Goose66

I need to add some (more) filters to my setup. While the 10A FilterLinc is cheap and plentiful, I need one for my stereo rack and one for my microwave, and I am think both (definitely the microwave) need to be 15A or better. Will a 15A X10 filter be just as effective as a 10A FilterLinc in stopping absorption of signals? Also, while I have removed as many CFLs from my house as possible (at great expense, mind you), I still have some fluorescent fixtures that can't be effectively replaced (under counter lights, closet fixtures, garage fixtures, shop fixtures. The under counter lights remain on all night in my house, and the others are on motion detectors. Until Smarthome puts a FilterLinc into a relay SwitchLinc (which I think is a great idea for a product), I was thinking of using the Leviton 6287 Noise Block (http://www.smarthome.com/4835/Leviton-6 ... ock/p.aspx) for those because they could be installed inside the j-boxes with the switch. Has anyone used this device to try to stop interference with Insteon signals? While I am typing questions, whatever became of the Insteon troubleshooting device for the consumer who doesn't own (or want, or can't spell) an oscilloscope? Thanks!

The program to control the status light of the KPL button in the first post does nothing to affect the reliability of the button action itself. In my case, the button is set to toggle. So changing the status light of the KPL button simply toggles the action the button will take if pressed: either turn all the lights on or turn them all off. The actual action of the KPL button is defined through a scene, and it works correctly everytime. I wonder if you could set the KPL button to no-toggle off, and still implement the status light program. In that case, it may turn the light on and off with the status of devices, but still always turn all lights in the scene off when pressed.

Scenes are very limited in this scenario, because the control is basically limited to the control of the scene. So to turn off lights, you have to turn off the scene, which also turns off the keypad buttons. But you may want the keypad buttons to be On for away, while the lights are turned off. Similar issues exists when turning the scene back on. I have a program for Vacation mode in my house that serves a similar purpose to your "Home" vs. "Away." There is one program to set vacation mode on, and one to turn it off. I can run these programs by KPL button press or from my Mobilinc Pro on my iPhone, so that I can put the house in vacation mode when I am leaving by pressing a KPL button, and then turn off vacation mode from the plane on the way home, so the house is toasty warm when I arrive. The programs also set a status flag, which is used by other timed programs that run every day to decide how to operate (such as indoor and outdoor lighting, holiday lighting, random security lighting, etc.) Here is the "Set Vacation On" program: If Control 'Main Floor / Garage Keypad-Vacation' is switched On Or Control 'Basement / Door Keypad-Vacation' is switched On Then Set 'Master Suite / Upstairs HVAC - Main' 62° (Heat Setpoint) Set 'Master Suite / Upstairs HVAC - Main' 85° (Cool Setpoint) Set 'Main Floor / Downstairs HVAC - Main' 62° (Heat Setpoint) Set 'Main Floor / Downstairs HVAC - Main' 85° (Cool Setpoint) Set 'Basement / Basement HVAC - Main' 62° (Heat Setpoint) Set 'Basement / Basement HVAC - Main' 85° (Cool Setpoint) ... Set Scene 'Status / KPL Status LED-Vacation' On $VacationState = 1 Else - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action') Note that the 'KPL Status LED-Vacation' scene has all KPL buttons as responders, so turning this scene on or off controls all the KPL button lights. The $VacationState flag is used in several other programs that run daily. Here is the "Set Vacation Off" program: If Control 'Main Floor / Garage Keypad-Vacation' is switched Off Or Control 'Basement / Door Keypad-Vacation' is switched Off Then $VacationState = 0 Set Scene 'Outdoor / KPL Status LED-Vacation' Off ... Set 'Master Suite / Upstairs HVAC - Main' 78° (Cool Setpoint) Set 'Master Suite / Upstairs HVAC - Main' 68° (Heat Setpoint) Set 'Main Floor / Downstairs HVAC - Main' 68° (Heat Setpoint) Set 'Main Floor / Downstairs HVAC - Main' 78° (Cool Setpoint) Else - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action') Good Luck!

I don't suppose you are up for making a Youtube video?

Is there some place to find details for these mods?

So, does the Icon Relay not have the local control sense current? Also, is there a more elegant solution that doesn't require a "wall wart," night light, or Airwick Oil dispenser hanging in my Christmas decorations? Like bridging the last plug on the series of LED lights with a resistor or something? I would even entertain opening up the appliance link and cutting a wire to disable the local control sense circuit, if that is possible?

I have a couple of ApplianceLincs and several Icon relays in the mix for holiday lighting. Those ApplianceLincs running LED lighting are leaking, in that even when off the LED lights are dimly lit. Are these ApplianceLincs bad? Is there a better module to use here? How can an ApplianceLinc leak?

Oops, sorry. Didn't see the 2.8.16 in the first post. Just change every "$WakeupState = 1" to "Run Program 'WakeupState' (Then Path)," "$WakeupState = 0" to "Program Program 'WakeupState' (Else Path)," and "$WakeupState is not 0" to "Program 'WakeupState' is not False."

Here is anoter take on it. You need a global state variable "WakeupState" with an initial value of 0. Modify your first program as below: If On Mon, Wed, Thu Time is 5:40:00AM Then $WakeupState = 1 Set 'LR Table Lamp' On Wait 30 minutes Set 'LR Table Lamp' Off $WakeupState = 0 Else - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action') Now, add a second program: If Control 'Garage Door Sensor' is switched on And $WakeupState is not 0 Then Set 'LR Table Lamp' Off $WakeupState = 0 Else - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action') Good luck!

I have a program that puts the house into "Vacation" mode, including random interios lighting, thermostat setbacks, etc. The best thing about it is I can turn off vacation mode from MobiLinc on the way home and the house is cool by the time we get in. I would like to add a setback for our gas water heater. I am also in the market for a new gas water heater. Anyone know of 1) a gas water heater that has an electronically controlled setback or 2) know of a way to add a setback function to a gas water heater?

Anyone doing reliable multi-zone HVAC with an ISY99i? I have looked at a multi-zone controller with 4 Venstar thermostats (very expensive) or several SimpleHomeNet I/O devices with programs on the ISY99i controlling (not very reliable). Is there something in between these, like a Insteon controllable multi-zone controller board that can work with cheaper, digital thermostats. Something like the X10/RS485 devices that RCS used to make (or still does, perhaps).

I guess I don't see how coding the setting of a variable to a specific value and then calling a program to perform the wait is any more "programmable" or flexible than simply coding the Wait statement with the desired value. In fact, it seems to add complexity and an additional program that is not otherwise needed. I guess if you wanted to set the variable with a REST call and then execute the program, but I don't think that is possible as of now, right?

Pardon my ignorance, but what is the advantage of this over simply: Wait 60 seconds Run Program 'DoItNow' (If) ?

I get this message for 2 or 3 minutes after each reboot in the "System Busy" dialog. What exactly does this mean? Does this mean don't unplug or link my Insteon devices, or does it mean I need to make sure there is NO INSTEON TRAFFIC whatsoever during this period?

That is exactly how I do it: https://mydomain.com:60000. Of course, the browser is going to complain about your certificate not being valid. Also, the ISY 99 has an "Enable Internet Access (all devices)" menu item in the Admin console. I have know idea what that does.

So in your router/firewall you have a port forwarding setup, e.g. forward TCP packets received on port 60000 to port 443 of 192.168.1.67 (your ISY IP address) on the internal LAN. The ISY is configured to respond to https requests on port 443 (the default). When accessing from the outside, you whould specify https://72.44.35.91:60000/admin (your DSL modem/cable router IP address plus the target port) to get to the ISY. Every port scanner in the world checks port 443. Don't open up port 443 on your firewall because it will just make you a target. Use something obscure, like 47813, and use the method above to set it up to access your ISY.

The external-facing Internet port can be anything you want it to be. It depends on what is setup for your pin hole and/or port forwarding in your router/firewall. The port set on the ISY is inconsequential, and can remain at the default 443 for HTTPS, as long as the port forwarding in the firewall is set to forward from the external-facing Internet port to the port configured in your ISY on your LAN. I suggest you use a non-sequential five digit number between 33000 and 64000 for the external-facing Internet port. This may make it high enough and random enough that it won't be scanned by port scanners looking for holes in your firewall.

I don't suspect such a feature will be added anytime soon. It has been discussed many times before, and never has been set as a priority by the developers. I (and others) have suggested dummy devices that could be added to the scene to simply reflect the last command issued to that scene (on or off). That has been poo-pooed as well. Perhaps something in a future incarnation of variables will allow a variable to be tied to a scene to reflect its state. But that's a long way off.

For what its worth . . . Each of your scenarios pre-supposes that scenes have a state, e.g. "is the scene active" or "the scene being on." Prescribing a state to scenes does not translate to it being logical that scenes have state. IMO, scenes are simply groups of devices, not devices in themselves. And this is precisely how they work in Insteon. For example, when I send an On command to a "scene" (really a group), each device in the scene is set to its preset on-level. Following your logic, the scene is On or Active. If I manually turn one device Off, then the scene is not On -- it is Off . . . or is it? In you logic there exists an inconsistency between a scene being Off and sending an Off to a scene, which could result in completely different states of the devices. So when is the scene Off -- when it is not On, or when all devices in the scene is Off? The term "scene" is an unfortunate artifact from X10, and it would have been clearer to stick with the Insteon "Group." You can conveniently turn the group on (to pre-set on levels) and turn the group off, but the state of the group is made up of the state of the devices in the group.

I will waste everyone's time by echoing the others' comments. The ISY does not track scene "state," and I don't know that it makes logical sense to do so. If I run around and manually set all devices in a scene to the specified levels, have I activated the scene? Not really, IMO. To keep a KPL button in sync with the scene in the ISY requires programming. Once more, you will want to build in a delay to prevent "bouncing" of the program as the state of the devices change. So, if you have a KPL set to toggle and assigned in a controller for an "All Lights" scene, then you will want a program similar to the following in the ISY: If Status 'Master Suite / Left Sconce' is not Off Or Status 'Master Suite / Right Sconce' is not Off Or Status 'Master Suite / Fan Light' is not Off Then Wait 2 seconds Set Scene 'Master Suite / Keypad-All Lights (Status)' On Else Wait 2 seconds Set Scene 'Master Suite / Keypad-All Lights (Status)' Off This, of course, could be programmed in the inverse, depending on your preference. I prefer "All Off" functionality to "All On." Therefore, if any lights in the "All Lights" scene are on, I want the KPL button toggled on so I can press it and turn all the lights in the room off. Only if every light is off is the KPL toggled off so that pressing it turns all lights on.

That one is a smack on the KISSer.

Er. . . yeah. The answer to your question was somewhere in there. Try this: If Status 'Heating and Cooling / Downstairs-Control' < 78° (Cool Setpoint) Then Wait 5 minutes Set 'Heating and Cooling / Downstairs-Control' 78° (Cool Setpoint) Else - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action')

With a minute interval, I think both the drift (the inaccuracy) and the overhead would be minimal. You are talking about a 1.6% potential drift instead of a 100% potential drift. I do think variable driven WAIT and REPEAT is coming. With the current integer variable system, this would be trivial to implement (again, IMO) and is probably high on the list of next things for variables. I think float type variables and being able to read and manipulate values from the weather module (such as rainfall inches, wind speed, temperature, etc.) are probably farther away.

Yikes! I would be interested in hearing from Michel on that program. Two issues I see: 1) It is probably not accurate. One thing that event programmers for platforms like Windows know (and I mean that with all due respect) is you can't use a counter as a timer, because event trigger systems tend not to be reliable from a repetitive timing perspective. So, your program relies on the fact that the program will be triggered precisely at the moment that counter is incremented, with no delay. I imagine that will not be the case in the ISY. You may see as much as a one second delay (deferring to Michel, of course) before the program is triggered on the status change. So you may call the program with the variables setup for a 3 minute (180 second) wait, but wind up with a 6 minute wait instead. 2) This will be horribly inefficient from a processing point of view. While the program itself is simple, the high overhead comes from status change of variables and determining which programs need to be triggered, triggering the right programs, keeping up with the variable values and program status, etc. For a 3 minute wait, your setup will be doing this 180 times, which probably makes it 180 time less efficient than a simple "Wait 3 minute" statement, IME.

I don't think we are there yet with variables. Until you can read real-world values into the variables, e.g. 24-hr rainfall, rainfall rate, humidity, date, device dim level, etc., the current variable capability of the ISY is limited to simple counters.