With your Nero gateway not only can you control individual devices, you can also create scenes that control groups of devices. A scene can be activated by turning on a switch, setting a schedule, a sensor is tripped, or by using an iOS or Android device.
Scenes can be created in the web interface or using the My Nero app on your mobile device. Refer to the mobile app help articles for setting up a scene from the phone.
Scene engine overview
The Nero scene engine can be used to create a variety of automated actions with both your Nero and third party systems. There are a few important things to remember when creating scenes for your Nero system:
- Avoid creating scenes that are not clear to the user.
- For example setting a schedule that triggers at 6pm may work well in winter but cause odd behaviour in summer.
- Don't try and control a large number of devices on the Nero network immediately.
- If you need to control a large number of devices take advantage of the scene engine delay feature and split them over a period of a couple seconds. This avoids the Z-Wave network from becoming overloaded or messages being lost.
- Ensure that a scene is the best option for the control you are performing.
- We have a variety of articles about various apps that provide simpler or more appropriate control mechanisms for some functions such as sensor lights.
There are 3 steps to creating a scene: setting a trigger, setting actions, and setting overrides or customer behaviour.
Triggering a scene
There are a lot of options and overrides available in the trigger page, check out our deep dive to learn all the ins and outs.
Click on SCENES, then ADD SCENE
Step 1: Select a trigger
Please click here for guide on Trigger.
Step 2: Setup device actions
Once the trigger for the scene has been validated, the actions for the scene need to be selected. Any device which has been added to the NERO Controller can be included in the action. An action can either be carried out immediately after the scene trigger or after a specified delay.
Immediate Actions
- Click on SELECT DEVICES
- All the devices connected to the NERO Controller will be listed. Select the devices to be included in the action, by clicking the arrow beside the device. You can view devices by Room or Type
- Click NEXT
The possible actions per device will appear, specify the action for each device and click validate. E.g. Put the blind up and set the dimmer to 55%.
- Click Validate
You’ll see that this action now shows in the scene summary, marked as IMMEDATLEY
- If you wish to add a delay to the scene you can click ADD DELAYED ACTION, alternatively select NEXT STEP
Delayed Actions
- To add an action with a delay from the scene trigger, select ADD DELAYED ACTION
- To specify a delay, select WAIT FOR…
3. Select the desired delay using the hours, minutes and seconds drop down lists, then select VALIDATE
- As before, select the devices that will be in the delayed action, then click NEXT
- Select the action for the chosen devices, then click VALIDATE
- You can now view a summary of the Scene with the newly added delay, you can add more Delayed Actions as requires
- Select NEXT STEPS
Step 3: Finish the Scene
There are a number of extras that you can add to a scene in STEP 3. These extras are all optional, so at any point click FINISH to save the scene.
Selecting the Scene Mode
You may select a scene to run conditionally with the current mode of the system i.e. Home, Away, Night, Vacation.
By default, the scene will be enabled in all modes. To disable the scene running in any mode, simply uncheck it by clicking on the green tick then click DONE.
Select who to notify
When the scene is activated, NEXUS-NERO can notify the users linked to it. Simply select these users by clicking on the slider corresponding to that user to ON. By default, no users will be notified.
NOTE: Users are displayed by usernames.
Select Room
It is good practice to add a scene to the room it applies to. To do this, select the applicable room from the dropdown menu.
Name the Scene
The final step in creating a scene is naming it. Do this by entering the desired name into the text box then click finish.
The scene name cannot be “Untitled Scene”