Scottmichaelj

A while back there was a post similar titled "How to use vehicle garage door buttons with ISY?" however this post has been archived. http://forum.universal-devices.com/topic/8848-how-to-use-vehicle-garage-door-buttons-with-isy/ My goal is to ARM AWAY MODE/DISARM the ELK panel direct from the HomeLink button in my car. I am not trying to actually control the garage door to open and close (although that would be nice too) - I have a Liftmaster #8550 garage door opener. Additionally I have an Elk panel (plus ISY Module), as well as a Insteon IOLinc #2450 and Liftmaster 635LM (with garage door opener/remote) - So I am guessing the 635LM wires get connected to the IOLinc N/O & COM connections? What should the IOLinc "options be set to"? I do hear the 635LM click on each time I press the remote so I know they are communicating fine. I just can't get the IOLinc to respond correctly. Sorry I am just a bit confused and been playing with it a couple hours this afternoon and I can't seem to figure it out. Not to mention I haven't gotten to the programming it to the ISY. Then there is also the need to get the HomeLink to work with the Security 2.0+ receiver! Thanks in advance for the help/response I do appreciate it.

I have to agree with oberkc, teken and the others who specifically say HA is not about fancy cell phone apps. Home automation should be about "automation". It shouldnt be something you have to think about, do or explain how to use. It should happen naturally, for example basic sunset and sunrise settings. I despise opening an app to do something. Some things I cant image living without are also things like when I open the door to my master closet the light turns on/off by itself, same with my pantry and laundry room, which are normally areas you have your hands full. To me Home Automation is about making my life easier not more complicated. I dont like tinkering with my setup and usually once I have a scene or program setup I dont have to touch it. I do have high end remotes and this bridges the gap as well in the fact I can make a button and use to to control just about anything in my home. If Im on the couch watching TV I can control my lights, arm/disarm the alarm, etc. I also am a big fan of Pushover notifications for specific events that are important, like the arming and disarming of my Elk Alarm, Water Leak Sensors and whatnot but this doesnt mean I want a million emails to sift though either to micro manage, as I dont have the time. I did take the time and spent the money to build my system right from the base including things like filters and phase couplers, plus had an electrical plug put close to the electrical panel for the PLM to be for shorter communication transmitting. At this point I cant imagine lift without mu ISY and HA.

Thanks Xathros for the info. This app looked like it would fit the bill but it requires firmware 8.2 and up but Im using a JB 8.1. I have AT&T with the grandfathered "unlimited" data plan and they wont let me use my phone as a hot spot unless I downgrade my data plan. I use my phone as a hot spot quite regularly while traveling with my laptop and ipad. Oh the conundrum! Lol any other ideas?

Yup I knew it, I was being dense. So in the link you posted if you go into the "Data Sell Sheet" pdf at the very bottom it mentions this part "Power Lock Deadbolt (041A6102) ensures the door cannot be forced open." Not sure why my builder installed system doesnt have it. Can you manually release the lock? I dont see how to lock unlock it from the app. Is it only via the panel in the garage? I guess I will look at the installation manual so I can see more details how it works. Thanks for sharing.

Ok either Im dense (which I am sometimes) or missing something. Maybe I am speaking my own language and not explaining myself right? The lock is an actual lock you can use to stop the actual physical opening of the rollup garage, which can be enabled/disabled automatically instead of the manual slide lock. The link you posted to the Liftmaster doesnt show an actual "lock". Im confused. Again I have a MyQ opener too. Granted the lock cost is pricey but thats cheaper then most peoples insurance deductible assuming $1000 is the norm and I think the lowest most companies allow.

Thanks for sharing this I think this may fit the bill for what I am looking for. I have the MyQ garage door with battery backup and I like it a lot. However even though you get notifications and such via the app if your on vacation say snorkeling off the beach in the Hawaii and not having your phone, its nice to have something secured. Even with a monitored alarm system if someone opens the garage they can snatch and grab before anyone can respond or do anything about it. This would stop that from happening. This lock would also would be a good option for those who have vacation homes. Its always important to think about fire safety and being able to get out via manual control which is another reason I like that lock. Guitartexan please post back what products you decided on and how it goes for others.

I have Mobilinc on my iPhone via iOS and I am fully aware that if I subscribe to their "connect cloud service" I can create a widget on the today screen to active a program. However I don't need the other features. I just need one item that runs an enable/disable command for one device. I already own Moblinc and the UD ISY Network Resource Module. Does anyone know how I can do this? I was looking at the "Launcher" app on iTunes for the iPhone as it will add today screen widgets, which got me thinking that maybe I can setup a network resource command through the internet using it? Or maybe using IFTTT/DO buttons? Any thoughts or help are appreciated. Thanks in advance.

To chime in on the subject regarding my own experiences, I started using Home Automation back with the X10 from Smarthome, which as others know back then it was definitely a huge "hobby" and pain to get working right. Then when Smarthome released the "Insteon" products things became so much better, at least in my pea brain thats what I though because of how horrible X10 was. In 2006 I made the change after buying my a new home to dump all X10 (instead of using both mixed in) and go all Insteon, and thats when I almost quit. I purchased and installed at least 30 or more Insteon Switchlinc 2476D Dimmer switches and long story short the batch of firmware installed on the 2476Ds had issues. Im not sure the specific firmware or how many people were effected but needless to say after spending countless hours programming and installing them I was not to pleased with having to remove them all and doing it all over again and "maybe" things would be better. I came SO close to calling it quits. After giving myself time to calm down and reassess the situation I ended up giving in and switching out all my devices to new ones as advised. I probably would have quit but it all hinged on two people, Michel and a Smarthome rep (who was higher up the food chain but unfortunately forget his name). The customer service from both of them was amazing. You could tell both cared about their customer and wanted to better the product. Granted of course a case can be made they needed to so they could keep customers. However at that time instead of making excuses both dug in and helped me resolve things. I am and still am very thankful to them both. I had other connections with people whom worked at Levitron with RadioRA however the product at the time didn't have half the stuff of Smarthomes Insteon product and nothing was comparable to the UD ISY. At the time my friends and family would ask "why?" - "Why do you need that?" - "why do you spend so much time on that?" "whats the use?" - Now all of them in some way or another use a Home Automation product and haven't even realized it. Is HA a pain? Yes and I agree very much with Teken says about fragmentation etc. However it is the future and will only get better, easier to use and more stable. Players like Apple (either love em or hate em) will move things forward. The new Smarthome Hub Pro looks like a great product and with being able to use Apple Watch will make more people look at it. Hell I may even switch. Sure I would feel like a traitor to Michel and may loose some features to gain others but its only going to get better. Im excited to see what the future holds. Hopefully you will stick it out and one day the light bulb goes on like it did for me where HA made your life that much easier. For me it happened gradually but now I can't think of not having it!

I would also buy a module based on the Honeywell API. What I am specifically interested in is knowing is does the API allow for the "Ventilation" control and boost timer? The Honeywell iPhone app or website doesnt support this and I have a TrueFresh system. To use the "boost" feature I have to have these small 20-40-60 minute remotes in areas just to use it or go to the "main" thermostat to adjust the time. Not all the thermostats installed can access it. The time goes all the way to 180 minutes, which the remote doesn't so that would be a plus too. A cross sell opportunity would be also on the remote control side. I have an RTI remote and I know the guys over on that forum have also been interested in this API/Functionality. Could get more ISY unit sales.

DELETED - Found supporting threads. Post can be deleted.

I have a small humidor for a few of my cuban cigars. I rarely smoke, so I always forget to add water to my humidor. It would be nice to have a small humidity sensor report to the isy so when the variable reached under my specified target I get a notification. Anyone else do something this? Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I would like to see this working along with control for truefresh ventilation. Unfortunately truefresh cant be controlled in the Honeywell Redlink app either, but only going to the thermostat under ventilation then doing a timed boost up to 180mins. Major fail as that means you have to buy a separate simple Honeywell remote just to turn it on and max setting is 60mins.

My issues are also the same as Xathros. I dont like to have my info sent openly and also hate that the UBI light is always on. Which I hear is worse since I got the white one version and the light seeps through supposedly more than the black. Maybe we should see if there they have an open API and find a developer to make something where we can "hack" the UBI to run internally on our own internal networks so it doesnt rely/bypasses theirs. Maybe running a UBI server on a rPi. Hmm what do you guys think about that? Am I on to something? I have to add my comments about Michel, the ISY, forum members here and support team - all who are AMAZING! The customer service and support are incredible. Michel is always here helping and keeping is up to date on things, he is simply the best. All business owners big and small should look at what he does customer service wise and model their company after Universal Devices. [sorry end rant here, just cant say enough good things about UD & Michel]

Any updates for those of you that have a Ubi? Anyone do anything cool? Hows is it working overall with the ISY? Still have mine sitting in the drawer.

Thanks for all your work on this to help this move forward. Do you have a breakdown of the list of commands? I know its early but have you been able to activate scenes?

Agreed. In fact, I don't think UDI needs to be involved at all in terms of voice integration. All we need is a network friendly voice interface and we can "roll our own". -Xathros Exactly. Now we need to figure out what that solution is.

I agree with you as your post mimics my thoughts. My Nexus 7 makes a nice remote etc all though its a bit too big. Even a cheap android cell phone is cheaper and more useful than the Ubi. Seems like Ubi over promised and under delivered. I'm still hoping for a true iOS voice experience with my ISY. But who am I kidding, based on the actual reliability of the voice recognition I probably would just go back to mobilinc. Voice use it more just a showoff feature. I think there is better priorities for the ISY team to spend their time on vs this. This is just my honest opinion.

Wish I could say you'll love it but ATM it has pretty limited features. So much I been thinking of selling mine. It hasn't lived up to the hype and I feel overall the over promised and have under delivered. Sure you got to give it time to develop, I just don't have the patience. Going through their dash without local access is a bummer too. Having your music interrupted after 2mins limits that. Telling me my room temp and weather is boring, I have a Honeywell app on my phone for that. I use Evernote for my reminders and to do lists. Uhg. Lol - So now that I talked it up so much, Ubi in white for sale! Like new, in my hand, can ship out next day, still has the plastic protection over it. Just cover shipping to you, my pledge amount and paypal fees and its yours! I am getting my iVee soon too. Blah. I am so done with Kickstarter projects!

Voice recognition? Yes, using Tasker, AutoVoice and Mobilinc (I think mobilinc is optional). Pretty simple to set up if you know how to use Tasker already. I was specifically asking about it based on Elvis's comment where he states "or does better than an open platform which is not limited or restricted. IE a raspberry PI and Linux.". Not sure how voice recognition works on the Pi. Thanks for mentioning "tasker" for android though. I have iOS devices that I use for my phones but do own a Nexus7 to try it out on. I think the Ubi would be more convenient than any phone/tablet to have in each room to easily control our home via voice.

How can you use voice recognition with a Raspberry PI? I was not aware that was an option/feature, thats why the Ubi would benefit the ISY. Especially since Siri and iOS7 cant interface with the ISY without a hack or jb, which may be a legal issue too. Side note is there a way via android?

They dont care to support other applications at the moment while they are trying to get their own platform going. The reason I asked about updates is because I was hoping there maybe was some progress getting the /REST commands to work.

Any new updates? My Ubi is here and would love to use it along with my ISY.

Thanks for posting the links. Others maybe interested in them. I am still looking for LED Strips that are small and thin that you could put anywhere in 5000K. I found a site http://www.hitlights.com/ that looks to have what I am looking for. From what I can tell I will need to get a power cord, then their Dimmable 12V LED Driver, then you need a connection from the driver to the SMD LED Strip (which has a 3M sticky backing). The "cool white" there is 6000K which will work fine for me. Off to do more research on this and then Ill probably place an order to try them out. I wish the drivers weren't so pricey and they look big. Too bad there isnt a wall wart direct to LED strip, but I understand it needs to reduce the power from 110V (US) to 12V for the LEDs otherwise it would blow them out.

Do you have any links or product names/numbers for ones that I can look at? Thanks. I looked it up and its just the transformer. I am wondering what is on the end of it for the connection/connector and what strips would be compatible with them? Again 5000K and if you can use a LampLinc to dim it. This is what I am seeing from most sellers. Nondimmable LED strips or they are dimmable but you need to physically touch the dimmer module on them to do so, which defeats the purpose. I would like to be able to control it via remote and scenes.

I am wondering if anyone is using LED strips for under cabinet lighting or to light inside cabinets/displays? I am looking for LED strip lights in daylight 5000K that I can directly control with my Insteon keypads to dim, etc. Everything I have seen so far requires a transformer with its own controls. I have a few areas where these new LED tape lights would be nice to have glow softly on counters and walkways. I was wondering who else may have done this. Thanks in advance for the info. I would hate to go back to halogens!