Chapter 3— Pushbutton Switches
What Are Links?
In the PCS UPB Lighting System, all control operations are done using
Links. There are 254 available Links per UPB network. Links are used to
logically “connect” events on one or more devices to actions on one or more
other devices. When two or more different devices share a common Link
they are said to be “linked” together. They can now communicate with each
other over the powerline using the Link as a common identifier in all of
their communications. UPStart makes it easy to “link” devices together. It
also allows you to name your Links (i.e. “All Lights On”) so that you can
more easily work with them.
Figure 3 shows an example of how the Link associated with the ‘B’
pushbutton will control Wall Switch ‘A’ (which contains the same Link) but
won’t affect Wall Switch ‘B’ (which doesn’t contain the same Link).
Bedroom Lights
Den Lights
Den Lights
All Lights On
Den Lights
Bedroom Lights
All Lights Off
All Lights On
All Lights Off
Powerline
Links
Pushbutton 'B' is
linked to Wall
Switch 'A' by the
"Den Lights" link
Wall Switch Dimmers can store up to 16 Links
Wall Switch
'A'
ON
OFF
Figure 3: Links Allow One Device To Control Another Device
The power of Links is that you can “link” more than two devices together.
For instance, one Controller pushbutton can be linked to four Wall Switch
Dimmers allowing the single press of that pushbutton to trigger all four
lights to go to preset or absolute levels. The LED indicators on the
Controller’s pushbuttons can also be assigned the same Link allowing the
LED indicators on two (or more) Controllers to track each other.
18
The UPB 6-Button Controller User’s Guide
