jtara92101

Why not just get the tubes? Seems like a lot of trouble on a DIY project to perhaps save a bit of money, when you can just go out and already-manufactured tubes for cheap? You just have to bypass the ballast on your fixture. Example: https://www.1000bulbs.com/product/153509/PLT-10021.html?utm_source=SmartFeedGoogleBase&utm_medium=Shopping&utm_term=PLT-10021&utm_content=Direct+Wire+-+4100K+T8+Retrofit+LED+Tubes&utm_campaign=SmartFeedGoogleBaseShopping&gclid=CJyXos3b6c4CFY5rfgodFc0IhQ Just make sure you get ones that are dimmable. (Note the one above is not dimmable.)

That's what you need to look for! Yes, those are compatible. Don't get your hopes up on dimming at the low-end. They will probably cut-off at 20%. It's just not possible to achieve "architectural" dimming (typically defined as 5% or less) with this setup. Some of the screw-in bulbs are getting better, in that at least they don't cut-off at 20% or 10%, but instead, maintain their lowest-possible dimming below the cutoff down to maybe 5%. I dunno which strip light drivers might do this as well.

Not really a UDI question, just figured this would be a good place to ask advice on Insteon micro-dimmers. I currently have one that I use in a walk-in closet that had a glass globe lamp (banned in closets now by building code!) with pull-cord. I installed an LED flat-panel lamp and put an Insteon remote on the wall just outside of the closet. Looks and feels totally built-in, no more hazardous glass, lamp out of the way, and now has a switch instead of a pull cord. I have another proposed use now... I live in a historic property built in 1927. (It was the tallest building in San Diego from the time it was built until 1964. It is 15 stories - San Diego wasn't much of a high-rise city until very recently!) I put a brushed-copper faux finish on my kitchen backsplash (looks pretty convincing) and decided to give a bit of a nod to the building history with cast brass outlet plates. I choose brown outlets so that the colors all go together, and, as well, historically would have been bakelite anyway. (But of course not Decora style GFIs and USB outlets, so a bit of a Steampunk effect... Here's what I picked FWIW. The design is maybe 40 years or so older than the building, but from pictures I have seen they were going for a baroque Italian Renaissance revival look anyway... http://www.houseofantiquehardware.com/electrical-faceplates-victorian-gfi-abh I have them, and they are really stunning in person! This looks so good that I got another idea... I can't use these throughout, as I have Insteon everywhere, and I doubt that the brown Insteon keypad button backlights work very well in brown... Plus, not going to pop for $20/switch/outlet for plates! So, for the bulk it is white outlets/switches and white Lutron screwless covers. But I'm thinking of one more nod to history in the bathrooms. Actually, just one, as the other has the switch on the outside of the bathroom, and it's the bathrooms that have the most "olde fashioned" features (old white octagonal floor tile, etc.) I was thinking of using a pushbutton switch, as you can get reproductions of the old pushbutton wall switches in various forms. (My grandparents had these!) I was thinking I could use the sense wire(s) to at least turn lights on and off to a preset, but it turns out that it's possible to even dim if you use a momentary pushbutton or pushbuttons. And, lo and behold, I did a search, and you CAN get the pushbutton switches in dual momentary form! There is a discrepancy, though, between the description in the Insteon manual and the diagrams there. The diagram for dual momentary shows a single switch momentarily connecting the two sense lines. But the text reads as if it would be two momentary switches, and one can be used for on/brighten while the other is used for off/dim. I would need to install the micro-dimmer in the switch box for this to work. I might also be able to kill two birds. The bathroom has two lamps - one over the lavatory mirror, and one overhead. The overhead "doesn't work". Unclear to me what that means, as I haven't tried to get it to work myself. But I'm thinking if there is good power at the canopy, then I could install a second micro-dimmer there, and control it remotely. Has anybody used micro-dimmers in this fashion, but two momentary pushbuttons on the sense lines? I would use this: http://www.kyleswitchplates.com/antique-style-low-voltage-dual-momentary-push-button-switches/ with this: http://www.houseofantiquehardware.com/electrical-faceplates-victorian-single-push-button-abh?sc=9&category=128 There is an ambiguity in the description of the switch, though. It says it "sends a 12V pulse". That doesn't make much sense! I will need to query the seller further or get ahold of product literature. I just need two momentary-contact switches. (They also come with two independent toggles for controlling two A/C circuits.)

I just moved from a condo that I leased for 18 years. I took the Insteon with me. The selling homeowner thanked me! And that's what I would recommend, though it's too late now. IMO, the new homeowner is better-off with standard switches, the setup is too complicated for the average homeowner, and the reliability is less as well. There really is no plus if you are selling. The one plus for the buyer is that they get dimmers. (I put in regular switches.) Dimmers that are awfully expensive for simple dimmers!

Not what you want to hear, but the only reliable connection for those pins is the one it was designed for - soldered-down to a circuit board. With the relay soldered-down to the board, and flat bottom for support, it would be very stable. Whether in free air or glued-down legs-up like a dead bug, anything you might jury-rig is going to be unstable. Solder would be best, until the thing is mechanically disturbed, then the solder joints are GOING to eventually break, as you will only be able to tack-solder wire s to them. (Not really enough room there to twist a wire around the pins.) What is it that you are mis-using that relay for? SRSLY, it would be useful to know what you are using it for, and how you plan on mounting it. I would get a relay that is more suitable for your usage and mounting arrangements. For a PROTOTYPE circuit, you could stick it down to a pref-board, if the hole pattern permits, inserting the pins through the holes in the board, and glue down for good measure. Solder wires on the back side of the board. Probably #30 "wire-wrap" wire. Then EXPECT it to fall apart. Which is no big deal, if it is a PROTOTYPE circuit. Why not make a circuit board? It's easy enough today to make a design and send it off on the Internets to have a professional circuit board shipped to you. (I wouldn't recommend screwing-around with any do-it-yourself circuit board scheme you might find at Fry's etc.) If you will have multiple of these, and perhaps some additional components, connector(s) etc. you can incorporate all of it.

I'd suggest doing some searches on creating REST servers in Python. I think you may want to look at using a "micro framework". It looks like Flask is popular: http://flask.pocoo.org/ Like I said, I don't write much Python. I would do this in Ruby myself, but only because I am more familiar with Ruby. Python is certainly more universal. For Ruby, I would use the Sinatra micro-framework. Flask looks similar.

I do understand. Just pointing-out for the benefit of others that the Apache server, PHP, and CGI are all unnecessary. Might save somebody else a LOT of trouble! With the http server module, you can write a tiny dedicated server in just a few lines of code. You would typically use some port OTHER than port 80. (So it would not interfere with any existing web server running on the same machine.) You just write a small Python script and run it. It listens for HTTP connections on a port. Was not suggesting you buy a small computer. You found your always-on small computer! A stand-alone server just to run your REST service would divorce it from the complexities of Apache.

You do NOT need Apache! You do NOT need CGI! You do NOT need PHP! You need Python. Period. You can create one or more HTTP servers using the HTTP server package. It's only a few lines of code. Your Python program is the server. You might need to get the http module online using a package manager. I'm not a regular Python user, sorry. Your router with ddwrt is perfectly suited for running Python scripts. Unsure about ddwrt, but much of the OpenWrt UI is WRITTEN in Python.

There are MANY, MANY "cloud"-based (whatever that really means...) services for running little REST servers, periodic cron jobs, etc. etc. Some are for a specific language/environment (for example, services that offer nothing else but running Sinatra servers, or nodejs servers, or...) some are more general. e.g. a low-end VPS, or Virtual Private Server. You probably don't want it on the cloud, though. Then you'd need to have your router redirect a port to the ISY, and open your ISY up to the Internet. Yes, you can use HTTPS. No, still not really a good idea... And then you are dependent on the Internet. Better to run it on a local device. An always-on computer. A Raspberry Pi. Your router, running open-source Linux-based router firmware.

You don't need anything as complicated as setting-up an Apache server and PHP just to run a Python REST service! The standard Python library include a module that you can use to build simple services in just a few lines of code. For Python 2: https://docs.python.org/2/library/simplehttpserver.html Or Python 3: https://docs.python.org/3.4/library/http.server.html I haven't used this myself, but I have written simple services in a few lines of code in Ruby (using the Sinatra mini-framework) and Javascript (nodejs). Here are a couple of links showing simple examples. https://www.xplatform.rocks/2014/04/28/create-a-lightweight-rest-service-using-sinatra/ https://blog.nodejitsu.com/a-simple-webservice-in-nodejs/ The approach is very similar for all 3 languages. You use a powerful HTTP server class/module to create a server, and with only a little bit of code you can create a server that can easily examine requests and make replies. There is no need for a standalone web server.

Both MobiLinc portal and ISY portal are reverse-proxies. The ISY connects to the service. You connect to the service. There is no inbound connection to the ISY needed. If you connect to the ISY directly from MobiLinc (NOT using either portal) then you either need a VPN (recommended!) or you need to expose the ISY inbound to the Internet and port-forward on your router. You can get a free/cheap dynamic DNS service that will update a DNS entry every time your provider changes your IP address. You'll need this for either the VPN or non-VPN solution. But with portals, there's no need to expose an inbound port at all.

Yes, I suppose you can say Insteon was dual-band from the start. But only the access point and battery-powered buttons were available in RF. The access-point was a nice hack to bridge the phases without having to wire something into your panel. (They did also have a bridge you could plug-in to a 220 outlet...) But wired switches and buttons used only power-line technology. The reliability is great now with the latest dual-band switches and buttons. I suspect there is really no need for the power-line transmission any more. Power-line control operates by injecting "signal" (e.g. NOISE) into the line. Devices are tuned to isolate Insteon's noise and extract the signal from it. As far as your other electronics equipment, this "signal" is NOISE, which is (in many cases) to be eliminated!

Review the multitude of posts here about "noise makers and signal suckers" and see if you can make some sense of it! My take is that Insteon power-line is flawed technology which they finally have realized since going dual-band. The problem is that one person's signal is another's noise! You'll need to block noise from the inverter from entering the system, while at the same time, prevent the filter from sucking the Insteon "signal" (e.g. noise...) Good luck with that! ---- Please don't do what my business partner did more than a decade ago when I was involved in high-frequency trading. (I wrote the software, my partner had the unfortunate task of dealing with any failed trades manually... Imagine a job where the only thing you do is dealing with failure!) Anyway, for obvious reasons, we both had backup power. We went about it in different ways. I still have my Minuteman E2300 with external battery pack. It can let me work at software development for maybe 8 hours (perhaps with Internet, perhaps without...). I ran my refrigerator off of it for a day during a big blackout in San Diego a few years back! BTW, this is a reliable workhorse you can probably get on eBay for a song. (A lot less than their newer models!) I've replaced the gel cells a few times. (I realize this doesn't address your whole-house problem, but might still do in a pinch if you are willing to bust-out a couple of long orange cords!) My partner got a much smaller UPS, good for maybe 15 minutes. And a Honda Generator. The one time he used it was for a scheduled outage in the new housing development he moved into. The power company was completing the wiring, and required shutting off the power to the whole complex for a day. He worked happily for a couple of hours on his Honda generator. Then a contractor working on the house across the street knocked on his door, saying he was painting, and hadn't known about the outage. He had heard the noise from the generator, and wondered if he could plug-in for a few minutes to mix some paint with an electric drill with a mixer attachment. No paint was mixed. And no trading was done for the rest of that day! Fortunately, Home Depot has a liberal returns policy. Generator promptly died, and for good, upon applying power to the drill. Lesson: if you will be running motors on your backup equipment, make sure it is designed to run motors! (Can deal with the power factor and surge). My refrigerator complained a bit (but worked), but not the UPS. It's a sine-wave UPS BTW. ---- BTW, I (at least try) to keep the noise from my UPS and all my computer equipment with a big-*** multi-stage FilterTec filter. They make some nice filters.(Hmmm, can't find them! I'm thinking maybe they were acquired by API Technologies? That's where searches lead me...

Many home routers can run open-source firmware, usually based on Linux. (I use ASUS-Wrt). Ultimately, then, anything is possible, as you could write your own software. You might research what open-source firmware you can run on your router, and what kind of pre-built modules are available for it. Might be something to do this. If nothing else, you should be able to schedule a periodic shell script. Ping your device, examine the output from ping. Then set a variable on the ISY. (Use cURL). Of course you could do this with ANY always-on computer. It's particularly handy, though, on your router, since it is a low-power, always-on computer. I may experiment with this, as I've been finding Locative too fuzzy. Was planning on getting an iBeacon...

Lots more. And lots and lots and lots...

Climate module will give you values from the weather station you select. Is that good enough for you? I'd guess in Ontario, that's probably good enough! In coastal S. California, the temperature might vary significantly within a mile, so you might want your own sensor. My nearest weather stations are at SAN (official San Diego weather at airport) and a station in Balboa Park nearby. Neither typically matches local temperature in nearby neighborhoods. It's amusing looking at the reported temperature on news apps and websites, as they all seem to have a different opinion as to which weather station best represents "San Diego". Within the city, temperatures might vary by 20F or more (let alone county). I gave in and got a Nest. I now leave it to Google's mysterious, opaque AI to use outdoor temperature - or not - to influence thermostat. And I have no fans to control or vacation-house water to keep from freezing...

There's nothing specific about Insteon about this - it applies to ALL dimmers. Buy any dimmer at Home Depot, the instructions will have a similar derating statement. Just ain't enough room in the box to get rid of the heat! Plus dimmers tend to be on the large size, reducing air volume. The printed ratings all refer to installation in a single-gang box.

So! Maybe semantics... The dimmer portion of the remote Switchlinc is not used! Same thing as "only one is connected to the load". It's better not to call Insteon devices "dimmers". It's confusing when they don't dim anything. They are "devices", harumppph! The traveller wire is not used. Cap it at both ends. The traveller is normally red. Yes. Load wires are often black, as well! They might be red, they might be black. Every Insteon device (well, MOST every... there are some special ones...) needs to have a neutral and line. Make sure the black wire from the Insteon device is wired to hot/line (always black). I guess I improperly called it a "traveler". OK, so it's a "load". Depending on the particular wiring, the load wire going to the outlet might be black or red. If line/load are being sent to the outlet box from the switch box, the load will be normally be red. (as typically a 4-wire cable, hot/neutral/ground/load). Could be black, though! Depends on the cabling, sometimes two loads are put in one cable if the loads are nearby each other.

To make a "three way" with Insteon, you should NOT use the traveler wire. Insteon will make a "virtual" 3-way. Just cap the (normally red) traveler wire on both ends. One box will have a black going to the load. Wire the dimmer in that box to the load. The dimmer in the other box will be unused - just cap the black wire from the dimmer. The dimmer in the "remote" box is just acting as an Insteon controller. You can, of course, extend this to "n-way", without needing multiple (or any) travelers. It's really handy for making a 3-way where there wasn't one! Similar deal if you want to control an outlet (with either a relay outlet or the nifty dimmer outlets) and you already have hard-wiring for an outlet switch. Usually, the switch will be wired to the bottom outlet of the duplex nearest the switch. This isn't always the one you want to switch! I prefer to leave the outlet split-wired in this case, and send hot on the traveler, so that if you move and take your Insteon with you, it is easy to restore - instead of hunting around the room examining outlet wiring to figure out which one was originally switched (but it's the one closest to the switch, trust me, because builders are cheap...) just switch the (typically red or black) traveler back from hot to the mechanical switch leg and you're back to conventional wiring.

You could use a Nabaztag. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nabaztag (And there have been many other fanciful annunciator devices that have followed the Nabaztag...) I've always wished Insteon would make a KPL without a dimmer built-in. For many uses, the built-in dimmer is a waste. In my old home, I had the electrician leave an extra space in each switch box at the entry to each room. That way, I could have a KPL as scene controller, as well as individual controls for each circuit. Well, almost all, because in some cases, it would have gotten ridiculous (like a 5-gang). It is better not to use the dimmer in this case, because it is problematical dimming an entire scene when the main button on the KPL controls the dimming of one of the circuits. One can easily run out of dimming range. The work-around is to carefully balance lamp wattages for typical use. It's more flexible if you just don't use the dimmer on the KPL.

Sounds like the problem I had with my 5.x SwitchLincs and Keypadlincs. Same message, and I have about a dozen of them legs-up... I have a couple of IOLincs I haven't tried, as I don't have a use for them after moving. So dunno about them. See if they will link to another device manually - that is, with keypresses. You'll have to look-up the specific incantations for both devices in the product manuals. In my case, the devices lost all ability to link to either the PLM or other devices. Insteon support wasn't very helpful. I now have a dozen very expensive dimmers. (At least the dimming function works.) Unfortunately, there is no use for an IoLinc that won't link!

http://www.forbes.com/sites/janakirammsv/2015/08/20/meet-mycroft-the-open-source-alternative-to-amazon-echo/#37799c906f7d https://mycroft.ai/ Raspberry Pi!

I just dealt with this. I had exactly the same issue. Per UDI tech support, you can't have both ISY Portal and Mobilinc Portal. You have to pick one. UDI tech support can turn on/off whichever one you like, and they offered to refund ISY Portal if you choose to keep Mobilinc Portal. I guess there is some (experimental?) support for ISY Portal from Mobilinc. I haven't explored that. I don't think I will renew Mobilinc when the subscription comes up.

The voice control at all times is appealing. An unnecessary speaker and finding a place for it is not. And sending everything unnecessarily to "the cloud" is not. Personal data should go only so far as it needs to. It is nonsense that servers are needed to process voice commands. (I've done software development in this area.) Yes, it's useful to upload commands for AI training, popularity ranking, etc. but that's something that can be done in batch mode and then should only be done with user permission. I do have a Nest. And an iPhone and Apple watch. Not at all happy that they both track my whereabouts. Oh, and a Withings scale, which has to send my weight and body fat to "the cloud" for me to see it on a chart - which is, of course, absolute nonsense. Oh, yea, and the blood pressure monitor too! While I doubt that Apple and Google and Withings are doing anything too nefarious with it (though I suspect they are using it to push annoying "contextual" ads at me - e.g. ads for stuff I've already bought, or for stores I already frequent...) that's my limit. My concern is not so much with what the collectors of the data are doing with it (though I do have some there) but simply the EXISTENCE of the data. It could be hacked. It could be compelled to be shared by a future government. I would never use Gmail, for example. I guess it's a trade-off. My generation accepted commercials in exchange for "free" TV programming. The current one will accept more intrusion, and the next one will accept more. I think eventually things will work themselves out, and more sensible use of new technology will evolve. It's widely understood that it takes about 50 years for a new technology to be fully and properly integrated into society. (Think about the time from the invention and the rapid adoption of the automobile to the development of modern freeway networks. OK, maybe I should drop the notion of "proper"! ) Unfortunately, while technology evolves more and more quickly, the full understanding of it's impact and societal adaptation is unlikely to speed-up. Any "local mostly" competition to Echo? How about open-source projects? A Raspberry Pi really should be able to do the job. Only reason for it to access the Internet is to access a search service or some "cloud" API. ISY, of course, can be completely controlled within your local network - which is as it should be. Ditto for playing my music, operating my home theatre, etc. Please, no unnecessary trips through "the cloud". Happy to opt-in to contributing anonymized commands in bulk to improve recognition/context/weighting/etc. Anyway, those that went for it, enjoy your Echo! Sure everyone got one, because I don't think they "sold out". Amazon is smarter than that!

Thought about it. It's still creepy. And inconvenient, as I already have a much better sound system, so it takes up space for no good reason. If I didn't mind Amazon tracking everything I do in my home, I'd want little hidden microphones in each room. Which is even creepier.