keypad button text all configured then save the UPB file.

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Exporting the UPB network design to the Gateway
Once your design is configured you must export it to the Gateway so it can be accessed by the remote
applications. To do this press the “Export” button in the PulseWorx Gateway” ribbon category and
press the “Start” button to begin the export.
When you export to the Gateway you are given several options. The first is how to set the state for
each device.
The first option, "Clear Gateway State" is the default and sets the state of each device to "unknown".
The last option "Never update Gateway state", tells the exporter to leave the state table alone and not
to update it as part of the export.

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The second option works well with the UPStart "Network State" operation which queries each device
for its state and can use that state for the export. Here is what you can do when you are ready to
export your UPB network to the Gateway. First, use the "Network – Status All" operation. Second,
export using the "Update Gateway state from UPStart state" operation. When the export completes,
the Gateway has the actual state of each of your devices and that state will be shown by the mobile
applications.
You can always use this new method but getting the state of all devices can take a while so you may
not want to do it each time. If you are not changing your UPB network in any major way – not adding
or removing devices or changing the type or unit id of any device – then when you export using the
"Don't update" option could work and the Gateway doesn't lose the current state of any device.
However, if you are making any major changes and you don't want to take the time to do the "Network
- Status All" operation, then it is best to clear the Gateway's state.
The other option in the Export dialog tells the exporter if you want to save the schedule as part of
Export.
The schedule can be updated by UPStart and is saved in the UPB file, but also can be updated using the
mobile applications. Because of this, what is in the file could be out of date with what is stored in the
Gateway. This option lets you choose if the export saves the schedule – always or never –or if it should
check to see if the schedule in the Gateway is the same as in the UPStart file and then gives you the
option of going ahead with the saving of the schedule or not.
Close the dialog with “close” when complete then shutdown UPStart. Both UPStart and remote
applications can’t access the Gateway simultaneously.
Important note: if UPStart is connected to the gateway, it has priority and no other application can
connect until UPStart has disconnected! Eight different devices can be connected to the gateway but
not if UPStart is still connected. Only one UPStart can be connected a time.

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Remote access using the PulseWorx-App Windows Application
At this point you can begin with a mobile application but it is recommended to first use the Windows
PulseWorx-App application. This is an easy way to check your work and eliminates any potential issues
of wireless or router setup. And since you just completed running another Windows program –
UPStart – you are already at the computer.
You can use the Windows PulseWorx-App application to show the homeowner approximately what the
Smart Phone App will look like and how it is used. This application will run on any Windows based PC,
laptop or Windows tablet, such as a Microsoft Surface.
If you have not already done so, download and install the Windows PulseWorx-App from the
PulseWorx web site. You will find this download on the Master Download list under the category
Gateway. Like all Windows programs it has an installer that guides you though the installation process.
Start PulseWorx-App and press the “Configure Connection” button in the ribbon. The dialog is very
similar to that in UPStart. Again, choose the interface type as “PulseWorx Gateway” then use the “Find
Gateway” button to locate the Gateway IP address and port. It is important to enter in the username
and password for the user you created during the UPStart session.
Press the “Test Connection” button to see if it a connection is made. Close the dialog with OK.
Press “Connect” in the ribbon and a connection is made and your design loaded.

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At this point you can click on a room icon to enter that room and show the devices in the room.
You can click on a device to toggle its state – ON to OFF or OFF to ON – or double-click on the device to
open a control panel where you can control it ON or OFF using buttons or set a level - if dimmable -
with a slider.
PulseWorx-App shows the state of the device by the color of the text below the icon and also, for

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devices that have multiple icon representations, by the icon image. For example, the Bookcase Lights
are on and the Bar Light isn’t.
For a keypad, the popup has a representation of the keypad and you can click on the buttons to have
the same action as was programmed for the keypad single-click action. The keypad button double-
click, hold, and release actions are not implemented in the remote applications.
For switches that are programmed to transmit a link on the top or bottom rocker single-click action, in
the remote applications when you control the device on or off, the link and command programmed
into the switch is also transmitted.
The goal for keypads and switches is that they should have the same effect when controlled virtually as
when controlled by pressing the physical keypad button or by tapping the physical switch paddle.
In PulseWorx-App to return from the display of a room’s devices, press the ribbon “Back” button to get
to the Rooms page.

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Security considerations
Before moving on to the mobile applications and accessing the Gateway from outside your firewall it is
now time to consider security.
While the Gateway makes it easier to connect to, control, or configure your UPB network at a distance
it also could allow others –maybe those you don’t want to have access – into your UPB installation. To
prevent this, the Gateway implements a user and password system along with assigning to valid users
what level of access they have.
To configure users you must use UPStart. If you are running remote applications it is necessary to
terminate them or disconnect from the Gateway and then start UPStart. Once connected to the
Gateway, press the “Users” button in the “PulseWorx Gateway” ribbon category.
As you can see the Gateway can store information for up to four users. Usernames and password can
be up to 16 characters in length. While there are few limitations on the characters used in the
usernames or password – commas are not allowed - it would be a very good idea to stick to the usual
characters easily entered from your keyboard. Usernames and password are case sensitive.
In addition to the username and password each user has a number of abilities. These are:
Modify Users
Can this user read and update the user table itself?
Why enable this? One user must have this enabled or there would be no ability to add users or change
passwords. If you lose this username or password you will have to reset the Gateway so write down
the username and password and save it in a safe place!
Why not enable this? Only one user really needs to have this ability. Think of it as the “administrator”.

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For other users this ability is not needed.
Export Access
Can this user update all the tables in the Gateway? In practice this means can the user use UPStart to
export to the Gateway?
Why enable this? The person who has the job of updating the UPB installation – for example to add
new or reconfigure existing devices - needs to have this ability.
Why not enable this? Users who only connect to the Gateway to control devices don’t need this ability.
Modify Schedule
Can this user update the schedule stored in the Gateway from UPStart or from any of the remote
applications?
Why enable this? Any user who wants to be able to adjust the time schedule should have this ability
enabled.
Why not enable this? If a user should be limited to only control of devices and make no modifications
then this option shouldn’t be enabled.
For installers, use of these abilities limit what the end-user can do. If the end-user shouldn’t be able to
update the IUPB network then disable the table write ability. But if you did want to let users update
the schedule then you can enable the schedule ability. For end-users who you want to give access for
control only and no ability to make any changes then don’t give them any abilities.
Tip: If your router supports it and are very concerned about security, you may want to investigate using
a Virtual Private Network (VPN). Establishing one and configuring for it is beyond the scope of this User
Guide or PCS Technical support. Contact people who specialize in networks.

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Remote access using the application for iPhone and iPad
The PulseWorx application is available in the Apple App Store. After downloading and installing, first
open the Settings application and choose “PulseWorx” to edit the connection information.
As part of the settings for the application, the IP address of the Gateway is specified. The application
settings have a place for a primary and a secondary IP address. Depending upon the "Connection"
configuration, when the application makes a connection to the Gateway, an attempt can be made
using the Primary IP address. If that fails, the secondary IP address is tried.

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The reason for having two IP addresses is best explained by an example. Let’s see how a user called
Bob uses the primary and secondary IP addresses.
When Bob is at home he accesses the Gateway from his tablet using wireless. The IP address of his
Gateway is always 192.168.2.100. It never changes. So he makes that his primary IP address. At home
with wireless on, the connection is made using this IP address.
But when Bob is not at home he wants to access his Gateway using BobsHome.homeDNS.org. So he
makes this his secondary IP address. Now when he is out of range of his home network – he is outside
his firewall - the connection is made using the mobile device 3G/4G connection or from some wireless
hotspot. The application converts “BobsHome.homeDNS.org” to an IP address and then connects to
the Gateway.
Tip: This all works because Bob has an account with DynDNS.org. More on that later in this user guide.
Why couldn’t Bob just use “myhome.homeDNS.org” as the one and only IP address? Because of the
way his internet access works it just doesn’t work. The “BobsHome.homeDNS.org” resolves to the
address of his DSL modem – as it should – and then the modem gets confused by a home-side
reference to its own address. This may or may not be similar to your situation and it is offered only as
an example.
Tip: Near the end of this user guide is information on “port forwarding”. Understanding and
configuring the router for this is necessary for the above example to work.
In addition to supplying the IP address of the Gateway by either a four part address or as a DNS lookup
name, you can also set the option "Find Gateway on Connect". In this case the IP address of the
Gateway is found and used to connect. This will only work if the iPhone / iPad is on the same network
subnet as the Gateway. When this option is enabled, when the connection is made this popup shows
that the Gateway discovery process in underway.
There are a few other options to set in the PulseWorx settings before you leave the settings screen and
they are:
Username and Password. If your Gateway has a username and password assigned enter them
in the settings so that they can be passed to the Gateway upon connection.
Client Name. This can be anything that identifies this mobile device.

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Connection. There are three options in the connection and they control how the primary and
secondary Gateway connection is used. They are:
oUse primary, if fails use secondary connection (the default)
oUse only Primary connection
oUse only secondary connection
Once you have the settings entered then you can start the PulseWorx application. The application
connects to the Gateway and then displays an icon for each room.
Note: All the screen images here are using an iPad Mini. An iPhone, iPad Touch, or a full size iPad may
appear differently but the idea is the same.
A tap on a room opens that room and shows icons for all the devices in the room. The text below the
room name may appear in gray text or yellow text. If yellow then some device in the room is on. If

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gray then no device in the room is on.
A tap on a device toggles its state – on to off or off to on. Some icons have two representations and
the icon changes to show its state – the bookcase lights in the above image. Others have only a single
representation – the keypad in the above image. In either case the text below the icon shows yellow if
the device is on and light gray if it is off.
A long tap – press and hold for about 2 seconds and release – on a device opens a control panel. In
that panel you can control the device to on or off and if dimmable set its level. For a keypad a virtual
keypad displays that lets you “push” buttons to activate the scenes that button is configured for.
Tip: The icons shown for rooms and devices, and the text shown in the virtual keypads are all
configurable in your design using UPStart. This is described in the “Configuring your UPB network
design for remote access” section above.
When the application is moved to the background on your mobile device, it disconnects from the
Gateway. When brought to the foreground it reconnects to the Gateway and syncs its state with the
current Gateway state.

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Remote access using the application for Android
The PulseWorx application is available in the Google App Store (aka "Play Store"). After downloading
and installing, open the application.
Once the application starts you must first configure the Gateway connection. The three icons at the top
of the display are – left to right – Connect, Settings, and Help.
Tap on the Setting (wrench) icon and then "Gateway Settings” then on "Primary IP Address”. Enter the
IP address of the Gateway. Tap on "IP Port" and enter the Gateway port number. It should default to
2101.
In the Settings there are other options you may want to examine. There are two connection
configurations – primary and secondary and each have their own address, port, username, and
password.
The reason for having settings for two connections is best explained by an example. Let’s see how a
user called Bob uses the primary and secondary IP addresses.
When Bob is at home he accesses the Gateway from his tablet using wireless. The IP address of his
Gateway is always 192.168.2.100. It never changes. So he makes that his primary IP address. At home
with wireless on, the connection is made using this IP address.