paulbates

Teken, The more advanced model has advanced zone control, which some might need. If its a new house and the HVAC installer has a multizone plan, it would be worth discussing Carrier's thermostat. My setup requires two furnaces (without major surgery to the house) so the zoning wasn't needed. It provides zone and other statistics at the stat. Not sure those go through to a cloud app like the venstar colortouch, but I don't really want to go to the thermostat for data points. Carrier's thermostat also automatically manages fan speed. But on both my units, anything above the slowest speed is noticeable. I have it set to the slowest speed and keep it there. With 2 stage, the purpose is to run the unit longer cycles, which means adjusting air temperature while keeping the fan speed down. To keep the air clean, I have an ISY program that manually cycles the fan after an hour of no other HVAC activity. I have HEPA 13 filters and running the program keeps the allergens and dust down. Other features like schedule programming, humidity control, automatic fan for air cycling, energy / run time tracking, filter reminders, smart phone apps, home automation integration, etc, are available in other thermostats. Agreed on running a cat 6 "while you're at it". Chances are they will be wireless, but its not any harder to pull 2 wires to a location than one.

Agreed. I have 2 new carriers, and my assessment of their proprietary system on my model is that there is not much to the proprietary side. I looked at the Carrier stats and a number of others and could not justify the expense in my case for the functionality I wanted, in fact some stats offer more functionality for less. Per other comments I worked this out in detail and consulted the HVAC installer several times before signing the agreement. I looked at the furnace manual and wrote up a powerpoint wiring diagram for the installer so that we were in agreement on how it would installed. We agreed on pulling an 8 wire bundle out of which 7 were used: 2 for each heat stage, 1 cool, fan, humidifier, common plus red to power the thermostat. Some Thermostats use batteries, some use furnace power. I really recommend having the HVAC vendor pull the wiring to the stat and installing enough wires for what you need, plus an additional one or two for growth. Running those wires should be a one time experience

I use io_guy's isylogger to save specific variables to syslog. I log indoor temp and humidity changes. HVAC run times for Heat stage 1 and stage 2, cooling. Also run-times for humidity cycles and fresh air circulation cycles. I have ISY programs that help calculate some of those into variables. I also log outside motion sensor and garage door activity. Also variables that track irrigation zone cycles, rainfall and how many times did the rain sensor prevent a full or partial sprinkling cycle.

Hi Pete Its a great idea, however adding the USB port hardware is not enough. There needs to be operating system support to handle USB drivers for standard things like hard drives and usb serial ports. Things like the RFXcom would require additional driver development on top of the base USB drivers. The ISY has its own proprietary embedded operating system, and by design is "lean and mean", It does not support external interfaces other than powerline interfaces like insteon, zwave and zigbee.. The standard windows / mac / linux usb drivers that manufacturers provide with USB devices would not work. Special ISY drivers would have to be developed. Its unlikely the rfxcom, etc would assign developers to something this specialized, if it existed. I would guess this is not on the horizon, though you're right it would open a lot of possibilities. The area with promise that the ISY does support is Network resources through the optional ISY Network Interface. Many devices are now part of "the internet of things" and can connect via wifi or standard ethernet network cable. The ISY can control many of these today, and that horizon really opens up when V5 of firmware is released. Paul

There's different dimensions to it. Enhanced logging, and full support for network based devices using network resources can each ramp that number up quickly. Not having variable substitution in all places is an underlying cause. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Mine's out in the open. It sees 100+ in the summer and -20s f in the winter. Its on a battery that is changed twice a year. One of those times is late September, no matter what the battery alarm reports. That makes sure there is a full charge at the start of winter. Like Teken suggests, I put the best battery I can in it. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

It says 'the badlands' as his location. Never saw that part of Ontario before..... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hi Envirogreen- There is some confusion about the 2842-222 being "indoor only", that is not the case. Insteon does not manufacture an "Indoor only" model of motion sensor. The 2842-222 is an Indoor and Outdoor device, see the quick start guide snip, attached. Though not required, its a good idea to have something over the top of it to protect it from sun and precipitation, as suggested by Blackbird. I would be careful about enclosing the sides as the 2842-222 has a very wide field of view and that could get blocked, depending on your application.

Agreed. I spend an inordinate amount of time overthinking ways to use that 'else'. [emoji2] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I am in 40s program count wise too, maybe 60 variables because of polling and logging thermostats. I'm not motivated by a larger number. The right number is what's needed to get the job done. The more the count has gone up, the more I think about: - how to get the program folder organization 'just right'. Even at ~40 its daunting sometimes. A number of the state variables track operation state of the house, and across program folders, it can be tricky to remember to update everything that needs to be updated to keep it in sync. - how likely it is I will outsmart myself, creating a condition that loops on itself across programs. Like Michael, I have a lot of repetitious network resources and I'm eagerly awaiting V5 to get that down considerably. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Oh we're one big sarcastic family....I knew I liked it here Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Another thing to think about, from a safety perspective, is your house appearing too predictable when the lights go off at exactly the same time every night. You can use a randomized 'wait' command before the Set Off to have that vary over a period you specify: Wait 15 minutes (Random) Set 'Front Room / Front Rm Lamp' Off

At the risk of a thread hijack, that sounds promising.....

And it describes itself as indoor & outdoor, in the advertisement, and the manual

I use it in Michigan, - 20 to 100F. Fairly heavy rain. Its out in the open. You might want to read the link that Stu sent above.

I've always had keypads come set as ordered for 8/6. However, I have occasionally received new devices with insteon links/addresses already in them. I took this to mean it was either a device randomly pulled off the line for a test, or a refurb / return of some kind. (The Homeseer software I used did not have the "remove all links" like ISY so I could see the other links, I'm not able to tell any longer if this happened because ISY does remove them when they are set up) It could also be a production line issue where a batch of '8' configured boards were sent down the line of physical 6's, or the production line set up on the line was set the wrong way. I'm guessing its one of these. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Thanks Xath. If it still worked, it would've stayed. Until a few years ago it was working great. It seems ramping up Insteon devices was part of the problem, along with more chargers, laptops, LEDs, cfls.... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The last of X10 was dispatched from my powerline today with 2 keypadlincs and a switch

Thanks Lee!

Hi, I found these docs for the key pressing sequence to turn a 6 button keypad to an 8. I want to to do it the other way round. What are the keys involved to tell the 8 button keypad its a 6? "Off", or "D"? Thanks

My understanding is that the harmony hub requires authentication to access it, and the ISY, at V4 of firmware, doesn't support that 2 way dialogue. If true, we're looking forward to V5 of firmware to explore supporting this device.

Blackbird: It can be either / both. The io_linc with the kit will be looking for contacts that connect to, usually where the opener's button is located. You don't disconnect any existing functionality to do this. For inside of the house control, I have insteon scenes associated with a Keypad key that opens and closes the door. The Key is lit when the door is up. If I'm in the garage, I still push the opener's button control It can depend on the opener. You need to find contacts where the I/O can be connected to cause the open / close action. Here is mine, connected to a Sears Garage door opener. That piece of grey cat 5 wire crosses the opener's contacts and connects to the io linc. If you look at the io_linc page on smart home, the top graphic shows what's intended. You may want to take your opener's wall control down and inspect it, and try crossing contacts that wire to the opener mechanism. Paul

Hi Scyto 1- It could be a power / static issue: Did you have a brown out / blackout/ power issues recently? If so, or a static issue like fitzpatri8 mentioned, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Think about a whole house surge protector if this happens more than several times a year 2- Was the key the "A" key controlling a load? If so, what is connected to the keypad's load, how many watts, etc. If its a light, is it incandescent, LED, CFL, or lowvoltge lighting transformer?

Johnny Not for shut down, but you can mark programs to run on start up. For what I need to do, I consider that the same thing. I won't help with writing variables, but can with other things, Would that work for you? Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Finding the right stat is a tricky, multi-dimensional journey. Glad you arrived