Broyd

Hi Paul, The initial problems I had were a failure of the PLM to write consistantly to the I/O Linc. After looking carefully, I noted that the I/O Linc and the PLM were on opposite legs of the split phase. I switched some circuit breakers around in the electrical panel and that fixed up a lot of my problems. The two units are not that far apart electrically - about 12 feet. But once in a while the PLM - I/O Linc spend several seconds (3 or 4) doing cleanup? (as viewed in the event viewer level 3) and this communication seems to interfere with some X-10 commands being sent by the PLM. This setup is a doorbell detect. Once the doorbell press has been detected, I use some programming in the 994 to ring some X-10 chimes.

Thanks Brian! I am trying to find out some basics about those devices and am wondering about their powerline / RF capabilities and just what signals get repeated (echoed) and to where. Any ideas?

Does a dual band device, for example a 2457D2 LampLinc Dimmer, repeat a powerline only signal, say from a 2450 I/O Linc in the RF band? If the 2457D2 dimmer receives an an Insteon RF signal, does it repeat that signal on the powerline? I am trying to improve the communication between a PLM and the 2450. Will using a 2450D2 help to improve the bi-directional communication between a PLM and the 2450? Thanks!

@Teken: Yes, the transformer was located close to the electrical panel with plenty of room around it. I was able to install a separate electrical box to plug in the IOLinc and another cast aluminum box to hold the Elk current sensor. @LeeG: Yes, this setup I wrote about is working well for me. Thanks for your suggestions. It did get me to poke around a lot more that I might have otherwise done.

Unbelievable as it seems, I am talking about the ding/dong unit .... ( and also the transformer). Without ripping open walls it has to stay where it is ... A PITA!

So this is my final setup with some explanations ... As I mentioned I am using the Insteon doorbell detect kit which includes an Elk doorbell current sensor. I have wired the kit as shown in the installation instructions with the exception of passing the IOLinc sensor input signal through the normally closed contacts of the IOLinc relay. In this setup, the original doorbell can be rung as many times as required; the doorbell sensor kit installation does not interfere with this function. In the setup options for the IOLinc via the ISY-994i, I have only the following options set: 1. Relay Follows Input checkbox 2. Trigger Reverse checkbox 3. Latching: continuous radio button The reasoning behind these settings is as follows: 1. when the external doorbell button is pressed . a. the doorbell sounds the 'ding' sound . b. the IOLinc sends the sensor ON signal to the ISY 2. when the external doorbell button is released . a. the doorbell sounds the 'dong' sound . b. the IOLinc sends the sensor OFF signal to the ISY . c. almost instantaneously, the IOLinc relay energizes and any further sensor signals . are blocked for a period of time (Relay Follows Input; Trigger Reverse; Latched) Step 2c is essential to me because I need a 25 second period to send X-10 powerline signals to X-10 chime units (Insteon doesn't make inexpensive flexible plugin chimes; I got my X-10 units on eBay for $9 each). Repeated doorbell button pushes/releases detected by the IOLinc sensor would have generated Insteon powerline signals that would have collided with the X-10 powerline signals and rendered them both corrupted. (The IOLinc is a powerline only device; it does not transmit RF (unfortunately)). So it was necessary to prevent any more IOLinc signals during this time period. When the doorbell button is pressed and then released, I run an ISY program to ring the X-10 chimes a number of times and then de-energize the IOLinc relay. I tried using an ISY program method to energize the IOLinc relay but there is a significant delay doing it that way ( 1 second+ ). If someone presses the doorbell rapidly a number of times, this causes problems with program execution that I couldn't get around. The instantaneous energizing of the IOLinc relay seems to avoid this. (I don't know how to insert program code in a post and make it look proper.) Why am I doing this you ask? When the people built my house, they installed the doorbell in the finished basement; there are many places where I can't hear the doorbell.

Thanks LeeG. Its clear I need to do some more thinking and playing around. I also think I am beginning to understand the relationship between button cycling and what the relay state does. I am away tomorrow so I won't be able to clear up my thinking until later.

Thanks LeeG. This seems completely counter intuitive to me ... The only change I make is either checking or unchecking the Trigger Reverse checkbox. To my way of thinking, this should only affect whether the output relay gets triggered with the ON going transition from the sense input, versus the output relay getting triggered with the OFF going transition from the sense input. NOT to completely change the mode of the IOLinc's operation. The reason I'm doing this is that I'm using the sense signal to send out X-10 ON commands to X-10 chime modules (which I can plug in anywhere) via a ISY program. If someone (and this happens a lot) presses the doorbell multiple times (ya, annoying) this action sends out multiple IOLinc ON/OFF powerline signals that collide with the X-10 powerline signals being generated by the ISY program. This collision renders these signals corrupted and unrecognized.

Hey folks! Heres what I am trying to do ... I bought an Insteon doorbell detector kit and here's the way I want it to work. 1. Press the doorbell. 2. The IOLinc senses the doorbell current and sends the sensor ON signal into the power line. 3. Electrically lockout further doorbell press detections for 25 seconds; the actual doorbell can . be pressed and sound multiple times during the lockout phase. The way I have this set up is to pass the signal from the ELK detector to the IOLinc sense input through the NC contacts of the IOLinc output relay. To get this to work, you must configure the IOLinc device OPTIONS as follows: 1. Relay Follows Input 2. Trigger Reverse 3. Momentary C 4. Momentary hold time (25.5) seconds The above configuration works but here is my problem. With Trigger Reverse checked, the IOLinc relay turns on as soon as you release the doorbell button and remains on for the 25.5 seconds set on the momentary hold time. BUT if you do not have Trigger Reverse checked, the relay will trigger as soon as the doorbell is pressed BUT turns off as soon as the doorbell button is released. It does not remain on for the momentary hold time set for that option. My Question: Is this situation my misunderstanding of the way the IOLinc works or is it a possibly defective unit? I would like the relay to trigger on and remain on for the momentary contact time as soon as the doorbell button is pressed rather than when the doorbell button is pressed. Thanks for any insight you can shed on this

Thanks again Lee. Much appreciated you taking the time to answer my questions. Best regards, Broyd.

Hi Lee, Thanks! My notion about the folder name 'My Lighting' being missing came from a comparison of my screen and the screen shot in the manual 'ISY User Guide v4.0.5 v2.pdf'. Your statement "assuming the Program has not disabled itself to prevent being triggered again" suggests that programs commonly do disable / enable themselves to ensure that the currently executing occurrence of that program can complete properly as was intended ... is this thinking correct? Again, many thanks for your input.

I recently factory reset my ISY-994i and PLM and noticed that the folder 'My Lighting' was not present after the reset. It appears to have been replace by a folder named 'ISY' which seems to have the same information in it as 'My Lighting' is supposed to. 1. Are they functionally the same folder? Is it important/significant that the folder have the name 'My Lighting'? 2. If a program that is triggered by an event, say an X-10 on command, is still running, what happens if the program is re-triggered again, before the first execution of the program has finished? Does the ISY block the second start of the program, or does the ISY try to run the second occurance concurrently, or does the ISY run the second occurance sequentially? 3. In the If statement for a program, you can code 'If Program 'XYZ' is True (or False), what does this statement mean/imply? Is the statement actually testing the state (true/false) of the If statement for that program? or? Many thanks again! Broyd.

Thanks LeeG! That has finally put the last of the pieces of this puzzle into place. Best regards, Broyd.

A lot has been said about this sensor, and from all of the posts in this forum discussing it's operation, I understand it pretty well. But I have one question ... If a SOLID wet condition is detected, (in other words, a condition in which the conductivity of the solution is sufficient to prevent the sensor from switching between dry and wet states many times as it usually does when it is getting wet), does this sensor re-transmit a detected solid wet condition more than once (for example, every 15 minutes), or is that signal only sent once? If the signal is retransmitted, how frequently does this happen? I haven't tried this test myself yet; I thought someone here might have already done it. This question is originating from the power loss situation in which the sensor gets wet during the power loss and the ISY-994i misses the WET ON signal when it occurs. If the signal is transmitted only once, then you would have a ~24 hour wait before you could know of the wet condition, and then it could only be detected from the heartbeat signal, which would be sent as an OFF signal (rather than an ON signal, as it does when dry). Thanks for anyone's incite into this situation Best regards, Broyd.

Thanks Michel I'll restore that program! Best regards! Broyd

Hi folks! I am very new to Insteon and the ISY-994i. I was having some problems with setting up a program so I wanted to start out from the beginning. SO I reset the ISY-994i to factory setting and also the PLM. I was able to re-add the programs I had been working on and I was successful at this. They work as expected so no problem there. But I noticed in resetting the ISY-994i to factory setting that the "Query All" program that was there when I first accessed the unit was missing from the program list. My questions are: 1. Is this program important ( I don't know what it does ) ? 2. How can I restore this program from scratch ? Thanks!