oberkc

Most troubleshooting, it seems, is trial-and-error. I tend to think this is still a possible explanation. In addition, it is very simple to test. Unplug the pinball machine, and plug in a simple incandescent lamp of some sort (or even leave it without anything plugged in). Does this solve the problem? Sometimes the best method is to eliminate the easy things first.

What teken said. Make sure the top is part of NO scene, or NO program, and it should stay in whatever state you want it.

I still cannot help but wonder if we are missing something, but I am out of ideas. It does seem unfortunate that this folder condition does not seem to work.

Yes, that I noticed, and saw those notes in the initial post. It was NOT a problem with grayed-out test button. In fact, the test appeared to work (as indicated by a little pop-up box yielding some results), but the hue light did not respond initially.

"Test" button was NOT grayed out. Pressing it, I originally thought, did not produce any change to the hue device. But, second time a charm. Subsequent devices work just fine from the test button. It is possible that the first now works, but I have not gone back to check. At this point, I would consider the instructions fine as is.

Never figured it out. When I added my second hue light, the test worked fine, as expected. I have no explanation regarding the first attempt, other than incompetence of some sort on my part.

To emphasize and repeat the others, I believe you will find the ISY-994 compatible with ANY insteon switch. I might watch out for very early versions of a few switches, but more for hardware reliability concerns rather than compatibility. At this point, I doubt that anyone would be selling as new any devices this old, however.

I fell prey, also, to the /1234 issue. When I read that, I took it as "optional" whether or not one left it in. For me, it was not optional. For me, also, running the "test" from the network resources did not actually result in the hue lights turning on or off (which I expected to happen). It was not until I actually put them into a program did they work. It took me a little while to discover this. When the "test" did not turn on the lights, I assumed it was some error in the resource, so I continued to look for errors, and re-ran some of the debugging steps instead. When those did not solve the problem, only then did I take the next steps of creating the program and discovered the resource was, in fact, fine (lights turned on!). Perhaps that could be clarified as to what to expect, or not to expect, from running the test step from the network resources page. Otherwise, all worked as well-described in the original post.

DualBandAid I just wanted to say thanks for the time you took to write this up. I have been interested in using some color in my lighting, and the hue strips seem to catch my eye, but I am not interested in anything that cannot be controlled by my ISY-994.. I cannot imagine how long it would have taken me to figure this out, and would not even have tried by myself. But...your instructions gave me enough hope that this would not have been the equivalent of a masters thesis for me that I gave it a shot. Now, I have some hue strip lighting that is triggered by my -994 and I am happy! I doubt that I will use hue for anything but a few color shots, so I will stay with the network resource. Polyglot is too funny a name for me to have to explain to others how it all works, so I will stay away from that for now.

To clarify...are you using the ISY-99, or the -994? I believe many of the newer insteon devices may not be compatble with the -99 since it was replaced by the -994 and is no longer supported.

If your folder is turning enabled and disabled, based upon the variable and condition, I have no explanations. I use folders with conditions, and they work flawlessly. - you have confirmed no external programs triggering those in the folders, ok. - are the motion sensors controllers in a scene that includes the devices commanded by the program? Last thing that I can think of is speculation. I know, for example, that a statement such as: if control "device" is NOT swithed ON <<<triggered only by ON command. Is it possible that your folder condition if variable NOT = 1 <<<could this be triggered only by a variable=1 condition, and not triggered when the variable equals a value other than 1? (I don't know for sure, but it may be worth considering.)

Is it possible that the programs are being called by another program outside the folder?

If you had a three-way switch connected to black/white/red, you should be MORE than 99% confident that white is NOT a neutral.

Extension cord and a couple of wire nuts?

I have no idea about "most" or average. Personally, I have well fewer than 100 programs, but I have no doubt those crazy guys can have orders of magnitudes greater than that. Useing the program folders and comments, it is pretty easy to manage, in my estimation. Which is another reason I prefered my original suggestion (remove the status condition) and do it in a single program. I suspect you will also find means opportunity to combine programs. For example I might have several programs to turn lights on any given day, but only one to turn all off. For the most part, I have not found this sort of thing to be a constraint.

Probably use an approach similar to haroldunger, but you would have to use two programs. The big difference is that the time condition is a single, discrete, time rather than a range. If time is sunset + 30 and status garage exterior is OFF then turn lights on else nothing if time is 1130pm then turn lights off else nothing One of the big things to be aware of is when a program action can cause the program to retrigger (as your original program did) and get in a never-ending loop. A simple and obvious example would be: if status LIGHT is OFF then turn LIGHT ON else turn LIGHT OFF While easy to see in this case, it is often hard to see when this is happening in more complicated programs. I believe it was happening in your case (but only between the time range specified).

This program is a little different than the original-posted program. Yours has a "if time is..." Ajax' program has a "if time is from/to". Your program works fine because there is only a specific moment in time that it can be true. Ajax program can be true over a period of several hours. Obviously, Ajax' program also has a non-empty ELSE path. There are several ways to approach Ajax program. One could use two programs. One could use a single program as he is trying. If the condition "status exterior light is off" turns out to be important, then it might be necessary to break his into two programs. But, the original intention seemed to be check whether the scene was on, instead using a device within the scene as an indicator. In my estimation, if a scene is ON, there is no harm in turning it on again.

It is because scenes have no status in insteon. Only devices have a status. Your program is, in effect, creating an endless loop. The program triggers, it changes the state of the device (as part of the scene), which triggers the program, which changes the state of the device, which triggers the program, which...well...you get the point. Remove the STATUS condition from the program. It really serves no purpose, anyhow.

Is 'Garage Exterior' part of scene ''Exterior Lights"?

I, too, trigger programs based upon status of secondary keypad buttons. Not being satisfied with my experiment results and looking further, I find that some of my keypad buttons report status, and others (at least the one on which I was doing experiments and likely the oldest keypad I own) does not. Possibly a comm issue with that particular keypad? Or do old ones behave different than newer ones? Oh well. It is getting late and I am losing interest. Back on topic, I think stusviews answered the un-voiced question.

Sorry, got pulled away on something else. It appears to me that this program is using a secondary button as a trigger, but commanding the primary button. I understood that one could not issue direct commands to secondary buttons, but thought you could use them as program conditions. Being uncertain, I tried a quick experiment and found that I was remembering wrong. Secondary buttons apparently do not even report status, nor can they be used to trigger programs. Wow. How long have I been doing this?

True for secondary buttons, not so sure for primary. Also, Secondary buttons, I thought, could be used as program conditions, however. No? If keypad light is the primary button (and i expect that it is here) then

OK. Is there a question here?

As far as "why" it could happen, this is considered a feature of insteon. For a given scene, you can have multiple controllers, and for each controller different responder levels. This gives one the ability, for example, to have a group of lights have have movie setting versus intermission, based upon which keypad button you press. As with many things, with features come added complexity. Treat the "scene" responder levels as those when reacting to the PLM as a scene controller. Please note, also, that when you selected the controller switch within the scene, there was revealed an option so set the responder levels as the same as the scene. This strikes me as a convenient feature of the ISY that keeps things nice and consistent for those like yourself that want a scene to respond the same way regardless if which controller triggered the scene.

Very strange. Same thing happens when you choose, from the device list, the fanlinc and mnually select the speed? Perhaps, as yoy probably suspect, there is some device failure or incompatibility here. These things have worked for me without any of these kinds of issues.