--- title: "Turn on the Beacon and enable pairing" canonical: "https://help.vicon.com/space/Evoke18/397967823/Turn%20on%20the%20Beacon%20and%20enable%20pairing" format: markdown --- Note that if the Pulsars are already paired to the correct Beacon, you can skip these pairing steps. **To enable pairing:** 1. Ensure that the Beacon is connected to a powered PoE switch and that this switch is connected to the host PC running Evoke. 2. Turn on the Beacon. In Evoke, on the **System** panel, a Beacon is displayed in the **Connectivity** section. Check that the Beacon connection status is green. :check_mark: **Tip**: With Firmware 808 and later, the sync source device is displayed in bold in the list of devices so it can easily be identified. 1. To perform a radio scan to check which Beacon channels are clear from interference from other radio devices and Wi-Fi, right-click the Beacon and select **Radio Channels**. The **Radio Channels** dialog box shows the signal strength of the currently available channels. The numbers on the left of the chart represent the signal strength in decibels. The channel numbers along the bottom of the chart are buttons that enable you to select the channel. The yellow warning triangles alert you that the channel above is in use (for more information, hover the mouse pointer over the icon). The light blue bars indicate the average power for each channel and the gray bars indicate the maximum power. In the bars for each channel, the white line represents the last sample taken. :warning: **Note**: All Pulsars connected to the Beacon are temporarily disconnected while scanning is in progress as the Beacon can't scan channels and broadcast sync at the same time. 3. Select a channel in one of the following ways: - In the **Radio Channels** dialog box, click a channel number at the bottom of the chart to select the relevant channel; or - In the **System** panel, ensure the Beacon is still selected and in the **Radio** section below, click in the **Radio Channel** field and select an appropriate channel. If you choose a channel that is already in use, the Beacon does not turn on sync broadcasts and a warning is displayed. 4. With the Beacon still selected, right-click on it and then click **Radio Pairing**. 5. In the **Radio Pairing** dialog box, click the **Start Pairing** button for the selected Beacon. Pairing mode is enabled, which means that the Beacon is available for pairing and any unpaired Pulsar that is turned on (see [Pair Pulsars with a Beacon](https://vicon-help.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/Evoke18/pages/397967930)) will try to connect to it. 6. To specify which pairing requests are accepted, in the **Radio Host** section at the top of the dialog box, select or clear **Allow List Enabled** for the required Beacon: - If the allow list is not enabled, all pairing requests are accepted. - If the allow list is enabled, only Pulsars on the allow list are accepted. Other Pulsars are refused, but are displayed in the **Radio Pairing** dialog box so you can choose to accept the request. To add one or more selected Pulsars to the selected radio host allow list, right-click the Pulsar(s) and then click **Add to allow list**. The Pulsars on the allow list are now accepted. In the case of pairing requests, pairing must also be started to enable the Pulsar to connect. :check_mark: **Tip**: Pairing/connection requests persist until you exit Evoke. If a Pulsar fails to connect, check its physical status. Evoke only knows about the last communicated status of the Pulsar, which may now be out-of-date. For more information about the symbols displayed in the **Radio Pairing** dialog box and how to move Pulsars to and from radio hosts and their allow lists, see [About the Radio Pairing dialog box](#dlgRadioPairing). 7. In the **System** panel, check that no warnings are displayed next to the Beacon. > ℹ️ **Note** > ℹ️ When you start pairing or change an allow list configuration, the Beacon's sync broadcast changes. Any Pulsars that are in scan mode may try to pair or connect when they detect the change, but this can take a several seconds (longer if there are a lot of Pulsars or a lot of interference). > Macro (scroll-pagebreak) ## > Macro (anchor) About the Radio Pairing dialog box > ![image](media://0b74b947-09e7-4959-b4b2-38f4c4da1ec3) At the top of the **Radio Pairing** dialog box, the **Radio Host** list shows the number of clusters connected to and paired with the radio host, and enables you to choose whether the allow list for the selected Beacon is enabled. > Macro (scroll-pagebreak) Below the **Radio Host** section, the **Assigned Clusters** section lists Pulsars that are paired to the selected Beacon or are on its allow list. - > Macro (inline-media-image) A green 'Play' symbol indicates a Pulsar that is paired and connected to the selected host's allow list. - > Macro (inline-media-image) A blue 'i' indicates a Pulsar that is paired to the system, but unable to connect because it's not on the host's allow list. - > Macro (inline-media-image) A red 'x' indicates a Pulsar that is unpaired. It cannot connect unless the Beacon is put into pairing mode (and the Pulsar is on the allow list, or the allow list is disabled). - > Macro (inline-media-image) A yellow 'Pause' symbol indicates a Pulsar that is connected but disabled. - > Macro (inline-media-image) A gray 'Play' symbol indicates a Pulsar that is connected but not linked to a smart object. - > Macro (inline-media-image) A magenta 'i' indicates a pairing request. - > Macro (inline-media-image) A question mark indicates a Pulsar is missing (ie, it hasn't connected during this session). - > Macro (inline-media-image) A partially selected check box in the **Paired** column indicates a Pulsar that is paired to a Beacon that is different from the one that is currently selected. To perform the following operations on Pulsars in the **Assigned Clusters** list, right-click one or more Pulsars and select the required option: - **Add to** or **Remove** Add or remove the selected Pulsar(s) from the selected radio host allow list. - **Clean the allow list** Remove any Pulsars from the selected radio host allow list that are paired to another radio host. This option is useful after load-balancing (see [Load balancing between hosts](#LoadBalance)). - **Unpair** Unpair the selected Pulsar(s) from the selected radio host (see [Unpair Pulsars from a Beacon](https://vicon-help.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/Evoke18/pages/397967930/Pair+Pulsars+with+a+Beacon#UnpairPulsars)). - **Transfer** Pair the selected Pulsar(s) to another connected, enabled radio host (see [Transfer Pulsars between Beacons](https://vicon-help.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/Evoke18/pages/397967930/Pair+Pulsars+with+a+Beacon#TransferPulsars)). At the bottom of the **Radio Pairing** dialog box, the **Unassigned Clusters** section lists connection or pairing requests, and unpaired Pulsars. This list persists for the lifetime of the application session. To add Pulsars in this list to to the selected radio host's allow list, right-click on the Pulsar(s) and then click **Add to Host allow list**. > Macro (scroll-pagebreak) #### > Macro (anchor) Load balancing between hosts The number of clusters connected to each Beacon must be balanced. If too many clusters are connected to one host then connection stability is reduced, and the time required to send commands to all clusters increases. > ⚠️ **Important** > ⚠️ To avoid loss of connection stability and an unacceptable delay in sending commands to all clusters, we recommend that no more than 80 Pulsars are connected to a single Beacon. To automatically balance the number of Pulsars between Beacons, click the **Load Balance Hosts** button at the bottom of the dialog box. This transfers the connected clusters so that an equal number is connected to each host. After load balancing, you may find a number of clusters on one host's allow list are paired to a different host. To remove these clusters from the allow list, right-click on the cluster(s) and then click **Clean Host allow list**.