apostolakisl

I don't know what you mean "all the wires are hot". That can not be. The first box looks to me like it has 4 cables entering it. One of those 4 is probably the wire back to the breaker box. The other sets would include cables going to the other switches and to the fixture itself. If you unsplice everything and then turn the breaker back on, you'll be able to find the cable that goes back to the breaker. The other cables can be ohmed out to figure out which of them go to the other boxes.

This has happened again. Google home reported that it was not connected to ISY upon issuing it a command. I tried the "send spokens" to Google and it failed, I believe it said it failed authentication. I had to use the Google "home" app and remove ISY then add it back in. Again, I had not changed anything with my google account or my ISY/portal account.

You also have to take into account anything you did with network resources. I have network resources with authentication to other things. And I have stuff with IFTTT which would be hard to separate my personal things from house things. Your approach in general is good, but if you didn't do it from the start, that still leaves you going back and re-doing all those things and possibly missing some things.

It looks like you have two stages of heat (W1 and W2). Hook it all up to the new thermostat the same color pattern as the old, except your blue wire is the common (not black as in the Insteon picture) and the black wire is stage two heat (W2), not the orange as shown by Insteon. If you don't have two stages of heat then I don't know what is up with the black wire. If you have a heat pump, then you don't have the right thermostat. The T1800 is switchable for either heat pump or standard based on jumper settings on the main board but the Insteon is not. Your color pattern appears to be: Red - 24vac hot Blue - common (shown as a black wire by Insteon) White - heat stage 1 Black - heat stage 2 (shown as orange by Insteon) Green - fan Yellow - cool stage 1

Best practice is to pull the HA before you put it on the market if it is your plan to take it with you, or at least not to be burdened by the transition to a new owner of all the fine details. But, at this point, the question is what does the new owner expect to stay? If it is screwed, nailed, or otherwise affixed to the house when you sell it, it is supposed to stay. So that pretty much includes any Insteon switch and thermostats. But the ISY, Alexas, and other free-standing items would not be expected to stay unless you advertised it as such. In other words, if you advertised the house as having features that these devices are providing, then you need to leave them. Otherwise, I would take them out. Not only because they are yours, but because they present a security issue for you and the new owner. No different then leaving your computers, routers, and the like. It might be that you leave passwords or registrations on these devices that give away your passwords or access to you accounts. You could factory reset it all, but then that leaves the new owner with a mess. Insteon works on its own, you can just pull the ISY and Alexa's and leave the Insteon stuff with all of its built in links. Frankly, I'm kind of shocked the new owners want it. Most people are scared that something is going to happen and they'll have no idea how to fix it. And they would be right!

Yeah, I think I like this better.

There is nothing that you have listed here that turns the scene on (or devices in that scene). You would have to share with us the program that turns the scene on. And/Or any other way the lights in the scene get turned on. My bet is you have another program that turns the scene on using that same remote linc button where the two programs are fighting each other.

It is hard to beat the second option you mention (the on/off module with a wall wart). On/off modules are dual band, can be purchased on sale for $25/ea (2 for 1 sales are common). You probably have a spare 12v wall wart sitting around and if not, they are cheap. This would be reliable and extremely easy to implement.

I understand, but maybe IFTTT/POST

Upon doing my first IFTTT to ISY command via portal, I realized that this is just a POST command and has nothing special relating to IFTTT. I have since used several other methods of sending a portal generated POST command, including sending a POST from ISY network module to another ISY. It all works. In short, the IFTTT label in the portal could have its title broadened such that it is clear that it simply generates a POST that is able to be implemented by anything that can do POST. It is a bit quicker and easier to use the portal to create the POST command as compared to using REST and looking up all the various REST commands and values. It is basically a "gui" way to make a REST. REST does have more features, but if what you are doing doesn't need them, it is quicker and easier to generate a POST using the IFTTT section of portal.

If the two panels are both behind the same electric meter, then there will not be any lack of a "covered phase". The Insteon comm will back and forth through all the panels so if both phases have comm behind one panel, then they will behind the other panel as well. The 500 foot distance (times two) very well could be an issue. You might need to add an Insteon device in the middle to help repeat the signal. Also, using dual band devices that are within rf range would help. For example, if your sauana and stuff is located directly next to your house, then an rf device in the house only needs to make it to the rf device in the sauna, it doesn't have to go 500 feet to the main panel and back out 500 more feet to the sauna. In my experience, I have run power line comm devices on wire runs of a few hundred feet without issue, but never 1000 feet.

I agree about the wrench. I thought it was an "x" as well. Even after I realized it wasn't an "x", I still didn't recognize it as a wrench.

I have 9 of the Insteon thermostats for heatpumps (which they discontinued) working AC units at my church. Pros: 1) They were VERY cheap, I think I ended paying less than $50/ea 2) They integrate with ISY simply, quickly, and natively 3) It is easy to control them from ISY programs, mobile linc, and Agave 4) With version 5 of ISY firmware and the portal, they are easy to control with Alexa and Google Cons: (note, some cons may also be present with other thermostats, I don't know) 1) They can get messed up with power fluctuations after which they need to be manually reset. This would obviously be a very big problem if you were out of town in winter and it happened. 2) The "cool on/off" and "heat on/off" are Insteon control commands sent by thermostat. Meaning that if the comm misses, you can't query it. ISY (or any other scene responders) simply don't react to this call for heat/cool or shutdown of heat/cool message and never will until the next heat/cool cycle. 3) They don't activate heat strips when weather is too cold for heat pump to work well. You can manually turn them on however (not from ISY, only from the thermostat). 4) The native programming on the thermostat is quite good, but it can only be done from the thermostat. This is no issue for me since I use ISY to do all of that, but still it is a PITA using the little buttons on the thermostat. 5) The stage 2 cool is fixed at the temp being 5 degrees from setpoint. This isn't the greatest. It would be better if it had logic such as "if temp hasn't satisfied within x minutes, activate stage 2". 6) The LCD screen isn't the best. You have to look at it from the right angle to see it.

I picked up those two venstar thermostats on ebay. They are used, but that is all that is out there right now for Insteon heat pump thermostats. I'll probably replace one of the Insteon ones with the Venstar one and see how it works. If I like, I'll put the second one into service as well.

Thanks for the info. With that model number, I googled it and discovered that they have a couple Insteon models. The base model on this one is T1800 which is not Insteon compatible except for a sub-model of it (2491T7ER) which is a native Insteon model. Not sure why they didn't change the T1800 name, it is confusing. Interestingly, today, the dead thermostat started talking to ISY again. It is still not functional however. I can change the settings on it, but the screen is black and it does not seem to turn the system on nor report temp/humidity. But it does respond to query and it does allow me to change the set points and mode. EDIT: The thermostat has now completely come back to life.

I installed Insteon heat pump thermostats at my church a while back (9 of them). Well, on Monday, an oversized truck driving down the main highway next to the church hooked onto an overhead powerline and ripped down a whole block worth of power lines. A huge mess, they are still out there doing repairs as of last night. The power went crazy causing half of the thermostats to need to be reset and one of them appears to be just dead. (also screwed up other electronic devices). Insteon no longer sells the heat pump version. I found this on ebay https://www.ebay.com/itm/292710000156?ViewItem=&item=292710000156 Can anyone confirm that this will work? I'm using ISY to run all the schedules, not the thermostat. I'm hoping to just use the "replace with" function. It was my impression that Venstar required an adapter, but the person selling this says it does not.

Back to the OP. It appears that using scenes with the remotelinc will not work based on that fact that you can not send a status update to a remotelinc. So you will need to rely on programs. Unfortunately, programs have a lag as compared to the near instant response of a scene, but unless you want to switch to using kpl's, that will be your only option. Just fyi, they make desktop enclosures for kpl switches with a wire that you plug in to an outlet.

That may be true. It is a battery powered device so it goes to sleep and thus can't respond. It may be an "outbound" only device.

I'd be shocked if you can't. Just log into your admin console, right click the the remotelinc button in question and add it to your scene as a responder (ie add button b to scene controlled by button a). Scroll down to the scene, and click on the controlling device for the scene (ie button a which will be shown in red). Then you'll see a list of devices on the right with their "on level" and ramp rate for the scene when controlled by (in this case) button a. Click on the remotelinc button b in the right hand top window, and you should see options for both on and off in the right bottom window. EDIT: And if you should also set the "on level" to "off" for the scene when controlled by ISY by clicking on the name of the scene itself in the left menu and then doing the same thing to the right hand windows as above. EDIT 2: Just to summarize, what you are making here is referred to as "radio buttons" Like in the old fashioned car radio. Pressing any of the 5 or so preset buttons would cause whatever other button was already depressed to pop out. Only one button can ever be on at any given time.

I can't say for certain either, but the behavior he describes would indicate they do. Since he says it turned the scene off when he tried to "go back" to that scene. If it didn't know that its last press was to go on, then how would it know that the next press is to go "off". EDIT: Also, per his report, it has the ability to be set to "on only" or "on/off". It would have to remember its status to be able to function in an "on/off" fashion using the same button.

That is because you didn't set the other buttons as responders with "off" as the "on-level". The last line in each of those two scenes would fix that problem. While I don't have a mini-remote linc, I believe they function the same as a kpl just without backlights (since that would kill the battery). EDIT: Also, please note that this example is for 2 buttons controlling 2 scenes. If you had 3 scenes, then there would be 2 lines at the end shutting off the other 2 buttons, and so on if you had 4 scenes, or 5 or whatever. Again, the only caveat is if you manually change a device in the scene. For example, push button a, scene a turns on. The button a will currently have an "on" status. Now say you manually do something to one or more of the lights in the scene. That button a will still be registered as "on" even though the scene is no longer technically on. If you push button a at this point, the entire set of lights will shut off. It would be more appropriate at that point for a push of button a to turn the scene back "on".

I think you are making this too complicated. You should not need any programs. Don't use the toggle on only mode. Just put the buttons into regular on/off mode. You can switch between scenes at will and it will not make the lights turn off and then back on. For example, say you have 4 lights and 2 scenes. Scene 1 KPL button a is controller of scene, all else below are responders: light a on level 80% light b on level 50% light c on level 0% light d on level 10% kpl button b on level 0ff (realize that the kpl button here is a responder, when it responds and is shut off, it does NOT execute its "duties" as a controller of scene 2). Scene 2 KPL button b is controller, all else below are responders: light a on level 20% light b on level 10% light c on level 100% light d on level 0% kpl button a on level 0ff (and vice-versa of what I said for scene 1) Push KPL button a and will go directly to those settings. Push KPL button b and it will go directly to those settings (it won't go off first). Push KPL button a when KPL button a is already on, it will shut all 4 devices off and all both kpl buttons off. The only thing you might want a program for is if one of those 4 lights changes status independent of the scene (ie someone pushes the button directly). In that case, you might want the kpl buttons to turn off (not have the backlight on). For example, the 4 lights in scene 1 have specific levels defined. When you turn on scene 1, the kpl will light up. Now if someone manually turns one of the lights off, you might want the kpl button to go dark. A program that checks for any change in the status of those 4 lights can be used to turn it off. This is a little complex and you may not care to do it, so I'll skip it here.

Did you mean to say "if status is on" for one of those? Having those two identical lines "anded" won't serve any purpose. But using "status on" won't serve any purpose either for a kpl button that is set to send "on" only. Since it will always be on anyway the line would be useless (always true), unless perhaps you have some other scene or program that shuts it off. Is this KPL button's only task to shut the scene off? If it is also used to turn the scene on, then that won't work.

I googled this, and it looks to me like the 0-10v signal works the same as for lights. So the device above would work. I base this on what I see here. http://infratech-usa.com/wp-content/uploads/IN023_ControlsBrochure_020718_mh_FNL2_sngl.pdf It states it works with standard dimmers from Crestron and the like. And these dimmers don't generate the 10v, the only "dim" the 10v.

With a little luck, maybe the Insteon switches won't need a dummy load. Not that a little night light is a big deal.