lilyoyo1

I'm speaking on the physical pressing of the button. That's normally indicative of the triac going out.

It's possible the trial inside burnt out which is why the lights pipe still works but the switch itself doesn't

The good thing is that elk can be used with the Isy vs dependant on the isy. I use the Isy for convenience vs the alarm system itself. I would suspect most do the same. It's a risk vs reward situation

I've never tried 2 Isy's with 1 system but I do not see why it wouldn't work at least with the elk. I would personally stick with elk due to its native isy support vs relying on a nodeserver. With native support, the isy itself (or elk) has to crash for things to stop working. When it comes to the nodeserver, more things can go wrong; such as the nodeserver not connecting or running, the RPI or polisy (while a separate device) crashes, hardware, etc. I would imagine you would program the alarm itself to function outside of the isy and automation so you would still be protected. However, anything the isy controls would be lost which can effect experience

I would agree with dbwarner5. You don't want the sensor directly linked to the light.

You may not be able to give an automation system a task like a person but you can program them to do what you want them to do. No different than airplane systems being programmed to do certain tasks. That's what I did. I kept track of our habits and programmed based on that. Because lifestyles evolve, anything we do manually, I look for ways to automate that task so that we don't have to. To me, it's less work to program something and not worry about it afterwards, rather than constantly react to stuff that could've happened automatically. Programming is one and done. Notifications and potential responses is often.

It should since he's using control. That's the condition that will start the then portion. There's nothing in it to cause it to reevaluate and stop except the time which will run the or else

He doesn't want the "not switched off" since he's using the then statement to turn off the light. However since he only wants it on during those hrs the or else would turn off the light at sunrise

You're calling for it to set the device level. Is this device part of a scene or by itself? If it is part of a scene, simply say Then: turn scene on Or else: turn scene off

You have 1 hr before sunset to 1 hr After sunset the NEXT day. It'll trigger all day

To each their own. I'm the opposite in that I want it to do what it does without any input. For me, its 99% automation and 1% notification. I didn't spend all this time and money simply to trade manual control to hear stuff going on constantly. I get how you feel about it. Automation for me is like work. I believe in hiring the right people for the job, get out their way and let them do it. They only come to me when necessary instead of reporting every move.

I can understand that. Mine is setup for a temp range. Once outside of that, it'll put it back into range vs a single set temp

That's what I do with mine. Less work on my end.

I'm confused. Are you saying that you'll manually change a thermostat then ask your voice assistants to confirm a change you just made at your thermostat that was right in front of you?

They are aware of it. I'm sure they'll get to it eventually

I don't believe the nodeservers support hue motion sensors. Just the lights

I was speaking to someone about their post not about how your system is setup. There are ways around the ISY's perceived shortfalls that could help ease your worries. You could choose to implement what others do or not. It's your choice. At the end of the day, the isy is not currently setup in the way you'd like regardless of reasons. We can all debate about the whys and what ifs but it is what it is and it's not changing anytime soon. If your concern is that great, it may be better to think outside the box to accomplish what you desire using methods others use or take a chance with giving others your credentials. Being closed to any other alternative still doesn't help your position

I agree with all of this. If I cant trust a guest to leave my system alone, they do not need to be in my house at all. Separate user access is not my concern at all due to my previous comment. The fact is, Ive designed my system in a way where an app is not needed while in the house. With keypads on the walls, next to the bedsides as well as voice control, there is no reason for anyway to use an app to turn something on/off

Cutting power to the Xbox at the wrong time could potentially damage the console by corrupting the hard drive. That is one thing to consider. Taking that into consideration, you could use a Harmony hub along with the Harmony nodeserver to turn off the console. Granted, he could remove the pieces that allows that but regardless of how things are done the same would hold true for other options as well. If the time limit doesn't change, there are multiple ways you can program this. Simply let an outlet turn off the Xbox at a set time, or run for a period of time during certain hrs, voice control, or a combination of all. If you already have a zwave network, you could use a plug in module capable of detecting energy use. Then you can say If time is from 5pm to 11pm & Xbox is on, then wait 2 hrs and turn off. Or Plug the Xbox into a Standard outlet and simply let the game turn off at bedtime. If time is 11pm then turn off outlet If you want voice control only You'd still use an outlet (or Harmony) and set up Alexa like you would any other device. You don't necessarily need the then if you don't want to turn it on with Alexa. However if you're turning it off, I'm sure you would want some way to turn it on so that he could use it. This would automatically turn the outlet on at 8 and allow you turn it on via voice for whatever reason. By putting a wait in the or else, when Alexa runs that program, the wait will trigger prior to actually triggering the off. If time is 8am Then: turn on outlet. Or Else: wait 60 minutes and turn Xbox off. If you want to have different time limits, you would need to use variables and add each to Alexa. However, the problem I've found with voice assistants is that too many like sounding things will cause more headaches than what it works. Having 1 or 2 set times would probably work best

What is your use for this? There may be other ways to accomplish what it is you're looking for

As stated, use control. By using status, the sensor must be "on" for in order to trigger the wait. It works at 30 seconds because it's probably within the timeout period before the sensor changes to off

Ask it to do that and see what happens. Depending on your use case, you can program the isy to do that for you

You might want to search other forums to find out about lifespan of other products. There are many people swapping out zwave devices in the same time frame....sometimes less. Ditto for controllers. The grass isn't always greener. But then again, you never know until you try. Some zwave devices have some novel features that insteon doesn't have. However none really work as well as insteon basic/core features which in the end matter most when it comes to lighting. As mentioned earlier. Extra taps are just too much. The most we use is 2 and that generally when a switch serves dual purpose such as my patio kpl. A single tapnsets the patio up for my wife. A dbl tap sets it up for me. I try to program things so that it's intuitive and as close to normal as possible It's not whether your logic is flawed or not. If you want something then that's what matters. I would be honest with yourself and ask if what you gain is worth what you lose. The popcorn effect is a non starter for me. I don't care what features something has. Where you are flawed is running a separate controller for insteon and another for zwave. Unless you join the 2 as 1 network, it will be a subpar system.

It really depends on why you're switching out and what you are looking to get from zwave. No protocol is perfect. I'm with @simplextechin that insteon is better for lighting and zwave for everything else....specifically sensors and locks. IMO, insteon is much easier to setup and definitely more versatile. Zwave can offer more features depending on product but there are still many gotchas with it as you can see such as associations. Getting the most out of either really comes down to the skill and imagination of the programmer.

All those caveats..... Gotta love it