Quick Start
This walks you through commissioning your first device end to end — from adding hardware to controlling a zone. It assumes GEM is installed and you can log in as an administrator (see First Boot).
The flow is always the same: subsystem → device → zone → control.
1. Confirm a subsystem exists
Subsystems are the top-level categories (lighting, shades, climate, AV, security). A fresh system ships with the common ones. Open the admin interface and confirm the subsystem you're working in exists before adding hardware.
Open Subsystems
2. Add a device
A device represents the physical controller and the driver that talks to it.
- Go to Devices and add a new device.
- Choose the driver that matches your hardware. The driver determines how GEM connects and what commands are available.
- Enter the address (IP, serial port, or device identifier) and any driver-specific attributes. The device creator surfaces the driver's required settings and a sample configuration.
Open Devices
:::tip Finding your hardware For network devices, the Scan Network tool can discover devices on the LAN and help you commission them in bulk. :::
3. Add a zone
A zone is the thing people actually control — "Kitchen Lights", "Patio Shades".
- Go to Zones and add a zone in the appropriate subsystem.
- Bind it to the device you just created and set its address on that device (the channel, output, or zone number the driver uses).
Open Zones
4. Control it
With a device and zone in place, you can issue commands.
- From the zone's row in the admin interface, send a command (
on,off,open,set_level, …) and confirm the hardware responds. - Watch the zone's live attributes update to reflect the new state.
If the device responds and state updates, the path from GEM to your hardware is working end to end.