Locating and Assigning Circuits

In the Areas tree or from the floor plan, create the areas and channels for your project. You can then use the following methods to identify and locate circuits in the job using the sb icon flash Flash command, and assign each circuit to the correct logical area and channel.

Locating Circuits

Locate all circuits connected to a controller (System view):
  1. Select the controller.

  2. Click sb icon flash Flash and sb icon flash stop Stop Flash (F7) to locate all circuits.

  3. If required, right-click and sb icon rename Rename the controller.

Locate individual circuits (Areas view):
  1. Select the area and open the Unassigned Devices editor.

  2. Select a circuit connected to a load controller.

  3. Click sb icon flash Flash and sb icon flash stop Stop Flash (F7) or sb icon auto flash channels Auto-flash to locate the circuit.

  4. Click sb icon rename Rename to provide a meaningful name for the circuit, if required.
    sb areas view unassigned devices ddbc1200

Locate individual circuits (System view):
  1. Select a controller and open the Outputs editor tab.

  2. In the sb icon flash Flash column, sb icon checkbox tick select and sb icon checkbox untick deselect the checkbox for the specified circuit to locate the circuit.

  3. To rename a circuit for easier identification, click the Name cell to select it, then click it again to edit.
    sb 1 10v device outputs editor

Turn off all the lights, then flash. If nothing happens, you know the circuits are not in any of the visible areas. This is a good way to exclude large groups.

Assigning circuits to areas and channels

Circuit assignment

Once you have located a circuit by flashing, you need to assign it to an area and channel to complete localization. Alternatively, you can assign a circuit to an area with the Localize by search procedure. For more information on Localize by search, refer to Locating drivers by searching.

Assign a circuit to an area:
  1. In Areas view, open the Unassigned Devices editor.

  2. Either:

    • Click and drag each circuit from the Unassigned Devices editor to an area. The circuit is assigned its own channel.

    Or:

    • Click and drag each circuit from the Unassigned Devices editor to an existing channel in an area. The circuit is added to the channel together with other previously assigned circuits.

    • If not already renamed, then the circuit takes the name of the area and channel to which it is assigned, or you can right-click an assigned circuit and select Rename.

    • Assign all remaining circuits on the controller to their respective areas and channels.

  3. Click sb icon save to device Save to Device (F12).

Dragging from Unplaced creates channels.

sb areas view unassigned devices ddbc1200 circuits
Confirm group driver assignments by flashing the area or channel:
  1. Select the required area or channel.

  2. In the Areas view toolbar, click sb icon flash Flash (F7) to confirm correct assignment.

  3. All circuits assigned to the area or channel will flash.

  4. If circuit assignments are incorrect, reassign circuits as required.

Setting the master circuit

To make different circuits work together, more than one circuit can be assigned to the same channel, however only the first one will act as the master for control purposes. This means that on a channel only one circuit will respond to channel level requests.

Setting the master circuit is optional, as System Builder automatically selects a master circuit for each channel.

  • sb icon circuit master Master circuit

  • sb icon circuit duplicate Duplicate circuit

Set Master Channel (circuit):
  1. In Areas view, click and drag the required sb icon circuit duplicate circuits into the same sb icon channel channel.

  2. Right-click a circuit and select sb icon set master channel Set Master Channel.
    sb area outputs editor set master channel

Other circuits assigned to the same channel will automatically have a sb icon checkbox tick tick in the Outputs editor Duplicate column.

Right-click the circuit to view the circuit context menu. The context menu can be used to access the following functions:

sb areas outputs circuit context menu