kclark

Considering the cost of Insteon devices and the ISY (Well worth it ) and what RFXCOM brings to the mix I think it's at a reasonable price point. And who knows, more volume for them could mean lower prices for us. Contact info sent by PM. Ken

Actually, I think the best solution would be for ISY to interface with RFXCOM. http://rfxcom.com/ That would give us access to virtually ALL the Oregon Scientific devices as well as x10 motion and door sensors and power monitors. I would think that ISY could interface with their LAN based receiver. Bert, the unit's designer, gives exceptional support (just like ISY!).

Wow! You must have to melt some heavy snow! I just use several ApplianceLinks for mine. The approach I would take is to turn an Insteon device connected to the GFI off and on and see if it responds. Since the turning off and on thing is what's tripping the breaker, you probably don't want to switch the EZswitch30 any more than necessary. So what you can do is wire any other Insteon device to the line-in side of the EZswitch30. Then use a program to see if that unit responds. The easiest to connect would probably be something like an In-LineLinc Relay. You could even use an old Switchlink where the toggle is broken and you haven't gotten around to returning it. What we really need is another condition in the programs for a status of "No Communication". Then you could query the EZswitch30 directly and test for that status just as you'd test for on or off. And while we're at it, we should ask for a condition test for Disabled.

Thanks for the explanation Michel. I understand and agree with the task priority you outlined. And there are other tasks running that probably have higher priority than program evaluation too. I was just not able to see how they could affect program evaluation time to this extent. As a further test, I disabled all of my programs, save for the test program. No change in results. Unfortunately, up to 5 second response to a key press or motion is not permissible for me (WAF among other things). That just means I'll move the timing sensitive event driven programs from the ISY to HomeSeer. I had been planning to phase out HomeSeer as new capabilities were added to the ISY. That way I wouldn't have to run a computer 24/7. I'll have to make other arrangements. ISY is a great tool. I just have to find out where its limits are in my automation scheme. "Not every tool can be a screw driver... But every tool CAN be a hammer." Ken

First of all I want to start out by saying I love my ISY and UDI’s development and support is second to none. It’s the reason I’m still having fun with home automation and I haven’t ripped out all my Insteon switches. That said, I’ve always had a “feeling†that the response speed from the ISY programs isn’t what it should be. I used to use HomeSeer with a PLC and my dim recollection is that Event based actions used to respond faster. Anyhow, I converted my lighting control over to the ISY but still use HomeSeer for functions that haven’t been developed in the ISY (yet). If HomeSeer needs to control a light it does so through the ISY via bpwwer’s ISY plugin. So last night I set up the following test. I added a simple program in ISY to turn on a SWL when another SWL was turned on. If Control 'Sun Room: Ceiling 1.4' is switched On Then Set 'Sun Room: Ceiling 1.2' On Else - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action') I also set up a similar event in HomeSeer to turn on a different SWL when the same SWL button is turned on. So it’s a race. I didn’t expect what I found. Switch the SWL and about a second later the HomeSeer Event turns on it’s SWL. A second to a second and a half AFTER that, the ISY controlled SWL turns on. I just stood there turning the lights on and off. Never did the ISY’s light turn on before the HomeSeer controlled light. Remember now, the ISY has to receive the SWL on message and send the status change to the HomeSeer plugin. HomeSeer then has to evaluate the Event and send a control command back to the ISY. Then the ISY sends the Insteon command on behalf of HomeSeer. All this happens a second before the ISY program interpreter can evaluate the same button press and respond by turning it’s light on. I get the fact that once ISY starts to send the HomeSeer command to the SWL the power line will be tied up with that communication and that may add to the ISY response time in this test. The question is why can HomeSeer initiate its response before ISY can evaluate its program and respond? The ISY after all has the button press information before HomeSeer. After seeing the above I swapped which SWL the ISY and Homeseer was controlling. Same results. Then I took HomeSeer completely out of the picture – turned off the HS pc. I didn’t see any appreciable improvement in the response time of the ISY controlled SWL. I wish I had a more precise way to measure the time between actions/events. I pretty much have to rely on watching the sweep second hand on my watch as the lights come on. It would even help if the Event Viewer time stamp was more granular when in say level 2 or 3. Unless someone can shoot holes in my testing methodology, there is something that needs to be looked at in the ISY’s program evaluation algorithms. My background includes years of software development for embedded processor systems and I am confident that the hardware and software the ISY uses is capable of MUCH better performance. Some further info and comments: ISY 99i Pro (1040) running version 2.7.0 (I have since installed beta 2.7.2 and repeated all the tests – same results.) 14 enabled programs in the ISY 102 Insteon devices installed and added to ISY 32 Scenes 389 PLM links HomeSeer is running on a not to swift Celeron 1.7 GHz machine. 100Mb network If anyone has a way to run a similar test I would appreciate either corroboration or just tell me I’m nuts – that’s happened before. Ken

When you say "integrating it with ISY" are you saying you want to build the RFXCOM receivers into the ISY or have the ISY be able to talk to the RFXCOM over the network (or USB)? If the former, yes I would pay to trade in my ISY for one with the RFXCOM built in. If the latter, yes I would buy a LAN RFXCOM so the ISY could talk to it. Now either way, you only need 18 more. Ken

Same boat here. Though I'm actually glad I had to move from Homeseer plugin to ISY as my Insteon controller. What would make the switch complete would be the ability to use the RFXCOM receiver through the ISY. I have the USB version but I'd spring for the LAN version if I had to. It not only interfaces X10 RF and X10 RF Security devices but also Oregon Scientific temperature, humidity etc. and some power monitoring hardware. RFXCOM and the ISY would be one powerful setup! Oh, and Bert is great to work with too. Ken

I am trying to work with the new SMTP Settings to send email through my internal mail server (MDaemon). It does work, but I noticed a couple of things. The Use TLS checkbox doesn't seem to make a difference. I can tell from the server log that the ISY uses AUTH LOGIN no matter what the setting. The second thing I noticed is that when I try to set up a Notify program Action, the dropdown only lets me choose All. I assume I should be able to pick the recipient for the message. And while on the topic, a future feature request would be the ability to send a custom notification instead of the ISY generated one. Otherwise - great job as always. Ken

This problem still exists in 2.6.6 and 2.6.7. Is it still on the bug list or do I have to update from Office 2000? Thanks, Ken