simplextech

LOL!

Were the door bell/chime powered or battery? This is interesting. The motion sensor to multiple devices is curious I've never done an association to multiples from a battery sensor only direct to a single powered target. Which is not valid for the popcorn discussion Z-Wave takes more planning for sure.

Z-Wave associations from a scene controller? Or from some controller system? Which controller? -- Now I'm just curious. I'm also not disagreeing as there's a missing piece with Z-Wave broadcasts vs the simulcast from Insteon. The timing is still not there so popcorn can/does happen. Just not as badly when from scene controller to device without a gateway involved. BTW - I don't use z-wave for lighting for this and other reasons.

True from controller managed/sent commands. Z-Wave Associations use broadcast messaging which is sent to all associated devices at the same time. The gotcha here is broadcast messages are non-routing so the devices must generally be in the same room or within communication distance and lots of controllers don't fully support Z-Wave associations and lots of devices do not either.

With Z-Wave sometimes the terms Scene and Association are used interchangeably but in this context of the ISY I will separate them. Scene = ISY function Association = Z-Wave capability To start with not all z-wave devices support multiple associations. If your devices support multiple associations then it is possible to create an association from device to device this is very similar to an Insteon direct link. This association is from device to device and there is no communication to the controller for these. The limitation is that the communication is device to device so they must be within communication range and NO routing of messages are involved as a z-wave broadcast message is used for this. This is very convenient for when you have a z-wave keypad that acts as a scene controller to control multiple light switches. This can be done from device to device such as motion sensor to light switch, or keypad to switch or whatever combination as long as both devices support multiple associations. As far as I know the ISY currently does not have a facility in the Admin Console to setup/manage device associations. (I looked and couldn't find anything). The ISY has the concept of "Scenes" which is a ISY naming for Insteon Groups. Doing groups with Insteon is a natural feature of Insteon and so is direct linking. The ISY took it a step further and allows z-wave devices to be included in these scenes. These scenes are managed from the controller and sends the commands from the controller and is not a direct device association. This is a really cool feature of the ISY of grouping z-wave/Insteon devices together into a scene for use but as far as I know it is not using the Z-Wave association feature of the devices.

I did as well. I just didn't highlight it

Lights going off in the bathroom is never a fun experience and can freak out guests that don't know the house is automated. I went through many trials of automating the lights in the bathroom. It's very easy to turn them on but when to turn them off is the trick. As rooms are of various sizes and layouts and people have different habits motion alone was not an option. You realize how still people are putting on make-up? Amazing. Anyways I went with a dual approach that works for me but may not work for others based on household practices. In our house the bathroom door is always left open when not occupied. So if the door is closed someone is in there. This made it easy for occupancy determination. I used a two sensor approach. Motion sensor turns on the lights Door sensor starts the countdown to turn off the lights. When someone enters the room the lights turn on and a state variable is set and a timer to recheck that variable. If that variable has changed to NO motion AND the door is OPEN then the lights turn off. However if the door is CLOSED then nothing happens and the wait checks again later. Only if there's no motion and the door is open then a countdown is started and when that ends only then does the light turn off. Flaws to this are that someone turns off the light and someone then walks in. Well if the sensor hasn't reset then the lights don't turn on. The sensor is set with a fairly quick reset time so not usually a problem. Flaw two is when guest leave the bathroom and close the door. This will keep the light on forever. Not really a big deal as someone else always needs to use the bathroom and then the guessing game begins if anyone is in there and the knocking on the door or people counting begins

I'm feeling left out....

Be mindful of the version if you want to try the EcoLink. There are TWO of them. Make sure and get the Z-Wave Plus version!!!

If you have the Z-Wave board then there's a lot of options. I currently have on my desk an Aeotec Door Sensor 7 and a EcoLink Door Window Sensor (Z-Wave Plus version). Both work with the ISY. I need to deploy one of them into a real use on a door and evaluate the response time and reliability of the status. A little over a year ago I tore down most of my Z-Wave when I deployed Insteon. Now I'm finding I need to replace a lot of the Insteon to add Z-Wave back to have a solid/stable mesh for sensors. The EcoLink I know works very well as I've used it before and I was not disappointed in it. So I can say I'm likely to replace Insteon with these. However the Aeotec Door Sensor 7 is new so I wanted to evaluate it. So far I'm not pleased as I've had it for a few weeks sitting on my desk and the battery is dead. It's been doing nothing but sitting on my desk. I included it and tested and then left it.... not very happy about that so far.

@dexmot74 I've had all kinds of weirdness with the open/close sensors from Insteon. I've given up trying to find a reason and have started looking at alternatives. I don't know if it's a sensor problem or ISY problem or somewhere in between but like you things are just wonky when open/close sensors are involved. Control through ISY of devices of scenes everything works. A program involving a sensor to turn on a light or scene... nope sometimes it works great and other times it doesn't work or the scene is only half processed or some other weirdness. I've been chasing this issue for a year now and no resolution.

I don't think that's a Google/Alexa or accent issue... isn't this normal? Similar to when my wife is talking she says "We" but she really means "You".

Old legacy 802.11b.... gotta love it.

It's very likely they are not compatible with 5Ghz wifi which is a problem with lots of devices. Turning off the 5Ghz radio on Unifi AP's is necessary for setup of a lot of devices. Same with phones if they are connected using the 5Ghz radio they won't be able to configure the device.

They don't work that well. Which is why they state incandescent as required. Never had a problem myself. Never had this issue. If they cause damage that wasn't there before then they don't get paid until the damage is fixed and they only get paid for the work I asked for not the damage they caused. Yeah most of the time it's faster to run the wire myself but sometimes I'm lazy and I just call someone to do it for me

I haven't been following this too closely but what's the issue with just using the 2-wire dimmer? And running a neutral line if it's missing is like a $120'ish job for most electricians... kinda seems crazy to spend so much thought effort on how to solve a cheap problem.

As was asked before. What protocol are you wanting to use? Z-Wave or Insteon? There's a no-neutral wire Dimmer available for each. GE makes one for Z-Wave and there's the Insteon 2-wire Dimmer as well. Both work fine as long as you use an incandescent bulb.

What are you trying to do? What's the end-goal? I understand the problem is you don't have a neutral at the switch however a "solution" depends on what you have already, what you're willing to buy or work you're willing to do or have done to meet the end-goal.

ELK

Mine work "fine" most of the time as well. I have a couple that periodically don't respond for whatever reason. I have them setup in programs to turn on lights when the door is opened. Doors to garage and to the deck. Issue 1 from previous post about the 1 that was false reporting on... actually was not a false alert. I went and inspected it later and found that the door was in fact open but just a little. Which was odd and I commented to my wife because she was the one that opened/closed the door.... CLOSE THE DOOR!! Issue that has been a long standing item is the program to turn on lights does not always run and many times has a very slow response. Open door and sometimes the lights are on fast and other times there's a 3-5 second delay and then sometimes nothing. No lights. Close door and re-open and things work. I'm thinking in this case it's either some communications issue or something that is freaking annoying which is why it's so random for the not working but for the slow 3-5 seconds I don't know what this was from. I've disabled some extra processing in my ISY to reduce load and see if that helps....

Please let me know what your outcome is. I'm hoping maybe I have a couple bad sensors as that's the easy fix.

restart the nodeserver for changes to take effect.

Most have. I think it's the "new" versions that I have issues with. Nobody else that I know and I've asked a couple other friends and they have the older versions that they have no problems and they're great. Mine are all of the new version and they are just "iffy". Most of the time they are fine. Every now and again they go wonky like today. Which... reminds me I think I'll change the battery as that often times fixes their "wonky" behavior....

I have not gone through and checked that.... However as lucky as I am guess what... another sensor is reporting Open ON and the door is closed... because it's freezing outside so why would it be open I'll open the AC and check and maybe have to work around this. However there is no work around when using 2 nodes for scene capabilities to get super fast reaction for lighting... so that kills my use of scenes for lighting with those doors.... as those are the one's being problems. argh...... So I just check the Dining Room door that's showing on... Open node = On Closed node = Off So the whole sensor both nodes are just screwy not reporting correctly. I've watched it do this multiple times today already. Practically every other time that door is opened to let the dog or cat out it reports wrong.

In all cases I want reliability. I only have 2 areas where I care about "speed" and that is relative. 1 second or below as long as it's consistent and doesn't swing upwards to 3-5 like I've had with Insteon I would be happy. 1 area reliability is critical of reporting correctly (Bathroom). I use the sensor to verify occupancy if there's no motion as a secondary if the door is closed do NOT turn off the light. The other areas for lighting control and that's where speed is important but it doesn't matter how fast they are if they don't report correctly half the time.