paulbates

Ok, thanks. It sounds defective. Where there any issues installing it electrically, it went in ok?

Hi diggler Just to clarify, the led on the module responds all the time when you remotely activate the switch, but not always the fan motor? No problems turning it off, after it does turn on, it turns off every time? Paul

Jamminred Sounds good. There are multiple competing needs and all may not be able to be addressed with any one location: Close to the panel and bridge as you've done. The electrical system is the master antenna system for insteon, and the panel is the center Appearance- i get not having wall warts visible in your house PLM not being surrounded by metal so that its RF can get to other RF devices easily Good temperature and humidity environment, within specifications Its hard to hit all of those targets in one location. I have a dual gang box right off my panel, inches away. The box has the signalinc bridge and an outlet for the plm in it, connected to one of the breakers for the signal linc. Temperature is always well within the PLM's, even the 80% rule mentioned by Gary.. But... its under the electrical panel and has a metal furnace and ducting on one side. RF access could be better. However, that's been the best I've been able to do. The new UDI PLM is coming out soon, and its based on the Insteon Hub that has a 6' power cable. I can raise that UDI PLM higher towards the ceiling and clear my furnace. I had an Insteon Hub 1 with Homeseer and that approach worked. You may want to consider that in your future plans when the UDI PLM is offered for sale. Paul

Hi Jamminred I agree with Teken. If the phase couple is in the attic, then your panel is in the attic? Paul

Glad it worked! I will be putting it in soon too!

Stu Good point, if the concept proves out on the bad controller, it could run off of an unused zone of a good one. I have 2 easy floras, 14 zones plus 2 master valves... I could probably run it off one of the masters.

This is a tough one, and I would be interested in this too. The EZFlora is not a traditional Insteon link controlled device. The ISY contains special programming to control the EZFlora and other EZxxx devices, and they don't follow the same exact rules that a switchlinc or keypad would. I have an idea that needs to be tested on your existing 'bad' controller to see if its viable, if you are game. Have 2 programs, 'A' and 'B'. 'A' turns zone 1 on, queries it, and calls 'B'. 'B' looks to see if Zone 1 is really on. If not, send a notification Program A If time (is when you want to verify) then Turn a Zone 1 on (Insteon Zone 1 on) wait 5 seconds Query Zone 1 (Insteon Zone 1 Query) Run If Program B Turn Zone 1 Off else Program B If status Zone 1 is off then Notify (whatever notification you want, text, email) else Edit: Use the admin console to 'right click' on program B and disable it. We don't want an alert after that Zone is turned off, if its a zone that waters and is part of an irrigation program. ________________________________________________________________________ The assumption I am making is if you turn a zone on, and query the status, you get an "on" back. If the unit is damaged, you'll get "off" back. This needs to be tested on your bad controller I'm not sure this will always find a problem. It also will turn a zone on an sprinkle for 5 seconds every time you run it if the controller is good and responding. But it shouldn't take long to see if it really works or not. Probably we need to turn in an enhancement request for better status response from Ezfloras. Paul

You are welcome. I bought Insteon as a way to bridge off of X10 and have had a number of unexpected surprises over the years with that plan, things different than what I thought / wanted. I sure learn a lot here on this forum all the time

Individual Insteon device commands are fully acknowledged and retried. However the group broadcast message used for scenes from the PLM is not acknowledged or retried. There is no "acknowledgement storm" from the devices. If the Individual insteon device commands are issued before a scene, or before X10, the acknowledgement response from the device can collide with the next scene or X10 command. X10 messages are vulnerable getting stepped on by the acknowledgement as well. Therefore, the individual Insteon device commands should be the last command(s) in a program sequence. If its possible to make one single thread program (no Run commands), my suggestion is send the 3 X10 commands followed by a scene, followed by individual insteon commands. One more thought to simplify the above: Scenes are 'cheap' resource wise (unless you have hundreds of Insteon devices). I would create an additional scene with the 12 original members, and then add the three additional devices. Have the program control the three x10 devices, and then control that new scene. It will give you the added 'effect' of all the insteon devices going off at the same time, and lower network traffic.

Hi The number of devices in the scene are not a root cause for what you are experiencing. By design, insteon scenes can have many devices. When you set up a scene with your ISY, it creates a unique scene address/link, and then programs that into each participating device. When you issue a scene command, a single message with that address/link is sent on your power line, and and all devices programmed for that respond to that single message when they see it. My largest scene has 26 participants, and only one message is needed to activate them.

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.