Goose66

Anyone used a program to flash a KPL button (1s on, 1s off) for any length of time to reflect status? I would like to flash the KPL button for my Spa after I turn it on until it is up to temperature. Could be flashing for as long as 20 minutes in the winter. Seems like a lot of Insteon traffic, though. Any thoughts or experiences would be appreciated.

My situation is similar to Larry's - the pool house is just off the garage and one level below. The closest dual-band Insteon switch is on the house side of the garage - about 32 feet away. Are you assuming that the Insteon signal is getting to your shop via powerline, then? Because mine is not working reliably via powerline, although the interference from the pool pump is something I have not thought of. I am going to flip the breakers to the pumps one night and see how the reliability fairs.

I have an outbuilding (pool house) that is on a separate electrical feed from the main house (same meter but separate branch circuit just inside the meter). Insteon in the pool house can work, but rarely does. I have Wi-fi coverage in the pool house, though, and I have a run of coax in the pool house that runs back to the main house wiring closet. Does anyone have a novel way to extend Insteon over Wi-fi or coax that doesn't involve a brand new ISY and Insteon PLM? The Coax run is currently being used for DirecTV but there may be a way to get that to work over Wi-fi. Could the coax be used with a couple of hacked range extenders to create an RF bridge over coax to the outbuilding?

I guess we'll have to wait and see when the v3 ISY Skill is available.

You can just click the "Watch this video on YouTube" link in the error message. Here is the URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UH8I8vKMJ5E Question: Are we going to have to go into the Alexa app and enable a new, specific v3 ISY Skill when it is available or is the existing "ISY Optimized for Smart Home V2" just going to start using the v3 API?

Looks like the devices need to be identified with the displayCategory attribute of LIGHT or SWITCH during discovery to be considered lighting devices by Alexa.

Is it possible this only works with Echo Plus and 2nd gen Dots? Man, that would suck!

Ok, maybe it does have something to do with the v3 API. While nothing in the incoming command payload deals with group or room, there are device classifications returned in the discovery payload that may facilitate what Alexa understands to be a “light” in the group.

The update to Alexa is supposed to let you do it without different accounts: https://youtu.be/UH8I8vKMJ5E This should not require v3 of the ISY Smart Home Skill either. It should just work, according to the video.

Nor does StuViews suggestion match the Amazon tutorials for the new Smart Home capabilities and groups. I noted this in another thread, but I don't see anything in the new API ("capabilities" or message payloads) that supports the new intelligent Group capability - I believe it is supposed to be implemented in the Alexa device and not in the ISY portal service. So I don't think it is necessary to wait on the v3 Smart Home Skill from ISY to be approved to get this functionality. According to the tutorial, you are supposed to be able to add devices and an Alexa device to a group, and then use short cuts like "Alexa, Lights On" to turn on all the lights in that group. I don't think it is necessary to rename your scene or device to "lights," just add it to the group (they add "Game Room Light" device to the "Game Room" group in the web tutorial). If there are multiple lighting devices in the group, then it should send commands to the ISY through the API to turn them all on. That said, I can't get this to work either. So don't know what the problem is. I will keep trying and let you know how it works out. EDIT: Details of my trial: I added two ISY scenes: "Living Room Lights" and "Office Lights" and rediscovered devices. These devices work by name from all of my Alexa devices. I added the Echo in the living room and the "Living Room Lights" to a group called "Living Room." If I say "Alexa, turn off the living room lights" it works, but "Alexa, turn off the lights" or "Alexa, lights off" comes back with "Sorry, I didn't find lights." Exact same setup and scenario in the office. This is exactly what they show in the tutorial, except it's called "Game Room" and they add an AV control device to the group, as well.

Excellent! Thanks for the info. EDIT: Well, crap! It looks like BRK never made a hardwired combo smoke and CO detector with the old OneLink (915 MHz wireless interlink) that works with Smoke Bridge. They made the hardwired smoke only detector with old OneLink and the battery operated smoke and CO combo detector with old OneLink, as you mentioned, but not what I need. I guess it's either just adding a relay to the 9120Bs and getting a single, uninformative alarm condition in the ISY or going with something completely different for all 6 hardwired detectors.

Yeh, I get that. I don’t intend for the existing detectors to talk to the Smoke Bridge. I would buy a hardwired OneLink detector and the existing units would talk to it via “smart interconnect.” When they alarm for smoke, the OneLink detector would alarm for smoke. When they alarm for CO, the OneLink detector would alarm for CO. Are you saying that despite the fact that the OneLink detector would alarm for CO, for example, it would not send anything to the Smoke Bridge?

I’m afraid I’m not following. The existing smoke/CO detectors are not OneLink. They are hardwired 9120Bs. I installed them last year when I bought the house to replace the 13 year old, original smokes. My question is will installing a hardwired OneLink detector, like AC10-500, and pairing it with a Smoke Linc, allow the ISY to recognize different types of alarms from the 9120Bs propagated through the “Smart Interconnect” to the AC10-500. This may be a buy it and try it scenario.

Thanks - that unit is much cheaper. I know that multiple hardwired First Alert Smoke/CO detectors can differentiate whether the alarming detector has detected smoke or CO and produce different alarms accordingly (they call it "smart interconnect"). I was hoping that someone could confirm that the one wireless device in that system would pass the different alarms (at least smoke vs. CO) to the Smoke Bridge. Actually, the SA521CN is smoke only, so that wouldn't work in my setup (or at least I would lose CO in that zone as well as possible reporting to the Smoke Bridge).

A separate but related question - if I install a single hardwired OneLink smoke detector (the new $119 one, I guess) and it is interconnected to my other hardwired First Alert Smoke/CO combo detectors, will the Smoke Bridge accurately report test/smoke/CO/low battery status from all my detectors, or just the one OneLink detector?

Thanks for the update. So in regard to nodes, do we need a way to map a node to a defined type of device then? For example, the temp_control nodes on my pool controller are a lot like thermostats and reuse some the same status values and commands (e.g., CLISPH). Since the v3 API allows you to specify distinct capabilities for devices, would there be a way to tell the Smart Home API that the temp_control node for my pool is a "thermostat" with only on, off, set setpoint, increment setpoint, decrement setpoint, and report current temp and setpoint capabilities based on its definition in the nodedef.xml file?

Amazon recently released version 3 of the Smart Home Skills API. It expanded the capabilities (actions, commands) of devices that can be reported in discovery, provided for asynchronous responses to calls, and allows push-based state reporting. There appears to be no "room" functionality included in the new API nor is a "room" attribute included in the discovery response payload. The way that Alexa is handling rooms is that the user must place an Echo/Dot/Show/etc. in a group with the devices in the same room in the Alexa app. The Echo should then properly control devices in that room with shortcut descriptions (I have not yet tested this). But this has to be setup in the Alexa app and I don't see a way for the ISY Portal information to perform this function or influence this process. So for now, the "room" attribute in the ISY Portal is still "not used" for Alexa users. EDIT: IMO, the most exciting thing about the v3 API is the ability to report specific capabilities for devices. It's probably a ways down the road, but once UDI can get the ISY to report capabilities for Nodes supported by node servers based on their definitions in the nodedef.xml, it will open up some amazing capabilities. For example, I will be able to ask Alexa to increase the temperature in the pool, report the spa temperature, or set custom modes in the alarm system (to date I am running all of my Alexa home automation through the ISY instead of using native capabilities where available).

I can set my Motion defectors to on only and control the timers via programs. This also allows me to turn on the floods via Insteon and have them stay on after motion.

+1 - replaced the motion detector flood lights on my new house with regular flood fixtures controlled by dual-band Insteon dimmers and added Insteon motion detectors (v1). I already owned the dimmers and v1 motion detectors from the old house, so it was a no brainer for me. But it does provide a little more flexibility in programming and control than the micro dimmer w/ 120V PIR detector.

How do you prevent it from turning off the light on end of motion. In other words, if you turn it on via Insteon command, then there is motion, it will turn off at end of timer, right.

The Micro Dimmers sense line is load level, i.e., 120V in the U.S.. So your PIR would have to have a 120 V trigger.

And you presume to know my budget how?

Precisely the point of my reply. We are only in the "early stages" of Home Automation if you think the timescale for Home Automation is like 100 years. Based on where we were in the early 90's, and compared to how the Internet and mobile phones have progressed, we should have us a J.A.R.V.I.S. by now - not something like Alexa that I can play parlor tricks with my telling her to turn on my fireplace, but a real AI that can see the big picture in the house and control things in a way that makes life safer, more secure, and less expensive.

My PC controlled the lights and thermostat based on my comings and goings. That's home automation.

I don't know how old you are, but I have been working on automating my home since 1995. At that time, I had a computer in a closet controlling lights via x10 switches and plug-in modules, a custom interface to my thermostat controlled by the Centronics parallel port on my computer, a genlock that allowed web pages, automation status, and messages to be displayed over my TV signal, and an IBM voice command card that allowed me to turn on and off devices by voice (granted I had to speak directly into the computer mic.) After 22 years, I am constantly shocked at how little progress we have made in home automation since that time. Regardless, I certainly don't consider this the "early stages" of home automation.