ScottAvery

Yeah, so, why?

Following up: I Couldn't find a whole-house type application on the APC site. How does one size/spec this product? How does APC label it? Can it be tied in with a propane/gas backup generator to eliminate the 1 min downtime?

That's not going to be a common situation, and clearly isn't for the OP, or me for that matter. With a stand-alone UPS like you would use on a computer, will PLM comms go through the device if you are on the protected circuit?

He is on V3 Start with "Alexa, Refresh Devices" Then make sure you are turning the scene (now considered a light by Amazon) On to 100%, the only value relevant for an Insteon Scene.

Can't put a PLM on UPS though, can you? Or do you rely on RF for first hop? Don't you have issues with PLM going down while ISY is up?

Yes, I meant Stop. Disable prevents both from executing on their own, but you can't stop a from/to to cancel the else. I was interpreting "For" as being active for the duration. This may only make sense for linguistic convention on short intervals where time is more on a "stop watch" scale than a "wall clock" scale.

I'd be curious if you could interact with it differently from another program. Can you stop it and have the Else skipped? Are there new types of actions available for the Then/Else sections that are not available under From:To? Does Else execute with a reboot between?

You can't connect to a harmony remote, but you can connect to the hub. For that you can use polyglot or IFTTT. For direct IR out to the devices you can implement Global Cache IR transmitters. They are Ethernet or wifi-based devices that you can control with the network module.

My guess is that is not the intended use. It will probably not reevaluate to use the else clause and will mean the program is active for 12 hours rather than active for 2 instants a day, as well as not recover from a reboot. Does the second pull down have a "To" option?

It was not a recent purchase. Just remarking that $64 is a result of it being out of production, not what it sold for before.

Stu and I were discussing using hardwired detectors for indoors, but for outdoors I would never want to use a battery device. You can very easily wire in an in-line linc or micro module to respond to a hardwired outdoor motion sensor that is installed at the light fixture, assuming you are talking about flood lights.

For anyone wanting to try this, the I/O Linc is at an all time low price according to camelcamelcamel. $32.79 from amazon.

Nice, I had not yet considered using them specifically for changing the request language structure. I hadn't gotten past the idea of using for special events. That really is powerful that you can use it to change the conversational nature of the interaction. Are there limits to the word choices? I had created a scene with voice command "Me" for the eventual joke of "Alexa, turn Me On" as soon as I get around to enabling fireplace and playback of Barry White to go with the lighting scene... It seems that could be even easier with a routine.

Thanks, that is the information I was looking for, but not the answer I wanted to hear. I was trying to figure out if there was an option to use Echos as the primary whole house speakers rather than investing in another platform. Might have to look into the Sonos device with Alexa built in. I am pretty sure there is an Apple/iTunes way to do it if I have a listener running on the iTunes server, so that may be a good use for old apple gadgets. The text to speech idea is an awesome Rube Goldberg solution, though. Maybe when they implement announcements I can have one Echo ask another to play!

I don't use 5.x yet, but usually "For" is used to create a loop, which I assume is why the feature was added, allowing you to do more in one program where version 4.x requires multiple programs. For scheduled events, "From" x "To" y is the standard method to do it in one program. Post #6 has it in two independent programs. There is no need to have one program calling another. You only need to separate into nested programs if there are multiple conditions that need to be evaluated independently. That makes it curious that you went to the effort to put your lime tree schedule in two nested programs but didn't put the "Wan is gone lights off" in nested programs. As you yourself noted and Gary confirmed in post #2, the zone changing status again breaks the chain and stops the program. That is the time that you would want to break things up. If you still need help with that one you may need to explain exactly what behavior you are looking for and where else the variable gets manipulated.

What do you use for the hardwired motion detector? brand/model?

Does upgrading the zwave firmware also do this?

I am interested in the ISY side, too, but here I am looking to find out what I can do within Amazon's routine definition. I thought someone here might know before I go in search of an Amazon-specific forum not full of noise. By routines I mean things like "Alexa, good night" (which then can kick off lighting changes and a verbal response)

Is there a way to use network resources to send a request to Alexa/Amazon devices? Ideally to have a specific song play on one or more Echos devices, or a video play on a Fire device?

This only works if you switched to the V3 skill, where type can be used by Alexa. If you have done that, then selecting category lights makes your scene appear under the device heading, which will let you use it for "light only" actions in the Amazon ecosystem.

The previous discussion on Routines went sideways, so I will ask here: Are there any detailed instructions on what can go in routines and how to use them? The amazon intructions just say to use the pull down menus.

I suspect the confusion for OP is that Alexa describes the device as "ISY Scene address #####" but it does appear under devices and works as expected, for me anyhow.

With a program? Or you just connected all the devices in a scene as all controllers?

I have some of the older insteon models laying around. May use for pet related things, but I hate the surface mounted devices and would prefer to have a hardwired device in-wall for a cleaner look in the main living areas. I have a bunch of inline-lincs and micro-lincs that I could wire in behind to get a signal to the ISY, but I have not had time to research options for the hardwired device. The ones I see at big box stores have unwanted buttons for physical interaction. EDIT: checked my order history: got the last insteon detector at $22 on Amazon. $64 is a wee bit out of line, but it is out of production...

Good news, and that was probably the only way to resolve this, so kudos to UDI again.