The configuration

Calaos Installer

Calaos Installer is the software with which you describe your installation: the rooms of the house, the devices in them, and the rules that make them react.

It runs on your everyday computer, not on the server. You prepare your project there, then send it to the Calaos server, which applies it.

How it fits together

Your computer                             The Calaos server
┌────────────────────┐                    ┌────────────────────┐
│  Calaos Installer  │  ── upload ──▶     │   calaos_server    │
│  your project      │  ◀── read ────     │   drives the home  │
└────────────────────┘                    └────────────────────┘

You always work on a local copy of the project. Nothing changes at home until you send the configuration to the server, which leaves you free to experiment safely.

The server, for its part, keeps a dated copy of every configuration it receives — see Backing up your configuration.

The order of things

The configuration is built in a natural order, each step relying on the previous one:

  1. Create rooms — the structure of your home.
  2. Create IOs — the devices: lights, shutters, switches, sensors.
  3. Create rules — what should happen, and when.

The other pages of this chapter cover more specific needs: internal variables to remember a state, scenarios to chain actions, time scheduling to trigger on the clock, and Lua scripts when rules are no longer enough.

If you are new to Calaos, do not start with this chapter: follow Getting started first, which walks you through creating a room, a light, a switch and a first rule. You will come back here to go deeper.

Connecting to the server

Two operations link Calaos Installer to your server, in the Calaos Server menu:

  • Send the project — your configuration goes to the server, which restarts its services to take it into account;
  • Load the project — you fetch the configuration currently running on the server.

The second is also the simplest way to back up your installation: see Upload the project.

These operations ask for the server address and the login credentials, whose default values are user / pass — to be changed, see Changing the passwords.

Beyond configuration

Calaos Installer is also used for a few tasks that go beyond the project itself:

  • Create rooms

    • Organising your home into rooms, the basis of the whole configuration.

  • Create IOs

    • Declaring your devices: lights, shutters, switches, sensors.

  • Internal Variable

    • Remembering a state that matches no physical device.

  • Scenario

    • Chaining several actions and triggering them in one go.

  • Time scheduling

    • Triggering on the clock, on the sun, or after a delay.

  • Create rules

    • The heart of home automation: conditions, actions, and how to combine them.

  • LUA Scripting

    • Writing code when rules are no longer enough.

  • Wago Configuration

    • Declaring the PLC in the project and sending it its program.