CPrince

@CPrince Gee I just fixed it... How do I get my Echos to stop saying "Somebody is at Virtual Button..."? Amazon is always experimenting with new features, and one new feature is to automatically announce the pressing of your Virtual Buttons (what fun!). To turn this off, open your Alexa App and choose the Devices icon in the lower right part of the screen. Next choose All Devices and scroll through the list to find your Virtual Button XX device(s), select it, then switch the Doorbell Press Announcements slider to the off position. You might have to do this for each Virtual Button you own.

About 2 years ago I installed the VirtualButtons plugin on my Polisy. I started with 2 buttons and used 1 button to tell me that I have mail when my mailbox sensor gets triggered. This process is done through Alexa. For the most part the software works fine. Hardware has been an a slight issue. I just upgraded my mailbox sensor to a YoLink sensor for better reliability. So the other day I used my second button for my gate sensors. Now when a gate is opened, I get a verbal message through Alexa. Life is good. These 2 buttons work correctly. Today I added 3 more virtual buttons. They are not working the same. I have gone through Alexa routines, PG3 and Polisy. Can't find anything wrong. If I trigger my 3rd virtual button, I get my message "Test", a chime sound, then Alexa says "Someone has just pressed Virtual Button 3, followed by another chime sound. I just want Alexa to say "Test". I don't know where all this other stuff is coming from. The only difference I see is button 1 and 2 (my old buttons) look like this... Button 3,4 and 5 (my new buttons) look like this.... I have no idea how to change them from true to false or how that value gets assigned in the first place.

Update on the Z Wave Ring Outdoor Contact Sensor ver 2. It is as Z Wave as they come. I put a Zooz 700 dongle in my Home Assistant. Then I added the Ring contact sensor. The only difference was Home Assistant asked for the PIN which is printed on the device and Polisy did not. So if you have these laying around you can put them to use with Home Assistant. Maybe someone will come up with a Polyglot plugin for Ring?

Just for the record, I found out why these Insteon open/ close sensors (2483-222) are so flaky. The batteries were dead. But let me explain. I put lithium energizer batteries in, in January. They were dead in March. I figured the cold took them out. So I put Duracell batteries in, in March. They were dead in June; go figure. So maybe they were struggling to communicate with my Polisy putting the batteries under extra load?

The Yolink works nice. Easy setup. The outdoor gate sensor has a nice case. Just wish it had screw holes to mount. I will probably mount in my existing box and use my existing gate contacts. Thanks for the tip.

@DennisC,Got it thanks!

@dwengrovitz@paulbates @DennisCHey guys. My starter kit came to day. Thanks for the tip. I have reviewed the quick setup. This is new to me. Before I get folks telling me "you did not need to load all that"... Do I need to load the app? I figure this is the only way to to setup WiFi. I found the Poligot plugin; but waiting to install it. Looking for tips on setting this up. Thanks in advance!

Thanks @DennisC. I have ordered it and have a weekend project!

@dwengrovitz Thanks for the YOLink tip. I ordered the starter kit last night as suggested. 1/4 mile range; impressive. 5 year batter; nice. I will work on the Ring Gate sensor on the side. There is a uTube video on how to connect it to Home Assistant. Just for the record, I have ordered all sorts of Zwave stuff on eBay. Most of the Zwave stuff works as expected. The only thing that I have given up on is "The Button". I like going outside the box. Thanks @DennisC. I have ordered it and have a weekend project!

@paulbatesI will try this. I have an outlet under the eve which is line of sight to the gate. My bathroom is 15 feet from my south gate sensor. There is a 1/8 inch glass window in it. In the bathroom is a Insteon lamp module and a insteon wall switch. The sensor is mounted in a thin plastic weather tight box 4 feet from the window. Sometimes I may get 5 or 6 heart beats a week, but not often.

A couple of years back I set up 2 Insteon Contact sensors (2843-222) in weather tight boxes to monitor my 2 gates. They seem very intermittent. They work and don't work. I get heart beats every few weeks. I have dual band insteon modules in the house about 20 feet away that should pick up their signal. I have been looking for an alternative solution and found these. https://www.lowes.com/pd/Ring-Pre-Sale-Ring-Alarm-Outdoor-Contact-Sensor/5005824673?user=shopping&feed=yes&srsltid=AfmBOopmSVTYsEsUk-P-iszna3iiuBYXmubzUYcXiUaw0BlRxyGL-zvL_Q8&gQT=1 This is a Zwave device. I have many Zwave devices. I setup the Polisy to register this device, and it did. Polisy picked up 7 entities. Unfortunately non of them pick up any activity. The device seems to be working. It has a tamper LED which seems to work. I am testing this device 10 feet away from the Polisy. Has anyone tried this? Maybe some idea on a different gate sensor?

Oh my. Just for laughs I put my Pushover email address into Blue Iris and it works! Received text and image! Let me see how this works out... Thanks @paulbates How long before they shut me down?

For years I have been sending SMS text messages with and without images from ISY, Polisy and Blue Iris. UD devices gave up the ghost sending SMS messages over a year ago. Not sure why Blue Iris kept on working as I am using the same email server setting for both. I set up UD notifications and Pushover to take up the slack on UD devices. Blue Iris kept on running fine. Well that was until a few weeks ago. I am with T mobile and while I have SMS working it is spotty , d e l a y e d and took a lot of work. So the question is, is there anyway to send messages with pictures. I realize this is kinda a cross platform issue. I have the Blue Iris Polygot plug in running. It can take up for SMS and shove everything out on UD Notifications. However no pictures and I can't use the AI of Blue Iris to filter out junk. I can and do use email. It does work but is unreliable as I get over 500 emails a day. So if it is important I won't know to later on that day. I was thinking of setting up Pushover in Blue Iris. This would get the urgency problem fixed, but no pictures. Looking for good ideas to send pictures in a timely manor.

@Techman @Geddy Thanks guys. Another project!

@Techman I am using a USB Dongle. Zooz S2 stick 700. It is not a board. I have 2 of these. I have 2 Polisy. Both came configured the same way. Only 1 Polisy is online. My firmware and UI are at the same level. So I am thinking you are thinking; I need a Zmatter board?

@techman I am at Z-Wave level 700 on Polisy. Z-Wave is working fine. I just wanted to back it up because instructions said I should back it up.

I just did the 5.8.4 update. Everything is Okay or so I think. Z-wave is working fine. One of the steps to do the upgrade is to do a Z-Wave backup. I can't figure out how. Am I looking in the wrong spot? No backup option here. From system tab I see this. Also if I click on version it is well.. Nothing to see here.

@gviliunas Not exactly what I was hoping to hear. I guess I can finally stop hitting my head on my desk. I retrofitted a TrigerLink with a button a while back and while it does not look bad; it doesn't look good. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0989V53JX/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1 Thanks so much for responding!

@gviliunas I have been following a post from about 4 years ago about "The Button". I have the same model and make as you have. I have got it to appear on my installed devices. I have entered the 5 values you suggest. I have made a program looking at the scene. It all looks good but does not work. I have added and removed this button about 6 times.. I have cleared it memory many times. I get the same entries all the time. I just can't figure out what I am missing. I can see the button communicating on the event viewer. Thank you

@DennisC You found it! Thank you! It was on the first page of the second link. Now I have to digest it.

@GeddyI am still looking. Found it here last week. Thanks.

I searched this forum and found one topic on The Button, but now I can't find it. Basically people said it was very unreliable and didn't work. Then one guy figured out the madness and said it did work flawlessly. This person did not say what they did. They did say they put it in a scene. So I tossed an Insteon appliance module and The Button in a scene and well; nothing. Lets back up. It was a royal pain adding this thing to IoX. I had to add it and delete it many times. This is what I ended up with... Nothing works but it does report the battery status. When I press the button (no pun intended) it shows this..... So we know it is functioning. I have never written a scene. So maybe that is where my problem is. This is my scene.... When all is said and done, I would like to use this as a call button, so someone could signal for help on the other side of the house. Thanks for any tips!

That did it; thank you.

I am have issues migrating to PG3x on Polisy. I followed the instructions in the upgrade document and the WiKi page. When I type Enable PG3x: https://polisy.local:8443/rest/pg3x.enable (I have to use my local IP) I get: I have rebooted a couple of time and upgraded the Policy to 5.8.0 by using the Upgrade Packages in the System Tab. I rebooted a couple of times after the upgrade. Looking for some pointers

@AthlonThanks. I love your annoying little bug! Thought is was real and tried to squash it.