ctviggen1

So, I bought 3 zwave plug in modules. One is a dimmer, which I used to replace an Insteon dimmer for a lamp we use in a foyer on the first floor. This is in the middle of the first floor. The other two are on/off modules with nothing plugged in. One I plugged into a not-used outlet in the living room, so about 15 feet away or so from the lamp. The third one I thought did not work. I had a hard time with it. But it did seem to work after a while. I stuck it on the other side of the house from the one in the living room. Since these are all on the first floor, the ISY 994i is in the basement, and the ceiling fan zwave controllers are on the second floor, I'm hoping this helps strengthen the zwave network. Of course, when I opened the Admin console, before putting any of the zwave plugin modules into outlets...there were no error messages. Since there errors are intermittent, it'll be hard to tell whether I've succeeded. I'm going to try the "update neighbors" now, and then back up both zwave and the ISY.

Don't you think the big three are walled themselves? Anyway, for myself, these are moot. I can't replace the many, many Insteon and Zwave items I currently have. It took me YEARS to add as many devices as I have, and to spread the cost over that time. I couldn't afford to do it any other way. And I definitely can't afford to buy something that may or may not work at some point in the future. At least I know if I buy Insteon and Zwave, they work with what I have now.

Thanks, All. I thought about this for a bit, and also decided to stick with Insteon/Zwave for now. It was expensive enough as it was to get where I am with mainly Insteon. Insteon has worked really, really well for me. Only issues: -The ceiling fan controller wasn't great, and I don't like the type where a box has to go into the ceiling fan box; I prefer solutions (like Zwave) where the switch does everything. -The new motion sensors aren't great for Insteon. Or at least I found the old models better. -The plugin Insteon boxes can cause issues. Not sure why, but if I have a random on/off, it's always in plugin boxes. If I replace that plugin box with an in-wall controllable outlet, no issues. Odd, but has happened multiple times.

I may have to think about Zigbee, thanks. I assume this works with the ISY 994i? Though I guess this still doesn't solve my weak Zwave problem, though I guess some plugin modules will fix that.

I have a zwave board and 4 zwave devices (three ceiling fans and one lock). I'm about to get some plugin modules to help strengthen my zwave system (ISY and lock in basement, ceiling fans on second floor...need something on the first floor to bridge the gap). I still have two rooms to do. I could do those in zwave, perhaps. They wouldn't be "mixed". (Hmm...these rooms on the first floor, so I could use Zwave here and not worry about the plugin modules; will have to think about this.) I am about to extend some wiring. We have switches for lights on the "left" side of a 2-door basement door. We now open the door from the "right" side. (The door leaked and had to be replaced, and the company gave us a good deal on this one, since it was incorrectly ordered.) Both of those switches are Insteon. I was going to wire in two more switches on the right side of the door. I should probably keep these as Insteon, since the current switches are Insteon. Hard to know what to do. Hopefully, Insteon will come back to its normal self again.

I'm about to do some additional wiring where I would need to add some controllable switches. Insteon has gotten very expensive and also hard to find. I can buy Zwave for a lot less, something like this: Possible Zwave switch I'm unsure what to do, since some of these would be mixed (Zwave AND Insteon for the same set of lights). Not sure I can even do that. Any recommendations? Just stay the course and pay $50 for Insteon switches? (I just gasp when a single room with 4 switches is $200.)

This is the program I ended up using. I'm using zero and 100 percent: My only other program for LEDs is one where I run it only after restart/power loss, and it (re)sets a number of LED lights to zero. I never turn them back on. I have not done more than this, as most of the time, I don't mind the 100%. The "basement" light switches are near the projector/screen, so I want them off at night. The other switches are in bedrooms or in the hallway of bedrooms (my daughter doesn't like the looks of two glowing LEDs across the hall, thinks they look like eyes). So, I set them at zero, and leave them there.

Will do. I have four plug-in modules added to my cart, and when I get them, I'll install them all on the first floor. This should provide a "bridge" between the basement (where the ISY is) and the second floor (where the ceiling fans are).

I will order some of the Z-wave plug in modules. I find the Insteon versions to be sketchy. I've had to go to outlets instead. For instance, I had a plug in module for a towel rack heater. It was always coming on at random times. I replaced it with an outlet and haven't had any troubles. I currently have another lamp with an Insteon plug-in module that's coming on at random times. I could use an outlet, but I could also get a few Z-wave plug-in modules to test them and get a stronger Z-wave system.

Thanks, Asbril. I'll put those on my Amazon wish list. I have multiple plug-in Insteon modules, so I could probably replace a few of those with these (and these are cheaper). I wrote the original post while in the basement and testing the system from there. Even though the Admin console said I could not communicate with the ceiling fan, my wife came down and asked me why the ceiling fan went on and off. So, even though the ISY admin console said it could not communicate with the ceiling fans, it did.

I upgraded my zwave board and also the software. I do not have much Zwave, only 3 ceiling fans on the second floor of the house, and the ISY 994i is in the basement (vertically) on the wall. I also have a basement door lock, which is about 5 feet away from the ISY. With the previous zwave board, I never had issues with the ceiling fans. With the current board and software: - One of the ceiling fan controllers was not found until version 5.3.3, no matter what I did (I did everything, including resetting the controller) - Now there are issues with not only that ceiling fan controller but also another one. So, 2 of 3 ceiling fans get "lost" periodically. Right now, both the 2 of the 3 are lost, meaning I got warnings I could not communicate with them. Trying to contact one of them, I get "No network connection [[DHCP] state = RENEW]". Oddly, for the second one, the admin console originally said it could not communicate with it, but just now, it could. I have a ton of Insteon switches, but no Zwave switches. I did not like the Insteon fan controllers, so I went with Zwave for those. These are the fan controllers though technically mine are labelled as GE (but made by Enbrighten): Enbrighten fan controller Do I have to "strengthen" the zwave network, such as by adding something on the first floor to help bridge the gap between the first floor and the basement? Do I have to move the ISY 994i to the first floor? (Possible, but a pain, and what about distance now to the basement door lock?)

What I ended up doing was create a "basement access" program. So, we can say "enable basement access" (or "turn on basement access") or "disable basement access" (or "turn off basement access". It's basically like this for the program, where "normal locking program" locks the door after 10 minutes: Basement access { If { } then { Disable Normal locking program, wait 3 hours, lock the door, enable Normal locking program } else { Enable Normal locking program, lock the door } } For the lock I bought, I believe it only locks electronically via Zwave but does not unlock via Zwave. You have to enter a code to get it to unlock.

Thanks for those comments, they were helpful. Sorry, I finally got around to doing this, since we had two sets of kids over. One set (older) was in the garage. One set (younger) was watching a moving outdoors on the projector. The projector screen was set up right near and in front of the basement door. We walked around the screen and into the basement, but had to enter in a code every time. I disabled the "lock after 30 seconds" mode on the door lock. (This is a switch you have to move.) I set a program to lock the door 10 minutes after it's unlocked. Call this the "normal" program. I'd love not to use Alexa to operate the doors, but I don't know how else to make it easy for my wife to use. Right now, I have one program (enabled via Alexa) set to disable the "normal" program for 3 hours, then lock the door and re-enable the "normal" program. I have another program (enabled via Alexa) to lock the door and re-enable the "normal" program. I have another program that locks the door at night. Since we were out until about 10pm last night, I chose that time. Dbuss, what kind of door sensor are you using? If anyone has any ideas as to how to make this safer, I'm all ears. I'd love to not use Alexa, but I don't know how to achieve that while making it easy for my wife to use. I could set up a variable and run it, but even I would likely forget how to do that for the few times we do this. (I could be wrong, but we've had people over outdoors only twice since the pandemic started, once last year and once this year. We obviously think this will happen more often, but in CT, it's luck that you get a good night with no wind to allow you to have movies outdoors.)

Yeah! This fixed an issue where one of my zwave ceiling fans was lost. I was finally able to find it and add it to the network. For zwave, what is the backup procedure? I know zwave, backup backs it up, but to where? Do I also need to back up to a file somewhere?

Very good point, as I hit myself in the forehead with my hand. I'll try this:

I have this program: I want this to turn the LED off at sunset, but turn it on again at sunrise. The problem: the LEDs are always off. They never turn on. Is my program wrong?

I am using a Harmony hub device. (By the way, Harmony remotes are difficult to find...due to covid? Had to pay full price, too. But even I was having a hard time with all the remotes for this relatively simply setup. My kids had to ask me to operate it.) I had to use a hub for what I wanted to do (Fire TV needs the hub, since it's Bluetooth). Where do I find more information about the hue emulator?

I'm setting up a Logitech Harmony companion remote for our basement projector system. This remote has two light and two outlet buttons to control lights/outlets. What I'd like to do is hit one light button and have it access a scene via Alexa on the ISY 994i. In other words, I have a "projector light" scene where I can tell Alexa "turn on projector light", and this turns on a small set of LEDs that are on the projector platform (near ceiling), and keeps them on for a short time. We run the projector via a soundbar with Alexa built in. Telling Alexa to do this via the soundbar works fine, except you lose sound for a while...and periodically don't get it back. I'd love to be able to map the "light" button on the Logitech remote to do this. Anyone tried something like this? I've supposedly linked Alexa and the Logitech hub, so that I can tell Alexa to "turn on ActivityX", where activity X is one of three activities (watch Fire TV, play game, watch Kodi). So, Alexa and Logitech are linked, but if I try to add a device to map to the home control buttons, there is nothing like "Alexa" or Universal Devices there.

We have a basement door lock. This lock has an internal switch, which we have enabled. This causes the door to lock 30 seconds after it was opened. 90+% of the time, this is great. However, when we have people over (I know, not often with covid, but Spring should be here soon...), my wife would like to have the door remain open for a while. She keeps dry wood in the basement, and this allows her to go in an out to get kindling. We can easily disable this switch. My questions: 1) If you don't enable a 30 second automatic lock, and use the ISY 994i to do this, what timing do you use and how do you do it? 2) Do you have some type of "having people over" program, to enable the lock to be open longer? If so, what timing do you use and how do you do it? 3) Do you enable #2 via Alexa? Thank you.

This version still does not correct a missing GE zwave fan switch for me. I guess I'll have to wait for version .4.

I agree with you about that. I really dislike the new motion sensors, relative to the old Insteon sensors. I got Z-wave because I found the Insteon ceiling fan controller not to be great. GE ones are better and use a paddle interface. I may also get z-wave motion sensors, but I don't think I have enough z-wave in my house for a strong enough network. I only have one door lock and three fan controllers. The rest is all Insteon.

Those are good ideas. How do you search programs? I see that, since I'm having an issue with z-wave not finding one controller, those programs (containing a reference to a missing device) are highlighted in yellow. But I guess if you keep them in the system, there might be an issue with a program working, but with no purpose.

That's good to know. In my case, a vertical mounting really helps, as I can then use that shelf space.

Thank you! That works perfectly. As for removing these from the Admin Console, sometimes I disable them if I think I'm going to use them for the same purpose. For instance, an outdoor Insteon plug in module used for Christmas lights. Since I know I'll be using that again, I just disable that. But some of these, I take out and do not know if I'll be using them again for the same purpose. For instance, a plug in module to control a fish tank light, where the fish died and the 10 year old was devastated. Will I use that again? I might not. So, I removed it totally from the system. As another example, a plug in module I used to use to control a heater at my computer system in the basement, where I'm typing this. Since we installed 2 inches of rigid foam insulation to the basement walls, I don't need the heater any more. I've taken that out and removed it from Admin Console, since if I install it again, it'll be for a different purpose.

When I installed the new Z-wave board in my ISY 994i, I also changed the mounting from horizontal (sitting on a shelf) to vertical (mounted on drywall at the same location, but taking no shelf space). I'm having a harder time with Z-wave (can't find one Z-wave controller), and am wondering whether mounting makes any difference.