khearn

BTW, I just checked the FAQ at weatherbug.com and found this: So if you want to integrate a Davis weather station (or apparently a few other brands), it looks like you can add it to the weatherbug network and then select it as your local station. The cheapest system Ambient has on their weatherbug page is $178.95 for a LaCrosse system, ranging up to ~$1500 for the most expensive Davis system (there are 20 different systems). Plus I guess you'd have to pay for the ISY software module as well. Disclaimer: I haven't done any of this, I'm just reporting what I've found in a few minutes of poking around. Keith

I think the problem is that the controller sends DIM commands to the group, and none of the devices besides the dimmer knows when the dimmer gets to 0%. All the KPL sees is a bunch of DIM commands, and it has no way of knowing whether the dimmers is at 20%, 10%, 1% or 0%, so how can it know when to turn off the LED? In order for the KPL to know the dimmer is off, the dimmer would have to send out a message to the group when it gets a DIM which takes it down to 0% (and probably one would also want a message when a BRIGHT brings it to 100%). I don't think the Insteon protocol has any provision for that. So I don't think it's a bug in the Insteon device or the ISY. You could say it's a design flaw in the Insteon protocol, but it'd be a pretty difficult one to fix. The problem is the way group commands are acknowledged, or rather, the way they aren't acknowledged. Forgive me if you undertsand this already, but in case readers don't know how group commands work, here is a description. Let's say we have three devices, a controller 01.01.01, a dimmer 02.02.02 and a KPL 03.03.03 (we'll ignore that the KPL has individual buttons to keep things simple).They are all in 01.01.01's group 1. If the controller sends an ON to the group it sends out a broadcast: 01.01.01 -> ALL : Group 1 ON With luck, both 02.02.02 and 03.03.03 receive it and turn on. But neither replies, because they'd step on each other and neither response would get through. Instead, the controller sends out cleanup messages to each device in the group, and each devices replies to its cleanup 01.01.01 -> 02.02.02: Group cleanup 1 02.02.02 -> 01.01.01: Group cleanup ACK (for Acknowledge) 01.01.01 -> 03.03.03: Group cleanup 1 03.03.03 -> 01.01.01: Group cleanup ACK With good luck, all of the responders react immediately with no delays between each light. But if one or more responders didn't hear the initial group message, the cleanups should reach it because if the controller doesn't get an ACK from a cleanup message, it will send a series of retries with higher maximum jump numbers (it shouts louder each time) until it gets through or eventually decides that responder is dead and gives up. So if a responder misses the first group command, it will still come on, just a bit late. On thing to note though, is that the group cleanups are low priority, and if some other normal Insteon command comes across the line, the cleanups will be aborted. This works nicely for ON or OFF commands. But things like DIM and BRIGHT tend to get repeated as long as the button is being held. I'm not sure exactly what the timing is, but I'm pretty sure there isn't time for many of the cleanup messages before the next DIM gets sent out. There may not be time for any cleanups. So the dimmer doesn't get a chance to send a response back to the controller until the button is released and the final DIM command is sent. At that point the dimmer could let the controller know what on level it is at, so the controller could know the final state. But the dimmer never sends anything out that the other responder (the KPL) would hear. The group cleanup ACK isn't addressed to any device bu the controller, so the KPL won't even notice it. So there is never any way for the KPL to know if or when the dimmer got to 0% during or after a series of DIM commands. And it would take a significant rewrite of the way Insteon does group commands to make it possible. You'd have to make each responding device send a broadcast to the entire group with its final status after a series of DIM or BRIGHT commands. And remember, you might have several dimmers in the group, and you don't want them all sending at the same time. Basically, you'd have to make the group cleanup ACK go to the whole group instead of just the controller. Even then, it wouldn't be reliable, because the dimmer wouldn't know if everyone in the group got the broadcast, so it wouldn't know if it needed to retry. You'd have to have each responder send a "group cleanup cleanup" to each device in the group to make sure they all heard the "group cleanup ACK". But at the same time, the controller is trying to send out the rest of its cleanups to the other members of the group to make sure they all got the original command. Keith

Here's an example. Let's say I have a desk with a ceiling lamp over it. In order to do stuff that requires reading small text, like doing taxes, paying bills, or reading a book, I need a 100 watt light. But for just using the computer, I don't need as bright of a light. So I have the light on a dimmer and find I can turn it down to 70% and still be able to see my keyboard and read the notes I take (I write bigger than the fine print on the bills/book). Assuming a linear dimmer, which seems to be reasonable, I'm just using 70watts and saving 30 watts. Now if I replace the 100w bulb at 70% with a 60w bulb at 100%, I may get the same amount of light for 10 watts less power. But there's no way I'm going to change light bulbs when I change tasks. And I need a 100w bulb some of the time. So the dimmer does save me power. A couple of other alternatives come to mind. I could have 2 lamps, one 100W and one 60W and just use the one I need, but then I have to have 2 lamps. I could have a lamp that can use a 3-way bulb and use a 40W-60W-100W bulb and select my light level. But most lamps can't use those bulbs, and it would be a pain to control a 3-way bulb with Insteon. I've also never seen a ceiling light that uses 3-way bulbs. I could also use a 60W ceiling lamp and a smaller task lamp to just give extra light to the area where I work with small text. But that's still an extra lamp to buy and have taking up space on my desk. So if you only ever need the amount of light you can get out of a smaller bulb, you should use the smaller bulb at 100% instead of a bigger bulb that is always dimmed. But if you sometimes need a lot of light and sometimes need less, and you don't want to mess with multiple lights to give different light levels, a dimmer will save you money compared to always having the bright light on at 100%. Keith

You can think of a switchlinc dimmer (or similar devices) as two separate devices, a dimmer and a controller (which is permanently linked to control the dimmer). The controller is what is linked to the keypadlinc button, but you're just turning on the dimmer via the web services, so no signal is sent to the keypadlinc button. Instead, turn on the group (scene) that contains both the switchlinc and the keypadlinc button. Keith

I worked with Michel last night, letting him have remote access to my ISY-99i and we figured out the problem. I say "we", but it was mainly Michel. The issue is that I hadn't closed my browser window before clearing my Java cache after doing the update, so the cache wasn't properly cleared. After I did a proper job of clearing the Java cache, everything was working fine. So if anyone else has an upgrade that looks like it went bad, make sure you shut down your browser completely before clearing your Java cache. Thanks again, Michel! Keith

I seem to have done the same thing. I thought I downloaded the 99i firmware, but maybe I clicked the ISY-26 link. Like Eug said, you should have the platform in the filename. For that matter, you should have the version number. Trust me, I'm a software build/release engineer and I know what I'm talking about. You really want the platform and version in the filename. It'll save you loads of confusion. Hmm, I just poked around in the insteon.zip and looking at WEB\DRIVER.XML, I see that the platform tag is ISY-C-99, so I think I did get the right firmware, it just failed to install correctly. I started out with an ISY-99i with version 2.6.5. Keith