Troubleshoot a Device
Goal: work out why a device won't connect or respond, and fix it.
Work from the connection outward: is GEM reaching the hardware, is it talking to it correctly, and is the zone wired right?
1. Is the driver connecting?
Check the device's connection state in the Devices grid.
Open Devices
- Enabled must be on — a disabled device never connects.
- If it shows disconnected, click Reload on the device to force a reconnect and watch whether it comes online.
Common causes:
| Symptom | Likely cause |
|---|---|
| Never connects | Wrong address (IP/port/serial), device powered off, or blocked by a firewall. |
| Connects then drops | Credential expiry, the device dropping idle connections, or a second controller fighting for the connection. |
| Wrong driver | The protocol doesn't match — re-check the driver against the equipment model. |
2. Is it talking correctly?
Once connected, send a known command from the device's Commands quick action and confirm the hardware reacts.
- If the command does nothing, the command set may be empty or wrong. Drivers that ship a command table fill it on first load — if it's empty, confirm the driver is the right one and reload.
- Check that any required attributes (host, port, credentials, model) are set correctly.
3. Is the zone wired right?
If the device works but a zone on it doesn't:
- Confirm the zone's device binding and its address on that device (channel/output/zone number).
- Send the command at the device level first, then at the zone level, to isolate where it breaks.
Where to look next
-
Device Health and Monitoring surface connection history and diagnostics over time.
Open Device Health
-
Commission a Device — re-verify the original setup.
If a device behaves oddly, test whether the problem is the hardware/network or GEM by reproducing the command directly against the device (e.g. its own app or web UI). If it fails there too, it's not a GEM configuration issue.