ScottAvery

This feature will not be complete until the Echo responds to the name "Aziz" Aziz, Light!

I take it that you do not disable the second program, either, so it runs on every status change? I don't see what would cause the 10 minutes to extend if there is still motion. would you need to add "AND status motion sensor is not on"? edit: I think I get it. status changes to On, would set it to Else (nothing) and then it would restart if it went off again.

What ISY considers a scene and what Alexa considers a scene do not have to be the same thing. There are some new features, like this Echo Group "lights" function as well as Routines that Aexa will perform on things categorized as Lights or Switches. The ISY portal lets you call anything you can expose to Amazon a light or switch, so this Portal trick gives access to scenes, programs, and variables in the new Alexa features.

This feature does not allow the reuse of names for scenes. Spoken terms can only be used once. What this feature does is simply allow you to group all of the lights you want into a group with the echo that can respond to the generic term "lights" instead of their spoken. There may be a workaround for you. How may devices are in your scenes in each room? We still need the Alexa API to pass echo device name to ISY before we could do any location specific logic without having to issue additional commands or use sensors for location.

I don't know how any of the other protocols work, but it is a fair question. If you really want to force Alexa to set scenes to a level, I recommend you use a state variable that you can have Alexa set to 0-100 range, then monitor the variable with programs that set some preset levels in additional scenes. You can make it as granular as you like, 5%, 10%, or 20% ranges. Just have the program select the closest one. You could make it fancy by tracking which direction the variable is going (with a second variable) so you don't round in the wrong direction. I think Stu's work around of scene and devices in the Alexa group is probably less hassle, but I don't yet know how it works.

Stu, could you please make a separate post to explain what you have figured out for the odd behaviopr of the computer Alexa groups vs App Alexa groups? I noticed a change I had made on one did not appear on the other, so you are definitely on to something, and I think we could all benefit from it as yet another workaround.

Yes, perfection would be preferred, but a useful workaround today is better than Amazon fixes (or 5.0 firmware) in the distant future.

This thread inspired me to complete the replacement of the whole house humidifier that was broken when we moved in. I had been doing it in bits and pieces, but finally finished plumbing, power, and control wiring at about 1 AM. up 4% by morning with heat going all night. (17 degrees this morning)

That said, you can get around it by creating more scenes. 10% 30% 50% 100% ought to do it

I believe it is a fair knock on the protocol given that it is a result of forcing presets and groups into one solution. INsteon was created to operate without a controller, so it falls short when a powerful controller is in the mix.

I like this as I could use it to distinguish types: lights for scenes, switches for programs, etc.

If you think about it logically, the ISY would actually have to do the same thing. A as scene in the protocol is a preset level programmed into each device for each controller in the scene so that each device knows how to respond when a particular controller calls for the scene. The ISY knows these levels because it stores them, like metadata in a database, but when they are executed they are called with a single Insteon command. THe responses are pre-distributed when the updates are written to the network, which you surely have noticed can take quite a while. The ISY would have to calculate the meaning of the level you sent and either write out a new scene to every device then call it simultaneously, or instead manually set each device to the requested level in a one-at-a-time operation. both options are clunky. Beating my favorite dead horse, this is all a result of Insteon's authors declaring "lighting preset" and "lighting group" to be one and the same.

Alexa should be dimming by 9%. The default Insteon dim pulse is 3%, and by popular request in this forum when the portal was first published, Benoit experimented and found that he could issue 3 consecutive 3% pulses in within the timeout period for an Alexa call, so that is what we have. 3% works for a computer interface, but it was unwieldy for a voice interface.

Wood furniture should last decades if not centuries, so destroying it in a few years of poor humidity control is quite a penalty to bear.

For the 10% of homes with proper insulation your approach may work, but because few have it, I believe you have given the exact reasons you need to have humidity adjusted relative to both indoor and outdoor conditions. In my previous installation fogging of windows was a source of annoyance that the controller dealt with.

Per a recommendation on this or a similar site, I use a digital humidity controller that has an outdoor thermometer and calculates the appropriate humidity level completely independent of my automation. The advice was you shouldn't be guessing at humidity level as there are factors beyond indoor temperature that matter. The structure of your home is at risk for getting it wrong. Significant damage to wood for going too low, and damage to everything else for going too high...

You cannot set a scene to a level. It is an Insteon protocol issue, as well as one of practicality. A scene can have many different on levels for the devices in it, to include all off, so a value for a scene would not have any consistent meaning. You can work around it by having an Alexa group of the individual devices.

Quarter Round is standard here on new or remodeled construction. I have not surveyed old houses, but they may have it for reasons of resurfaces as mentioned above. I just assumed it was used everywhere, but I can understand tastes range. In theory it prevents/reduces shoe scuffs on the baseboard.

The ISY Dashboard view you can access remotely through the portal is the same view you get if you open the IP address of your ISY in your web browser (as opposed to opening the admin console).

If you are using the ISY for automation and are comfortable with it, you may be better served doing all your scheduling inside the ISY and leave the thermostat unprogrammed. ISY can do everything the thermostat can, and more.

you can likely pry off the quarter round shoe mould and find a channel underneath the baseboard.

As mentioned in another thread here, if your goal is to use Alexa, the Alexa App itself will have control widgets for devices you have added to your Amazon Connection on the ISY Portal. The Portal subscription also gives you secure remote access to the ISY Dashboard which is a simple web interface with full control of all devices in your system regardless of whether or not you shared them with Amazon. It is not as glamorous as the interfaces other flashy systems tout, but it is way more powerful.

Interesting for a goof, but I wouldn't build my system around it unless Amazon is on board. A hack could suffer the same fate as the Proxy we had back at the start of this platform.

Factory reset a hub? An Insteon Hub by SmartLabs? You should only be using the ISY as controller as the two cannot play well together without a very particular procedure to achieve negligible benefit. As Stu stated, your initial issue was due to not adding the new device to the Amazon connection on the portal Connections tab from the pulldown menu. You need to get everything back to baseline before proceeding or you will only be more disappointed. Alexa can only see what you explicitly share on that Amazon tab, and having it in V3 now gives you more control on what Alexa sees. (e.g. call anything a "light" so you can use it in a routine.)

To piggy back Stu's question, you may not have set the root scene on-levels to the same as the controller on levels. Calling a scene programmatically calls on the root level settings, where pushing a switch you have set as controller can call its own levels. So you scene may appear to work just fine pushing a button on a keypad, but does not work from a remote call. Did you give the scene a voice command and try it with "Alexa, turn on XXX?"