carealtor

I purposely avoided the use of the term Device in my question and used Things instead. I suppose I could used the term Scenes, but it needs to be understood that the Scene that would get turned on at a certain event is not necessarily (and probably isn't ) the same Scene that gets turned off at some other Event.

I have several Things that turn on in relation to sunset. Porch lights, landscape lights, hall lights, pool lights, etc. Some of these Things turn off at a certain time, some when we go to bed, some in relation to sunrise. Should I program in terms of Events: Program 1: at sunset, turn on all the Things Program 2: at bedtime, turn off some Things Program 3: at time x, turn off some Things Program 4: at sunrise, turn off some Things Or should I program in terms of Things: Program 1: from sunset to bedtime, turn on some Things, otherwise turn those Things off. Program 2: from sunset to time x, turn on some Things, otherwise turn those Things off. Program 3: from sunset to sunrise, turn on some Things, otherwise turn those Things off. Both will work, but I wonder which approach is "better".

The Smartenit daughter board does have the F1 fuse. In fact, I just disconnected it to test some of the things you said in your post. After disconnecting the F1 fuse the ISY will not power on unless the "external power supply" is used. Letting it run for awhile and trying a few things that were causing failures before, the PLM is now stable. So it seems running the ISY from a 2413 causes it to overload.

Thank you Brian. That is the kind of knowledgeable feedback I was hoping for.

yes, that is what I mean.

When I got my first ISY, it was around the time that the 2412S PLM was replaced with the 2413S PLM. I'm guessing this was probably 8-10 years ago. I really liked the idea of having the ISY powered through the PLM so I really wanted to use the 2412S, but it was no longer available. I ended up purchasing a SimpleHomeNet (now Smartenit) 5010K PLM which, at the time, was advertised as being functionally equivalent to a 2412S. This PLM has worked flawlessly with my ISY(s) since I purchased it and used in 3 different homes over the many years. This last weekend I was rearranging some cables in my closet. I unplugged the cable between the PLM and ISY, repositioned it where I wanted, and plugged it back in. When I plugged the cable into the PLM, I heard a "snap!" and the ISY did not light up. I went and dug up the power cord that came with the ISY and plugged it in and it lit up. So this told me that the PLM just blew something. I remembered I had another PLM in my stash of stuff from when I was playing with OpenHab a little bit. This is a 2413U. I knew about the capacitor replacement fix for the PLM, so Plan A was that I would scavenge the capacitors out of the 2413U and fix the 5010K. I opened them both up and realized immediately that the "guts" were very very different between the two and that Plan A was not going to pan out. This is all new to me as I've never had a PLM failure before, but the next thing I noticed was that I could physically swap the daughter boards that have the USB and RJ45 jacks on them. So that is what I did. I used the main board from the 2413U and the RJ45 daughter board from the fried 5010K PLM. The third thing I noticed was that this guy was cracked in two in the 5010K PLM. This no doubt was the snap that I heard. What is really interesting, is that I can power the ISY through my Frankenstein PLM, even though the 2413 supposedly does not do this. Seems like the ability to power the ISY is a function of the RJ45 daughter board. Now, the problem. My Frankenstein PLM is exhibiting the same symptoms that I've read for a failing PLM, even though it is barely used. If I do more than a few device writes, it stops working and the green light goes out. When this happens, if I unplug the cable from the PLM (leaving the PLM plugged into the wall outlet), wait a bit, then plug it back in, it will all work again. It also seems to be very warm. Seems like maybe it is overheating and I wonder if this is because I am also powering the ISY with it. However, using the ISY power cable does not help.

I use one of the more complex methods that Stu mentioned. I'm going Harmony Hub -> SmartThings Hub (virtual switch) -> IFTTT -> ISY Portal -> ISY. The other way, to keep things synced, it goes ISY (network resources) -> IFTTT -> SmartThings Hub -> Harmony Hub. I have no doubt that IFTTT could be eliminated, but I'm not smart enough to figure it out. On the plus side, there is no IR involved. It's all over the network. This works for me, but it's not perfect, at least my setup isn't. I only have on/off control of lights from the Harmony, no dimming. I also have some looping issues because of the IFTTT delay if I toggle a physical light switch on and off too fast.

Where does the Smartenit EZIComm fit into this? That's what I've been using for many years now.

I'm pretty sure what stusviews outlines will not work with the home control buttons on the Harmony Elite. You would have to use the screen "buttons" or some of the other hard buttons. The problem with this is, you have to be in an activity to turn a light on. This of course defeats the purpose of purchasing the Harmony Elite with the intention of using the home control buttons, which are always live.

I was in the same dilemma. I wanted to use the home control buttons on my Harmony Elite to control my Insteon lights. I ended up buying a SmartThings Hub to communicate with the Harmony Hub and then IFTTT to communicate between the ISY and the Smarthings Hub. I bit sluggish because of the IFTTT, but it works for me and there are no headaches trying to use the Insteon Hub.

Rocklin Ca, Northern California nearish to Sacramento. I'm now wondering if it would be possible/practical to install the shadess now and then convert to motorized later. That way I could get exactly the motors I want, which would be Somfy RTS 110v AC.

Okay, I figured this out. Bali Autoview from Lowes and Home Depot use Somfy motors that are NOT RTS. I think this is a relatively new development for Bali blinds and they used to use RTS motors. What I probably will ultimately want to do is Stu's setup: Somfy URTS and Autellis Somfy interface. But I still have to figure where to order shades, if that is even possible.

Well, now I'm back to confused again. How recently did you purchase Bali from Lowes? Bali calls their motorized products "Autoview"... is this what yours are too?

Oh. Okay.

I'm still trying grasp this zwave thing. I do not use zwave. I have no interest in zwave. If the offerings from Bali and Lowes and Home Depot are not RTS, then they are not a viable option to me. I guess my question is: Are Zwave and RTS mutually exclusive? Stu said above that they are indeed mutually exclusive.

Thanks Stu. So, if I'm understanding correctly... Bali is not a viable source for RTS? This is so confusing to me.

I want to install some motorized shades in our bedroom. Roman Shades, if it matters. Right now I just want to get them ordered and installed and figure out the integration with ISY/Insteon later. But of course, I want to pick motors now that will be compatible when I get to that part of the project. I do know that I do not want to deal with batteries. I’ve skimmed most of the applicable threads here and it seems that "Somfy RTS" motors are preferred. I’ve looked at the Somfy website and I see that they have about a dozen different motors and some are RTS motors, some evidently aren't. There is also something called SDN, whatever that is. But I don’t see that they actually sell any blinds or shades. Just motors and controllers. Somfy has a “where to buy” page that points you to Home Depot, Lowes, JCPenney, and Menards. All of these go to Bali blinds and shades and their Autoview remotes. I seem to remember reading somewhere that Bali Autoview is Z-wave. Does that mean that the Somfy 16 Channel Universal RTS Interface II (1810872), that I’ve seen mentioned here many times, is also Z-wave? I’m not sure if that is significant or not. Having said all this I finally get to my questions (maybe the first of many). Where are you getting your motorized shades and blinds? How do you know you are getting Somfy RTS?

I have used the ones without the levers. The biggest problem with them is they do not work well at all with stranded wire. It is very difficult to get the stranded wire to push in. And if you do get the stranded wire in and you ever want to get it out again, you are pretty much out of luck. They won't come out by twisting and pulling like a solid wire will. If you only use solid wire, they work pretty well.

Take a look here http://forum.universal-devices.com/topic/21104-program-to-adjust-local-on-level-of-devices-depending-on-time-of-day/?p=204828

http://forum.universal-devices.com/topic/20484-adjust-local-on-level/page-2?do=findComment&comment=197386 http://forum.universal-devices.com/topic/20831-using-isy-to-set-on-level/?do=findComment&comment=201592 Read those 2 posts. You don't need to read the whole threads. What you are doing wrong is you are referring to a scene in your "In Scene" dropdown instead of a device. I know that sounds confusing because it says "In Scene". But you want to select the device you want to adjust in both the "In Scene" and the "Set" dropdowns.

Yes, it seams doing any kind of integration is EXTREAMLY difficult. The reading I've done on the ST forum suggests that a REST call on the LAN is possible using "HubAction". It sounds like the call would actually originate from the ST hub. I'm not arguing what you said... I don't have the skills or knowledge about ST to suggest anything one way or another. Just expressing my current understand, which isn't much.

I want to make a REST call (is that the right term?) to my ISY when a virtual switch is "turned on". (http://userid:password@192.168.xx.xx/rest/nodes/scene_id/cmd/DON) I made an attempt to get help on the SmartThings forum, but while the responses have intended to be helpful, most of what they said assumed I knew WAY more than I do about programming a SmartThings Hub. If I knew as much as they assumed I do, I wouldn't need help with this (probably) very simple project. My plea for step by step help has gone unanswered. So far I have Virtual Switch (SmartThings calls it a "Simulated" Switch). set up and working. I just need to know how to make a REST call now.

Perhaps I can help a bit and hopefully not cause any more confussion. Everything you (OP) need to know about how to do this is in zerop's post #26 in the referenced thread. Don't just skim over it. Read every bit of the instructions. The second paragraph is critical to read and follow every word. The scene that zerop has you create is ONLY for the purpose of defining the device as a controller. Why? Because devices that are controllers will show up in the "In Scene" dropdown in the program. The scene that zerop has you create IS NOT used in the program. Only the device is referenced in the program.

In the Options window for the IOLinc there is a check box for "Relay Follows Input". Mine started to work when I checked this box.

I'm in the exact same dilemma and have been running a few ideas through my head too. I like your solution... a lot! How will you turn the I/O Link off? Does it have a toggle mode? I haven't played with mine in awhile and don't remember all the functionallity.