jtara92101

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.)

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!

See the separate thread "Speak, Google!" My goal is text to speech, though, rather than playing an MP3. But the solution I found does play an MP3 - it makes an MP3 using Google TTS first. I just did some tests using the NPM module google-home-notify. I used the little server included and then set up some Network resources on ISY to speak some notifications.

Can this be done with Alexa? That is, make an announcement, and then return to previous audio source? I think this is something that these devices will need to address. I commented on the general need peripherally a while back, with regard to my AV amplifier. An emerging need for AV amps is to have an input that will "override" whatever the current audio source is. Like a DJ mic. If my amp had such a feature, I could plug a Chromecast Audio device into it for announcements while playing audio through the amp. It is certainly something I could kludge-up for specific use cases. i.e. command the AV receiver to switch inputs, command the assistant to cast to a dongle on the AV receiver. (Or just mute the AV so that the assistant can be heard.) But needs to be more integrated. Of course, in the future, many AV amps will have built-in chromecast audio, Alexa, Siri, Cortana, etc. But that is in the future. And there will still need to be some way to interrupt and continue. I think the industry still needs to fully think-through how these devices will be used. At minimum, there needs to be some small number of "classes" of audio, e.g.: - media - announcements - dialog Dialog and announcements need to be able to cut-through or pause media, and then resume media when done. And it would be great if further configuration were possible. e.g. I don't want to hear THESE announcements if I am watching a movie, or between these hours, etc. Really what is missing is a specific announcement service, and ways to configure it. Although Google Home "hears" very well, she doesn't hear so well over a movie. It would be great if she could have especially good ears for the trigger phrase, and once heard override media. I note that Google Assistant already does this for dialog. If you are playing music through the assistant, and start a dialog (e.g. ask the weather) the volume level of the media is reduced during the dialog.

Further exploring the 2663-222 outletlinc, I decided to try the 4-tap test this morning, as I'd read that this unit has one of the longest range, and the test doesn't time-out. Discovered another little "gotcha" in the process. If you set the Program Lock option, to disable programming from the buttons, that also disables the 4-tap test. There is one little bit to my espresso reminder scheme that I didn't think out fully. I will need to somehow notify the ISY that I have made espresso. I can use the Google Home Assistant for that. That's because there is no way to sense that the espresso machine has been manually turned off. (I think that is possible with the micro module, but not the outletlinc.) So, once I notify ISY that I have made espresso, it will not bug me with a reminder announcement or an announcement that the espresso is being shut off. For safety reasons, I want to continue to use the manual switch on the machine. Otherwise, I could obviously just leave the switch on all the time, and then just switch it on with a KPL, voice command to Google Assistant, etc. I guess I could add a SynchroLinc. But it would be a great additional feature if the outletlinc could also (with configuration) act like a synchrolinc.

A nodes.js Google Home notifier: https://github.com/noelportugal/google-home-notifier

I'm exploring how to make the Home Assistant speak asynchronously. Thought I would start a thread, since this is of general interest to those with an ISY and Home Assistant. Most obvious use case is to speak some timer, alert, alarm, etc. etc. etc. (My first use case is to let me know when my espresso machine is ready, based on time-out from turn-on using an OutletLinc with sense enabled.) Since the Home Assistant can serve as a Chromecast Audio device, there should be several options for doing this locally. (Would be nice to avoid the cloud if possible, but if I found a cloud service, it certainly would be convenient for starters.) I will look over what others have done with Alexa to get ideas. I'm most interested in something that I can install on MacOS or on Linux on my router. I'm sure many others will be interested in raspberry Pi solutions. I did a few searches, but mostly found: - apps for casting MacOS system audio (needs SoundFlower) - plugins for various home automation apps that can TTS and cast I guess the latter could be adapted to stand-alone. Suggestions?

Oh, and congrats! Looking forward to it! I've set up a few simple on/off actions with IFTTT for now. When you are done with this, no doubt there will in the future be Cortana and Siri appliances to deal with... As I am an Apple household, neither Google HA or Alexa are optimum. But I've decided that each "home assistant" has an agenda, and I guess the Google one is less evil: Alexa - get you to buy stuff from Amazon Google Assistant - get you to use as many Google services as possible Cortana - assimilate into the Borg Siri - make her less lonely, because nobody uses Siri after the initial excitement (I think poor accuracy, and too many irrelevant, sometimes totally bizarre results). Oh, and get you to use as few Google services as possible I have to say I am still impressed by the accuracy and relevance, especially for local results.

Well, darn! I had assumed that I could use IFTTT to make the Home Assistant speak when timers time-out... But, no. It will be more complicated! I came across this for Raspberry Pi. As it's just Python, assume I could install this on my always-on Mac Mini or on my Asus Router (with AsusWRT-Merlin). https://community.home-assistant.io/t/speak-service/7292 Assume that is just chrome-casting to the Home Assistant, so there should be lots of options. BTW, do not turn off both RF and powerline communication! I found out the hard way... As I had no assistant for hard reset, I had to remove the OutletLinc and put it on my zip-cord setup to reset. (To hard reset, hold down top button while powering up until it makes a long beep, and wait for the long beep to finish.) There is a soft reset, which only resets links, but not options. One thing that bothers me a bit is that it's only 15A, and it's on a 20A circuit. It may be possible to overload the outlet. Looks like I sneak by: Espresso: 800W Sous Vide' 850 W Lamp 10W Total 1670W ~14A When I am using the sous vide' it normally loafs along at like 20W, but would draw 850W during initial heating of the water bath. This is not in my kitchen, unfortunately, it's along the back wall of my living room adjacent to kitchen.There's one circuit for LR and office outlets. (LR lighting is on separate circult at least.) It leaves me with 6A for AV, subwoofer, and office computer! Skating on thin ice if I am watching the morning news, while reading email, making espresso, and warming a Sous-Vide' bath. Fortunately, an unlikely combination.

I finally got around to my espresso project, and realized it would probably be a bad idea to install the micro on/off in the base of the espresso machine. I checked the specs on the wiring in the base, and was able to find the specs from the website of the Italian company that makes the wire. It has silicon insulation, and is rated to 180C (356F). Checked the spec on the micro on/off, and operating range goes only to 104F! I figured the environment in the espresso machine base will be too hostile for the micro on/off. Installing an on/off outlet instead. A bit awkward, as I will need to add a power strip in order to plug everything else into the other outlet. (Sous Vide', lamp, grinder.) I was using a pair of flat heavy-duty splitter dongles. (Well, hmmmm... I guess it wouldn't hurt to plug the grinder into the same outlet as the espresso machine.) Goal is two-fold - just thought of a second use! 1. Safety. When away, the ISY will insure the espresso machine is off. I had an "incident" in the past. Did not damage the machine, but scratched my head for a while realizing that there is a tiny thermal reset switch in the base. 2. Convenience. Now I can have Google Home Assistant announce when the machine is ready to use, and then remind me again if it's been on too long and finally shut it off. ("Your espresso machine is ready." ... "Did you forget to make espresso? ... Turning off espresso, it's been on too long!") If it stays on too long without use, it will be too hot, resulting in improper timing of the "pull" - it will come spurting out in seconds rather than the desirable 20-30 seconds. (Can be compensated with finer grind or harder tamping, but then I'd also have to wait longer...). And then finally shut it off if it's been on too long. I'm enabling the sense so that if I do leave with the espresso on too long, I only need to turn the switch on the machine off then back on to re-enable the switch.

Google Assistant has two kinds of actions. Both require a server that the developer supplies that Google can talk to. There are a variety of high-level and low-level APIs that developers can use. Conversational Actions: The developer must supply an invocation trigger, dialog, and fulfillment action. It is up to the developer to specify the words that will be used by the user, and the flow of dialog. (Because it can go beyond simple commands, and include a back-and-forth "conversation". An example of a service that would be well-suited to conversational actions would be a baseball trivia "bot". Direct Actions: The developer only deals with fulfillment. Google handles the entire conversational interaction. Google has defined a number of problem domains, which they refer to as "verticals". Examples are food ordering, home automation, reservations, etc. Google has defined the possible actions. So, for home automation, they've defined commands to turn things on and off, dim and brighten, etc. Direct actions are limited to what Google has defined. So, I can imagine that conversational actions would still be needed if a home automation product is capable of doing things that Google didn't think of. So, for example, if you wanted to use ISY to arm an Elk alarm, or tune a channel on an AV system, it could be awkward. There isn't (as of yet) a vertical for home security or AV control, and the terminology will be a bit off if you were to piggy-back it on Home Automation. Conversational actions give the developer more control, as the developer is in charge of the conversation. Direct actions are easier to implement, and have the advantage of using a common vocabulary. The user could control e.g. Hue or Insteon using the same vocabulary and syntax. This can be a good thing or a bad thing! It seems desirable for services that fit into the available verticals to support direct actions, because users will have expectations how services in a given vertical work. One might easily get the impression that direct actions are more difficult to implement, but I think it is the opposite. Direct actions have a sign-up and approval process I think mainly because they are new an still a bit experimental. Google is still learning (both Google PEOPLE and Google AI...) and I think developing specs as they go along, so there is a need to limit access at this point - I suppose mainly to industry leaders - like UDI!

1. Does it happen only when you press the KPL button, or also when you activate the scene from the ISY administrative console? 2. If only when you press the KPL button, did you forget to copy scene attributes to the button? (maybe there is some old scene programmed for the button?) 3. Disable all of your programs and see if it still happens. 4. Restore device

I just ordered two RadBeacons. One white for my home, one black for my car. Not interested in tracking myself from room-room, as my place isn't very big, and I don't carry my phone around the house with me. But useful if the ISY knows if I am home or if I am in my car! Actually, for car, i should think it possible to use an OBD2 dongle (I have a Kiwi3 installed in my Mini), a visor speaker-phone, or any other BLE device to detect presence. I know Automatic (OBD2 dongle) app does it. But I prefer the more-technical non-nonsense approach of the Kiwi3 to the "I'm your friend in the cloud, for everything BUT what OBD2 was meant for..." approach. (Anxiously awaiting the overdue Kiwi3 bespoke app. Currently using Dash Command, which has no presence feature.)