Xathros
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Posts posted by Xathros
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Also, I don't know why you would have to create a local and away profile, as I would think this would work both in and outside of your LAN.
Chuck
Because the credentials are different when using the portal and Mobilinc only allows one set of credentials per profile.
-Xathros
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Thanks Michael,
I was able to get MobiLinc to connect using the ISY portal, unfortunately it gets stuck updating at "Parsing Address: 22253 Details". Any idea why it's hanging up?
Thanks again,
Chuck
Hi Chuck,
I don't have an answer for you but I can sympathize. Mine crashes during the "Parsing Address ..." phase rather than hanging. I have gone back to regular HTTPS and HTTP for remote/local operation as I use mine both in and out of the house regularly and switching profiles would be too much of a hassle.
-Xathros
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Barry-
I believe Lee's point was that this is an Insteon protocol limitation, not an ISY specific limitation.
-Xathros
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Interesting. Don't wireless devices send 2 on's and 2 off's sequentially? I'm pretty sure my MS does.
I believe so but the timing may be such that the ISY is capable of detecting the dupes. As apostolakisl mentioned above, there have been some releases where the ISY would see and act on both receives. My motion counters would double up in these instances.
What I am referring to above is single broadcast messages from a device like a dual band switchlinc dimmer taking different paths and arriving at the PLM spaced far enough apart for them to appear as separate messages rather than duplicates to be ignored.
-Xathros
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Anyway, I can tell you that these programs had issues after some previous firmware updates where they would execute a Then statement when you turned the light off from an on state (the light would first turn off, then a split second later come back up to 15%). I posted that as a bug and it was corrected. So,the "order of operations" is apparently just barely the way it is and modifications to the firmware can tip it the other way if missed.
I still see this on occasion but have chalked it up to multiple paths of communication resulting in duplicate messages received by the ISY/PLM. An Off received over the power line that turns off my bedroom light then the same Off received moments later via RF after making a few hops and crossing the phase bridge triggering my "Off when Off" trap.
Only solution would be for the ISY to wait longer (continue to reject duplicates for a longer period) but then we might miss real commands in higher frequency applications (have to wait longer between paddle presses to use the double off or double on as opposed to fast off/on).
-Xathros
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Any command using the microphone does not require the wake word. Pressing the voice button wakes the Echo. I don't have an emulator, so I can't test that.
It does work as you describe with the emulator. Initially it wasn't clear that you were referring to the mic on the remote.
-Xathros
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Echo's microphone allows giving commands without the wake word (i.e., Alexa or Amazon), for example, "set the living room light to 50%." I don't know how that'll work with Echo and the ISY.
Doesn't seem to work that way for me. I always need to say "Alexa, turn on the..."
-Xathros
EDIT: As Jon pointed out above, you can issue the commands without the wake word if waking the echo with her remote button. I suspect this is what Stu meant.
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I've noticed that before too when factory resetting insteon devices. I can delete a device, and not touch the programs and add it back in. The ISY programs "find" it when it returns, when the name is the same. I've never tried with a different name, don't know if that or the address is key in that association.
Well, it saved me the worst of the work I though I would need to do!
Not only did I not need to pull the fan down to deal with this, I was able to accomplish the whole procedure remotely!
-Xathros
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All set. Removed and re-added. Had to add the Fan and Light back to the various scenes they were previously members of. Did NOT have to fix the programs as after adding the devices back with exactly the same names they had, the programs all continued to show the devices after adding them back.
Thanks Lee, Michel and the rest that chimed in on this.
-Xathros
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Xathros
Try using New INSTEON Device. I used that with most of my devices including FanLincs where Set button access is not necessary.
Duh. Thanks Lee. Guess I've spent too much time recently dealing with wireless devices...
Now all I need to do is search out what scenes and programs will need to be adjusted after the delete and add.
-Xathros
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Hi Xathros,
That's the file that contains the INSTEON database for 14.9D.AC. Please check and make sure you still have this device in your system. If you do, you must remove it and then link it back. If you don't, then please remove it using the RF command.
With kind regards,
Michel
Thanks Michel,
Turns out, this is the one device that is the hardest to deal with in my entire installation. Its the fanlinc in my MBR fan. I had a hell of a time stuffing that into the box as the fan has a very small canopy and the bracket fills most of it.
Funny thing is, this device appears to be working just fine.
Guess I have another project for this weekend. Hope I can get to the set button without having to pull the fanlinc out of the box.
-Xathros
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Hi Paul-
I more suspect just a corrupted file than an actual problem with the SD card. Its not that old and I doubt I'm anywhere near is max number of writes at this point.
-Xathros
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Hello,
I am seeing a lot of this:
Mon 2015/11/16 11:42:28 PM System -110014 /CONF/149DAC.REC
in my error log lately. It is always with this one file. What is this file? I'm thinking it may be a network resource rule but I'm not sure. If it is, is there any way to tell what rule ID it belongs to? Is it safe to delete?
Thanks in advance.
-Xathros
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Hi Chuck,
To our surprise, the Alexa Skills Team offered to go through the rest of the issues with us over the phone before our next submission! I am very pleased!
We'll keep you all posted.
With kind regards,
Michel
That is excellent news and a far cry from the days when Amazon wouldn't even acknowledge UDI's existence. Lets hope this is the beginnings of a good working relationship between UDI and Amazon.
-Xathros
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Well, you can use the portal for remote access to your ISY without the need for port forwarding in your router.
-Xathros
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You can use "off" to turn a scene off. Create two programs, one for On and the other for Off. Name the trigger device, for example, an On/Off Module, Family Room TV. "Alexa, turn the Family Room TV on" will run the On program and "Alexa, turn the Family Room TV off" will run the off program.
You most certainly can, however, that doesn't solve the problem here. He is using a single Lamplink with multiple scenes each using a different OnLevel to control MANY activities. Off only has a single OnLevel of 0% How to know which activity the single Off is directed at?
There are 100 (or 255 depending on how you get there) flavors of "on" but only 1 flavor of "Off"
-Xathros
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The portal does not offer anything currently for integration with Sonos. You would continue to use network resources for that.
The Portal will allow integration with Amazon echo once the skill is approved and published by Amazon (hopefully within 10-ish days based on other threads) and may offer IFTTT integration somewhere further down the line.
No other integrations have been announced that I am aware of.
-Xathros
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Just wanted to post an update. I have created over 50 scenes using this technique and they appear to be working flawlessly when I manually toggle the scenes, as I don't have an echo yet to verify. That said, there are two issues be it small which I don't know how to overcome and hope through the great minds of this community there is an imaginative solution.
• You can only toggle these scenes "on" using this technique since toggling the scene off returns the LampLinc "on" value to 0 and can no longer effectively be measured by programs.
• This causes the syntax to be a bit odd. Example if I want to turn off my family room tv, I must say "Alexa, turn on family room tv off". The name of the scene is in fact family room tv off, but requires "on" to be used in the syntax.
I was trying to think of a way to incorporate variables to solve this, however I'm stumped for now...
Any ideas?
Chuck
Hi Chuck-
The only solution I see would be to set your programs up using integer variables to toggle the activity with each "Scene On" call and not use Off at all. While not a perfect solution, I think it's better than what you are currently doing and would double the total number of possible activities available via the single lamplinc. To accomplish this, your programs would need to set the lamplinc back to Off after toggling so that the same scene can be called a second time and result in a change of status at the lamplinc.
Example Code:
If Status 'Lamplinc' is 50% And $i.FamTV is 0 Then Resource 'AVControl - FR DirecTV DVR On' Resource 'AVControl - FR Onkyo On' Resource 'AVControl - FR Samsung TV On' $i.FamTV = 1 Set 'Lamplinc' Off Else (nothing to see here) If Status 'Lamplinc' is 50% And $i.FamTV is 1 Then Resource 'AVControl - FR DirecTV DVR Off' Resource 'AVControl - FR Onkyo Off' Resource 'AVControl - FR Samsung TV Off' $i.FamTV = 0 Set 'Lamplinc' Off Else (nothing to see here)Thoughts?
-Xathros
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I've been combing through this and have an Echo in my Cart, and just purchased the ISY portal but 40 pages on this thread is a bit much, and i've combed through over half...
Questions:
1. Is the RPi required? What if you actually own a Harmony Hub?
2. Will setup be more streamlined with the portal integration (final certification) we have our fingers crossed for?
3. Looking at Bluemans signature it appears I need to be running at least 3 software pieces, 2 on the RPi, and 1 on a windows computer, will this be consolidated?
This is an exciting topic, and i've been gone for a couple months and I can't believe how much stuff i've missed! Just catching up now and looking forward to a lot more automating
Thanks,
Big517-
Answers depend on your route. Currently, you can set up the WeMo or Hue emulators using info found in this thread. That method does require a middleman computer like a Pi or an always on Windoze box. This method does not require the portal.
If you wait for the ISY Connected Home/Skill to be approved, then you will need the portal but there won't be a need for a middleman computer or any of the emulators and mapping tools in this thread and setup is expected to be very straight forward using the Spoken name field for scenes/devices and program names all taken straight from the ISY.
For the going the Pi route, I believe there is only one REQUIRED piece (The emulator). The mapping tool while not REQUIRED, does make set up MUCH easier. The mapper is not running full time - just used for configuration via a Windoze box. The emulator runs full time on either Windoze or a Pi.
Hope that helps.
-Xathros
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Makes perfect sense, however since I want to create multiple IR commands relating to a multitude of devices, I'm thinking a simple way to do that is by creating scenes as you suggest which would turn on my LampLinc (not currently in use anyway) to a specified brightness level (different for each IR command) and then have a program looking for a certain brightness level to then execute the appropriate network resource. This would allow me to use a multitude of IR commands tied to a single switch.
What do you think?
Chuck
This is a good reason for using Lamplincs in place of Range Extenders for a phase bridge (as @Teken regularly recommends)... Pseudo virtual devices.
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This project is obviously too much for me. I have so much to do with the winter shutdown of this place that I am going to button the fan back up and wait until next May to take this on. I will return with the project then. In the interim can I use a ToggleLinc and replace the switch to give me remote on/off capability. If so, how do I wire it given there are only the two wires at the switch.
Thanks for everything.
Not given the current unknown situation with the wiring. At a minimum, you would need 3 insulated conductors running from the switch box to the fan box (assuming the power was available in the fan box).
-Xathros
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Xathros,
You're the one that gave me the idea! This is a game changer, at least for me...
Just got distracted by the day job and spaced the fact that the scene name was the interface to the Alexa command...
Glad I could be of assistance!
-Xathros
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There is one black and one white at the switch and one black and one white at the fan.
In this case there MUST be a third location(Second switch location or junction box) that both the wall box and ceiling box run to and gather power from. I still have a sneaky feeling that there are more wires in the ceiling box. Can you pull the fan bracket and look further up into that ceiling hole?
-Xathros
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So I removed the last paragraph because I was confused but then I did think the idea would work.
So for example make a scene called ESPN Living Room, add the lamplinc to the scene, then make the brightness on at 1%
Then have a program that, IF lamplinc is 1%, then run the network module (IR Command) - the program name doesnt matter like you said it would be the Scene name that counts for Alexa.
In theory then would this work?
"Alexa turn on ESPN in Living Room" - scene is ESPN in Living Room.
So between my initial concept and the 2nd rev using different On-Levels, I managed to completely miss the whole point of my point! Of course this will work!
Feeling a bit like an idiot....
-Xathros
Introducing ISYPortal
in UD Portal
Posted
In my case, because the HTTPS connection is quite noticeably slower and with a complex Mobilinc profile it becomes to slow for regular use around the house. When away, having to wait 10-15 seconds to check the status once in a while is fine.
-Xathros