Bill Morrow

I live with an older parent who does not always remember to lock the door. The neighbourhood is safe enough, but neighbours have had people walk in off the street and walk out with anything laying around, while they were in the backyard. So I'm looking for an insteon lock that would alert me when the lock is open. I don't want the keypad or even the RF remote, although I would still like some way to lock the door remotely. What's a good quality, reliable and secure option?

I was playing with Teken's issue, as I want to do similar things. I came up with the following snippet to make Julie repeat herself N times: Temperature Sound - [iD 0015][Parent 0014] If $C_Sound > 0 And From Sunrise + 3 hours To 11:59:00PM (same day) Then Resource 'Snow Warning' Wait 2 minutes $C_Sound -= 1 Else $C_Sound = 0 C_Sound is a State variable that I set in another program. Set it to 5 and your program, a network resource in my case will repeat 5 times. Since I'm doing voice announcement, I also check to make sure it's a reasonable hour. I'm using two minutes for the interval here, but I'll be using 30 minutes in real life. I also set my state to 0 if it gets outside my reasonable time zone.

Yeah, I'm just getting into this, so I'm just assuming it would run as long as the conditions were true. I did see the comment about the polling interval above. I saw a script that polls several weather stations in case they are out of date, I assume you could modify it to find a weather station that has the condition you want. You document was very helpful, it saved me a lot of time, even with my SD corruption. Apparently you should not test the new announcement system at 3 AM however. LOL.

Hi, the code is just a sample I 'borrowed'. I would actually put my Network Resource here. Polling interval is 300 I believe, I just installed it. I could make it higher, but there might be other things I want to poll more often, say a tornado warning. I saw an interesting script that someone wrote to poll multiple weather stations and set variables in their ISY. It was being run on an RPi as I recall. Thanks for the advice.

OK, now that I have Julie making visitor announcements thanks to Thantar and Teken, I want to work on my climate announcements. So I saw this code as an example of a snow announcement, but I'm also interested in a freezing rain warning: If Module 'Climate' Dew Point < 32 °F And Module 'Climate' Humidity > 80 % And Module 'Climate' Temperature <= 40 °F Then Run Program 'Snow Probable' (Then Path) Else - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action') The one thing I'm not sure of is how to stop the announcement every 5 seconds. I assume I need to set a variable and don't run the program once variable is set. The variable would need to be reset after an hour or so. You also don't want announcements at 3 in the morning either, but that's a pretty simple fix.

I could waste some serious time just playing with the voices. I'm kinda fond of Bridget.

Yeah, I crossed the USB bridge yesterday. Fortunately I had one for for one of my UPSs. Did not solve my problem, but Brian pointed me in the right direction.

OK, the lights are at half power now. I was considering using the ISY PLM, but after the restore issues I just went though, I think I'll repair my dead PLM. I will need it one day soon anyway. Thanks

Very Kewl. My file-server runs 24/7 so it could host eSpeak. I also have a few Pi laying around.

Yeah I get that. So do I need two PLMs? One for the utility module and the one for the EZIO8SA? The documentation does not read this way.

No, but that is next. This unit has never been used. I can connect to it with the utility, but when I go to the EZIO8SA tab it can't find any devices. I gather it's trying to look at the link table, since you can't connect to the PLM and the EZIO8SA at the same time. The documentation is pitiful.

Thanks, but I already have a few evoxcon boards I bought from SmartHome when they were selling out. I was just hoping to save some time. They still have them on eBay for a scary price.

I used to use wireless audio with my X10 and HomeSeer to make voice announcements of the motion sensors outside. This was really useful and worked well. Bur since it was wireless, it got a little annoying when the neighbors started watching porn wirelessly at 2:00 AM. I have a few cheap audio ICs that let you record a few seconds of voice and let you play different messages based on the input. I was going to use these with an EZIO, but if someone has already built one.

I just setup my EZIO8SA to work with my wired motion sensors, but it seems to be sending X10 signals. I get a B9 Bright for the front door. Do I need to use the Smartenit utility or will the three off commands in a row solve my problem?

Thanks, I didn't see your reply above before I wired it up. The dimmer ended up in box 3, because it has more room. I'm going to have to replace box 2 at some point as it's not really big enough for all of the connectors. The neutral bundle (5 wires) really s/b split into two bundles and pig-tailed. The box has two large spikes holding it to the stud, replacing these with screws would likely give me enough room without going to a deep box. Next step is linking them all, but I've seen a few threads outlining this procedure. Thanks again for your help.

Thanks, I'll try removing the bulbs next that next and testing continuity again. I disconnected all wires from boxes two and three and still had power at box one, so the outlet is not providing power. Interestingly, B2B, W2W @ Box 1, B2B, W2W @ Box 2 and B2Line, W2Load, R2Neutral @ Box 3 (Switch) provides power to Red (NC) at Box 2 when the switch @ 3 is on. But no light of course, So this is not the Load as I expected. Update: The Load is between 3WW out Box 2 and 3WR in Box 3.

Thanks for your help oberkc, don't give up now. Yes the switches control a ceiling fixture, which is inaccessible due to it's height and weight. I'm pretty sure the outlet is a red herring, but my next step is to disconnect it to make sure it's not part of the equation. I just hate playing with the aluminum wiring more than necessary as it's so brittle. I was hoping my Ohm meter would help to identify which of the 3 conductor wires were connected to the load, but the results were inconclusive. I guess I'll get an extension cord and plug in the wires from box 3 until I see the light.

Box1: Line - 2WB-in Neutral - 2WW-in 3WB-out to 3WB in Box 2 Line 3WW-out to 3WW in Box 2 Neutral 3WR-out to 3WR in Box 2 Traveler Box 2: 3WB-in from 3WB out Box 1 Line 3WW-in from 3WW out Box 1 Neutral 3WR-in from 3WR out Box 2 1 Traveler 3WB-out to 3WB in Box 3 Line? 3WW-out to 3WR in Box 3 ??? 3WR-out to 3WW in Box 2 ??? Box 2 to 3 connections were confirmed with an Ohm Meter and cable with all other wires disconnected. I had thought that Box2 3WW out along with Box3 3WR in but this brings no joy. Box3: 3WB-in from 3WB in Box 2 Line? 3WW-in from 3WR in Box 2 ??? 3WR-in from 3WW in Box 2 ??? All boxes have power, but load is not controlled.

I don't believe this is your setup. The 2-conductor cable in box 2 runs to the fixture. I don't believe you travellers route through the fixture box. Wire to the outlet is copper, everything else is aluminum, it definitely goes to the outlet and was added later.

I believe that you can assume one of your 2-wire cables is supply, and the other goes to the fixture. If you believe (you should measure this to be sure) box one includes supply, then the cable in box 2 goes to the fixture. If the routing of the 2-wire into the bottom of the box makes you suspect that it does not go to fixture, this makes it even more important to measure things. Does the 2-wire in box 1 come into the top or bottom of the box? In box 1, you state that "travelers" (plural) are not connected. Which are the travelers? In box 2, you state that switch red is to red. Which one (are there not two?) Regardless, this would be incorrect. If, as I suspect, box two has the feed to the fixture, then switch red should be connected to the black from the 2-conductor cable. How did you confirm this? As I understand your wiring description, red would NOT be neutral...white would be. Your lighting circuit does not work because it is not wired correctly. None control the light, because you have none connected to the light. I suggest removing everything and starting over. Expose all the wires, none touching another. Temporarily energize the circuit and measure which have power. Identify where the remaining wires go. Diagram it on paper. ONce you understand the wiring, reconnect everything, keeping black as supply, white as neutral, using red where necessary. Yeah, I'm working on figuring out what goes where now. See msg below for what I know so far.

I've confirmed that the 2-wire conductor in Box 2 goes to the outlet with my Ohm meter. So I'm pretty sure I have this setup http://www.homeimprovementweb.com/infor ... ption3.htm where switch 2 is between switch 1 and the light. So the 3-wire from switch 2 goes to the light and continues on to switch 3.

Thanks, I think we're close on this: I think Box 1 is accurate. I have to confirm that the 2-wire here is power, but I'm 99% on this. Box 2 has me confused, as the 2-wire comes in from the bottom of the box and not the ceiling as I would have expected. I've confirmed in Box 3 that Black is Line, Red is Neutral and White is? All three switches have power now, but none control the light.

My bad, Switch 1 and Switch 3 do have power as I suspected. So how do I fix Switch 2? Replace it with a manual 3 way and leave it turned on?

OK, so I had my 4-way switch wired with X-10 previously and decided to upgraded it to Insteon, 2876DB. Box 1 has 2-wire power (BW) and a 3-wire cable (RWB) Box 2 has 1 3-wire cable (RWB) Box 3 has 2 3-wire cables (RWB) and a 2-wire power cable (BW) - output to the outlet below X10 was wired as follows: Box 1 - Momentary switch wired to Traveler and Blacks, Neutrals wired together Box 2 - All three wires connected to Leviton 6383 Box 3 - Momentary switch wired to Travelers and Blacks, Neutrals wired together Insteon is wired as follows: Box 1 - Switch Black to Blacks, Switch White to Neutrals, Travelers not connected Box 2 - Switch Black to Black, Switch White to White, Switch Red to Red Box 3 - Switch Black to Blacks, Switch White to Neutrals, Travelers not connected None of the switches have power ATM. I think I get why I'm screwed at Switch 2 (no power), but I don't get why Switch 1 has no power? I suspect the Leviton was drawing power through the light. I'll dig out the multi-meter to figure out switch one, but how can I wire Switch 2?