larryllix

I have a motion sensor switch (not Insteon) in my guest powder room. Most of my guests are surprised when the lights come on automatically but then turn it off when they leave. Now it doesn't work at all.

I have a box full of X10 modules. I use a few of them in things like China cabinet light and ornaments that have the "who cares?" level of security involved. For the wall switches I won't bother to take the switch cover off to install them, They aren't worth it, piece of junk communication wise and mechanically. I do still use about 7 motion sensors in bedrooms that are guest only status. I am slowly replacing them with Insteon motion detectors that don't require wireless to powerline translators that burn out every few years and only work about 98% of the time. The X10 modules is not required if you don't mind running with X10 code names. I find a delay needs to be inserted after every X10 command as the PLM can send an X10 signal that will clobber the next Insteon signal. They don't play nice with Insteon units. Also the PLM can get so behind on say a flashing light sequence that it can take 60 seconds to get the flashing stopped after stopping the running program. Very slow and it becomes apparent after running Insteon modules. Keep in mind I have these X10 units already so they are free of cost for me to use. If you are thinking of ordering these new and having these shipped, don't waste your money. You can occasionally find people selling boxes of used X10 modules online for a few bucks. I deal with aartech.ca in Canada. They ship fast, are cheaper than US counterparts, and stand behind any problems you have with warranties and investigation of problems with flakey items.

Thank you sensei !

I noticed that since they started charging for false ambulance calls the Clapper stopped advertising on TV.

With Noobs, you can load several different O/Ses and select which ever one you want to boot into. You get a few seconds to change from the last one you booted to. Otherwise the last one will boot up again. I didn't find raspBMC useful for anything but XBMC. The O/Ses are chopped to a minimum. XBMC runs well. Rasbian comes with about 4-5 versions of python and the syntax changes a lot between versions so that many help forums don't. This is similar to different versions of the O/S. Raspbian can be accessed with a remote terminal programme such as PuTTY or with a GUI interface built into Windows called RDC=remote desktop connection. On a very HD monitor you can barely make out the 6 pt system menus font. You will need a KB, mouse and monitor until you set that up loading the other RPi end of RDC.

I have an 88 key MIDI keyboard under my pillow and if I need something I just reach under my pillow and play a particular note to get the task done I want. If I want to pull up a programming language I press C# If I want to turn on the coffee maker I play the note sequence C-A-F-F. If I want to turn on the bedroom sex lights I play an Fminor chord. If I want to raise the heat on the thermostat I play a cool tune. The list goes on and on but I only need to remember the sequence to turn on the monitor and then pull-up the menu with over 500 different commands shown. One simple 88 key keyboard has replaced my single button that used to do everything until my car backed out of the garage and my toilet flushed instead of the garage door opening. My toaster burned my breakfast that day too. The programming may need a little tweaking yet but I am learning to play the piano.

Outdoor reset is typically used when you have milder weather and you have a huge thermal mass involved in your heating radiator, like a large concrete slab. The outdoor temperature is sensed and the temperature of the water is varied to make the heating more gentle and also to not shock the radiator material. In a "bang-bang" style heating system if you turned your thermostat up suddenly, from a cold house, the hot water may crack the slab or in your case "cook" the flooring, perhaps cracking ceramics and/or creating some hotspots and overshooting the setpoint, causing discomfort and wasting energy when you have to open your windows. The water temperature response is controlled by various methods including PWM (pulse width modulation) of the injection pump, variable speed injection pump, or proportional mixing valve to get the temperature of water desired.

You must have a different Mobilinc than I do. My Mobilinc doesn't do anything automatically. If there is a "remote" feature it would be the first I have heard about anything like that. Any hints where I would find this or is this in the iOS app? My thermostats are not Insteon compatible and the RS485 protocol but they talk is not likely to ever talk to any other gadgetry. For the cost of attempting this I may as well leave the heat on full 24/7. I don't see Insteon thermostats that can vary the speed of an injection mixing pump through a communications bus to a mixer panel, with outdoor reset, while cycling an HRV unit on a percentage basis of the time period.

Short of time now but each device has it's own ID and ISY knows where every signal comes from.

I have a few programmed like that. The xxx.auto program does it's thing with different brightnesses, and times, depending on the time of day. The xxx.manual disables the xxx.auto program and has a long timer.....maybe 2-4 hours, just in case, shutoff timer. If somebody, or the timeout, shuts off the light manually it re-enables the xxx.auto program and the light is back on it's auto logic. If all else fails, my bulbs are mostly low power LED or CFL and I have a "shut-down all lights" happen at 4:00 am every night. If your wife likes ironing shirts then the dryer notice isn't worth anything to her. Some of my motion sensors have the Off command active. I don't find it makes any difference except I can tell when the motion was from remote locations. The programs have to be written to accommodate this setting. You seem to have your heart in this but need to justify spending the money. I buy a few hundred bucks worth every good sale at aartech.ca. When it all works too well I come here and chat with fellow hobbyists and noobies with anxieties.

The diagram shows a "C" terminal. That will be your "Common" to the "R". The connections are all there. You just need to run a 5-conductor cable to the thermostat and duplicate the terminal numbers. R-R, W-W1, W2-W2, G-G, C-C.

You really should find the ground point and connect as close as possible to the transformer for the best reliability but you need to prove the 24vac return is grounded first. Meter from R to case for the same voltage but you should still see the connection for best proof.

I think we understand. Your heart and brain are having an argument. I don't use controls everywhere. Mostly in my TV area and MS in the bedrooms so that guests and ourselves getting up in the middle of the night have some light and don't run into doors and walls. Yes it's somewhat expensive but so are all hobbies. My wife likes the back doorbell sound (we don't have a backdoor) when her dryer stops and the text message if she doesn't show up at the dryer within 5 minutes.

Usually and typically the wires wlll be as follows: R = Red (I think 'red Hot') =24vac G = Green (I think 'Grill') =fan only control W1= White (I think 'Warm 1') = first stage of heating W2= Brown? (I think 'Warm 2') =second stage of heating Some thermostats will run off just the two wires R-W1 in a parasitic mode with a battery to carry them over when the contacts are closed and the voltage is (almost) shorted. I am not sure how Insteon controllable units do it These should be compatible with almost any thermostat. I would be looking inside the heater to convert that W2 to a 24vac ground/common to run to your 'stat so you have both 24vac and common. Many times the common is connected to the frame.

What is the voltage across the two wires? If it isn't 24vac you may have taken out a line voltage thermostat and you may get some fire.

Do you have outdoor reset on your system? Most will if they run such a huge thermal mass system as hydronic in slab heating to control overshoot and undershoot. I was thinking you could leave all your stats at a high temperature setting in series with your ISY control outputs. Now with an outdoor temperature, wind, humidity and occupancy sensing and logic you could run a PWM scheme for all your zones and if the things ever locked-on your old thermostats would limit the amount of heat. if the series contacts failed you would need some crude backup scheme to keep the house at a minimum maybe without zones involved. My thermostats have built in "scenes" to accommodate visitors and special occasions etc. I only use two. "everyday" and "away". With the away I have to predict the number of days before I return. When we don't predict properly and come home early it takes about 18-24 hours to warm up the house in the winter from 17c to 22c with the basement slab heating. My complex thermostats run about $2.5k or more for 5 zones so a separate ISY may be worth your while as a dedicated control. Your "play" ISY could be the backup or watchdog or vice versa in the off-heating seasons.

ahhhh ... that sounds like that may be a 9 bit signed integer (0.5 degrees each bit) reading misinterpreted as an unsigned binary value. 2^7-2 You may be able to convert the result by fudging the value if you can run more negative temperature trials

Thanks LeeG. That's what I was looking for! Your event reading skills are invaluable here. (jealous) I haven't spent the time to learn that, which is unlike my usual behaviour.

For the purpose of this illustration I will use the multiple Notifications problem, being a common one for many, but this could apply to any response taken from an event trigger where repeated actions could be an unwanted effect. A common method of avoiding multiple notifications is to have a second disabled program disable the first, and triggering, program for a set amount of time. Program.1 -------------- If water_leak_detected Then run program.2 Else -- Program.2 -------------- If -- Then disable Program1 send notification "we got leaks!" wait 1 hour enable Program.1 Else -- Can anyone see a problem with using only a single program (below) to do this same thing? The program would already be triggered and disabling it would not stop it's progress. Could this be caught in a power failure and lock out as disabled? Program -------------- If water_leak_detected Then disable Program send notification "we got leaks!" wait 1 hour enable Program Else -- Thoughts?

It may not display negative temperatures due to not having a minus sign on the LCD but it may still transmit them to the ISY.

hmm.......This sounds similar to a previous poster's complaint with this version.

I have used non-existent X10 devices as "virtual devices" that can be controlled by MobiLinc. I have the X10 modules so I can also name the pseudodevices with sane labels. Currently I use lots of motion detectors to switch modes except for security items, which are done by Insteon patterns on wall switches and time of day.

"I deleted a test scene, and the device added without issue!" I was thinking you stated "programs" not "scenes" My bad! Thanks!

Strange that a program count limit would affect a device addition though. Am I missing something here?

Correct. You need a module with a relay output contact that your heater can plug or wire into and possibly a controller in the middle like the ISY, especially if you want to do any energy saving schemes.