paulbates

Steve There are two different add-on approaches that use variables, created by two very skilled ISY programmers to accomplish this: 1- A date variable program package that is installed in the ISY and provides date information your programs can use 2- This small .net program, ISYLink, that pushes date information into ISY variables. It requires a pc, windows server or raspberry pi on your network to run it. I use the second option, however there are users of both that are very satisfied with how each work. There are advantages to both, take a look and see which appeals more to you. Paul

Same to you Michel, looking forward to a great 2015! Paul

Gary- Like x10 there is a little bit of trial and error that is usually related to certain circuits and electrical components, which can be hard to predict. In your case, you can start with places you know had problems. For me, Insteon does not do well controlling low voltage lighting transformers (interior and exterior). If they are in the middle of a circuit, they disrupt insteon traffic in both directions and either dual bands are needed or noise filters added. The x10 XPNR and plug in noise filters continue to work for me, so keep those around. Motors and 220 volt devices have also been a problem. As with x10, these things reveal themselves when they are turned on. If you have wired in X10 filters installed at locations like this, keep them there. To add to Teken's comments, metal electrical boxes are bad news for dual band, rendering the rf part almost useless, at least for me. I would plan for at least 5 of your lamplincs and switchlincs to be dual band, unless you are going mostly dual band. You can then swap them into or near problem locations. That worked for me when making the move to insteon. I still have the passive coupler/blocker on my panel and have no problems related to it (I started with an Ocelot and just sold off a lot of my Adicon and RCS X10 gear). I also have the insteon signal linc wired into my panel, its the insteon equivalent of an x10 passive coupler. Like X10, If you can locate your PLM near the panel, that is more optimal to reaching all locations. Paul

Arun Nesting is not supported. A layer of thinner programs and variables is needed to achieve that goal Paul

Nice Techman. Very helpful. That Elam is quite a tease, would love to rent one for a day or so...

Calberrt Glad its working for you Paul

Hi Calberrt It looks like you want to run the fan for 15 minutes every half hour. Give this a try If From 5:00:00AM To 8:59:59PM (same day) Then Repeat every 30 minutes Set 'Thermostat - Main' Fan On Wait 15 minutes Set 'Thermostat - Main' Fan Auto Else Set 'Thermostat - Main' Fan Auto The repeat statement operates on the indented statements below it. As long as the If statements are true, the repeat statement will keep restarting every 30 minutes and run the 3 statements. The else makes sure that the fan really goes off when the program completes If you want it to run the fan for 15 minutes every hour, change the '30 minutes' to '1 hour' Paul

If the motion sensor is in the scene it will be as a controller and turn on the other scene participants directly, with or without the program. You want the program to control the action, so its best to leave the motion sensor out of the scene and let the program do the work.

Perry, you got it. Scenes cause multiple devices to respond to one message as if they are wired together. Add the devices to a scene and turn the scene on and off instead of the devices.

Clif The PLM is the X10 powerline interface instead of the TW523/PSC05. It can support both X10 and Insteon at the same time, and is a way to bridge both technologies while you migrate from one to the other. You can also keep your existing X10 controller and migrate your x10 programs to the ISY at your own pace. You might want to consider purchasing the ISY X10 module, depending how many x10 devices you have and how well you know them by HC/UC versus an assigned name. The X10 Module allows you to name them symbolically My current work assignment is in Greenville, I fly down there weekly on non Holiday weeks. Paul

Perry, I'm a fairly new user too. A lot of it comes to getting some experience with the technologies and programs. Its ok to do the programs in pieces, start with something simpler and add to it as you decide what would make it better. This flexibility is an important feature of the ISY. There are a few phone apps but I'm not a user of them, someone else will need to chime in on that question. Here are some things I think will help with what you are wanting to do: -If you use a phone app to turn the light on and off, no program is needed. Turn the device on from the phone app, and the ISY will see the request and turn the device on or off. -The program will react to the light being turned on or off if all the conditions of the 'if' are met. If you use the "Control 'Your Nightlight' is switched On" conditional like in my sample program, they won't know or care how the nightlight got turned on. They will simply execute the statements when they see that it was turned on and if the schedule criteria were met. -If you turn the light on, and then your wife turns it on after that, let's say 10 minutes later, the last one changing it wins. The program will restart with the last activation. Its probably best to start with the phone apps and get used to turning things on an off, then with simpler programs, That will generate "requirements" from your better half Paul

After you are up and running for a while it will make sense. Thank you Stu for writing this up in one spot.

Hi csdunaway, and welcome! To say arw01's comment another way, the isy is a controller that works with specific home automation technologies. It works with Insteon, which requires a PLM controller to send signals to insteon switches and devices. It can also work with another home automation technology called zwave. Zwave is another home automation technology. There is a special zwave card you need to by and install in the isy to control zwave type devices. An ISY can control either zwave or insteon, or many users have both. Lets start with this. - There should be a sticker on the case of the ISY that says what model it is. Can you report back with what model it is (ISY 994i, ISY 994i Pro) - What are your goals for your new ISY, what would you like to do? (Fiddle and learn is a good answer) Paul

Perry You'll want to include schedule conditions in your program. The schedule conditions will only allow the logic to work at the times you specify: Goodnight program: If From 10:30:00PM For 30 minutes And Control 'Your Nightlight' is switched On Then - Your actions Else - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action') Follow a similar pattern for the programs for other times. If you manually turn on the night light outside of the schedule constraints, nothing will happen to it You could also have another program for when its not bedtime or wake up: if its between those other times, and the nightlight is switched on... then (whatever actions you want) Paul

I'm late to the game here, but another possibility are these XPNR wire-in noise suppressors. No amperage limit. Two would be needed one for each 120 Hot wire, and would hopefully fit in the box with the outlet for the dryer. I have had great success with these from PLM killing interference from a previous furnace, as well as from low voltage lighting transformers. They help X10 and Insteon signals. You are probably looking at around $50 for 2 of them. Paul

Not sure Sparky. It could be the program logic. Also, RF only insteon devices can behave a little differently than power-line only or dual-band devices, some like motion sensors can send messages twice. I'm not sure about the 2441th I'm not sure which of these it could be. Can you paste your program in and we start there?

How old is your PLM? Since all device roads lead to the PLM, and PLMs are known to have a limited shelf life, it might be there.

Grizzy Can you share what you are trying to program? You will get feedback on different ways to accomplish what you are programming and maybe some less complex ways to achieve that. Paul

When you first set up your ISY, it looks like you were installing over an existing Insteon network with some links programmed into the switches and devices. When installing over an exiting system, the ISY tries very hard to look for all of the devices in your existing insteon device links and creates many scenes. I had a similar experience and ended up deleting most of those scenes and recreating what I needed. As Stu points out, when you chose to start over and deleted all of the devices, the scenes and links went with them. This "installing over" experience was difficult for me too, and I had a conversation with Steve Lee of UD about what happened and I decided to rebuild my insteon network from scratch, devices and scenes. Another way to look at this is, each device doesn't need its own scene. If you want to control an individual device directly, simply control it directly. Groups of devices, like a group of outletlincs for yard lights, need a scene to control them all together, and manually creating them based on how you want your house to behave is the way to go.

Ok. Sorry Sparky, we are past what I can help with. Open a support ticket with UD, they are very helpful and responsive with this kind of thing, especially when you are just getting started: Submit a Ticket: http://www.universal-devices.com/contact-support I would copy and include a link to this thread in the support ticket Paul

My new carrier gas heaters recommend a limit of 3 cycles per hour in the installation manual. That is what I get on with the out-of-the box 2 degree deadband of my venstar thermostat. If I chose to configure the venstar to 1 degree deadband, I would get 5 to 6 shorter cycles per hour. Each of those additional cycles would use 30 - 40 seconds of full on gas while the heat exchanger is brought from its cool state to its useable heat state, versus letting the fewer cycles run longer on an already heated exchanger.... using more gas. Ignitors, heat exchangers and blower motors are all affected by cycling.

Thermostats have a "deadband" concept. They wait X degrees, typically 2 degrees, before calling for heat or cool. My recollection of the 2441TH is that it has a 2 degree deadband. In your scenario, that would mean it should come on at 69. Is that what you are seeing? I don't believe that the deadband can be changed in the 2441TH, but 2 degrees is fairly standard across thermostats as it protects wear on the HVAC system from cycling too much. ** Its also more efficient with a 2 degree deadband. The cycles will be longer, but there will be fewer of them per day. There is overhead, in gas, to start each cycle up

Hi, give this a try: 1) Right click on the program name in the list of programs 2) pick "Copy to clip board" at the bottom of the drop down list presented. That will let you paste the program code into a forum reply Paul

The suggestion for testing was more about trying out the technologies for the "other" factors.. learning curve, functionality, etc. Nothing major or permanent, just a chance to see what you like and why. Chances are you will invest a lot in a whole house install and be making a decision you will have to live with for a while.

I can echo comments above. I put my first inline lincs in in 2006, they're still there. I had an intermatic whole house power conditioner already, and I believe that helped. I did lose a plm plugged in near a furnace within a month of installing it, due to, I believe, powerline noise. I put an XPNR filter on the furnace and that seemed to solve it. Reliability is one factor, but there are others: total cost, learning curve, available functionality and, what you like. Depending how much time you have before your build, you may want to get the ISY, zwave card and a few of each type of swithc and experiment with it in your current house. Paul