Placing a device tells Hermetry where it is: on which site, building, room, line or machine. A device has at most one place. Its place decides which site’s status and alarm counts include it, which Rules card rules may act on it, which time zone and location those rules use for it, and which devices views and boards offer first.
Place one device
- Open the device on Devices.
- Open the Placement tab. It shows Placed on with the path of its asset, each step a link to Sites & Assets, or “This device is not placed on any site or asset.”
- Select Place on an asset (or Change placement if it already has a place).
- In Place the device (“Pick the site or asset where the device is.”), search with Search sites and assets and select the asset.
- Select Place here. The tab shows “Placement saved”.
To take the device off its asset, select Remove placement. Open asset opens the asset’s drawer.
Place many devices on one asset
- Open Sites & Assets and open the asset’s drawer.
- In Devices, select Place devices.
- In Place devices on “
“ , search with Search devices and tick the devices. A device that already has a place shows “now at“. - Select Place
devices .
“A device has one place: placing it here moves it from where it was.” You can place up to 100 devices at once. The drawer’s Devices list shows the devices placed on the asset; tick Include devices placed below to include the whole subtree. Remove placement on a row takes that device off.
Through the API: POST /api/iot/assets/{assetId}/devices with { "deviceIds": [...] }, or PUT /api/iot/devices/{deviceId}/placement. See Sites and assets API.
Where to place a device
Place a device on the most specific asset that is true:
| Device | Place it on |
|---|---|
| A room sensor | The room |
| A machine’s controller | The machine |
| A meter of a whole building | The building |
| A gateway that serves a site | The site, or its plant room |
| A tracker that moves between zones | The site (its zone is reported in its telemetry) |
A device placed on a room counts for the room, its floor, its building and its site: every asset above it sees it.
What a device’s place decides
| Area | Effect |
|---|---|
| Status and alarms | The device’s status and open alarms count for its asset and every asset above it: the Devices and Alarms columns on Sites & Assets, site tables and maps, room colours in 3D scenes. See Site status and the status key. |
| Rules card scope | A rule whose home is an asset may only name devices placed under that asset or any asset below it (at most 2,000). See The rules engine. |
| Manual and Auto | A device is in Manual when the asset it is placed on, or any asset above it, is in Manual. See Manual and Auto modes. |
| Time zone and location of rules | For a rule whose home is a device, time windows use the time zone of the asset the device is placed on, and sunrise and sunset use that asset’s location. See Locations and time zones. |
| Views | In a site’s 2D or 3D view, the device search lists the site’s devices first, and Match everything proposes them. See 2D drawings and 3D scenes on a site. |
| Boards | A card that takes one device, given a site, takes the devices under the site; the Sites template’s Device picker lists them. |
| Flows | The Related data block finds a device’s room, building or site through its placement. |
| Deleting | A placed device cannot be deleted: remove the placement first. |
A device without a place still works: it sends data, raises alarms and appears on boards that name it. It is just in no site.
Devices with a location but no place
A device can report its own coordinates (lat and lng in its additional info, attributes or telemetry). That does not place it. The Sites board counts such devices in Devices with a place but no site and offers Place devices. Place them so they count for their site.
Who can do it
Placing and removing placements need Manage relations and device placement (Admin by default). Seeing the Placement tab needs View IoT sites and assets. Every placement change is written to the audit log.
Troubleshooting
| Problem | Cause |
|---|---|
| A rule’s device picker does not offer a device | The device is not placed under the rule’s home asset |
| A site shows fewer devices than expected | Some devices are placed on another site, or not placed |
| “The device is still in use by 1 asset placement or relation (iot_asset).” when deleting a device | Remove its placement (and its relations) first |
| A sunrise rule cannot be saved for a device | The asset the device is placed on has no latitude and longitude |