jtara92101

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.

The final word on using Nest to determine home/away: it's impractical. Too bad, since Nest does a great job of home/away without false triggers. Assume it's Google "AI" technology, and they have LOTS of data to train on! - IFTTT delay makes it impractical for turning lights on/inefficient for turning them off. At least heat/AC would be OK, since Nest deals with that directly. - Nest doesn't do home/away if Nest is "Off". I turn Off if the windows are open (duh!) and in fact just got Insteon window open/close sensors for just that purpose! e.g. if any window is open, set Nest to Off. Locative gives false signals if I am around the neighborhood, especially on-foot. I suppose I should get an iBeacon, as I think it will use it. But should be able to look for my WiFi? Other suggestions for home/away apps for iPhone? Locative is open-source, I guess I could fix it! (I'm an app developer...)

Now I fell bad about not urging caution... I do have quite a bit of electronics background (got my ham license in high school, and actually 8 semesters of electrnics in high school... but went into Computer Science in college) so I knew what I was looking for. I didn't think it would work myself, but decided to try it anyway... I'd assumed it was a regulated power supply, and would simply maintain constant output voltage until the input dropped below the requirement of the regulator. But I was willing to be surprised - and was! I was willing to use a relay module if the dimmer didn't work out. But from what I see, it is an unregulated power supply, and would not expect this of the typical wall-wart. FYI, the wall wart in question is a LKG Industries (Philmore) model BE226. It's one of the ones with a slide switch, with 1/5/3/4.5/6/7.5/9/12V. It says 12v 300mA max. (Looked up online, was not able to get much in the way of details...) Was surprised as heck that it dimmed FULL RANGE on the dimmer! No strange sounds, cut-outs, etc. The sculpture has 9 of those little single-led tea candles that normally run on a button cell. Think now I will forget about getting a replacement wall wart, since I have one that's working! It's actually a pretty compact and reasonably non-ugly. If I do get a replacement, I'll shop carefully and make sure I get one that I can see a schematic for. It was a good one, too - a Lightech. Yes, I know about the 12V dimmable transformers. I used them at my old place for under-counter halogens. I doubt my sculpture would draw enough current for it, and they don't provide full-range dimming. And, to boot, the Insteon dimmer wasn't very happy with it.

A bit of an oddball topic, and not specifically UDI... But sometimes things that you wouldn't think would work, work... And that's useful to know! I have a large metal sculpture on a wall. It's a "tree", make of rebar and sheet metal. The artist is very talented at repurposing metal! It has a number of candle holders, which can take real or fake candles. I got a bunch of those fake LED candles at CVS, drilled holes in them, and wired each with thermostat wire (no more batteries!) and put a connector on each. I got a cheap multi-voltage wall-wart at Fry's and used it as a power supply. I can vary the brightness by changing the voltage switch. I wondered if a LampLinc could dim it.... and it can! In fact, works way better than any fancy dimmable LED bulb! I set the wall wart to 9V - it will go to 12, but don't want to push it. I seem to get full dimming range, rather than the limited range of LED bulbs. This was an experiment with an old 2-pin powerline-only Lamplinc. I plan on replacing it with a dimmer outlet now (for neat installation) and then get the smallest 9 or 12V wall wart I can find.

Even factory reset will not remove them. Link to your ISY, checking "remove all links". Then, if not using immediately, delete from ISY. Just went through this for a move.

That's one way. Alternately, you could use two micro modules, one per each light. That way, you can set the brightness levels independently. (SwitchLinc or KeypadLinc controls a scene. Each device in the scene can have a different brightness level, and when you change brightness they change proportionately.) Any switch can control any module or modules. You do have to have white neutral available where-ever you place the micro module(s). You can completely ignore existing switch wiring. First thing I do is wire any switched outlets to hot in the switch box, as I will use a LampLinc, etc. to serve that function. And any 3-way or 4-way wiring isn't used at all, as Insteon uses signaling instead of travelers. Free yourself from any consideration of the connection (if any) between switch box and load.

Yes, I was able to use the "IFTTT" URL directly from Locative. So, "IFTTT URL" is really a misnomer. The ISY simply accepts a POST with the required key. It doesn't matter if it comes from IFTTT or not. It's quite confusing the way the documentation is currently written!

You could use a KeypadLinc in the box, and use the dimmer on the KeypadLinc to control one of the circuits. For the other circuit, wire the circuit to hot in the switch box, and install a micro-dimmer in the fixture box. You can assign one of the buttons on the KeypadLinc to control the micro-dimmer. And of course you can also include the second circuit in a scene or scenes. Alternately, you could use a SwitchLinc to control one of the circuits. Install a (wireless only, internal battery) Mini Remote with a wall bracket next to the SwitchLinc. You then use a 2-gang screwless plate cover, and nobody will be any the wiser that it isn't a 2-gang switch. Well, except that the appearance and feel of the SwitchLinc and Mini Remote are somewhat different. (Mini Remote has an LED at the top, and doesn't show dimming level. You snap it out a couple times a year and charge it from USB.) I haven't done the fake dual-gang setup, but some complain about it feeling a bit hinkey. I would recommend screwing the bracket to the wall, ignoring the instructions to only secure it to the screwless plate backing. But I haven't tried a dual-gang setup like this. You will have to measure/mark carefully to pull off screwing it to the wall for dual-gang. I had a glass globe fixture in a walk-in closet with a pull chain. Glass globe in a closet is NOT code! And pull-chain is inconvenient. I maxed-out the storage in the closet with Elfa shelving from the Container Store. You wouldn't believe how many flip-top keep boxes I can get in that small walk-in (with 9-ft ceiling)! I installed a very flat LED-panel fixture in place of the glass globe fixture, and installed a Mini Remote on the wall outside of the closet. (Home Depot now has some great flat-panel LED fixtures good for this type of use in various sizes of round, square, and rectangular... They use the same light-pipe technology used in LED TVs. Well, those light-pipes need to be repurposed, since LED TVs will go the way of the Dodo Bird with OLED...) Some complain the mini-remote doesn't work well over a box. (Not an issue for your case.) It can get dislodged and push into the box, and feels insecure in any case. Those people don't read the instructions or sales literature! It's meant only to mount directly to the wall, not over a box! But can be ganged to look seamless. I like to install a KeypadLinc in every room, if there is a place for it. There are some issues with using the dimmer to control both a load and a scene, (if you set default brightnesses different, can run out of range) so best if there is a blank space and you just don't use the dimmer. There is a mini-remote switch, as well (two versions, different number of buttons) but, again, no status lights, no not quite as nice as a SwitchLinc and different feel to the switch. You don't need ISY for any of this. But it sure comes in handy for configuration! (vs. running all over the place pushing buttons for setup, and then trying to remember what you did when you want to change things.)

Will give that a go tomorrow. Yes, Locative supports POST. Only!

Yet to find an effective way to do this. Tried to follow the Wiki to use Locative, but the instructions are vague. I set-up IFTTT -> IFTTT/Maker then IFTTT/Maker -> Portal, but useless, because IFTTT is too slow. What am I missing here? Is there some way to go directly from Locative to portal? Is "IFTTT integration" in Portal a lie, and really it's "anything integration"? Can I just use the URL you get from the portal with any service that can send a post? Just looking for some solution that won't turn the lights on a few minutes after I get home! (which is useless).

Now works. I had to download the Admin Console directly from the UDI website. Using the link on the device interface gives me a version of the Admin Console that won't work with current Java security.

My Java security setting is set to High. The only other setting available is Very High.

It seems UDI's dependence on Java has become a bit of an albatross. With the latest updates of Java and Chrome, I am unable to access the console. I know this topic has been addressed here many times over the past few years, but the answers don't seem to solve the problem. I've seen suggestions to update the firmware, but I have no way to do that - Catch 22! I am able to access the web interface (after messing around with java settings to allow it) but not the console. It claims I need to update Java, but I already have the latest version (version 8, update 91) BTW, since I've recently moved it's fine if I have to do a reset of my device to install new firmware - but I need to know how to do it! Already set my device address in the exceptions list. I downloaded the admin console. When I open it I get: Application Block by Java Security For security, applications must now meet the requirements for the High or Very High security settings, or be part of the Exception Site List, to be allowed to run. [More Information] Reason: Your security settings have blocked an application signed with an expired or not-yet-valid certificate from running. My Java security setting is set to High (not Very High). There are no other choices. Particulars: isy994i OSX El Capitan 10.11.5 Chrome/Safari but willing to use any browser that will work

Here's an example from my setup. sendir,1:1,1,38000,1,1,342,171,21,21,21,64,21,64,21,21,21,21,21,21,21,21,21,21,21,64,21,21,21,21,21,64,21,64,21,64,21,64,21,64,21,64,21,21,21,21,21,21,21,21,21,21,21,21,21,21,21,21,21,64,21,64,21,64,21,64,21,64,21,64,21,64,21,1518,342,86,21,3655\r\n Heck if I can remember what this means or how I came up with this! Mode is C-Escaped. This switches an SR-22 A/B speaker switch an IP2IR. OK, this is an IR command, which is why it is so long and painful. You've got it easy! You probably just want URL-encoded.