KeviNH

The easy way to solve this, if you remember the old IP of your ISY, is to temporarily set your Windows PC to an IP address one higher than the old ISY IP. Now you can log into the admin console, and change the IP address of the iSY, then set your Windows PC back to DHCP. Yes, that is an alternate way to access the ISY, there is a serial console shell. You can use the "CT" command to change the IP address, instructions are here.

If you're looking to display on a phone or tablet, for Android take a look at "tinyCam Monitor". It's a stable IP camera viewer with support for many different IP cameras -- it should work with any camera claiming "ONVIF Profile S". I bought the "PRO" version when it was on sale, but the free edition is pretty good. You can dedicate an old tablet or Kindle Fire to always display the IP camera.

Tl;DR answer: HikVision, e.g. DS-2CD3345 Is stealthiness and/or size a concern? My broad recommendation is to choose non-wireless cameras which specifically claim compatibility with "ONVIF Profile S" and standard PoE (IEEE 802.3at or IEEE 802.3af). The most difficult part can be tying the camera into the ISY. If you have the ISY Network Module, many cameras email sending can be enabled/disabled by crafting a HTTP request, but this is not always supported nor easy to figure out -- a few companies (AXIS, HikVision, Foscam, Grandstream) publish an API or REST specification documenting how to properly format a command to change individual settings on the camera, while others will go into a weird state if you just try pushing a single setting at the WebUI, don't have a documented API. Some cameras can be configured to request a HTTP URL when they detect motion this can be used to talk to ISY or IFTTT -- I set this to send a REST "RunIf" call on the ISY so a program is triggered when motion is detected, and then I have this program make a Network Resource call out from the ISY if I want to cause IFTTT to do something.

Yes, this usually can be accomplished with a Network Resource, not all cameras are identical. On some FOSCAM models, you can make an HTTP "GET" call to the camera with a URL path of /set_alarm.cgi?motion_armed=0&mail=0 to disable motion detection and email out. You'll need to supply administrator credentials as HTTP BASIC authentication (user and pwd).

For variable and node $ expansions, see http://wiki.universal-devices.com/index.php?title=ISY-994i_Series:EMail_and_Networking_Substitution_Variables You can use the dropdown to choose variables to insert: You could also put the nodes in the notification, e.g Kitchen=${sys.node.11 22 AA 1.ST}, Basement=${sys.node.33.44.BB.1.ST}

Hmmm.... Are the "iPhone_Home" variables both state variables? What actually does the updating, changes the value of the variables? Okay, here's another approach for the same goal I would customize the notification to include the value of all variables involved, or even the state of all of the doors being tested against, so you know which door is the culprit.

What are you using for geofencing? Add a "Wait" before the "Send Notification", long enough for your phone's status to update. At the end of the wait time, the program will re-evaluate the conditions, and if one of them has changed, will end before executing the notification statement.

Anybody tried getting flow data from the water softener control head? The flow readout on the LCD on my digital water softener head displays 0.1GPM, but I believe the actual flow sensor inside is a hall sensor generating 64 pulses per gallon. I'm on a well so there is no water meter, but I do keep track of well pump power consumption (using a separate power tracking tool, not ISY) just to stay ahead of any problems with the pump or pressure tank.

Well that is pretty weird. Are you sure you didn't accidentally add that notification to another program also? Include ${alert.program.name} in the custom notification to have the alert include the name of the program that sent it. I put this after the end of all of my custom notifications: -- ${alert.compactbody}

I agree with the earlier diagnosis of why a motion sensor might keep sending signals. There are a couple of ways to ignore repeat signals in programs, easiest for this use would be: If Status OfficeLights is Off and Control OfficeMotion is switched On Then Set OfficeLights On That keeps the program from running if the office lights are already on, even if they are dimmed.

Here's another strong incentive for Amazon to let us change the "Wake Word" from "Alexa" (or "Amazon") to something more obscure: http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/amazon-s-alexa-went-bonkers-reset-user-s-thermostat-n536651 Basically, NPR broadcast a story about Amazon Echo, and some listeners found that their Echo acted on commands included in the audio. If you want to try to recreate the effect, here's NPR archived audio: http://www.npr.org/2016/02/28/468446180/what-s-so-revolutionary-about-amazon-s-echo#

When using the status of a light to turn on a key, it's best to get in the habit of making the program dimmer-compatible. So instead of doing this: IF status 'light a' is on or status 'light b' is on or status 'light c' is on or status 'light d' is on use 'not off': IF status 'light a' is not Off or status 'light b' is not Off or status 'light c' is not Off or status 'light d' is not Off Also, it is best not to make excessive use of "adjust scene" where it can be avoided.

I've seen weird things when using 'pool.ntp.org', try 1.us.pool.ntp.org. See also this thread. Could be symptoms of another network error, such as another device trying to be the same IP as the ISY.

I have program folders named 'sunrise' and 'sunset' with appropriate folder conditions. For something like this, I don't check whether the light is on or off, I have ISY set the scenes to the desired state. Won't do any harm if the scene members are already off, and will still work if I switch to a dimmer, or add another light to the scene, etc.

Yes, it is possible to "sniff" RS-232, there are dedicated hardware 'taps' to do this with, electrically it isn't much different than physically intercepting traffic on 10 megabit ethernet -- keep your wires short. Here's one simple diagram to make a sniffer cable, this is for DB-9, so you'd need to get a pinout for the standard DB-9 cables and compare it to the signal lines on the ISY.

I think you have the right idea and a good process. I try to do as much as I can with scenes, and then use programs just to accomplish the things that would be too clunky to do with scenes alone. Have you thought about using any sensors? Motion, leak, door, etc?

If you have many insteon devices already installed, try this: Beep - [ID 0110][Parent 0001] If - No Conditions - (To add one, press 'Schedule' or 'Condition') Then Set 'Living Room / LightSwitch ' 2 (Beep Duration) Set 'Bedroom / LightSwitch ' 2 (Beep Duration) Else Set Scene 'All My Lights' Beep This program causes a BEEP noise from controllers which support BEEP. Basically you pick a scene with a lot of Beep-enabled devices (e.g. lightswitches) in it, and call "Beep" on that scene.

For certain specialized network equipment, I've had a vendor ask me to provide them with a list of existing similar gear specifically to avoid shipping a device with a duplicate address. I suppose a similar check could be implemented by a really savvy HA retailer, if such a firm exists... Some Ethernet cards store the MAC on an EEPROM, so it can be permanently rewritten, same approach could be used for Insteon. Hypothetically, I'd expect that if the address space were exhausted and they were forced to start re-using addresses to preserve backwards compatibility, they'd move the address to a rewritable area and provide a mechanism to change the address in the field in the rare case of a conflict. Speaking of Ethernet their 6-byte MAC allows for 281,474,976,710,656 possibilities, but IEEE allocates blocks to manufacturers in blocks of 3 bytes or so. Additionally, many devices (e.g. Cisco routers, VMware, etc) generate virtual MACs, and these are prone to duplication -- I've had some rather annoying bugs in Cisco networks due to routers assigning the same virtual MAC to multiple interfaces. While the total address space for Ethernet isn't exhausted, individual chipset makers have intentionally and accidentally produced network cards with duplicate MACs, causing no end of headaches.

Is any home automation integration available with this? Looks like "Ring" fixed the vulnerability that reveals your WiFi password in release 1.6, but the doorbell itself is still all outside the house and held on with just a pair of Torx screws.

So you're looking to replace the blinds entirely? Or just switch from battery to plug-in? I've got a similar question. I need to replace several older sets of Hunter-Douglas cellular blinds, looking for new motorized blinds which will use a plug-in power supply and are suitable for automation via Insteon or Z-wave.

I used to run a few ISPs and I now design corporate networks, I've forgotten that not everybody has multiple boxes full of serial to RJ45 adapters Yes, 50 feet is likely to work, give it a shot and let us know how it turns out.

There's the standard (15M for RS-232, 100M for FastEthernet), then there's what you can get away with. Since the PLM connection is serial at a relatively low baud rate, you should be able to get away with a lot -- I run the connection between my PLM and ISY on 10M (30') of Cat5e cable with no communication problems. If I was deploying a remote PLM for a paying customer and needed a solution I could stand behind, I would use a powered "Serial port extender", these can drive RS-232 over CAT5 up to 1,000 meters. Figure on spending between $50-$100 for the pair.

Are you in an area with heavy WiFi utilization? Zigbee channels (except channel 26) are readily stepped on by WiFi.

I went with the Zwave thermostat from Honeywell specifically because it is not cloud-tethered and because it does well at retaining mode and settings through a power outage. I have a slightly more complicated variant of that program that checks a state variable S.Enable_Heat and also uses the climate module. I mostly use the climate module to ensure that AC is not turned on if the overnight low was cool enough that the condenser might freeze up. Instead of enabling or disabling programs, I set S.Enable.Heat and S.Enable.Cool current and init values to 1 or 0.

My Z-wave (Honeywell) thermostat always does exactly what I tell it to. Sometimes I tell it to do the wrong thing, but that is on me. It also comes back correctly from a power outage.