jtara92101

Idea: persist the user's page selection in the portal on the server, cookie, or localstorage (localstorage is probably best), so that when they log in again, they are in the same place. Optionally, persist navigation history as well. (window.history) This at least makes it less painful when they have been logged-out. Since many/most users probably use a password manager or let their browser save passwords, it seems to me the bulk of the burden is the re-navigation, not re-logging-in.

Ditto for Google Home, even though Google Home is generally reported to "hear" better than Alexa. It is a tough problem. Both need to get better at identifying and masking background sounds. It would be great to have some setup where you turn on other sound sources so that Alexa/Home can identify them. Ideally, Alexa or Google Assistant would be built-in to your receiver, with the sound output to the speakers also routed to Alexa/Assistant. Given the raw source material, it could be subtracted from the mic signal, after adjusting for delay, room response, etc. etc. It should at least then be able to recognize that it's Jeanne Moos talking, and not you.

Since we don't know what you wrote, it's hard for us to tell you how to make it better!

Oh, yea, I picked up a ChromeCast device as well. Just for experimenting with Google Home. I already have Apple TV, so doubt it will get much real use. But I needed a device to test my asynchronous TTS announcement stuff on cast devices other than Home. Was going to get Cast Audio, but the price difference is only $5 (actually, they are priced the same, but Target has the audio for $30, and Fry's would match them.) Then I realized it would be better to use HDMI than an analog audio in to my Denon receiver. Thanks, you reminded me I ought to enable CEC on the Denon. I disabled it because of some annoyance from it that I don't remember now. I'm sure it will come back to haunt me! That (might) get me the "cut-through" functionality I want for making announcements on the AV receiver. Though it won't deal with switching back to previous program source... Google Assistant (and also Alexa?) seems to lack what I see as a very important feature. They need "hooks". That is, if I say, for example, "play KCRW on Chromecast", that's great if Chromecast happens to be the current selected receiver input. (Will Chromecast send a CEC signal to switch? Haven't tried it yet.) I'd love to somehow get a notification when it starts playing, and again when playing stops. Pretty-much everything that Assistant does could stand having the ability to "hook".

It's Pi Day for me, albiet a bit late. Yesterday, I went to Fry's and bought my first Raspberry Pi. I shopped online, and realized there are no real discounts for genuine "green" Pi's, I have to pay sales tax to Amazon anyway, and I could examine what I am getting at Fry's. I checked online first to see if they had stock, and they did, so went to check it out.They only had 3 of the board-only, and a few each of the various kits. They carry a fairly decent selection of companion boards, and have Audrino, i2c I/O boards, generic I/O boards, prototyping blocks, etc. on the same aisle. I got a Pi3 Model B, power supply, case (the "hat" case, with the easily-removable lid), and a Patriot 32GB flash to at least promises to be even faster than the usually-recommended Samsung (same price). Since I didn't get a kit that comes with a flash with NOOBs, I will load Raspbian on the flash using my Mac Mini. The "hat" case looks quite unattractive in it's drab, eco packaging (it's just shrink-wrapped) but once unwrapped is actually one of the more attractive cases, has good access to the flash slot (other cases have trouble because now the board no longer has a spring ejector, and you might have to remove the board from the case to remove), and the removable top without the need to completely disassemble the case is a great feature if experimenting with HATs or other expansion boards. There doesn't seem to be any discount with the "kits". The real decider was that the bare boards were in locked Lexan security cases (surprising for a $35 product, but it is a very small box...), and the kits were in big boxes not in security cases that suffered from the usual Fry's situation with prying fingers. The checkout guy almost forgot to remove the security case. (Aside: the worst part of walking out of a store that has detectors at the door - the "California rise" at the end of the sentence that turns the statement into a question. "You have activated our security system?" Maybe if they made it sound like an actual statement, more people would take them more seriously... Actually, I haven't heard the one at Fry's but the ones they have at CVS annoys the heck out of me!) BTW, the Pi From Fry's was made in China, not England, but is from Element14, the official U.S. distributor. Not a low-quality Chinese knock-off that you might find on Ebay or Alibaba.

I also am having no difficulty with IFTTT talking to ISY via the ISY portal. (I just set up Google Home > IFTTT > Maker Channel > ISY > SimpleControl to control AV).

An update on SimpleHub... I finally got around to purchasing a SimpleHub license and installing SimpleHub. It is viable, but a bit disappointing. A few hints for anyone wanting to go this route to control AV equipment from ISY, IFTTT Maker Channel, etc. - Documentation for the REST API is hard to find. It's at: https://www.simplecontrol.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/HTTPCommandInterface.pdf - It starts an HTTP server on port 47147, and HTTPS on port 47148. However, the HTTPS either uses a self-signed certificate or one signed by a CA not found in common bundles. I had to use curl --insecure option to connect to the HTTPS. - documentation implies some sort of reverse-proxy similar to ISY hub. It has no such thing. SimpleHub just attempts to open a port on your router using UPNP. Two problems with that: the IP address will change over time with most home Internet connections. And I don't consider it safe to enable UPNP. https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/118918/is-upnp-still-insecure - documentation doesn't bother to go into the practical necessity of using a dynamic DNS service. I have one and know how to use it. But the average user would not have a clue. Given the above, I think the best way to use SimpleHub if you need to command it from the outside world is through ISY Portal. So, for example to run, say, a Cable activity from IFTTT, you would use Maker Channel to run an ISY program. The ISY program would send the REST command using HTTP (not sure if ISY can connect to HTTPS in insecure mode?) then over the local network. An added advantage is that then you have a program you can use with ISY/Insteon/Zwave as well, which may or may not be useful. (Useful if you actually WANT a KPL button for watching cable, or watching Apple TV, etc. - I don't). Edit: I tested, it does work. If a bit painful to set-up. But not as painful as using IR commands! I've only set-up "watch cable tv", "watch apple tv", and "tv off". At least now I can use the TV Off program to shut off the TV when I fall asleep with it on! SimpleHub does have an Alexa service. So, if you are willing to go through the rigamarole of exposing the port, you can control directly from Alexa without going through Maker Channel -> ISY. To clarify, I have Google Home Assistant, not Alexa.

And, of course, you could also use KeyPadLincs, if you might have some use for extra buttons. You can just wire the fixture from the closest switch location, and save the micro dimmer for another project. Another useful (reversible) wiring change is to change switched outlets to always-on. Then use lamplinc dimmers, either in-wall or plug-in instead, and then you have the flexibility as to placement in the room. The best place to change it is in the switch box - just move the load wire to hot, and leave the outlet split-wired. To reverse, just replace conventional switch and move the load wire back from hot to the switch. Of course, if you use an in-wall lamplinc, then you'll just cap both ends of the load wire. (In the U.S. it is common to wire the bottom outlet of one duplex outlet in each room to a wall switch - typically with switch at entrance and outlet across the room.) Great thing about switchlincs is that now you not only have 4-way switching, but dimming at every switch location.

But he had me at "colours". Anywhere that spells it that way is likely to be on 220/230/240, unless they say "colours, eh?"

Mea culpa! But, actually, it's "strangely" rated for 100W. 100W at 140V. What country uses 140V lines?! OP is in Australia, and it's rated at 200W at 240V. Australia is nominally 230V so, close to 200W should be plenty for most lighting. I assume the real limit here is current, apx 0.7 A (= 98W at 140V). So for nominal US voltage of 120, 84W. OP never said what his purpose for the micro-module was. I always assume it is an issue of lack of wired switch. But I guess in this case it is because they want to use existing 4-way switches and wiring?

Micromodule needs to be wired to neutral and unswitched line. You connect load wire to the fixture, and the other side of the fixture back to neutral. Sense inputs are seldom used. I think it's silly (IMO) to do this with original 4-way switches and wiring. I have considered, though, using sense inputs to work with an antique-style pushbutton switch, but I have been unable to find a reproduction switch with momentary contact (needed for dimming support) with contacts rated for 120V (they are rated for low voltage, at least the switches I have found). Most of us would replace the 4-way switches with SwitchLincs. They require only neutral and line. You would leave the load wire unused. You can use scenes to make a virtual n-way circuit. If you do not have all of neutral, line, load in any one box, you can probably re-use original traveller wires to make it so. As well, if you do not have neutral and line in each switch box, you can re-use the original traveller wires to make it so. Micromodule is normally installed in either the fixture box or the switch box that directly feeds the fixture box. It is your choice. Document your original wiring so that you can restore the hard-wired 4-way upon sale of residence, etc. I can't imagine how you could make use of multiple micro-dimmers on one load! That is almost certainly the wrong approach, and/or a good way to burn the place down. I currently use micro module only for a closet light that was previously an (outlawed for closets in California) glass globe with pull chain. So I already had line/neutral in the box. I replaced the globe with a flat LED module. I added a Mini Remote on the wall outside of the closet. I do plan on adding micro modules to 6 ceiling cans in the living room that have screw-base LED conversions. They are currently on a single SwitchLinc dimmer, I will change the wiring to send line instead - then I can control level of each can individually. Actually, they are wired as two circuits, and previously were illegally wired to two non-Insteon dimmers where green was borrowed as the second line to get to the box! I decided I would rather lose the functionality of controlling the lamps in two groups, vs. the potential of a future electrician being surprised to find line voltage on green... Keep in mind the 50 watt rating on the micro dimmer. It is more than enough for most LED fixtures. There is a larger/older "mini" dimmer that I think is rated for 300 watts.

I don't think the SA520/520B is OneLinc. I reviewed the manual, and it says nothing about OneLinc. Also, it seems missing the announcement/location capability, which is handy. (All alarms will announce the location of an alarm. You need to program the name of each location.) Again, though, the ISY will not know the location of the alarm, just that there is an alarm.

You don't link ISY to OneLinc smoke detectors. You link it to the SmokeBridge. BTW, if you have multiple detectors, the ISY will not know which one went off. Follow the instructions that came with your detector(s) and SmokeBridge for instructions on linking the detectors to each other, and to the SmokeBridge. It has to be done manually with button presses. It is a pain, and I think there are some wrong instructions circulating. I had to call the company I bought mine from and they had to walk me through it on the phone. Sorry, I can't check this on my own equipment, as I left my detectors at my old apartment. I did bring the SmokeBridge, but haven't purchased OneLinc detectors. I have two old-school detectors that are connected with a traveler, but they are not OneLinc. Linking the SmokeBridge to ISY is similar to linking most Insteon devices to ISY. The easiest way is to "start linking" in the admin console, then press the set button on the SmokeBridge until it beeps. You should see that the admin console has discovered the SmokeBridge. Complete the linking procedure. There is nothing to do with ISY when you add detectors. Use the manual linking procedure per the instructions. BTW, the SA520 seems obsolete, replaced by SA520B. Both are illegal in California, as they both have removable batteries. California now requires only permanent non-removable 10-year batteries, even on AC units. You are expected to recycle the detector after 10 years. (Yes, my old detectors were "illegal" removable-battery models, and I ordered them from out of state...)

The ISY console app lives on your computer, (or in your browser, if you still have a browser that runs a Java plugin) and does not update itself.

Put the PLM on an extension cord, and locate the PLM near the device. See if it is then successful. If so, this is indication of a weak/dying PLM and/or power-line interference. I normally program new devices on a zip cord plugged-in next to the PLM. I do it because it is faster. (Fewer hops.)

Interesting. I have a bunch of "flakey" v.35 SLs that I've never been able to pin-down the exact problem with. All I know is that they are toxic to the entire network. It will work for a couple days, and then things start going south. As well, some KPLs built around the same time. Newer or older ones work fine.

No serial adapter is going to give you the ability to control anything using programs and scenes (directly). No matter what hardware you use, it's going to require a network resource (and thus the network module option). ISY doesn't know what your serial port is controlling. It doesn't know if it has an "on" or "off", a "loud" or "soft" or a "walk the dog". A program can use the network resource. There is nothing you can do with a scene, other than have a program use it in a condition. Maybe with 5.x you could make a node for specific equipment attached to a specific serial adapter that will make it seem like a device node. Global Cache' is popular and well-supported. While I can't vouch for their serial interfaces, I'm noting but happy with my IR interface.

ISY is awkward for controlling AV, especially at low-level with IR commands. Somebody posted here recently about having 800 programs to send IR commands! A better way if you want your ISY to do some AV control is to use and AV remote solution like Simple Control or Logitech Harmony that has a (usually optional) always-on server component. This can be in the form of a hardware box or software that runs on some always-on computer. (Simple Control offers both.) Now, instead of sending IR commands to devices, you send activities and device commands to a server. Besides being more convenient, this eliminates having two sources of IR command which might be different (making it difficult to debug!). The server ALWAYS sends the IR commands. I don't think ISY is a good choice for PRIMARY control of AV equipment. It is useful as an adjunct - e.g. to allow you to do limited control over AV equipment from Insteon switches.

A variable can't do that. A variable is a place to keep a value. It doesn't "do" anything. You need a program. And probably not an ISY program, but an external program, on some always-on computer, Raspberry Pi, etc. What is the "external source"? What format is the data in, and what you you have to do to fetch it? Once an external source is checked and (what?) is saved into memory, what is Alexa to do with it? It's not clear what it is you are trying to accomplish. Change the channel at a certain time, according to a list of times and channels? I'm not sure that ISY is very appropriate for this at all. How do you change the cable box channel? Global Cache'? Some other IR dongle? Do you use some AV controller app (iRule, Simple Control, etc.)? If so, do you have their server installed?) (e.g. Simple Control has Simple Hub).

FYI, I've forked google-home-notifier and contacted the author to see what his intentions are - i.e. does he plan on continuing to support it, does he want pull requests, etc. I haven't heard back, so thinking I will want to rename this and go my own way with it. As naming things is one of the two hard problems in software engineering (really!), I am asking for help! Things to consider: 1. It is really not only for Google Home Assistant. It (should) work with any Google Cast device (or devices). With a bit (very little) of change to the code. 2. It is really not just a notifier, at least with the changes I have made. It can (now) also play local audio files (from the computer running the service) or play audio files from the Internet. You can play a barking dog, or you can tune your favorite Internet radio station. 3. It is a simple web service that runs on some always-on device in your home. You can use it to easily send announcements or play some audio, by sending a POST request from some home automation controller, AV system controller, etc. etc. I'm not interested in going beyond that charter e.g. by making it into some Internet radio tuner or playlist tool, etc. ---- I'll post a link to the repo in a couple of days for those who'd like to play along. So far, I've made some usability improvements (config file and config override from command/line or environment variables) and gotten it to play local and Internet files. I plan on adding optional caching (so that static texts only have to be converted to audio once. Of course, texts with variables plugged-in would not benefit from caching). For static texts, though, with the ability to play local files, you can also just use whatever TTS you want to create a file then drop it into the /public directory on the server. Or simply record a file with your own or other voice. BTW, there are MANY demos on the net where you can type in some text and get TTS back. I was playing with the Watson demo today. It's still not as nice as the Google Home's own voice, but certainly much better than Google Translate (which is the current TTS provider). I *think* it should be possible to pause/resume current audio, though it might be a bit clunky. But it should be possible to determine the current media and position, and then restore it after an announcement is made. Finally, I should be able to add an additional TTS provider or two. If anyone knows of free services I can use, I would like to hear about them. Or a GOOD local TTS service that is free and open-source, hopefully with a nodejs module available. I don't want to get too crazy with this, because (hopefully) it is just a band-aid until Google provides a "speak" service in the cloud for Home! OTOH, some people have an allergy to the cloud (I'm looking at YOU Teken!) so maybe it has some lasting value even once Google provides a solution. And, yes, I was thinking of Teken when I dreamed-up the idea of caching the TTS audio so that it is less dependent on an Internet connection, and so won't have to "phone the cloud" every time it speaks.

PM me if you are interested in an electromagnetic latch. I have two that I have no use for. One is made for a commercial metal doorframe, and was bought by mistake. It is quite large, and offers the better force protection of the two. The other one is a compact one made for a wood doorframe. You would operate these with an ioLinc. They are both made by Trine. They can be changed-over for left/right installation, as well as for fail-open or fail-closed. I keep meaning to put these on eBay.

Was just going to suggest the same thing as Stu, but he beat me to it. Devices can be put into multiple scenes. In fact, it's common. Create a new scene with kitchen, downstairs, and outside lights. Unfortunately, you cannot make "scenes of scenes" so you will have to add each light to the new scene. In fact, in my old home, I had a scene for each room that consists of all of the lights in the REST of the home. The "D" button on every KPL showed the status of "rest of home" and pushing the D button would turn off all of the rest of the lights. Lots of scenes!

Got the Radbeacons. And then realized I probably don't need one for my home! Radius Networks also has MacBeacon for OSX, which is only $9.99. You need a Mac with Bluetooth LE. My Mac Mini doesn't have it built-in, but I added a Bluetooth LE dongle (Azio) to both my (very) old Macbook and Mac Mini. I added them so that they will work with my Sennheiser Bluetooth headset with aptX. There are other software solutions, including free ones. MacBeacon does all of iBeacon, AltBeacon, and Eddystone. They say Yosemite or El Capitan, but maybe they just didn't update the list.

Google Home Assistant is also a Chromecast Audio receiver, so whatever you can do with any Chromecast audio receiver will work. A bit more review reveals that google-home-notify is using a redneck duct-tape lash-up solution. It's fine for fiddling around with your home system, though. It actually uses Google Translate, which has the ability to make an MP3. So, it's set to translate english-english. There are some tricks implemented, as Google really doesn't want people using it in this way. It could stop working at any time, as it's a cat-and-mouse game, but the cat doesn't seem very interested in catching the remaining mice right now. The TTS used by Google Home itself is way better and uses AI. There are many alternative online and offline TTS engines/APIs that might be used for this. google-home-notifier is a good prototype that shows how to get the audio to Home (or any Chromecast Audio device) once you have it, in any case. I think you could use the same TTS used by Home Assistant by using Assistant APIs. But not something for the average user who is not a developer. Maybe it is something that UDI could eventually include in their service. I haven't yet found any info on an official standalone Google TTS service - only STT (voice recognition). For that, you can get 60 minutes/month free.

So, I just ran some tests. Installed google-home-notifier NPM module and started the little server they include after modifying port. It uses Google TTS service, so it is NOT a purely local solution. The server runs on my Mac Mini, receives text on a port, sends it off to Google TTS which sends back a .mp3 file. It then sends the MP3 file to the Google Assistant. The voice is not great, which is strange, given it's Google TTS. One would think it would be equally good as the assistant's own voice, but it is not. It doesn't have the smoothness. I think Google is giving the Assistant voice generation some extra AI love. I did some experiments to see if I could prompt Google Home to continue playing previous music, and failed. I asked it to play some elevator music, and it picked an upbeat-but-sedate channel. Sent a notification, and the music just stops. I tried "continue playing music" and told me there was nothing playing. I tried "play previous channel" and it did indeed play some music, but it was a different channel, which it claimed was "soft rock". But, in fact, it was VERY raucous and loud hard rock. Which pointed out a problem or two. - It could not hear me over the loud music. I had to tap the top of the device to stop it. One would think it could subtract it's own output from the mic input! - Volume equalization between sources. Not. Not even Google's own music channels. It is a very new product, and I'm sure these things will be worked-out. In any case, I have a working solution for notifications in case Home won't be used for playing music. Will research if there is some way to change voice, get better TTS processing, etc. Realize, though, that part of the solution has nothing to do with Google Home, as it is just using google TTS service separately to make an MP3. If you just want to cast something, I think you should be able to find plenty of Python or node.js solutions. The little server that comes with google-home-notifier could be adapted, to, say, accept the name of a local MP3 file instead of text to TTS, and then just skip the TTS part. Actually, it would make sense to take that code, and just expand it so that you can either give it text, or the location of an MP3. BTW, I did not have to make the modification to the Express server that is indicated on the Github readme. It seems to work without it. But think it has something to do with limiting to IPV4, and of course both Google Home and MacOS have IPv6, so works without the mod. The server sets-up an ngrok connection as well. So, gives you the ability to send notifications from the LAN or from the Internet, without having to open up any port on your router. Assuming there is some way of setting-up a "permanent" ngrok DNS name. If you are not using it, that code should be commented-out. Maybe I will fork that project, and tailor it more toward ISY needs and provide some options so that code doesn't have to be edited for addresses, ports, use ngrok or not, etc. BTW, there really isn't much to either the notifier or the server. They are both tiny bits of javascript code - it's a good demonstration of the power of node.js. It's just two little files - which pull in a boatload of dependencies upon installation!