oberkc

I understand that you can (as pointed out by franklyn7895) make the lamplinc a controller in your scene. However, I suspect this will not keep your keypad buttons in sync. A scene controller, as I understand, can turn a scene ON or OFF only. I do not believe it can have multiple ON settings, nor turn a scene to 50%. I believe you would accomplish this with a program. First, however, you would have to decide what you want as a relationship between lamplinc status and keypad buttons. Do you want button E lit when lamplinc hits 50% exactly? Or do you want button E lit when it is between 0 and 50%? Or something else. You will need to make similar decisions with regards to button F. Once decided, it would be relatively simple to create a couple of programs; if status lamplinc is whatever you decide then set keypadE on else set keypadE off if status lamplinc is whatever you decide then set keypadF on else set keypadF off

I don't have zigbee or zwave (yet) but I understand you can only have one at a time. My perception from reading here is that this works without external antenna, but may work better with one. Like insteon, apparently, z-wave works better as you add more devices.

The IR is useful only if you intend to control your system by IR remote control pointed at the ISY-994. If you have no such need, then skip the IR version. You can always add later, or use an IRLinc if you change your mind.

This is a pretty common topic. If you haven't, it is worth searching the forums under "garage". Also check under the wiki for a good article on this. I prefer to have a single button to control the door AND display status. This requires no program. Install the sensor in such a way that the sensor is ON when the door is open. Create a scene with the sensor as controller and button as responder. Then create a scene with same button as controller and relay as responder. Configure the button as NON-TOGGLE-ON. I assume you have the relay configured for momentary, responding to ON commands. Keep in mind that recent sensors shipped as part of the garage kit will be ON when the magnet is close. Earlier versions gave both options. This requires pretty close attention to details, so check back if you have difficulty.

It sounds as if your understanding of scenes, controllers, and responders is very good. I am not sure that I can add anything, but will try, just in case. I assume your scene "all on" is a scene you created. Make sure it has all the outletlincs and corresponding keypads, all as responders. Are there any other buttons that you intend to use to turn on or off ALL ON? Make sure that button or device is a controller. Your understanding is the same as mine with regards to back lights...that just sets the level for when a button is ON or OFF.

I would be surprised that the query, alone, sends an EMail. Can I assume that you have some other program that sends an EMail based on factors including garage door status? My first instinct is to suspect that you have a garage door but that the ISY does not know the correct status. The query corrects this problem, which the ISY perceives as a change in status. This change in status triggers a program. Of course, it is all conjecture without seeing any of the programs you have.

You can do a lot worse than following the suggestions of xathros. Please be aware that his approach did NOT rely on creation of a scene, nor did I see where he suggested creating one. Turning the lights on and off was handled entirely by the program. If you create the scene you suggested, there will be one duplication of activity and may create some unnecessary insteon commands on the power lines. The suggested approach was based on receipt only of ON commands from the sensors, which would trigger only THEN paths. This takes advantage of of a capability within the ISY to interrupt any ongoing WAIT statements, restarting the countdown each time motion is sensed.

How it works with relationship to the programs depends on your program, the motion sensor settings, and any scenes you create. First, about the motion sensor. All I know is that which I read from the manual. I understand that a motion sensor will transmit an ON command when motion is sensed (also potentially based on other factors such as darkness). I know that there is an adjustable timeout period, after which the motion sensor will send an OFF command (unless disabled by one of the jumpers, and unless motion is detected again). I also surmise from the manual that there is an 8 second period after motion detection that the sensor will wait before being able to detect motion again. If you were to create a scene with between a motion sensor (as a controller) and another insteon device as a responder, the other insteon device would come on when motion is sensed, and turn off when (and if) the motion sensor transmits an OFF command. If you were to create a scene with multiple insteon motion sensors and multiple insteon devices, the insteon devices would come on if any single motion sensor transmits an ON command, and turn off if any single motion sensor transmits an OFF command. No program would be needed in this case. Another option would be to create a scene with motion sensors as controllers and your other lighting devices as responders. Configure your motion sensors to transmit only an ON command and rely on the scene relationship to turn the lights on. Supplement this with a program to turn the lights off after a period of time after last motion sensed (based upon reciept of an ON command). In this case, the timeout period of the motion sensor is irrelevant. This is the option I prefer for my own use. A third option would be to not create a any scene, but use a program to both turn lights on and off. This is the approach suggested by the three of us in response to your questions and stated desires. All three of our suggestions appear to use a program to turn on the lights in response to receipt of an ON command from one of the motion sensors. Xathros and Franklyns approach is to start a countdown immediately, but the countdown would be interrupted any time a subsequent ON command was recieved by any of the motion sensors. (I must admit that I prefer the relative simplicity of Xathros version.) My version waited for all three motion sensors to be OFF before initiating a timer (after which it would turn the lights off), based on a very literal interpretation of your stated wishes. As with most cases, there are multiple ways of doing things and no single right or wrong answers to many of the questions you ask. Given your stated state of confusion with the whole "controller/responder" thing, my suggestion is to temporarily put on hold your motion sensor scenario and simply to experiment around with scenes only. Link one motion sensor to some lights and observe the results. Become familiar with the purpose of the motion sensor configuration settings and how that affects scene performance. Link one insteon device with another, varying options of controllers and responders and turn these devices on and off manually, observing the results with the other. Do this until you are less confused with what a scene does and the difference between a controller and responder. From there, start experimenting with programs. Once you have a level of confidence with this, you can make good decisions about your needs and how you wish to configure motion sensor settings, what scenes you need to create, and how to supplement those scenes with programs.

When I read: "My goal is to have all 3 sensors trigger an ON and not throw an OFF until ALL THREE sensors timeout (aka there is no more motion anywhere in the basement for X amount of time)." I understood this to mean to wait for all the motion sensors to turn OFF before initiating a countdown. It is for this reason that I was wondering aloud whether your solution met the stated need. In a practical sense, given that the countdown period is a known and fixed interval, it makes little difference unless one planned to routinely re-configure the motion sensor timeout period and did not want to fool with the program. (I don't know why someone would want to do that, but that would be for another day.)\ BTW, I prefer your solution, and is the one that I use at my house. This has the benefit of being able to use a scene to initiate the lights, but using the power of the program for deciding when to turn them off.

First, you need to decide IF you want to create a scene and, if so, what devices to include in it. What scenes you create in this case will depend on what program approach you take. In my suggestion, you would create a single scene that includes only the lighting devices (as responders) that you want to respond to the motion sensors. The program would react to the motion sensors (which do not need to be in a scene) and the program would turn on the scene that includes the lighting devices. As background, a "scene" is nothing more than a relationship between two, or more, insteon devices. With the ISY, a device in a scene can be a responder or a controller. A controller will tell all other devices in the scene to turn on or off. A responder will obey the commands of any controller within the same scene. By definition, a controller is also a responder and will also respond to commands from other controllers within the scene. All scenes created include the ISY, which is, by definition, a controller. Experiement around a bit. Create a test scene with one switch as controller and another switch as responder. Turn on the controller Switch. Watch the responder switch also turn on. Turn on the responder switch and note that the controller switch does NOT respond in kind. Delete that scene and create another test scene, with two switches, both as controllers. Note that when you turn either switch on, the other responds equally. In the case of your motion sensors, I see that most have responded by proposing a solution where a program turns on your lights. I think you will find this the consensus approach for this type of problem. The motion sensor triggers the program, the program turns the lights on and off. There is no need to create a scene where the motion sensors directly command the lights. IN your case, you wanted the lights to go off ONLY after ALL three motion sensors were off. This cannot be accomplished via a scene directly, and requires the conditional logic of a program (if ms1 AND ms2 AND ms3 are off) There are, of course, options where you can use a combination of scenes and programs, but understand that they programs and scenes can work together and things often don't work well if you have the wrong scenes defined with the wrong programs.

For the second example, it is fewer programs for a good set of features. Easy to maintain or modify. This would work best with the sensor in On only, Sensing mode (checked). It looks to me like franklyn7895's programs would accomplish the same as mine but using 4 programs instead of 2. These would also work best with the sensor configured for On Only, Sensing mode (checked) -Xathros Xathros, Correct me if I am wrong, but does not your suggested approach initiate the countdown based upon receipt of ON commands? I thought the request was for the countdown to start only after the last receipt of OFF commands. balla4eva33, except for jumper 5 (allowing external software control), you should forget jumpers. Use the ISY to configure your motion sensor. I will also throw in a suggested approach. Create a scene that includes the lights that you want to come on and go off. Then create a program: if status motion sensor 1 is on or status motion sensor 2 is on or status of motion sensor 3 is on then turn on lights scene else wait x amount of time turn off lights scene The tradeoff for the approach, above, is that there will be some unnecessary ON commands sent to the light scene. IN most cases, I would expect this to be not a factor. On the other hand, it should be pretty efficient from a programming perspective. In this case, the motion sensors must be configured to send both ON and OFF commands.

Troubleshooting rule number 1 for any computer device: reboot and hope that fixes the problem.works about 50% of the time.

I am glad it works for you. I have never been able to create a scene where some lights turn on in response to an OFF command. I have no explanation or understanding of how that would work. I am sorry. KPL Lights? Plural? Are we still talking about the nighttime button here? I must consider the possibility that this is beyond my ability to help out here.

So, your original problem is not solved? I think my suggestion was to set it to NON-TOGGLE-OFF and to write a program triggered from an OFF command coming from the nighttime button. What approach did you take, instead?

Great. Now you have a second problem. I am not sure that I accurately understand it. You have devices (switchlincs, togglelincs, inlinelincs, things like that) that now correctly turn off when you press the nighttime button. However, you have other KPL buttons that also control these same devices individually. And these other KPL buttons are not turning off when you press the nighttime button. Do I understand your problem correctly?

I have always assumed that this is because of the design of the KPL button. In a world without the ISY and similar type controllers, the only purpose of a secondary button is to be in a scene, since they have no direct control of any load. Interesting. I find scenes one of the more powerful features of insteon.

First things first. When you press your nighttime button, does it go off after a couple of flashes? Do the bedroom and stairs lights go on? Do the rest of the lights go out? Have you solved your original problem?

Do you understand how to configure a keypad button as NON-TOGGLE-OFF?

First, the only way that I know to have a KPL backlight turn off every time you press it is to put it into NON-TOGGLE-OFF mode. My experience is that this works, but apparently there are those who's keypads don't work consistently, so you will have to check that yours perform in this manner. Second, given that you keypad will be sending OFF commands, the only way I know to have lights come on based on receipt of an OFF command is to use a program. If control keypad button is set off then do whatever Third, you have a couple of options to do whatever. You can send descrete commands to each device you want to respond (turn bedroom lights on, turn stairs lights on, turn every other light off) . Alternatively, you can create a scene that includes all the responder devices, and the ON levels at which you want them to respond, including zero (turning off). Then send a scene on command. I would probably opt for the second option.

I find the ISY user manual accurate in this case. It can be found here: http://www.universal-devices.com/docs/p ... 0%20a2.pdf From the user manual para 3.2.4: Folders. Feel free to create folders to help organize your Devices and Scenes. Folders can be created by either right clicking on the Network node (located on the left-hand pane) and choosing New Folder, or using the New Folder icon located on the Administrative Console’s top toolbar. Devices and Scenes can be dragged and dropped onto folders, or simply right-click a Device or Scene and choose Move To Folder and select the appropriate folder to move it to. Folders can also be moved within other Folders to create a nested hierarchy.

It sounds to me as if you have a lot of things going on here, including some of these newer keypads that apparently don't stay on or don't turn off when in non-toggle mode. If you want one keypad button to turn off in response to another button being turned on, the one button has to be a responder in a scene with the other button, having the ON levels set to zero. Are you familiar with how to set this up? The only way that I know for this to happen, other than having one of these "updated" keypads that don't stay on is by a program, but I understand that you have no such programs, so I can only conclude you have one of these types of keypads about which everyone has been talking. Have you included the ALL OUT OFF button in the scene with the ALL OUT ON button as controller, with an ON level of zero? Have you taken some other programming action to turn the ALL OUT OFF turns off in response to a command from the ALL OUT ON button? My questions continue to be along the same lines. Keypadlincs don't automatically turn off (or on) one keypad button in response to commands from another. These features have to be programmed (using either ISY scenes or programs) by the user. I remain unclear what method you have used for this and am having trouble offering specific advice on how to fix it. My recommendation is to focus on one set of related buttons and getting this working (or determining that your keypadlinc does not work for your application). For example, consider the all-out-on/all-out-off pair. Specify what you want to happen when you press each button, including what lights turn on or off, and what other buttons turn on or off. From there, I suspect the smart folks around here can offer a solution, or troubleshooting method.

I am sure that there is, but I have never had a sense that this is a real-world concern. Flash memory has a life, based on number of read-write cycles. My suspicion is that there are other things that will fail before this becomes an issue.

I am with shannong and kman on this. Variables are an unnecessary complication in this case, and STATUS is the correct condition. The suggested progrm will actually do more than you ask. In addition to sending a notice at 9 if the door is open, it will send a notice anytime between 9 and 630 if the door is open, or opened, during this period. This appears consistent with where you were you headed using variables.

This is the way I would do it. I suspect that this cannot be done by scene, alone, so programs are the way. Yes, this could probably be done with fewer programs, and purdueguy has one good suggestion. No, not based on what you state that you want to happen. The "adjust scene"command would be if you are trying to change ON levels of a scene for a given controller. If, for example, you wanted to have the KPL scene controller turn on the lights to 50% at certain times of the day, and 90% at other times of the day, then you would use the "adjust scene" command.

I, too, prefer the reliability of sunset/sunrise times, but I can see where there is value in making adjustments for cloudy days and mornings. It might be nice to have lights on earlier if it gets dark early due to cloud cover.