madcodger

We use Verizon (grudgingly, but they have good coverage in Maine) for our mobile provider. For notifications from the ISYs, I had switched from having emails sent to vtext, over to vzwpix, because the latter gave me a longer message field (more characters per message). But I stopped getting texts from the ISY on about March 23. I switched back to vtext last night on one of my ISYs, and texts resumed from it. I'm wondering if others have had similar issues with vzwpix, or whether there might just be a monthly message limit for it (was not aware of one). I get about 4-8 messages each day between both ISYs, mostly status updates of sensors as we're often away from this remote property. If anyone else is seeing something similar, would appreciate knowing. Thanks.

Thanks - No hurry on my end but if you get something figured out I'd be happy to help test. Will have more time over the weekend as work has been busier than expected this past week.

I'm going to file a support ticket to see if Michel and the good folks at UDI might be able to think of a long-term solution that won't require much in the way of UDI resources. I have a couple of ideas, but think it most helpful for them to be able to ponder the situation at their own pace.

Just a quick note to say that I'm thrilled to see this discussion moving forward. I plan to dive into more of this in the next few days (a bit busy as we close out the quarter at work). Nice to be working with such smart folks. I feel like a kid at their parents' workplace. Every fifth word sorta/kinda makes sense. But I didn't start this thread to be the smartest person in the room... I started it to attract those folks. Thanks for showing up!

@kewashi First, feel free to use any of my earlier comments as "voice of the customer" as long as you keep them in the context and meaning in which they were originally written. Next, I do fear we are a bit out of alignment on what I'm personally looking for. While I do want to see the current, java-based admin console retired, that's not my main concern. And, I think UDI is working on that, already ( @Michel Kohanim can confirm or comment if desired). The current admin console is a pain, but we can log into it to set things up, and that's not something that must be accessed frequently. The need I see is for a better mobile interface, that offers a quick, easy to understand and use view of devices already set up in the ISY. I'm not sure I see that developing here, but perhaps I'm wrong. Also, having a solution that CAN run on Polisy is great. But requiring Polisy, as opposed to a RPi-based solution, is probably a non-starter at present for me, and perhaps many others. Because Polisy was not yet ready tp replace the ISY, I just bought a second ISY, and of Polisy is not ready as a replacement by summer or so, I'll be buying a third ISY. My only node server is to connect a weather station, which doesn't justify a Polisy (or three). That's not to say you shouldn't make something for Polisy, but personally I'm not going to buy one just for this. I remain hopeful that a solid UI can be developed that simply allows for improved access to the ISY 994 from a mobile device, not as a replacement to the admin console.

I have two buildings that use these. Without them, Zwave is basically unusable. With them it "just works". Be sure to heal the network a couple of times after installing them. Also, things seem to approve after a couple of days. I'm not a fan of Aeotec products in general, but these little repeaters are awesome.

Basically, I'm hoping we can build support for a really well designed system (or multiple systems) to "go pro". I'd really like to see something we can simply buy, install, and use - without lots of tinkering. I realize you're not there today, and really applaud your efforts. The same would apply to helping existing user interfaces improve (enhanced focus on UI, better z-wave support, etc). So, what can we in the community do to help, for you and for others, to improve the user interface(s) for the ISY and get them from where they are today, to a robust system one can simply buy, install, spend a few minutes configuring, and then just use? What do you need from us?

@kewashi I am willing to take a look at HousePanel and have started to do so. However, when I read things on your site about using it with "even a smartphone" (i.e., as a last resort / not really designed for that) and that it operates on a user-hosted website, it makes me a bit wary, for a solution to what I had in mind when I started this thread. Feel free to correct any misperceptions I have. My hesitation is that I don't have the time, and at this point maybe not the skills, to spend as much or more time setting up and managing an interface as I spent setting up my ISYs. That's not to say I don't think this has value for some folks, and I applaud you for building it. But what I had in mind when I started this thread was a better user interface that "just works" with the ISY. Frankly, if someone could give me Agave or Mobilinc that actually works with my devices (all z-wave) , I'd be overjoyed because I can download them, spend maybe an hour or so getting them configured to my ISYs, and then I could just USE them. I can pull out my phone, check statuses or turn something on or off, and move on to the other 100 things I have to do that day. If the ISY operates reliably (as it always does), then in that scenario I'm not going to get a call from my wife that something on her "house app" won't work, or now "looks funny". I DON'T WANT to spend a lot of time configuring tiles and managing yet another thing. There might be a market for that, but what I'm hoping for, frankly, is a "ready made" solution, but one that is better than what we currently have, as those simply don't work with many popular devices and device types. If House Panel (or for others reading this, candidates such as Home Assistant) can do that, awesome. I will happily hand you a couple of hundred bucks per year for that, for my wife and me. But if it's basically another hobby, I'm chock-full of those, and a lot of people I know are in the same position. We want a reliable, reasonably priced solution for home automation like the ISY. We're willing to spend time setting that up. Now we just want to access it for monitoring and control, without going through the same level of effort for the interface itself.

Here's my bottom line question if you don't want the back story and just have an idea to contribute: Is there a way to either display a variable as if it were a device (i.e., as if it were a virtual device) or to move the individual variable out to a device folder, so that it appears along with devices in apps such as Mobilinc, and doesn't require a person to look for the variable in a long variables list? No need to read further if you just know the answer or don't care about the context. Or, for those who want the back story, here's my problem... Looking for ideas from the collective brain trust, please. First, I use only z-wave these days, after a couple of Insteon homes. No particular reason other than getting a bit tired of Smarthome and wanting some choice in suppliers, but that's where I'm at. I like to monitor the temperature of several points around a property we're not at all the time, by looking at those temps on my phone or iPad from time to time. Those locations are monitored via programs (for those of you who insist visual monitoring is silly), but it's a curiosity thing (OK, maybe obsession). Anyway, I like to know the temperature in, say, a pump room so I've put temperature sensors in these locations. I've found the HomeSeer brand FS-100 is a great temperature sensor, primarily because it can run on micro usb power, so no worry about dead batteries. But it has an odd behavior with the ISY-994: It reports only in Celsius. All other temp sensors report in Fahrenheit, and when I connect these to a HomeSeer system they report in Fahrenheit, but on the ISY, they insist on reporting in Celsius and parameter adjustments have not corrected it. So, I created some variables and wrote programs to convert those values to Fahrenheit, and when I look at the variables, the values are correct. I don't "need" to do this conversion, of course, but it helps my brain to process things more easily as I scan down a list of temperatures without mentally converting to Celsius for some of them. So, I have the conversions done as variables, BUT... I don't know of a way to move a variable out to, say, a folder where I would see it on my phone as a device. In other words, click on my folder "Temp Sensors", and scan down the list to make sure all is right on the property, from a temperature point of view. I can, of course, click on Programs>Variables>Integer and do this, but then I have to find each of these devices among a long list of other types of variables, and I'm trying to avoid this. So, bottom line: Is there a way to either display a variable as if it were a device (i.e., as a virtual device) or to move the individual variable out to a device folder, in programs such as Mobilinc? Thanks in advance for any ideas or help.

@RRoyceusAnother suggestion is to start a new thread, in which you note your specific z-wave issues (with a somewhat descriptive title). I think many people stop following these "release version" threads once their system is stable on that release, and thst likely applies here. As noted above, it does help to describe the problem (actual symptoms) you're having. Without looking at me system (typing this from an iPad, so can't use admin console), I'd guess your z-wave firmware is fine. The ISY does not have the best z-wave radio/antenna configuration, though, so I've found that it needs some help in the form of repeaters, setting some things up right at the device, performing network heals, etc. It will "get there" and remain stable, but it can take a day or two to get there.

Very happy the conversation is continuing to evolve. @SeeGreen Excellent observations from an experienced and knowledgeable user. You far exceed me in the technical knowledge department. At this point, please feel to reach out if I can play some role to assist. I'm happy to provide a little money towards licenses, etc., if needed. Just PM me. I do think UDI is working toward a new admin console, but Michel knows that and I do not. So, perhaps he can provide more info to you directly. @Michel Kohanim Yup! I completely understand you folks cannot do everything, which is why I started this thread. My thought is that MAYBE the user community can help. We shall see... Thanks for the ideas and guidance here, and for making a great product. Perhaps @kewashi would also like to become involved in this, so thanks for the mention. @lilyoyo1 I have certainly complained in the past, so guilty as charged on that count. But by starting this thread, I'm trying to do something constructive about my complaint. I'm probably not going to start a kickstarter campaign. But I'm willing to help a bit if I can, in whatever reasonable ways I can .That might mean a little money, it might mean testing things, it might mean helping with a requirements document. Darned if I know, at this point, but that will probably unfold, for me and others, if this starts moving. No one is saying UDI must do anything right now. No one is saying you need to do anything. It's OK to ignore me, as far as I'm concerned.

Great! Glad that worked. Happy watering.

Or buy it, which I'm happy to do if it's what I need. But good point.

This is the non-starter for me. I need a mobile app, even if that app is basically a front end to a browser.

So, mission accomplished on the conversation starter. Excellent, and thanks to all. And only one real "Here we go again" reply. Not bad at all. To clarify a point or two from my original post, there is no way I want to base any UI/front-end on anything other than a UDI product. Whether the ISY994, Polisy (assuming it becomes the main product), or something else UDI launches, I'm pitching my tent here in terms of the hardware and core firmware. I've tried SmartThings for the past two years in a small office building we own, and while functioning better now than in the past it's still not nearly as reliable as the ISY. I got into HA with HomeSeer years ago and still have three licenses for their products, plus upgrades to their latest, HS4. To be blunt, I find it unreliable these days, at least in a small form factor that I desire (e.g., their Zee S2, which runs on a RPi). After a lot of experimentation, NOTHING has come close to the reliability of my ISY994s, so that's that. Dating days are over, for me, and I'm fine with settling down. Now, how to make things even better? And that's the reason for my original post... I don't have the tech skills to even remotely approach this, and I don't know that I want to be responsible for a kickstarter campaign as I've never done one, and don't really want to be the "company" behind this (hard enough to run the ones I have, these days). What I am hoping to do is help "light a match" to get a better interface going, EVEN IF IT IS JUST AN IMPROVEMENT ON WHAT'S AVAILABLE TODAY. Frankly, I thought Agave ( @James Peterson, I believe) was a beautiful interface, but it didn't "register" many of my devices, so it just wasn't workable (which was a bummer, frankly). I'm not sure where it stands today in terms of support. I've found Wes ( @InsteonNut / Mobilinc) to be incredibly dedicated and helpful and I was excited to try Mobilinc X, but it is not yet ready for Z wave and had some design choices I didn't quite understand. But if either of these folks wanted to develop something else, or perhaps a fork to their existing systems, I'd be all ears to hearing what might be required in terms of support from the "community" here. @Javi has expressed interest in this area, as well, once we're through the current COVID-19 mess. The bottom line is that I love the reliability of my ISY, and I think that's the common denominator for almost all of us here. The Polisy will presumably be just as reliable. So, that's a good starting point. We all have very solid hardware and firmware. But... it's not very easy or intuitive for some of us, or our spouses, etc., to use on a day-to-day basis, when we're not sitting at a computer (and even that's challenging, with Java still at the core of that experience).I realize that some won't agree with that statement, and that's OK. But I'd ask them to please "exit the bus" of this conversation now, please. Nothing in your world will need to change, and this thread / POTENTIAL effort is obviously not for you. So, to be polite, you "go play your music", and we'll play ours. We can all coexist, but let's not try to do so in the same room. For those that remain (which I think includes most people participating in this thread), I will say that I am personally interested in something that works with Z-wave and iOS. That's not to say that Insteon and Android couldn't be supported, of course! But for me personally, I've exited Insteon going forward and use only iOS for a mobile platform. So, given that I started this thread, those are my admittedly selfish requests. I'll also note that monitoring sensors (doors, leaks, temps, and by "monitoring" I mean just looking at them to see that all is well when I'm hundreds of miles away) represent an even bigger part of my personal use than just turning lights on and off, although I certainly do that, too. Again, a selfish request, but lack of support for Z wave sensors is what got this thread started in the first place. So... All that said, do any developers/coders who are somewhat regulars here, and who have the skills needed to create a better mobile user interface to the ISY994 as (admittedly vaguely) referenced here, have an interest in this? If so, what's the time and money likely necessary to advance this? Absolutely no guarantee that anything can or will happen, but we may as well get this conversation started as a community, given that there is at least some interest. And that's why I created the initial post - to create a place where we MIGHT be able to start sizing/scoping this. And finally, just calling out that I started this thread to @Michel Kohanim as a courtesy. I completely understand that UDI is not interested in this as any part of its business model, and I respect that. Michel and I have had a number of conversations about this "user interface thing" in the forum over the years, and I now understand that they have other fish to fry. But if anything related to the ISY994 does spring up as a result of this discussion in the forum, Michel and UDI must be kept informed, in my view. They've been fantastic with support and in building the world's most reliable automation product for all of us, and anything that might get developed should be fully supportive of that. Personally, I don't see this as a business except for the developer who creates "it" (if an "it" ever exists) and wants to either recoup their costs or, if they choose, make a profit from it. All I want is a better user interface...

Thanks! Please let me know when you're ready as I am happy to help as I'm able. Best of luck with getting through this COVID-19 mess. We no longer have kids at home but our employees who do are finding this to be a very challenging time. We've told them to please take an hour or two during work time each day (everyone is now WFH) to work on this, as the burden is so great. When this is over and you want to think about a solution, I'm all ears.

This is very helpful. As I noted in my original post, my Home Assistant comment was based on comments I had read in the forum (references to "after a little Linux programming...") as I have admittedly not tried Home Assistant yet. So, I plan to do so. Thanks for noting your experience.

Well, here's a potential conversation starter... In my humble opinion, basically all mobile user interfaces for ISY are either only partially capable, (Agave doesn't work for several products I own, for example, and Mobilinc X can't many handle many types of Z wave sensors, for example) or these interfaces are rather cludgy (earlier Mobilinc products prior to X, for example) or they require the user to posses somewhat rare skills (e.g., Linux programming, as appears to be the case for Home Assistant based on comments I've read elsewhere in the forums). UDI is never going to address this, as they don't see the "average" user as their market. And, many diehard ISY fans see a better user interface as little more than a frivolity. Fair enough. But it would be great if someone with the necessary skills would build a robust front end for the ISY that didn't require the user to be, say, a Linux programmer and that "just worked". I wonder what it would cost to get there, in terms of a subscription fee? Or, could a group of users front the cost of developing a better user interface, and then share in the subscription fees to recoup their cost? I've wondered this, many times. I'm not proposing sny sort of specific action here, and I am the farthest thing from having the skills necessary to solve this problem. But I absolutely love the rock-solid performance and reliability of the ISY, while not particularly enjoying interacting with my ISYs using my phone, which I do several times on most days. And for those who say that this interaction is not necessary because they have "automated everything", that's great, but you're not me. Just because you don't need or want a solution doesn't mean that others don't. And finally, this is not even meant to criticize current offerings as much as it is to wish they were more robust and to note that there might be a market for continued development. There are many things I like about Agave, for example, and I find Mobilinc X to have promise but built around Insteon rather thsn Z wave, which I and many others use. So, I'm just wondering what the level of interest is, in a better user interface? The UDI forum may not be the best place to ask this question given that it is used primarily by diehard fans of the current system. But what the heck... I've been thinking about this for years and figured I may as well put it out there to get a conversation started.

Your program actually says ">=0.3". Have you tried ">0.2"? My theory is that because the VP2 measures to 0.01", you might have a rounding problem. Absent that being the issue, it may be that the rounding of either the ISY is not sufficiently granular for this, or perhaps the rounding in Bob's nodeserver. The fact that 0.5" lappears to be the "cutoff" seems to suggest that. Another approach might be to try setting up a state variable, in which ">0.2 inches" sets the variable to 1 (on) while "<=0.2" turns it off (sets it to 0). It would be interesting to see if things are processed differently for variables as the trigger. Just a couple of thoughts to explore on the path ro a solution.

@Teken See notes above. I finally got Mobilinc to work with two ISYs, via the ISY portal! The trick seemed to be resetting passwords in the ISY portal. No idea why that would have an effect, but after I did, all was well. So, for me, I'm sticking with Orchestrated Mobilinc and the ISY portal. Re: your firewall settings noted above, if you can access your ISYs via the ISY portal (i.e., via browser login) I think Mobilinc would work. But if not, then I'd say it's a no-go.

@Teken et al, EDIT: I finally got Mobilinc to work with two ISYs, using the ISY portal. All other comments in this post are still valid. So, Teken wanted to know about my experience with Mobilinc Connect, Mobilinc X, etc. (earlier post in this thread). Basically, they don't work at all with polyglot, as far as I can tell. You need to separately subscribe to the network module if you use Connect, to keep your polyglot working. Mobilinc Connect does allow me to connect two ISYs to either Mobilinc X or to Orchestrated Mobilinc, In my case, though, I use Z-wave and Mobilinc X isn't nearly ready to support Z-wave in terms of sensors (not even door/window, temperature, or leak sensors). So, that product, although it looks great, is a non-starter for me. So, bottom line is that if I were still using Insteon (as I did in previous two properties) I think Mobilinc X and Mobilinc Connect might be good solutions to try, if you were willing to also subscribe to the network module. But for Z-wave, they just haven't worked well for me, and the loss of the included network module make conversion unlikely in my case. Mobilinc Connect solved my two-ISY connection problem, but it appears primarily designed for Mobilinc X, and you lose the included network module when you switch to it. So, I still need a solution for remotely connecting two ISYs to Orchestrated Mobilinc, unless I subscribe to Mobilinc X and separately, the network module. It seems that there should be a decent way to just use the ISY portal to connect a Mobilinc product to two different ISYs, so that's what I'm trying to figure out at this point. It has been a rather frustrating experience.

Any suggestion on the best Z-wave dry contact device for this, instead of an IOLinc? I want to use this to monitor a generator's running/not running status, but an Insteon-free and use only Z-wave at this property. Thanks!

Thanks, @larryllix. There are days I wonder about myself, as I can't believe I missed that. Login info now changed, though, so I feel much more secure. Appreciate your help.

I might be missing something really obvious, but can't find a simple way to change the login info and password for polyglot v2 on a RPi, so that I'm not stuck with "admin". I found some instructions to edit a .env file, but being fairly ignorant of RPi and Linux, I don't really know how to do this, and think it might make sense for there to be an easier way to do something that basic. Am I missing something obvious? And if not, does anyone have basic instructions for changing this, for a complete noob? Thanks in advance for any help.