Jay M

My current house has an ISY 994 and it's working well with over 50 Insteon devices. I'm remodeling our new/future house and plan to use mostly all new Insteon devices with an Eisy controller. Can one Portal account handle both houses? I don't want to migrate or import anything, I want to start with a clean slate in the new house. What would you suggest? Buy a second portal account and and cancel the old one when I'm out of the old house, or can I use one account for both houses? Thanks, ~Jay

It worked! Thanks everyone I restored the outlet and now the button and the scene works. ~Jay

Thanks. I'd bet $1 that that's going to work ~Jay

Thanks, I'll try that. What exactly does "restore device" do?

Thanks for the reply. I did read about updating. I think I’ll wait until it’s an absolute need because it does look like a potential nightmare. For now, I’m just using an Alexa routine for the fountain timer. I don’t really need to button to work if Alexa can turn the fountain on and off. Tonight I’ll unplug the fountain and low-voltage lights and see if that solves the problem. I’d consider dumping Insteon and getting a fresh start with something more modern, but I can’t think of any viable replacements. Plus, replacing 40+ devices will be very time consuming and not cheap. Things Insteon has that I really like: keypads Insteon relay that I use to shut off the water main Insteon sensors to tell me if a door is open Insteon leak sensors that can shut off the main water line and notify me of a leak. The Insteon dual outlet clean IR integration with the 994ir wireless Insteon remote What other platform can do all that?~Jay

The firmware match, they are both 4.9.0 I might try to update it. ~Jay

I have a dual outlet 2663-222. The top is for a fountain, and the bottom is for low voltage lights. The bottom outlet works as expected, but the top one does not. I want the fountain to be part of a scene that responds to Alexa, an 8-button keypad, and an all lights off scene. When I press the button on the keypad, the admin console shows that the top outlet is ON, I press it again and it says OFF. But the outlet isn't actually responding. If I go directly to the device, I can turn it on and off. For now, I can use Alexa if I control the device directly, but not part of a scene. I did delete and create a new scene, but that didn't solve the problem. do you have any suggestions? Thanks, ~Jay

that worked. Deleting devices on the Alexa app is not very intuitive. But I figured it out, and it's working now. Jay

I have many scenes and devices all working well with Alexa. But one, called "Mater Bedroom", won't work. Alexa responds by saying "I had trouble communicating with provider. Check your device's connection and power supply." What's going on? What could be wrong with this scene? thanks, ~Jay

WOW! that's a lot for me to digest. Thanks for so much time and detail you gave. I'll baby-step my way into it. My first concern, is that version 5 is still in beta. But maybe it's stable enough now? My other concern is that my brain does not work like the brain of a typical computer programmer. I can barely create simple programs to make my lights do what I want! But, I use my Sonos every day, and it might be worth the effort to make it easier and more convenient for the whole family. One I'm ready to tackle this, I'll be back with many questions. thanks, ~Jay

I just learned that I can control Sonos with my Insteon Keypad. This is great news now that Sonos no longer supports their own controllers. I was able to use the Insteon hub to get some control, but it wasn't very reliable. In most cases, ISY does things better, as it should considering the enormous cost difference. I searched the forum, but I can't seem to grasp what steps are required to make Sonos control happen. The control I would like is: -play/pause button -volume up button -volume down button -skip button -favorite stations buttons Is this even possible on the ISY? As a bonus, it would be nice if I could also program my IR remote to control the Sonos through ISY and Insteon. thanks, ~Jay

thanks for the detailed instructions! I'll give it a try tonight when I get back home. I'm sure I'll have some followup questions. ~Jay

Now that I have the portal and Alexa working, I want to do this: When I'm ready to leave the house, I'll Say "Alexa, turn Away lights on." Then I'll open the front door, close it behind me, and leave. Later, when I return, I'll want the scene I call "mood" to turn on when I open the front door. Basically, Away tuns most of the lights off, and mood sets all the living room lights where I like them. How can I program this? I assume, I'll need to have the return home program be triggered by the door sensor. In that case, the program will need to ignore the door sensor for a short period of time until after I leave the the house. Otherwise, as soon as I open the door to leave, the lights will turn back to mood. Thanks, ~Jay

So I bought the portal. It's more steps than I like, but it's works REALLY well! Now I need help with a new program... maybe it deserves it's own thread... I create a new one. thanks! ~Jay

thanks for the heads up. I'll let you know how this progresses. ~Jay

So I decided to take the easy way out. Amazon has the Hub + 2 lamp modules for $48. The setup was really fast and easy. I really wish UDI could make the ISY so easy to use. It took less than an hour to install and set up the Hub, drill and mount 2 hidden door senors, add and place 4 leak sensors. It took a few minutes to figure out how to get notifications to my Apple Watch without also getting email, but it's done. It took about 30 minutes to get Alexa to turn on my kitchen lights using the Hub. I wasn't sure if having Echo integration was worth the hassle, but I got goose bumps the first time I was able to speak and see light turn on! Now I can see the benefit of having the Echo work with the ISY because of all the scenes that have been so carefully created. The Amazon echo scenes kind of reminded me of the old X10 days where one light at a time would respond. So I think I'll continue to use the Hub for notifications, and then try to figure out the ISY for Echo integration. One shortcoming of the Hub is that it is really difficult to get old devices to work with it. I don't mind its limitations for how cheap it is and how easy and fast it is to set up, but it really should work at least as well with older devices as the ISY does. ~Jay

Thanks for the replies. I don't know that technical word, but in iOS, there are setting for things called notifications. For instance, at my moms house she has a system called SkylinkNet that will send a notification banner to my iPhone every time she opens a door. I would buy the same system for my house, because it's inexpensive and works very well. But it doesn't have the ability to interact with Insteon. Integration with Insteon might be useful in my house. Does the portal include an iOS app to control things and send notifications? I already own Mobilink Pro, but some days it works, other days it doesn't. I think it works about half of the times I try to use it. I would like an app that works every day, or at least 90% of the time. ~Jay

The ISY is awesome for me in many ways. It's super powerful, and for what I'm doing now, easy enough to use. I basically use it to create scenes, set switchlink preferences, and create programs. I also use it as my IR to Insteon interface. The next step for me seems to be too complicated with the ISY. The two things I want to do now: -Echo integration -security notifications on my iPhone and Apple Watch. Adding the portal service which costs about as much as a refurbished Insteon Hub, appears to be a very complex process. Whereas the Insteon hub already has Echo and iPhone integration built in. I have not tried the Portal service yet, but after reading about it, it seems way more complicated than it should be. Watching videos and reading about setting up the Hub looks as easy as I would expect from any modern connected device. Would you agree? What I really want is a way to get notifications from leak sensors and door sensors that pop up on my iPhone and Apple Watch. An email or a text isn't what I want. I can almost imagine having the Hub do only security and the ISY do only lighting. But I would like the ISY to also be able to make use of the door and motion sensors. When use the term "security", I mean light monitoring. The area I live in doesn't really require a real alarm system. Am I asking for trouble by having both the ISY and the Hub in the same house? What are you thoughts? thanks, ~Jay

I ran the test. and some things failed. I'll attach the log. thanks for your help! ~Jay ISY-Events-Log.v4.5.1__Thu 2016.12.15 06.12.30 PM.txt

I just tried that too... Neither keypad responds when click the ON button on a scene in the admin console. The scene does work though. ~Jay

I double checked, and they are all set correctly. for example, scene A - -all the dimmers are set to their desired level -button A is the controller -buttons 1, B, C, and D for both keypads are set to 0. Each keypad works within itself, but the other won't respond. ~Jay

I have two keypads in the same room to control scenes. -they are all set to non-toggle. -they are 6 button keypads. -I have included all of the buttons for both keypads in all of the scenes. Button A will set the lights to scene A, and also turn off the LEDs on buttons 1, B, C, and D. On that particular keypad. The problem is that the other keypad's LEDs don't change. I've included the buttons from both Keypads in all of the scenes. Am I doing something wrong, or is there a communication problem? thanks, ~Jay

thanks Stu. I hope we won't need to go that route... but in case we do, I'll know what to do. ~Jay

thanks for the followup. I hope we'll be ok. ~Jay

We are using the Insteon motion sensor. I don't know how specific the code is, or how picky the inspector will be. It's my understanding that they are reasonable to work with. We are in LA county. We've spent a fortune on unrelated upgrades because of this one room. We even had to replace fire sprinklers outside, and we needed a new alarm bell! it's crazy. I have no idea why we needed fire sprinkles outside in the first place. I didn't know concrete and asphalt could burn. The new bell makes it harder for birds to make a nest within the bell. If for some reason they don't allow the Insteon motion sensor, then how can we comply with code without screwing everything up? ~Jay