larryllix

Some notes I would like to add for your knowledge using Insteon MS units. When Jumper 5 is on the hardware dials are disabled in the MS. MS has to be put in linking mode before querying or setting options. Two taps to get out. As per PB above, most of us find "On Only" works the best and let ISY decide how long to stay on. With a direct linked scene between MS and Light modules ISY loses some control but the response is really fast. However, ISY programs can, preset values into the scene to adjust brightness to suit your needs based on anything ISY knows. I leave many of my lights responding 100% brightness during the daylight hours because it may be a dull day and also they are LEDs. The 0.005 cents worth of energy to leave them responding 100% for the year is not worth the agro to create complex logic. For testing. A tap of the linking button will toggle the MS status On and Off. Five quick taps will force sending of the current Dark/Light status. Hold under a dark table or in the light for about 3-5 seconds before trying this. Good method to calibrate your dark sensor level. If the MS does really screwy things, factory reset it and use Restore (linking mode). About half of my ten units did weird things until I factory reset them. The other half I reset before even attempting use them (Slow learner) When looking at MS status from anywhere MS status will always show On. 'Control is switched On' the only trigger that can be used. Off never comes. I got a notice of motion in my home once and almost called the cops 'cause I saw every MS showing On instead of viewing program statuses. Looking at more than one proves false trigger from one unit. I have never had false report from any of my 10 Insteon MS units. I thought I had one back a year ago but I believe it caught my bird having a fright attack in his cage abut 25 feet away after car headlights or an indoor mouse flashed his cage.

With the two hardware methods you would probably set one up gor whole house ambient lighting close to your router and hardwire Ethernet to your router. Power may be stolen from a USB port on your router also.

Yes

May not be related but... I just discovered with v5.0.2, if I turn off DHCP in ISY, and assign it the same static IP address, none of my notifications get received. And yet, all local and remote access worked just fine. I had to turn DHCP back on to get notifications out.

There has been many discussions of one against the other. Scenes can control more than one device. Scenes can operate without ISY intervention. Scenes are not as secure with checkbacks as individual device commands Scenes can be faster to operate multiple devices simultaneously Scenes are not well suited to IST intervention with logic. Insteon devices can hold about 255 scenes each. Most of us use both methods in programs. Anything in particular you wanted to know?

That appears to be a nice light sensor with an analogue voltage out. The hard part is getting the analogue into ISY for massaging.

Cool unit. Too bad Insteon doesn't have something like that! The stat would give a local value, of some sort, readout and could be battery operated.

Multiple MS units set to different light sensitivities could act as many steps if calibrated properly. The stat sounds like the best bet. Other than a WC8 board with light sensor or Rpi stuffing analogue values into ISY via the REST interface could do it.

In the Admin Console under the device status page, click on the options and then query. You should find an option there to enable/disable this.

IMHO we know that there is only one flashing circuit in the KPL and that anything flashing will be in unison.

That was my idea at first but he has three devices doing it in the video. Maybe Stu remembers some lightning shot close to his heart that may have damaged PS in the three in that box? That was when my first Switchlinc started flashing to Insteon traffic. A factory reset and going to another PC that can accept the option changes to the Tx LED fixed that. I can't get access to the bottom buttons on my Netbook.

This really appears to be a combination of problems. Something weird inside the devices and a grid power disturbance setting it off. The only thing I can think of that vein is that with less daytime load the disturbance is absorbed by load more during the day. Of course would you see the flashing during the day, anyway? Have to walk the neighbourhood at night with your ears open for strange machine sounds. Stu the Night Stalker PV Panels in neighbourhood? Alt energy inverters creating noisy power when the batteries get low in voltage? Did you indicate you tried a factory reset? If not, I would do it on only one device to know for sure it worked, while the others indicate it's happening. After the v5.0.2 upgrade I would recommend it. Most is fixed and smooth.

I like to add this to the bottom of your Then section. Wait 2 seconds Run program (else) 'MBR_All_Off' That way you can observe your program to see if it is being triggered by your stimuli = Fast Off. Watch your program icons in your program tree. You may have to right click and enable icon colours. As oberKC posted above you can test your tapping speed. If it isn't, then you know to look at your communications with your SwitchLinc dimmer or triggering device. You may be missing a link. Each directions and device that talks to your device or from your device takes a link inside your Insteon device and your PLM.

Another thought I had with the blinking is these devices are not dimmers and perhaps the LEDs have no analogue brightness levels.

When my Switchlinc Dimmers decided to enable LED on Traffic they didn't have a clean blink on and off like Stu's. They were on solid with off flickering that looked like a data bit stream. Since I cannot ever get past 15 seconds of video I suspect I am getting some video artifacts also. Perhaps this is due to not having a dropbox account. As per Xathros, this would definitely be worth checking the options for the SwitchLinc though. Careful though, as I find in v5..0.x I have to do a query once in the options box. Until I query it everything just indicates default option settings. I suspect I may have saved as is options on some devices and forced random settings into them before I realised this.

I don't need to be fast or send any signals to do this. The KPL does it itself every time. I press each button, one at a time in a sequence about 1 second apart, and they all flash simultaneously after I am done. They all finish flashing simultaneously. This is not done with Insteon signals or controls, this is just built into the KPL functions. The LEDs will not respond to any Insteon controls until it's sequence is done. Your KPL appears to be having this functionality being triggered.

If I press all four buttons sequentially, which I do every time for combination entry, they all blink together almost exactly as I see in your video but for a distinct number of flashes....maybe four or five times. Sometimes I observe pairs of buttons coming on slightly ahead of the other two and I assume that is the filming synchro effect maybe. Mine don't do that during my reported blinking. The SwitchLincs are just weird and I can think of no way they could do that from Insteon. Even ISY could not flash three units simultaneously that fast, so hacking would be out, for sure. As Jerlands suggested above some type of common disturbance on your neutral or line feed to affect all three. Breaker contacts going or overheating? I also have some weird effects on my overhead lighting on SwitchLincs. The lights dip for a split second and so fast we thought we were blinking but we can confirm with each other that we both see it most times. It seems to be happening on two or three SwitchLincs at random. Of course LEDs have a fast response to show this dramatically.

Try hitting it with a heat gun / hair dryer and/or some cold spray inside. Perhaps you have PS capacitors going bad n the power supply and certain powerline disturbances set it off? Low/ high voltage during the time period? Edit: after watching your video they don't do what I would call "pulsating". I had images of the LEDs throbbing. They just cleanly blink on and off exactly the same rate as mine do after being pressed. With the Switclincs blinking in unison also this appears like you have initiated the phase tap test and they are responding. I have never seen anything but white LEDs on my switchlincs. Is the color significant, old version, or some mod?

I have three of four SwitchLincs start blinking with Insteon traffic since about v4.3.18 to v4.3.30. Strange that only once access to this option arrived it started happening and they all started this behaviour weeks apart. The first unit to do this was immediately after a very close lightning strike and I thought it was cooked. After a power cycle it worked OK but flashed on Insteon traffic. Two others started randomly in the next few months independently. In the few years I have never seen this happen before and didn't know there was such a feature until I happened upon the options in a newer version.

One of the logistic problems with most of these ideas is that you still need a 120vac receptacle to mount and run an I/OLinc module. This means some kind of wiring box to hold an overcurrent device, a receptacle and connections to hack into your 240vac dryer plug cord anyway. I suppose a small signal cable could be run from the sensing device around the room to the I/OLinc plugged into the nearest 120vac receptacle.

That means opening your appliance and mounting and wiring a relay inside the dryer. most aren't going to do that, may not want to, or are not capable of doing that.. You would require a fused circuit to protect the I/OLinc reducing the overcurrent protection to 15A or less. It will be a bit technical in view of no Insteon product for this application though.

Yes. I am already using one but just brainstorming for people that use 240v dryers. There should be a fairly easy way for others.

May be a problem a gas dryer but... How about detecting the position of a damper totally inside the building inside the non-ferrous vent pipe with a vein switch of some design. Would have to lift the magnet or rotating one on the axle outside the pipe may take less torque.

hmmmm. many reed switches will take AC but if it is "sensitised" with a permanent magnet this may be a problem and the bridge would be needed. This precludes cutting into the conductors and then a small step up voltage or step down current transformer might be needed to get over the double diode voltage drops and then another coil for the reed switch.

I had a thought about this today. I wonder if a few turns of one leg or both legs, opposite wound around a garage door sensor into an I/OLinc would work If they can detect a magnet within 2" it may be sensitive enough for the current to closed the contacts.