larryllix

That doesn't seem to be available for Canadians. Aartech.ca doesn't recognise the coupon code and UDI won't ship to Canada, that last time I attempted a purchase.

Put a CAO (or other brand) Tag and Tag Manager on your system. It can detect a temperature rise which will not only detect power failure, but any kind of failure, including human failure to close the fridge door.

I first started with BSR units and remote control keypads. The branding was X10, and later the products were bought by a company naming themselves X10. I still have a few of the big brown BSR lamp dimmers from, as a guess the late 1970s or early 1980s? My avatar contains a photo of one lamp device. Later, some software came out to operate the X10 modules via a computer with X10's very basic control boxes, (can't remember the name, Radio Shack CP290?) that had a capacitor or software time base and had to be corrected every week or so. Following that, I discovered a guy in T.O., Canada (Baran Harper company) with software HC2000? that could automate things based on some logic and timers. Ran that for many years on an old 486 PC, and it did well. On that note, I have a story that I likely posted years back but some may find it quite amusing again.... I set up routines to operate when we were on holidays, mostly during the summer. I included routines in the middle of the night to sequentially turn on a bedroom lamp, the stairway lamps, the dining room and kitchen lights, through to the front living room, and then the front porch. Then I reversed the off sequences to appear after somebody looking out the front windows, went back up to bed and turned off lights as they went. About two weeks after our summer vacation away, a neighbour approached me and told me the story about how the neighbourhood people on our court style street, had a meeting on our front porch, discussing whether to kick in the front door. Several neighbours knew we vacationed that week every year, saw somebody walking around in the house, by lighting sequence, but nobody would answer the door after several attempts to get an answer. One neighbour finally convinced the mob to call the police and get a sanction on kicking in the front door. The police arrived and told the mob to all go home, and they would handle it. Nothing ever happened, and no sign of entry was ever found by us....of course. That was a close call, and a lesson about making it look too good, a credit to home automation though. Tell a trusted neigbour. LOL From there I went to an ISY994, and it's talents exceeded previous boxes. Then came an RPI with PG2, and my own custom MagicHome software. Polisy came next, and that is where I sit at this point, with it all ported into the one polISY box. I only have a few Insteon modules running, and now mostly WiFi based MagicHome RGBWW/CW bulbs. I tried Zwave 700 and a few modules, but aborted then into a junk box, some never opened. I didn't like the way it was implemented on ISY994 or the way they communicated.

The usually method we tend to see is to offer a factory discount through the vendor either by coupons to send into the manufacturer in another country or a discount aartech can advertise to promote their wares. Let them pay the shipping charges on their lump wholesale purchase. It must be much cheaper.

Sure. An Eisy with Zmattter comes to $648.61 incl. taxes. Then you may want to add Insteon support using a PLM. It's getting very expensive compared to my original $99 ISY994 outlay. I already have 2 x ISY994s and 2 x PolISYs. The PLMs would be reusable.

Ecobee typically puts deals on stats with the remotes included. The remotes are good for occupancy detection but not lighting control due to their very slow response. I have mixed feelings about using remotes for temperature regulation and have enabled some and then disabled them again. There are a few logical problems with the technique. However, the remote temperature detection is good for setting up your air flows etc. as good information. Jimbo's ecobee NS is excellent and very reasonable to purchase.

Should we be putting a special clause in our wills to allocate some funds for home automation maintenance for the next ten years?

I know the feeling. However my wife knows if it was all disconnected, very few bulbs would work and dimming 10 lamps individually and having to turn on a lamp in the middle of the night to do a bathroom run would be a hardship. Oldest son, being in the industry and a University trained and degree'd systems analyst, refuses to write any code for the last 15 years so that would be out. hmmmm..maybe my 40 years of babbling (delete cursing) made some impression with her?.......not likely....yes dear.

Their monitor screens with the canned responses have no AI. However, many humans have no logic either. It's just a paycheque if they can pass the English exam.

I always ended up with same technique for these sensing feedback type controls. First program does a continuous timer cycle with insurances to make sure it always triggers starting on startup and several times per day. Only calls second program. Second program is disabled and only determines if a long run cycle or short or no cycle is required For my humidifier the cycle was always 5 minutes shorter than programs 1's cycle time and also checked if it was heating season. ie. 55 minutes run every 1 hour to allow wick to soften more and absorb to the top of wick. Sent from my SM-G781W using Tapatalk

ditto here. I had to bounce it off Akexa support a few years back. I got the same ghosting as most others but then they began working again. Of course the first time it took months but a year or so later they started working again the next day. As always amazon support never got back to me. This hasn't happened to me in the last two years? now...fingers crossed. If you have checked both ends of the logic and the routines have the enabled switches on then it is Amazon's server at fault. I can't believe this crap is still happening after so many support complaints regarding this same problem. Sent from my SM-G781W using Tapatalk

While I have found no need to reboot my polisy after an update for the ISY software to run correctly, I have found most times my own personal bridge software tends to act weird until my polisy is rebooted after polisy firmware updates. I see no reason for the two softwares to interact as the both run as completely separate tasks with their own threading. However they do share the python 3 compiler/interpreter. Sent from my SM-G781W using Tapatalk

Read my post again. This sounds like exactly what I described. Check if your Alexa app routines related to your ISY Portal pseudo devices are still enabled. Again. When you disconnect accounts, Alexa disables routines that are using the devices that do not exist during that MIA period. I found many times that I had to redefine the devices being used in the Alexa app when I disconnect accounts. A few have discovered it can be done for very short periods without connection damage in the past. Other routines using non Portal devices would not be affected as they were never deleted.

If you have ever disconnected your accounts temporarily the Alexa app may have disabled all your routines due to pseudo devices MIA for a short while. I previously found my routines disabled in the Alexa app for various reason. It doesn't seem to happen in the last few years though.

Polisy updated to v5.8.0. It must have updated later somehow after I viewed the lack of install for over 10 minutes??? Very weird. However, the IoX Finder complained about the mismatch between polISY and the A/c and asked if I would like to update my IoX Finder....very nice touch!!! Still an old outstanding bug needs fixing.

Updated this morning and it appears to have rejected the update beeping a second d beep about 15 seconds later. Shows v5.7.1 still but I didn't click on the trial releases either. Still no fix for unnamed notifications in programs. Still listed by numbers only. Sent from my SM-G781W using Tapatalk

What is stopping you from accessing your admin console?

Where ya' gonna' run to? Rpi, with it's SD card, that fails after X writes? and possibly user fees to support commercial sales and/or usage? An old PC that fills up with dust and requires a constant fan running, taking up a whole shelf full of support devices to access it? Try a price comparison with a few other HA boxes. Yes the hardware price jump seemed excessive but in comparison to the other box prices and support, not much to consider. No UDI boxes are not perfect but open enough and friendly enough for me. Don't like java? Maybe get rid of your vehicle then.

amazon.com has many Matter/WiFi bulbs being advertised now. Matter is just another protocol and these bulbs do not use Z-Wave or Zigbee. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Matter+bulbs&crid=39B4Q8KVXZ5BE&sprefix=matter+bulbs%2Caps%2C147&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

I cancel prime in January every year with no repercussions. Alexa boxes are not dependent on Prime memberships. Sent from my SM-G781W using Tapatalk

Native ISY doesn't poll devices. However NS devices are based on the code writer's choice. Insteon signals are all initiated by the end device and no polling should ever need to take place, middle of the night queries excepted.

"Control" detects the device pushbuttons have changed, while 'Status' detects the state of the electronics controlled from anywhere, has changed..

How often do you switch an On/Off module at the device that Control would detect it?

Try doing a Restore on that device. As I always understood it, Control and Status reports come in on different channels from an Insteon device and one link can be bad while others still work OK.

I think we were told about 5 years ago that the Admin Console would not get any more improvements, due to it being converted away from a java base. However, many features have been added since, to incorporate the billing structure and PGx items, so maybe not improvements, per se. If, and when, the AC ever gets using HTML5, CSS3+, and javascript, so many hackers will be creating their own versions and extensions to the A/C due to it's huge base of language educated people in the world.