healeydriver

With regards to the Somfy control, I may (someday) just buy a few extra Somfy controls break them open and find wires on their circuit board which could be connected to an Insteon I/O module.... but that is for some other time when I'm truly pissed about having to bother the cat... :-)

I did not try to get the Broan system to directly link with any of the traditional Insteon devices or switches in the house. So, I really can't answer your question properly (and sorry, I'm not going to try to re-install the Broan switches.... I'm too lazy.) Once I discovered that the Universal Devices ISY could "see" but would not engage with the Broan switches, I pretty much gave up and swapped out the Broan unique devices. Sorry....

I'm pleased with my Insteon systems.... I use it to check for water leaks and shut off water to the house if a leak (wet spot) is detected in various places of my basement. Insteon sells a nice motorized ball valve for installing in the water main. I use Insteon for a house alarm system. Insteon sells the I/o module which allows a relay control for checking on the status of a code key entry device that can be mounted near each house entrance to activate/disarm the alarm system. Of course they have the lighting systems and it can be tied to video systems too..... HOWEVER, THERE IS NO INTERFACE TO THE SOMFY blind control system. Unfortunately Somfy blinds are rigged for 12 volt battery operation (which can be hard wired to a 12 volt brick plugged into the house circuits)….but there is no access to the "up" "down" "stop" controls via anything other than the RF link of a Somfy remote. Getting good blind control would be a very useful addition to the Insteon repertoire, but they apparently haven't heard enough of us requesting it. I can imagine rigging the blinds to go up/down during the day evening to give the house a "lived-in" appearance when on vacation. Or going up/down according to sunset-sunrise schedules to preserve heat/cooling temps in the house. I can also image setting up a solar sensor indoors that is strategically located to note when the sun is shining too brightly into a window and lowering the window blind against solar glare, but raising the blind when the time of the day when solar glare is a problem has passed.... (I hate getting out of a chair and searching for the somfy remote control during the evening when the sun shines too brightly into the house just prior to sundown.... I usually have a cat in my lap at that time, and it is awful to bother the cat when I forgot to bring the remote with me to my chair... :-)… I don't like annoying the cat.) So, if you have any influence over Insteon, please pass on the request to build an RF interface for managing Somfy blinds... :-) Thanks -skip-

This is first time I've tried to post pictures..... Hope this works. Thanks -skip-

If you have a tightly insulated house, the linking of the bathroom fan to the furnace might be providing a path for make-up air. My Broan fan system is configured in just that way. Unfortunately, while Broan does indeed use insteon technology to coordinate bathroom (and kitchen too) fans with outside air dampers, they incorporated custom firmware which precludes the Broan wall switches and micro-on/off modules from participating in a household Insteon hub/isy control solution. In my case, I swapped out the Broan equipment and installed plain vanilla Insteon switches (on/off worked just fine)….and I linked everything to my Universal Devices ISY. Now, even if no one is home, the vents turn on periodically to change out the household air (thus preventing Legionaire's Disease I guess... :-) ). But, since things operate on my programmed ISY, I'm not tied to whatever preconceived notions Broan has about household air health.

Now that I've converted the Broan to run via Insteon, I found I needed to figure out my house's volume, then refigure the turnon/turnoff times appropriate for the various bathroom vents to create the appropriate change of air routine. In the original device, Broan had preconfigured the switch to come on and turn off periodically throughout the day in accordance to a built in table matching house size to the schedule. I guess that is the only thing that I miss by converting to Insteon plain vanilla devices. Of course,, the advantage is that I can set time of day for all this fan/damper activity to take place...

yes, I received it this morning too.....

Thanks for the response. Indeed, Broan still uses Insteon technology....they've even converted to using the mini-control devices. However, I think you are correct that they use some different firmware.... (Sad.... of course, I could just replace their devices with insteon devices and everything would work fine except for the Broan programmed purge the house scheme....of course, I could just invent my own.... Not sure at all why Broan doesn't use plain vanilla Insteon.)

I have a UDI ISY994i operating my Insteon network in my house. I also have Broan SmartSense Intelligent Ventilation System bathroom fans. The Broan on/off wall switches appear to be Insteon devices, and an insteon device operates a damper in my house ventilation system. When I turn on my masterbath vent fan, an insteon signal goes to all the other bathroom fans in the house and activates them. And, an insteon signal also goes to dampers to allow outside "makeup" air to be admitted into the house. This system means that whenever a ventilation fan tries to operate, it is not sucking against a well insulated house; instead, the damper opens allowing outside fresh air to makeup what is being exhausted through the bathroom vents. My question is: Why are these Broan controllers not supported by the ISY. If I try to link them into my UDI ISY994i, it recognizes their presence on the network, it recognizes their codes, it even recognizes their names (Broan SmartSense Intelligent Vent)…..However, the ISY declares they are "unsupported devices" and refuses to include them in my network. What am I doing wrong? Thanks

My PLM died a couple of weeks ago. Version 1.7, I just received my new PLM, it is version 2.4. I've discovered that I do not need to plug the PLM onto the wild/raw circuits. Instead I have it plugged into my battery backup system which powers all the other security products in my house. (We suffer from periodic power outages and have a backup generator....however, there is a small window of no power when the generator fires itself up.) The battery backup ensures that there are no surges or outages as the household shifts over to generator power or shifts back to line power. I thought, from the PLM manual and also advice I've read here, that I could not plug the PLM into a surge protection device, but instead had to be on the main line in order to ensure good communications with the Insteon switches, outlets, etc. scattered elsewhere throughout the house. However, when I decided to run an experiment and plug the PLM into the battery backup, I discovered that my ISY 994i was communicating fine with about 1/2 my household insteon devices. On a hunch, I decided to leave the PLM in the battery backup and to plug in an access point (a lot cheaper than the PLM) into the wild circuit..... Lo and Behold!!!.... My ISY is happy with every other Insteon device. apparently the PLM's RF signal is good enough to get into the household network of most of the Insteon devices, and the access point connects with the rest. While I intend to do the cap replacement fix to my version 1.7 PLM, I'm hoping to have my new version 2.4 PLM live a long and happy life protected by the battery powered UPS. … Just a FYI...

Thanks for the quick reply!... Does the ISY994 have a Z-Wave box now that will work ok with the Schlage device? (I'm guessing that I'd use the ISY994 as my means for connecting to the internet (and to my house LAN)...but I am still wrestling with which device to use for the Z-Wave interface.) All the rest of the devices in my house are Insteon, and I was planning on buying the plain vanilla ISY994; however, if the ISY994 now has a Z-wave interface, then it would become a good candidate. Thanks for clarifying things

I too am interested in an automated door lock system. It appears the Kwikset locks come in Zigbee as well as Z-Wave flavors. It also appears that Kwikset is the only lock manufacturer that posts status (Morning Industries just responds to signals from the Insteon MorningLinc...but no status info is returned). The Schlage system seems to be exclusively Z-wave, and it appears they want you to sign up for $12/mo to use their web-interface. If/when ISY-994 comes out with a Z-wave module, will that module communicate 2-way with the Schlage? In the meantime, it appears the Kwikset is the only sensible game in town (note that Kwikset also has a bump-resistant key set...which is an important feature for front door security systems that is often not available from other vendors). The big question: When will ISY-994 be able to test two way communications with the Kwikset locks and start advertising compatibility (either Zigbee OR Z-wave)? Thanks