jtara92101

As well, why does it write when you Query Insteon Engine?

I wanted to see the device links table for a KPL. I got "Failed writing device link". (followed by "Failed reading device link") when doing Query Device Links Table for the device. Why would the ISY be writing device links when wanting to READ device links? There were no "unwritten" icons prior to doing this.

Look for videos on how to drop the can. You do not remove the entire fixture. You are thinking about it wrong. There are (typically) 3 screws inside the housing, on the sides. Remove these, and then the can part should come free from the rest of the fixture. They will typically be attached to a sort of stiff wire frame, or in any case some kind of attachment points to the overall fixture. At least if they are 6" cans. If they are 4" cans, you will need a VERY short screwdriver! (Or an offset one and a lot of patience.) It will not just fall out easily, it will take a lot of fiddling. Maybe a little drywall repair when you are done. For 6" cans, at least, you can then almost certainly access the little electrical box. The cover is just on the "box" with a springy-tab arrangement. No screwdriver needed. With a screw-base can, the base will typically be on an L-bracket attached to one of those screws. It will probably have a thumbscrew on it. There's another good use of that thumbscrew! I put in LED conversions on my 4" screw-base cans. I didn't have to disassemble these as I did my 6" kitchen fixtures that had the fluorescents. The conversion comes pre-wired to one of those pigtails I mentioned above. (It's how I got the idea! I went to the electrical supply with one of the pigtails from a conversion kit. "Do you have this?" Well, they didn't have it with the orange connector attached, but they had it with just wire pigtails! Anyway, the conversions got mechanical interference from the screw-base, and wouldn't push in all the way. But the socket height in the can is adjustable, and so you can loosen the thumbscrew and push it up a bit. I don't recall if those 4" cans also had one or two additional screw that might be used to drop the can from the fixture. I do think this is probably overkill. Easier to just ring it out with the screw-base pigtails.

If the cans are Halo, they will be fairly easy to drop. If they are not, they might not be. (Ask me how I know...) And I don't know how easy 4" cans would be - I've only done 6" (for an LED conversion of fluorescent ones - had to drop the can to bypass the ballast.) There should be many YouTube videos for this! But you may not need to. Go to an electrical supply, and they might have a screw-in base with pigtails. Get at least a couple of them. (My electrical supply has them.) With the power off (verify with a bulb!) screw in the base with pigtails. Really - for safety - it is best if you cut power to the entire house. Now you can wirenut a long wire to one of the leads, bring the other end of the long wire back to one of your switches, and check for continuity with an ohmmeter. You should be able to eventually figure out your wiring. Of course, then you will not be able to test hidden connections in the can's electrical box. (e.g. if the box is used to make some other wire connections unrelated to the can). I'd imagine electricians use some device to put a signal on the wire that can be easily detected without having to bring a wire to the other test point to check with an ohmmeter. You can probably get a basic one pretty inexpensively. I've used an ohmmeter. (Actually, I use it with a buzzer functionality.) This is called "ringing-out" a circuit. (I suppose because of the buzzer feature on meters.) This will either allow you to figure out your wiring, or drive you to drink. When you do, stop playing around with wires!

Haven't looked, but I wonder how many implementations of Colossal Cave Adventure have be released already as iMessage plugins?

And as I am an app developer, and thought it might be interesting to do an iMessage plugin, open to ideas related to ISY! I write apps for big companies to use internally. But always looking for ideas for The Next Big Thing to do "in my spare time". But then, before I find that spare time, a big company wants something in a rush. And of course, this does open up a world of possibilities for Big Company Apps.

Not related to ISY, but O M G... iOS10 + iMessage plugins + the other dot I don't know if they've actually implemented "Dot post-it notes", but that's how you'd do it for iOS10. (Yes, I'd guess this has been possible on Android for some time. Hold the "I told you so" snickers!) I haven't explored iMessage plugins (actually, have not installed iOS10 yet - not prudent!). But I get messages on a group with friends where they are using all these silly iMessage plugins. Some actually show something (like an animated GIF) on iOS9. Some, (thankfully!) do the best they can on iOS9 by saying things like "Laughed at Digital Touch message". Now this is something actually USEFUL.

Wait, I think maybe Insteon has a product just for this. I seem to recall a product announcement a while back. A good name for such a product would be "Is This Thing On?" My way above will not work if you plug more than one lamp into the outlet. (I tested it. I have two lamps in my bedroom plugged into one LmapLinc.) Yes. Here it is! SynchroLinc. It's a big ugly box. But it will be hidden under the bed. http://www.smarthome.com/synchrolinc-insteon-2423a5-power-synching-controller.html?src=Froogle&gclid=Cj0KEQjwjem-BRC_isGJlJ-0h-MBEiQAbCimWGBtcrbFHuGMFqEIs56Ptax1wTMnn4i1YS-Fj0NovkEaAlCM8P8HAQ I don't like the name SynchroLinc. They should change it to "Is This Thing On?" Check to make sure ISY supports it. I see review comments that it's not supported by Insteon Hub II, but they might be old comments.

I can think of a round-about way. But you need to explain more fully the Sleep Number remote. Do they have some dongle you plug into an outlet, and then the Sleep Number remote will turn an outlet on the dongle on and off? If so, does the dongle do dimming also? If it does dimming, my work-around will not work. If it is just on/off, it should work. Insteon inline dimmers have a "sense" feature. They send a small current through the lamp, and can sense when you flip the switch on the lamp. (I think I have seen comments here that this works only for incandescent buibs. However, with Phillips LED bulbs "works for me". It shouldn't matter if it is the switch on the lamp, or the relay in the Sleep Number dongle. (But if the Sleep Number dongle is off, of course the switch on the lamp will do no good.) But it probably needs to be a true relay, rather than a triac. To be more clear: I have a floor lamp in my office. It is plugged into a LampLinc 2457D2. It has a Phillips LED in it, and the floor lamp has a switch. I normally leave the switch "on". I switch it remotely from a KeypadLinc. But if the switch is "off", and the KPL is also "off", if I flip the lamp switch off then back on, the lamp will light. And then the status of the LampLinc is also "on". But you won't be able to turn the light on from Insteon if the Sleep Number relay is off... ---- Tangental, but might give you some OTHER ideas. Since you have a Sleep Number bed, have you considered using one or more Insteon magnetic door open/close detectors? Might be cool to have reading light on when in reading position! You might be able to rig it up with double-sided sticky tape. (I HATE double-sided sticky tape, though. You have no idea how long it took to get rid of all the remnants in my new apartment!) When I was in college, I worked as a student assistant writing code for the mainframe operating system. (Michigan Terminal System). There was for a time a persistent problem where the mainframe would halt periodically and the system would have to be rebooted. One of the full time employees at the school (who is now retired from Apple) is an innovative thinker. He rigged-up a sensor to detect the halt light on the console, and a solenoid to press the reboot button.

Both line-of-site and echoed (bounces off of interior surfaces) sound waves will arrive at each device at different times and at different volumes. it shouldn't be difficult to distinguish which device was closest to the sound source. This can be determined by some mathematical analysis of each sound signal captured at each device.

I think it would be unreasonable to expect otherwise. They would have to buffer (which assume they already do), sync the buffers using some PLL technique (maybe tight control of time sync using e.g. ntpd), AND compensate for the differences in arrival time between the different speakers and your ears. And so it will need to know just where your ears are!

^ Yes, I fixed that.

Oh, great. A walkie-talkie app that you can control your lights with. Nothing worse than the IT guy standing outside your cubicle shouting into an iPhone pretending the Blackberry is back!

I wouldn't expect high-quality wireless audio for $49. If you want to play music, play it through an AV system, with wired or wireless zone and proper audiophile golden-ears hardware. Don't forget the alkaline oxygenated cables. Your ISY can command your sound system.

What I meant is, up til now, Dot needed Echo, right? Or maybe it was just that you could only ORDER Dot through Echo? So, you could use a Dot without Echo, but you would have to find a friend with Echo to order one for you? Can Tap be used for things other than ordering more Tide or crackers?

Is it true this can be used without Echo? If so, then can it then be used to command ISY? The ISY connection is just through the cloud, right? I would not spend nearly $200 to fiddle with Alexa. But I would spend $49. And no big plastic thing that looks like Master Cylinder, either.

Don't need no stinkin' AP Style Guide!

edit: removed my dumb question "do you own an ISY", because it is answered in your first post! But I will ask some less dumb questions.... You say you have an "ISY system, with many switches installed", left by the previous owner. Specifically which model of ISY? It is likely ISY99 or ISY994. You don't really have an "ISY system". Those switches aren't ISY. They are *probably* Insteon, but might be Z-wave or even X-10. The Insteon switches can do most of what they do without an ISY. The ISY is handy for setup (saves a lot of running-around punching buttons). And it can use programs to do some things that aren't possible with scenes. Just want you (and us) to understand what you have.

If you do not want to do it yourself, find a company that installs and services Elk. I'm sure you will find one. Start there, rather than contacting random security companies who may or may not prefer to use Elk. These companies are just trying to sell you a complete new system that you do not need. Do these companies propose to re-used existing hard-wired sensors, or replace them with wireless? Since you have the bulk of what you need already installed, it would be foolish IMO to start over. You have a great system that is just missing a few things that you want. Have the things you want installed. Ah, I see my answer above in your latest post. I would reject out of hand any of the companies that propose to replace everything. And then reject the rest as well. What are the "key pieces" that you are missing? ELK does have wireless products if that is your choice for the additional components. OF COURSE you can get cell-phone backup, and OF COURSE you can set it up with a monitoring service. FWIW, a friend is preparing a 30,000 sq ft warehouse he owns that has recently come off-lease with Iron Mountain. They left a 200-zone security system. He told them nooooo prooooooblem, you can leave that behind! Follow his lead. I'd wager the most expensive part of any (wired) security system is the cost of installation. I'm a software developer and use a Mac. Sometimes I have to do some things with Windows or Linux. When i do, I just load-up a VM on the Mac. (I use VMWare, I prefer it to Parallels - for one, it is available for OSX, Windows, and Linux hosts, and if I do install a Linux box (as I have had in the past) I could actually move VMs between systems. I could run a Windows VM on my mac this week. And run it on a Linux box the next. You may not even need the Elk software that runs on Windows (see others comments). But if you need it or want it, my experience is that Windows running on VMWare will not bog-down your machine, etc. (unless running some intense task, which this is not!). It is helpful, though, to add as much RAM as you can. Do that, and you will not really even notice it is running. (And anyway, is this something just need for configuration and test?) While there is some software that won't run in a VM, most do. Sounds like there are those here who run the Elk support software in a VM with no trouble.

After reading Teken's comments, I rethought my plan for modifying my Espresso machine with a micro on/off. While the micro on/off does not seem to have the problem of the flawed SwitchLincs, it got me thinking that the PURPOSE of my modification is safety. So, while the micro on/off does not SEEM to have the problem, who knows if it has an unknown failure mode? My purpose is to help insure the machine is powered-off if I am not home. I have no interest in warming it up when I drive home. Do you know that there are GE ranges that have a network connection and can do this? What could possibly go wrong?! I've always been uncomfortable with the "delay" feature of ranges and microwaves. I shudder at suggestions in instruction manuals about leaving a turkey in the oven and then having it start cooking at a certain time! What were they thinking? Food safety, anyone? (Yes, if you leave a frozen turkey in the oven, for less time than it takes to reach The Danger Zone...) I don't like running the self-clean and then leaving the house either! So, no wiring the machine's on/off switch to the sense input. I will just wire the micro on/off in front of the machine's switch. It can disable the machine, but it can't turn it on. A lamp would be a different story. BTW, a few years ago, I came home, and all the lights were alternately flashing on and off. I hate to think how long they had been doing that and wonder what the neighbors thought? I forget what the problem was, I think it was a bad Insteon device. Thanks, Teken, for focusing on safety and making me think!

I just ordered one, but am sending it back. (Don't have it yet.) I realized for my use a micro on/off 2443-222 is a better choice. I wasn't thinking of that when I placed the first order. (Already got the micro on/off, my first order hasn't arrived yet...) My weekend project is building it in to an espresso machine. I will wire the sense line to the machine's on/off switch. I once left the house with the espresso machine turned on, and when I came back, it didn't work any more. It over-heated. I thought it was a goner, but then I realized it must have some thermostatic protection. I looked and looked and couldn't find it, but finally found a web site that showed where the tiny little reset button was. Whew! That was after letting it sit for months unused, wary of the high repair bill I thought was forthcoming. Never again! When I am away, the machine will be OFF. BTW, this is the machine: It is a luxury to be sure. But rather than losing value the minute I "drove it off the lot", my $800 investment now sells for about twice as much. And I'm thinking about what else I might build these (or the micro dimmer) into. My introduction to the micro dimmer was installing a flat LED light in a walk-in closet, operated by a micro remote. (The old light used a pull chain, no controlling switch). I think I can put a micro dimmer in the base of a torch lamp in my office. Hmmm, just looked - would require careful use of shrink tubing and tape and/or adding a metal cover to the bottom. There is certainly enough room in the weighted base for it, but open to the floor.

This is brilliant! All of the other solutions I have seen rely on installation of an app on the iPhone to check GPS, some augmented with checks for home network, iBeacon, etc. This turns everything inside-out. I've been using Locative, and I have noticed that sometimes it momentarily decides I am not home when I am home, and so then there go the lights... Probably in part due to the fact that I live in a highrise, and GPS consistently puts me across the street at the Red Roof Inn. (Which is still close enough for Locative to consider me "home", but a bit of drift and then it's too far away from reality.) To be fair, Locative has other uses, as it can be used to set-up multiple geofences with different actions. This script seems the ideal way to handle the specific issue of telling ISY if your device is home or not. No app needed on the device, easy to check if device is in Wifi range. Would seem to be minimal impact on battery life.

Wrong ones. Those are called "direct replacement" or "plug and play" tubes. They are meant for directly replacing existing tubes without modifying the fixture. They use (or is it "tolerate"? ) the existing ballast. You can use an existing dimmable fluorescent ballast with some of these. This is for lazy retrofit. Actually, it is probably the only LEGAL retrofit, since modifying your fixture will invalidate the UL listing. (Even installing the strips, let alone bypassing the ballast.) Edit: I take that back! There is a standard for LED conversion retrofits, and apparently ballast bypass is OK. Products can be UL listed as a conversion product. Installing your own strips still will invalidate the fixture's UL listing, if that matters to you. But if the place burns down, it WILL matter to your insurance company! http://ulstandards.ul.com/standard/?id=1598C_1 You want the ones that require you to bypass your existing ballast. If they are dimmable, they will be dimmable with a common dimmer. This is the kind you found. You don't want this: http://www.ledsmagazine.com/articles/print/volume-11/issue-6/features/led-tubes/how-do-plug-and-play-t8s-stack-up-against-ballast-bypass-led-lamps.html You want something like this: http://www.ledtronics.com/Products/product_new.aspx?id=LED48T8SM-170X2-XWW-120CAD In other words, works with normal household dimmer, like Insteon.

That's what I did when I moved, because I didn't think to reset all the devices before the move (I completely reset the ISY, though). Plus I had some communication issues. Just an extension cord with the socket end cut off and stripped. Tin the wires with a soldering iron for durability! Work from an outlet near your ISY to avoid communication trouble - the ISY needs to do a LOT of back-and-forth when setting-up a scene. I program the device initially while plugged-in, then move it to it's final destination. (Of course, as you add more devices, you will be programming them at some distance, but at least the initial setup gets done with little chance of communication failure.) Tip: DOUBLE check that you have unplugged it before rewiring to a new device! I caught myself doing it live a couple of times (I had a HUGE box of devices to go through) - but didn't manage to zap myself, whew! BTW, love that Wago connectors, haven't tried them. Looks like they are meant to be reusable. I've been using the Ideal push-ins, which aren't quite "ideal". They are smaller than wire nuts and so help with box fill. And because they are transparent, you can verify correct installation and full contact. On the other hand, you NEED to be able to inspect, because they have a tendency to back-out as you are re-positioning in the box. At the same time, they are difficult to disassemble. (Please throw them in the trash if you do! You CAN remove the wires without destroying the connector, but it involves twisting the wire, easier said than done when you are using a 4-port connector and #12 wire!) ​I've had to replace ALL of the electrical outlets in my new place, because they are all insanely flakey, almost none will hold plugs, they arc and spark, some had broken metal straps (so these were QUALITY outlets, since they actually had metal straps!) Since they are all 20A outlets, and I've been getting "commercial grade" anyway, that means I've been enjoying the sanity of screw-down back-wiring. (No push-in outlet wiring.) (I don't think push-in is popular for 20A devices, or perhaps even not permitted by code any more? At least I haven't encountered them, but I have avoided the cheapie "residential" stuff, instead shopping carefully online for decent prices.

1. Get it back to a normal 3-way, with the wires properly tagged NOW. Hire an electronic if you must. "properly tagged" means nothing more than sticking a piece of "coding" tape with an appropriate color on the ends of that white wire that (allegedly) does not cary neutral. The coding tape tells an electrician "this is not really a white wire, nothing to see here, move along!" Maybe this will help. See case 2. http://users.wfu.edu/matthews/courses/p230/switches/3way/variations Sounds like your electrician forgot to code the white wire, or else the tape long ago fell off or the homeowner (who would that be? ) thought it was an unnecessary piece of fluff and removed it! By "upstairs", do you mean at the switch, or at the lamp? You can always install a micro-dimmer at the lamp box, assuming you can get hot and neutral to the box. But then you don't have your fall-back to conventional 3-way when/if you remove Insteon.