In this article:
The Basics of Offline Doors
Unlike online locks, the offline or battery-powered locks have no direct communication with the SALTO server. They primarily communicate by putting bits of information on regular fobs. The information gets transferred as a fob touches offline locks, such as suite doors, and online readers, such as entry doors. As a result the information may take a while to make its way from the server to an offline door, and from a door back to the server.
SALTO PPD (Portable Programming Device)
To help with the information flow a SALTO PPD is required. This is a small device (shown below) that can help with updating the locks, and communicating their status back to the server. It can also assist with opening doors that are fully out of battery.
The PPD needs to be loaded with the required door data (detailed below) and then can communicate with an offline SALTO door by having the back of the device touch the door lock. If your door lock is entirely dead, you may need to attach your black three-pronged cable from the PPD to the door lock itself. If you haven't been provided a PPD cable, please contact your SALTO lock provider.
SALTO Encoder
Think of the encoder like the traffic director of the SALTO system. The PPD can communicate with the SALTO server when it is placed on top of a SALTO encoder (shown below). This device is typically kept in your building's Communications or Electrical room. Keep your PPD on top of the Encoder when not in use, ensuring you line up the wireless icon you see on the Encoder with the matching icon on the back of the PPD.
Updating Suite Door Locks (During Issues or Battery Replacement)
This process can be initiated right from your 1CONNECT Web Portal by navigating to the Building Doors tab and selecting the "Manage Offline Doors" option near th top right of the page.
Load your doors on the PPD: First, the door information needs to be loaded onto the PPD.
Make sure your PPD is powered on, and place it on the SALTO Encoder, perfectly aligning the wireless icons on both devices.
From 1CONNECT Building Doors > Manage Offline Locks, follow the prompts to show a list of battery powered doors you can load on your PPD. Usually the doors with low or critical battery levels are the right ones to select here. Your PPD has a capacity of about 80 door locks, so if more than that require updates, a subset of doors can be chosen to start with and the rest can be dealt with next time.
Update the door lock: Once the door information has been successfully loaded to the PPD from 1CONNECT, you can grab the PPD from on top of your Encoder and proceed up to the unit door. Make any battery replacement if applicable, then re-initialize the lock using the PPD to make sure the lock gets the latest settings and permissions.
To re-initialize, use the up and down arrows on the PPD to find the "INITIALIZE LOCK" selection in the menu. Press the OK button to view the locks loaded on to the PPD.
Find the suite in the list by using the up and down arrows on the PPD. Once you find the suite for the door you are standing in front of, place the PPD against the lock, perfectly aligning the wireless icon on the PPD with the lock and press OK to initialize the lock.
The PPD will make a noise and show a loading screen. Do not move the PPD from the lock until it is complete (will take a few seconds).
The screen will indicate that the lock has been initialized when the process is complete. Test the lock to ensure it is working correctly.
Sync updates back to the SALTO server: When all of your updating is complete, the PPD needs to be re-synchronized with the SALTO server for it to receive the lock's latest information after the updates. This is done by placing the PPD back on top of the encoder and aligning the wireless icons. Completing this step makes the low battery alerts disappear from 1CONNECT.
Note if you skip this step, the SALTO server will not know about the new battery level of the locks right away. However, this information can be communicated from the offline door to the SALTO server through a fob. The next time a fob interacts with this door lock and then touches an online SALTO wall reader (e.g. at the main door), that reader will bring the necessary updates back to the SALTO server.
Emergency Opening a Suite Door
Your SALTO PPD also allows staff to open an unresponsive lock in an emergency, even if the lock battery is fully drained and not responding when the PDD is placed in proximity to the lock. In such cases you will want to follow these steps:
Follow the instructions in Step 1 above - Make sure your PPD is powered on, and place it on the SALTO Encoder, aligning the wireless icons on both devices. From your computer, navigate to 1CONNECT's Building Doors tab and select the "Manage Offline Locks" button near the top right. Follow the prompts on screen to load the door locks you will need to interact with.
Once the doors have been properly loaded from 1CONNECT, you can grab your PPD off of the Encoder and make your way to the door. Take the PPD along with your black 3-prong PPD cable provided with the PPD to the door (if you do not have this cable, contact your SALTO provider).
Insert the cable into the reader to provide power to the lock. Some readers have their 3-pin port on the underside of the lock. If your lock has a cap on it, remove the cap to reveal the 3-pin port you can insert your 3-prong cable into. From the PPD, an Emergency Opening option can be selected for this door (instead of "Initialize" or "Update").
For more details, visit SALTO's support center here.
For issues or a service visit regarding your SALTO hardware, please reach out to your local security integrator (i.e. your SALTO access control installer). For any other questions please contact 1VALET Support at support@1valet.com.