paulbates

YW. We have long periods in the spring and summer where temps and humidity are mild. The house came with dampers into the attic and a gable fan. I replaced the flimsy dampers with Tamco 9000s (silicone seals - every edge, foam core blades) and a Belimo actuator when we re-insulated the house. Keypad keys can turn that on and off... dampers open and fan goes on. We use that a lot, and all of the humidity and fan cycling automation "goes to sleep" if key doors are open, the dampers are open and the fan is on. Keeps it comfortable with lower costs. Paul

Its really a factor of how you can/want to manage it. Why would you want to control humidity? Comfort and health for people and animals. Ideally it should be near the middle... 40% to 50%. It proven to me in the last 3 winters... we are healthier when keeping the humidity up above 34% when possible. Sounds simple? There are complications for maintaining that level, based on what type of building construction, windows and insulation/sealing- Heating: =>40% can mean the humidifier will run around the clock (based on construction). That can use electricity and in my case hot water.. my pads are plumbed to hot. Humidity can collect in places like the attic, so actively venting it may be necessary Window frosting. Again, depending on construction, windows will heavily frost when the temps drop... the windows can be damaged especially if they are wood. I have anderson wood framed windows sliding on plastic tracks. Newer window technology X pane, fiberglass, etc allow the level to be higher with less frosting. Humidity needs to be lowered as outdoor temps drop. Cooling Our climate can be humid in the summer. Even if the temp is a setpoint, it "feels" uncomfortable > 60%. There is an "overcooling" concept that will cause cooling to be called up to X degrees below setpoint to lower the humidity and make it "feel" comfortable. Dehumidifiers can be installed in the HVAC unit and called to lower humidity. Fan cycling needs to be controlled... After a Cool cycle completes, the fan needs to not run for 10-15 minutes so the condenser drains. Otherwise, the fan will blow that moisture right back in the living spaces making it uncomfortable and starting the cycle all over again. I watched this happen on my systems Options Control with the thermostat. I have the Venstar Colorrtouch T7900. The 9 digit (versus 8 ) means it has a humidistat and control features for configuring the status humidity behavior (both humidify and dehumidify) A 24vac wire from the humidifier is pulled to the thermostat location exposes to the API that humidity mode is running and what the humidity is exposes set point fields via api for setting what you want the humidity to be Just like the desired setpoint for heat may be different than for cool; the setpoint for dehumidify level may want to be different than humidify The ISY (via nodelink) can establish humidify % / dehumidify % I have a simple series of ISY programs that step humidity down based on outdoor temp to prevent frosting My humidfy highest set point is 38%, but everybody including pets stops complaining / scratching=> 34% I use the Venstar T7900's overcool feature to take the edge off in the summer. More cycles, less total runtime, better comfort. "Occupants" less frequently lower the temp on their own. The advantage of this method is that, if the stat supports it, most of the control and contacting, etc, is handled by the stat. Use your own humidistat and "roll your own" version of the above Use zwave and/or tag humidistats. Place them around and average, etc Use an iolinc to contact the humidifier and/or dehumidifier. (I think you need a relay that can read iolinc contact closure on one side and close 24vac on the other) Also have your program turn on the HVAC fan at the same time if its a humidifier on your hvac system so that moist air is distributed into the living spaces The advantage of this method is potentially better measurement as the stat may not catch all areas... again in my experience heat and humidity live different lives Hybrid / additional Support either of the above methods with local humidifiers / dehumidifiers. Have ISY programs turn on on/off modules in individual spaces by following when its being called for elsewhere My goal was to make this 100% automated, and it is. There is no user control of humidity. I get pushover messages as the programs make changes so I can tweak... (eg its too dry doing it this way, or the windows are frosting if I do it that way). I do get comments when its really cold out and the humidity was lowered to <25%... but nothing to be done about that and I don't want the family manually turning it up. Ease of use / what to do? To be candid, the Venstar colortouches are pretty technical looking. There is a "simple thermostat" mode but it supersedes the scheduling feature. So no. My wife has been using the Venstar app for the last few years for temp adjustments, or taps the up or down button on the stat and that does. Again, no manual humidity adjustments, all automated You could keep the nest and use option 2 above for ultimate fine grained control. If you did, I would configure the nest to not control humidity and control all on your own so you know what's what. There's the upper model ecobee which is popular and controls humidity on its own... but that's as much as I know. Larry or io_guy could chime in on it vs Venstar. I know this was a lot, but after chipping away at it for a few years, its all related and what you choose to install needs to cover all of the areas Paul

Our LED Christmas tree lights do this. Plug in an old unused phone charger along with the lights. It takes 3 - 5 seconds, but the bulbs will stop glowing after turned off. You might have to try a couple to find one that works right. I also use one with detachable cable so there is no cable to deal with. Paul

If you don't want to go V5, there is a V4 version of the program Bumbershoot referenced too. It puts the information into ISY variables under V4. You can then use the variables in your programs... its the same information you see in the screen shots, but in variables instead of nodes. Month 1 - 12, Day 1 - 31. The even/odd fields are great for things like sprinkler programs where you need to manage to a certain day More info and screen shots here Paul

Is the server not on the same lan as the ISY; you can’t use a local nat address (192.168.x.x or 10.x.x.x)? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Can you post a picture of NR, or list all of the fields, settings use? Paul

Can you post an image of your Network Resource, covering up key data (keys, account, password) Paul

Hi Joe, Welcome to the UDI forums! Are your devices and scenes in folders? Those need to be moved to the "root" folder of main, then they can be deleted Paul

Hi and welcome to the UDI forums! What you're describing is a known problem with the io_linc and I've personally run into it I used x10 powerflash modules for years to sense my furnace runtime. I had power sensing doughnut sensors attached to the powerflash's leads. I attempted to use my first iolincs to replace the powerflash modules. No go. The iolinc's led would glow, but never contact. After a lot of help on another forum trying different sensors I gave up (I do this through my thermostat now) Hopefully you can find a way to convince the powerflash to register it I don't think you need the variable, BTW. Once the "switched on" is sensed by the program, you should be good. Paul

Hi Wayne Here is what I do Put all of the switches and the bathroom MS in a scene. If you want the switches to also turn all of the lights off make them controllers Or, if you want them only to respond to the motion/timer program only, leave them as responders You'll have to get the motion sensor, open the battery door and press the set button till it blinks to put it in linking mode first In the admin console, find the master bath MS, click options and check the box for "send on commands only"Do this while you have the MS down and in Set mode from above, it will stay in set mode for 5 minutes or so, its LED will be flashing Change your program so it looks for master bath MS "switched on" instead of "switched off"That way, every motion sense will send an "On", and restart the program and its 10 minute timer Change the program to "Set <scene you created> off", instead of turning each light off individually I do this for my driveway motion sensor and stair hallway sensors. You can also have the program dim the lights first for a few minutes first as a warning before turning off, in the case their motion is not caught. Paul

Jack One thing to keep in mind is that the ISY can record some of the corrupted data from the failed PLM, and that gets backed up..., and restored to the new PLM. If you have problems with the scene tomorrow, I would remove the affected items from the scene(s) and re-add it Paul

Phil I outlook.com as my personal email and remember going though this at one time and never got it to work. I tried allowing POP, alternate port 25, etc. You might get this to work: under account.live.com/activity is recent activity / session.. you can tell it accept your failed login location as acceptable to talk to. Simple to try. However, if that works, I could imagine that it will break if your ISP internet IP changes and definitely if your ISP changed; ....you'll have to remember that. I did use my outlook.com account as the destination for ISY notifications for a while, but sent them from my ISY through a gmail account I set up to handle any house/HA functions that are email based. Gmail works great as a relay, and its filter/rules engine is helpful splicing up, filing and relaying email messages from other systems (my router's IPS/virus alerts, alarm system's email alerts, idrive cloud backup status, ... ect).. gmail gave me a good stair step in integrating all of that, and I think is more helpful if you think you'd eventually go to a notification service like pushover. Paul

The insteon protocol is not designed for a wide range of analogue values. The thing I've seen others use are are the CAO wireless tags that include a temp sensor. They can be set up to write temperatures, including outdoors, back into ISY variables via wifi>lan>ISY. Search the forum for CAO and you'll find a number of references Paul

The powerline / rf network can handle only one conversation at a time. If someone turns on a light linked by a scene, triggers a motion, etc... at the same time as that query, you may see as several second delayed response to that action. If the ISY happens to send a scene command in one program directly after the 83 second query runs, its likely some or all of the linked devices won't come on. Unlikely, but possible. Its probably worth running it this way for a while, but if you start seeing the described problems, it will likely be a result of regular querying of the thermostat. Paul

Labeled keypad keys are very functional for that. I do something similar for evening time with a "Party" keypad key when we're entertaining. Evening "lights off" programs that turn lights off check to see that the keypad key is off. If the key is on, the program doesn't run and our lights stay on with no ISY intervention It doesn't require me to be there or do anything; its easy for the family to see that the "party" key on or not. If its not on, they press it themselves. Something similar could be done in the morning if the "if" part of the program If ( sleep-in keypad key is off and time is wake up time) or ( sleep-in keypad key is on and time is sleep in time) then do light and curtain things turn keypad key off

That worked better for me with X10 and I setup my insteon system that way from the start. Installing a signalinc bridge in the panel also helped me a lot. It bridges the power legs right in the panel, anything traveling though it does so using no Insteon hops. Dual band bridging has been necessary for me too at some of far ends of my electrical system, but I deal with that on a case by case basis Paul

I'm not sure it saves anything, but addressing humidity is an equal factor in comfort to temperature. I've found that heat and humidity have lives of their own and need to be managed separately. I have my thermostats set to call for humidity and turn on the fan and the water (plumbed to hot) to the the humidifier so humidity runs when needed... sometimes it happens along with the heat cycle, sometimes not. It has been better inside in the winter since that happens. I also have the thermostats configured to run AC below set point by 1 degree to dehumidify in the summer when needed. That helps it feel better inside as well. Paul

Latitude and window type need to be factored in, in higher latitudes, windows can get condensation and frost up if the humidity is too high. There are equations that figure that out. Nodelink does it for Venstar thermostats. This article has a good explanation and a practical table for outdoor temp vs indoor humidity http://chicagowindowexpert.com/2010/12/09/top-10-causes-of-window-condensation/

Yeh making some progress. The asus (on merlin) can host ovpn clients and servers. I configured access to PureVPN over the asus merlin OVPN client, a number of house clients and all guests go through that. I used to have an asus inbound OVPN server setup, but I'm at the point where I don't need to remote in to the lan, really nothing to do... and therefore a liability. If I do need to get to the ISY, I've been able to use the AC through the ISY portal and also get to my HAD pages which I moved back to the ISY for that reason. I look at the HAD pages from time to time remotely via the portal, but I've not used the AC remotely in over a year. I now follow a "policy" about not making changes when I'm going to be on the road. Venstar and rainmachine dial out to their respective service proxies and I can connect through them via mobile app or web if I need to. Again most of this is automation is on "auto pilot" these days. I have pushover "confidence" to show things are working,which they have been doing.. Now that i've said that its time for my PLM to die Paul

My Security setup / changes:: iot SSL from Nodelink/Pi to the ISY (2018 change) Configuring the Venstar Colortouches for SSL only local API access (2018 change) SSL from Nodelink/Pi to Venstars (2018 change) SSL is the default from Nodelink to rainmachine zero ports open on the router. Devices accessed remotely via proxies: ISY Portal, Rainmachine redirect, or venstar skyport. No remote access to the Rpis. Router No open ports LAN side only management access. SSL/SSH only access (2018 change) TrendMirco's Malicious Site Blocking / 2 way IPS (2018 change) / Infected device blocking Alientvault and Speedguide dynamic malicious host/port blocking (2018 change)Amazing number of blocks on our main HP all-in-one Norton connect safe DNS and OpenDNS secondary DNS SMB 2 LAN shared drive access. Signing / credentials required to access, but not encrypted PCs and key iot only on the main lan. Tablets,phones, work laptop anything else is routed through guest net No ISP device security dependence, I plug into a dumb docsis 3 Arris 822 CM PureVPN through comcast. Some web proxy, some openvp. Some devices like I have guest and main lan for PCs and printers. I'd like to segment iot, but that may be beyond the asus and thorny as I do want to manage the iot segment from the main lan. More to think about Paul

Mark Something else is wrong. All of your program and memory setup look fine Once a minute should not be a problem. I have routines for my furnaces (x2) does a runtime calc for humidification cycles that repeat and count up runtime once a minute. Both can be running at the same time. I'm at 76 programs. I've had my ISY over 3 years and can't recall a reboot that wasn't me rebooting or a power failure. I've also been on the alpha v5. I would suggest submitting a ticket, and ISY can help figure this out, its not normal. Provide a link back to this thread Paul

To Teken's point, how you are using your ISY programs may influence or cause the rebooting. Some basic systems "blocking and tackling" questions How many programs do you have? Memory use: Go to tools, diagnostics, system status, paste a graphic of the response or type it in TIght loop programs: Go to the programs tab, rightclick on an item, pick status icons and detailed Go through and look at all running programs... are any continuous flickering and flashing (sign of a tight loop mentioned by teken) How many? If you are able to, disable those programs for a few days and see if the rebooting stops There's other memory diagnostics through telnet, but I'm not 100% clear how to interpret, lets start with the above Paul

I have a program with a similar function and it has only run when I reboot the ISY, or there is a powerfailure. Typically programs set to run at start-up have no "If" clause? Is that the case for yours? Meaning the existence of an "if" clause might cause the program to run even though the ISY did not reboot Paul

There are a number of zwave switches that do not automatically send their status when locally activated, like Insteon switches always have been. However it is becoming more prevalent in newer products and expected by z-wave users.

Yep, that's been suggested and pleaded for, for years. Teken can attest to that. Its a proprietary HW scheme. I've not run into anyone that has "cracked the code" for readdressing a PLM (or any insteon HW). If someone had, I'd be sending them my spare PLM, current PLM address and $$ to do it so I would have something mostly ready to swap. SH did something similar in 2012 when the first hub 1s had a major problems and they had to swap. There was a form to fill out, including your current Insteon address, and a new hub was shipped with the same address. Plug and chug. However, I've seen nothing like that since Paul