jeffpdavis1

I'm back to finding a way to determine when my generator goes on and then off. My ISY-99 and my 2413S are both powered via a UPS along with all my computer and network equipment. All devices work fine this way thanks to the dual band 2413S. It has been suggested that I power an In-LineLinc Relay w/Sense from a UPS, with the sense lead connected to the generator side of the transfer switch (really unsure how to do that) and the load connected to nothing (I can do that). It seems like powering any Insteon device via UPS that is not dual band would degrade or eliminate its effectiveness since any notification it would give to the ISY (that would eventually email me) would depend on its being able to communicate over the wire and not RF. Am I wrong on this? Also if anyone has actually done this or similar exercise with all their ISY, PLM and Insteon devices never without power, I would appreciate any detailed instructions on how to make the connections, even if it involves getting an IOLinc and/or the In-LineLinc Relay. I have an electrician coming to the house in a week for another purpose who at least knows of Insteon and is a Generac reseller. I'd like to be able to have him do the necessary work on this while he's here. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

No problem. I did go this route with one receiver and one sensor. You're right that it doesn't directly interact with the ISY ( I didn't expect it to though). BUT it does go a long way toward solving my problem. I wanted some way to have the TSTAT react to another WIRELESS sensor (or set of them) somewhere else in the house, WITHOUT losing the TSTAT's Insteon connection to the ISY. Formerly I had resigned to using the Venstar Add-A-Wireless Thermostat (T1119RF) option to the T-1900. This HAD to use the RJ-11 dongle connector thus disallowing the Insteon dongle from using it on the bottom of the TSTAT and my ability to control it from anywhere. Soooo... I set up the House Code on the wireless receiver with the jumpers to be HC1 and hooked up the 3 wires onto the TSTAT according to the directions. I set up the sensor to be on the same HC1 and the unit number to be ID1 (could have been anything from 0 to 7). I then pressed the button on the sensor to (I think) force a send of the temperature. An LED on the receiver lit up indicating that it had received it. I then pushed the receiver inside the wall. I placed the sensor in a much colder part of the house. I tried pressing the buttons on the TSTAT to get it to at least display the temp of the sensor, but only dashes. I moved it closer to the receiver and tried it again and it displayed the temp. I don't know why it didn't work the first time...maybe distance Still, that's only part of it. I went into the TSTAT settings #38 and #39 and changed them. #38 was changed to NO to control to remote sensor. That is the key. When I exited the setup, the temp changed from what it was internally at the TSTAT to what it was at the remote sensor. This means that the TSTAT will ignore its internal sensor and use the remote one instead. The one it's displaying on the front is the one that the ISY sees and responds to. So I inserted the Insteon dongle into the bottom of the TSTAT again. It lit up and seemed like it could co-exist with the other receiver inside the wall now. I went to the admin page of the ISY and IT WORKED! It was displaying the temp of the remote sensor. A change in the setpoint now was compared to the remote sensor (wherever it was). If more remote sensors are set up on the same House Code (HC1 in my case) and with different Unit IDs, the receiver inside the wall behind the TSTAT will average all the temps before sending it to the TSTAT as one number. Not ideal, but ok. Setup option #39 on the TSTAT makes the TSTAT average whatever temp the receiver reports from its (up to remote sensor(s) with the TSTAT's internal sensor and that is the number that is displayed and reported to the ISY. Another option that may have some utility. This is not the optimal interaction with the ISY but for me it's sufficient. It would be best if the ISY could receive both the internal TSTAT sensor and the (average of the) remote sensor(s) so that I could decide what to do on the ISY platform, but this works. I may get one or two other remote sensors and stick them strategically around the house but I may be at a point of diminishing returns with the resulting averaging. More thought needed on that one. One other note: I thought it may be a long shot in trying to integrate the Add-A-Wireless thermostat I already bought earlier with the new receiver setup. I tried setting the T1119RF to the same House Code and gave it a different Unit Code. But no joy, it either was on a different frequency or was doing much more (it was) than just sending its temperature. The receiver may not have known what to do with it. It was a long shot. The good part is that I have my Insteon adapter communicating with ISY and thus my Iphone AND I can sense and react to temperatures elsewhere in the house from anywhere in the world, at least to a degree. Ha. Jeff

No, I would like to know what the temperature is in the basement on the Energy Display so that I could use the ISY to set a new setpoint on the ONLY house thermostat to heat the basement up more than it usually would be. I know that it would make the temperature on the main level warmer than I wanted but I can live with that. I was just reading about this Venstar ACC0414RF(#30408) and ACC0414REC(#30422) combination for reading and reacting to external temperatures. Apparently, one could have up to 8 of the transmitters that get averaged by the T1900. For some reason, when I was researching this months ago, I wrote down next to these that they would not work w/T1900 but now I can't figure out why I did that. Do you have knowledge of this option?

I posted a topic back in October and November about needing a wireless basement temp sensor to work with a Venstar T1900 thermostat upstairs. viewtopic.php?f=27&t=7167 Putting in more wiring at this point would be hard. Anyway, there was some talk about UDI providing support for the Energy Display presenting the remote temperature to the ISY-99i. I've even seen some posts after that about that possibility again. Michel, I believe it was you who asked in another post if just providing the temperature would be enough. Yes it would. Has that been done yet? If not, I'm looking for an even kludgier way of dealing with the problem. I have the T1900 with the Insteon adapter (not integrated). I also have the Add-A-Wireless Thermostat T1119RF. They each work fine but not together. In the absence of the cleanest solution (Energy Display), I'm looking for a way to wire both dongles into some new RJ11 A/B switch that can be electronically controlled via some other Insteon device to pick which dongle is active. I would like to have my cake and eat it too. I know that there are A/B RJ11 switches with a manual switch, which would only replace the action of unplugging one dongle and plugging in the other. It just seems that there should be some electronic way to flip all 4 pins on the RJ11 input of the T1900 from one dongle to the other dongle and have that be controlled through Insteon and the ISY-99i. I know, it's a really roundabout way of getting a wireless temperature sensor integrated into the Insteon ISY-99i systems. I'm sure open to other approaches.

As an update to what started all this, I bought a T1900 (although a T1800 would have sufficed), with an Insteon adapter NOT integrated. I then bought the Venstar Add-A-Wireless Thermostat T1119RF. Now, since I usually know when we're going to have guests in the basement bedrooms, I just manually exchange the Insteon adapter with the other one that came with the T1119RF. It's certainly not a perfect solution, nor the cheapest, nor automated for that matter. Still, it does sort of solve my problem with only one other place needed for the thermostat. That Energy display would have been the ideal solution if UDI decides that they can support it.

LeeG: I think the problem is with the UPSes. I unplugged the one serving the media Center (a 1500VA upright). Immediately the problem I was having communicating with a switch disappeared. Plugged it back in and the problem returned. I've just ordered a couple of filterlincs and a couple of access points. I may only need one of the access points and can return it for another filterlinc. I'll know next week. Thanks for the suggestions. I've seen a lot of places where people use Insteon to turn on AV media devices. It seems like one has to choose between having the devices protected behind a UPS or controllable with an Insteon setup. So is it true that you can't have it both ways?

Brian H: Ok, I can accept that those things may produce a lot of noise. The three desktop computers, the two servers and the media center stuff all sit behind individual UPSes. If I were to get a filter or two, would/could the UPSes just plug directly into those and potentially solve a lot of my problems? Lee G and others: Yes, the Lamplinc does blink Red on the same circuit and when moved around the house it blinks Red or Green depending on its placement. But sometimes it's just solid green or solid red and I can change the solid red to solid green by pressing the up button on the side. That would seem to invalidate the "solidness" just by the fact that it can change by pushing the up button. Other times, it will start blinking Green, change to solid Red momentarily up to a few seconds, then blink Green again. Brian has said that during these tests it's communicating with both RF and line signals. I've looked at the 2413S PLM quick start guide and don't see any other diagnostic results other blinking red or green. What do these other results mean? Are they some combination of whether it's getting RF or line signals? Given all this info, does anyone have suggestions on more devices to get in order to test my house further before giving up. I was thinking of at least one filter and one other dual band device, maybe even an access point or two. Thanks. - Jeff

Thanks I'll do that right now. I've got 3 places I could put the PLM around the house where I've got a network switch. Right now I've got it in the great room in the same area where Tv(LCD), Media center computer, AV receiver, Dish box, Roku, Sonos are. The only RF I had there was a little receiver for the tiny keyboard for the computer in that room. I just unplugged it thinking that might be some interference and it may have made some difference. I hope that the PLM is not that RF sensitive to placement. Another place is in my office (same level 35 feet from the Lamplinc and one wall of separation) where the wifi router and AT&T microcell along with a couple other Sonos devices are. That's the place that didn't work at all until I moved the lamplinc into the office. The last place is in the basement where a couple of servers and the furnace are. I guess it doesn't matter to me where the PLM ends up but this has sort of soured me for how easy this is going to be, especially when more things in more places makes it that much more complex. Tell me it gets easier...

No joy. I moved it back to the living room (one wall of separation, same level) but a big red exclamation point by the device. Is there something else to be done to refind it. It seems like the RF should be able to communicate to it. It's only about 30 feet away.

The PLM is a dual band and the LampLinc is also a dual band. Shouldn't that bridge them or at least shouldn't that allow the PLM to talk to the lamplinc? I moved the lamplinc closer and the ISY is now linked. It was instantaneous but I didn't have to click Finish except to do the linking. Thanks. I'm a little leary though of moving it back to where it needs to be. I'll try it and see. Jeff

I just received my ISY-99i and plugged both it (via power supply) and the 2413S into wall outlets. I connect both ethernet cables as described and I can get to the Admin Console just fine. The last step in the 2 page Quick Setup guide (Start Linking Your Insteon Devices) doesn't find any. Previous to the ISY install I had hooked up two devices and I'll try to be explicit here. LampLinc Dinner Dual-Band #2457D2 ToggleLinc Dinner 2466DW I thought I would start off simply and both devices work fine manually although I wish the ToggleLinc Dimmer would turn on the lights in the dim degree from which it was turned off. That seems stupid and short sighted, unless of course I'm the stupid one and did something wrong. I need help having the ISY find the devices. Once I get to the "Linking In Progress" screen, and go to each of the two devices above to press the set button (which they both respond appropriately with a blinking light) How long should I wait for something to show up in the main tab for the devices to show up so that it can "Add the devices found" in links. I've waited probably 5 minutes. Shouldn't there be some notification to me via the app that it found some devices? Are these devices not supported?. The ISY only has the far left power light on at the time. It sure seems to start up fine and the diagnostics finds the PLM ok. Help!

Yes, I just looked closely at I think all the options from Venstar, and either the base T1800 or T1900 and then the Add-A-Wireless Thermostat T1119RF kit would work. Together they would do what I want...namely, walk downstairs and increase the temp with the wireless thermostat sitting in one of the rooms. But the RJ11 port on the bottom of the T1800/1900 would now be used for that RF receiver and thus NOT be Insteon controllable. Still that combo is probably the best choice. Having the temperature of the house part of the Home automation strategy would just have to wait until there is a wireless Insteon thermometer (temp sensor) that the ISY-99i will listen to, too. Now I'm trying to come up with a compelling reason to put the house thermostat on Insteon. The biggest one I can think of is for control when I'm not there, which usually doesn't happen by accident.

Fantastic. This should keep me reading and researching for days. Thanks for pointing me in another direction. I think I'm going to be able to do it. Michel: As per one of the previous posts, please please do what's necessary to support the Energy Display. That would be so cool and save a lot of people a lot of work, although many of these have already found alternate ways around the problem.

Well, it looks like I have a couple of options and really, that's all I was looking for: confirmation that what I want to do can be done. Thanks to all.

Hi Michel, Yes, this is really a tricky question. Your idea of just having the ISY on the part of the house not serviced by the generator is an interesting one to think about. Will all these Insteon devices work in some default mode or manual mode? I'm thinking of the Venstar thermostat in particular. Heat in the winter was the main reason for getting the generator installed this summer/fall. If all the switches and outlets and thermostats will continue to work without the ISY powered up, then I think we have the winner here. I can just write a little startup procedure that sends me an email that the ISY is back up every time it is powered on. And yes, the router will never go down because it's on the generator when needed and on the UPS for the 30 interim seconds. Like I said in the other post, I've got a lot to learn. Can you confirm that question in the 3rd sentence above? Thanks Michel, Jeff

Hi Michel, I think I'm close to understanding what you're saying. But there's something I'm missing. I just started looking into these things two days ago so I've got some catching up to do. What is the device that reports the "b" temperature to either the ISY or the "a" thermostat. Our whole house has only one thermostat "a" that is on the main level. Let's say it's 70 on the main level. When we go down to the basement (where there is no thermostat or thermometer for that matter), it's colder, say 64. I'd like to be able to at least temporarily let the downstairs temperature drive the furnace and just put up with it being a little warmer upstairs (when guests come for instance). So I could write some If/Then/Else construct to do that like you have in the example. My question is what is the device that I need in the basement to report to the "system" what the temperature is. I was hoping it'd just be something simple that senses the temperature and sends it along to the ISY wirelessly that reacts with something like what you've written above. Thanks, Jeff

Hi Michel, Thanks again for replying. Changing the set point to a higher value would be fine. My question is though how would I know that it's colder in the basement and have that sensor(?) communicate with the ISY and om turn set the setpoint higher on the only real thermostat connected to the furnace? Is there a particular Insteon sensor for the basement that you're thinking of here? Is it true that the Energy Display is going to be supported soon or just report the temperature to controllers who do support it? Thanks, Jeff

Hi Michel, That would be great if the ISY ever went down but I have all the computer/network equipment on a UPS until the generator takes over. The ISY will never go down but parts of the house not served by the generator will go down until utility power returns. It seems that would need to be part of the trigger that I'm looking for. Is that the type of event you're talking about that I could write some custom notification. If so, what kind of event would it be? Thanks for helping, Jeff

I'm about an hour away (ok, maybe a few days) from buying an ISY-99i Insteon controller (some plugins and switches) and a Venstar Integrated thermostat (2491T7E) to replace our current 7 day/ 4 evt/day Honeywell. One thing I'd like to do is add some kind of temperature state sensor in the basement where there currently is no thermostat. I'd like it to somehow report its state to the controller (and not to the thermostat as a very prompt member suggested in the SmartHome forum) which would in turn trigger the other Venstar thermostat (as a responder) to call for heat from the furnace. It's always colder in the basement in the winter and this seems like such a simple yet elegant solution. I found this Energy Display (2448A2) that looks like sometime later this year would be able to report its temperature but it seems like overkill for what it's doing. Is it the only solution or are there others that preserve the Venstar as an Insteon device. The Venstar temperature sensor 30408,421,423 would report the remote temperature to a thermostat but not the one I need (namely an Insteon one) nor in a way that it could be used, at least I don't think so. -Jeff

I hope to be buying an ISY99i controller for a whole assortment of plugins, switches, thermostats and sensors very soon. This whole idea came about after we just recently installed a Generac standby Generator for 12 or so circuits of the house, some of which include all the internal computing and networking, and external communications. We live in the mountains of Colorado and just had our first 1.5 hour outage. One of my servers sent me an email (as it was designed to do) when it noticed that its power was temporarily being supplied by an attached UPS, and 30 second later I got another email saying that power was restored, in this case by the generator. When utility power was restored, I received no emails because the UPS didn't notice any change when the transfer was made back to utility power because the transfer box apparently handled that well, I guess, and thus the server didn't send me an email saying it was restored. My problem arises from what to do if I were on vacation for when it goes on generator power and I never know when it goes back to utility. I don't want the generator running for days and days and would rather have a neighbor go over to the house and shut the generator off too. 1) Can I just put a plugin outlet with a lamp in that part of the house not served by the generator so that in a worst case I can just check the state of the light (on or off)? What happens to the state queried if there's no power supplied to that plugin? Hopefully there's a third unique state that describes this scenario. 2) Is there some email trigger I can set on that device ? This is what I'd really like (push, not pull) 3) There must be a more elegant Insteon solution, right? -Jeff