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LeeG - We must be thinking of different commands. What you outlined didn't ring any bells as being something I had written in my own code, so I pulled it up to check. The command I used was the options command (CMD1 = 0x1f) and setting bit 4. That turned on or off all of the back light. When that bit is set to have the back light turned on, then the LED levels that you can currently set in the ISY would have effect. However, if that bit is set off, then the LED levels you can set in the ISY didn't seem to make a difference. (They were probably being set, but since that option command seems to be the ultimate on/off switch, it didn't show anything.) So, while I understand the complications with the command you had in mind, it doesn't seem like the same thing exists with the command I had in mind.

Has anyone considered using the Z-wave module to achieve the same basic things? I am finishing my basement, and have an A/V "closet" that I am going to put some gear in. I am mostly concerned about the temp, so I wanted to do something similar to what is being discussed here. Basically, turn on an exhaust fan when it gets too warm. Yesterday I ordered a Z-wave temp/hum sensor off Amazon because it is less than half the price of an IOLinc with the temp sensor package on SmartHome.com. Since the Z-wave stuff is so new, I know I may be in for a rude awakening when I get the sensor. (i.e. It may not work.) But, it seems like this could be a potential solution to this type of problem.

How do we go about putting in requests for variables we would like to see? I've been hacking on my own little notification app for Android (both because I am cheap, and because I have some ideas I want to implement that don't exist in the current options), and adding certain values would make adding notifications easier. As an example, I want to know when any window in my basement is opened or closed. As long as I am fine with a generic message saying "A window is open" or "A window is closed", I can do it with two network resources. However, what I would really like is the ability to set the message to indicate which device triggered the network resource, and what state it is in. Then, I could have a single message along the lines of "Windows $triggering_device is $state." and use that for all of the different notifications I need. Is something like that in the plans?

I've been messing with the keypadlincs myself lately, and also have some experience with low level Insteon messages. There *IS* an Insteon command that will turn off all of the lights on the KPL. I don't know if the ISY guys have chosen not to implement it, or if it wasn't available at the time the KPL drivers were originally written. (Or both.) However, from what I have observed, the code doesn't seem to be used by the ISY. (Or, I have not figured out how to use it yet. I'm a bit of a newbie.) If you happen to have a Linux box kicking around, and you wouldn't mind hooking your PLM up to it and running a few commands, I can point you to an Insteon daemon I wrote and give you instructions on how to turn the lights off. Once you do that, they should stay off unless you factory reset the device. You could then hook your PLM back up to the ISY and I would expect they would remain off. If any of the ISY guys are reading this, I would love to see a feature request for this capability. I think it has some real usefulness. I mentioned in another thread that I used the total backlight on/off state for an indicator of my garage door being open or closed. That idea seems to be unpopular, but another place I used it was for a KPL in my bedroom. It is nice to have the LEDs all lit most of the time, however, when I turn out the lights to go to bed the KPL is EXTREMELY bright. Right now, I am trying to set the backlight and buttons to 0, and it seems to turn off the backlight, but the buttons remain at full power. This decreases the brightness, but I liked it even more when it just went completely off. Also for the ISY guys, I suspect you know which command does this already, but if you are unsure, I can look it up in my old code and let you know.

Are you trying to change the local on level? If so, the scene must be equal to the device you are trying to change the on level on (when you click on the scene, it will say Applied Locally). This said, older switches require a REBOOT before changes take effect. See above. I've been using these switches with dimmed on levels using some of my own code, so they don't seem to be the type that require rebooting for the settings to take. By making the master bathroom lights switch the target "scene", I was able to get it working the way I would expect. However, I have at least one dimmer (2476D - SwitchLinc Dimmer W/Beeper v.38) that I am unable to pick as a "scene". The ISY seems to know it is a dimmer though because I have the options to set the on level under "Main" when I select the device. Is this a bug? Or is there something I need to do to a switch like that to make it show up? I'm also having trouble wrapping my mind around the behavior for switches that are cross-linked to act as a 3-way switch. I have that set up in my hall way, and want to be able to dim the lights there in the evening as well. If I set the device that is controlling the load as the target scene and set the on-level, that switch will turn the light on to the desired level as I would expect. However, the slave switch doesn't show up as a valid target for a "scene", so I instead set the scene to be the scene I set up in the ISY to cross-link the two switches, and then set the device to be the slave switch. However, when I operate the slave switch, it is still turning the light on to 100%. This doesn't seem like the behavior I should see in that case. So how should it be set up? 1. I do not think you want to use Backlight level which is applied TO ALL the buttons and is basically the brightness level of the buttons. What you want to do instead is to put the button that you need to control inside a scene and then turn on/off the scene based on the condition 2. Although in this case you should be OK, but - and just for the sake of recovery after power outage - it's best to have two different programs with opposite conditions (one for Then and one for Else). With kind regards, Michel I actually do want to use it in the manner you outline in #1. The idea is that nothing on the key pad is lit when the garage is closed, but the backlight and any buttons in the "on" state are lit when it is open. Since this keypad sits right next to the head of my bed, I generally don't want it lit up as it would bother me while I try to sleep. Since I don't want to go to sleep while the garage is open, having it light up when I am trying to sleep is a perfect distraction. In a nutshell, when I manually trigger the "then" or "else" case, the keypadlinc lights up exactly how I want it to. But, for some reason, when the garage should trigger it, the result is that the keypad is always on. Last night I grabbed some level 3 event traces to try to see what was going on, but I have not had time to sit down with those and the developer documentation to see exactly what commands are being sent. However, it did appear that the ISY saw the on/off event from the IOLinc, and it attempted to send something to the keypadlinc. So, my question was mainly if there was anything obvious that I was missing in my program. But, other than splitting it in to two programs, it sounds like I at least have the right general idea.

I'm a newbie to the ISY, and trying to figure out some of the programs/scenes that I used with a previous controller. For the fairly straight-forward programs, things have made sense and I have gotten them working. Unfortunately, there are two programs that I just can't seem to get to behave. The first is a program that should set the on level for certain lights in my house. The program itself is fairly simple, but here is a super stripped down version that would only control one light as I suspect the problem is my understanding of how things should work. The program looks like this : If Time is 8:00:00PM Then In Scene 'Master Bathroom Lights' Set 'Main Floor / Master Bedroom / Master Bathroom Lights' 33% (On Level) Else - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action') When I run that program while running the event viewer at level 3, I see it communicating with the light switch, so I know that it is communicating okay. However, when I walk in to the bathroom and flip the switch, the lights still come on at 100% and in the admin console I am still seeing the local on-level set to 100%. Looking through the Insteon commands that are sent, it appears that what is happening is the PLM is having its ALDB record changed to set the default on-level for that light when it is controlled from the PLM and not when it is controlled manually. When I use the on-level slider in the admin console, I see it sending the command that would be used to set the on level directly at the switch. Interestingly enough, I have a different device in the house that does seem to do what I want. The key difference is that "scene" it references is the device itself rather than a scene with the typical three dots icon. However, I can't seem to figure out how to get it to do the same thing for the other lights I want to control. What am I missing? The second issue is with controlling the back light on a keypadlinc based on the open/close state of the garage based on a sensor connected to an IOLinc. (Backlight should be on when the garage is open, off when it isn't.) Since I have a program that turns on the garage lights when it is open and after sunset, and it works, I used the same basic program for that to attempt to control the backlight. That program looks like this : If Status 'Main Floor / Garage / Garage Sensor-Sensor' is Off Then Set 'Main Floor / Master Bedroom / Kpl1' On 15 / Off 7 (Backlight Level) Else Set 'Main Floor / Master Bedroom / Kpl1' On 0 / Off 0 (Backlight Level) Now, this is where it seems to get a little weird. When I right click that program in the Programs -> Details tabs and run either the "Then" or "Else" case the keypadlinc does what I would expect. (Though not quite exactly what I want, but one thing at a time.) However, when I open or close the garage door, the keypadlinc will come on and stay on as if the "Else" portion never gets run. Is anyone else running something like this that has managed to get it working?