matapan

I get a 404 error when using the first method.

I had the occasion to turn some circuit breakers on and off several times while working on installing some new outlets in my house. The circuits power cycled have some Z-Wave devices on it. Apparently, power cycling these Z-Wave devices didn't do them any good, as I am getting strange communication errors now for these devices. According to the wiki page article on communication errors, there should be an option in the Z-Wave menu in the Admin UI for healing the Z-Wave network. I cannot find this menu pick or its parent called Tools. Is the Wiki page outdated? I am on firmware version 5.3.4 on an ISY994i with the Z-Wave plus board.

I have the occasion to update device properties on two Aeotec Trisensors I acquired recently. There appears to be a means to set a device's properties by specifying a parameter to be updated along with its value in the Admin UI. There doesn't appear to be a means to view the device property values directly. I think I found another post in this forum which describes in general detail how to pull the parameter values in a script and assign it to a variable to email or text it out. Seems like a kludge if all you want to do is to see the current device property value is set to. Is there an easy way to see the parameter values set for a device? If the script route is prescribed, can someone describe in detailed terms how this is done? Thanks.

What if you deleted and recreated one of the scenes that is failing? Does this change anything?

I'm kind of curious if an extra layer of control causes noticable latency.

I second the recommendation you should just test the bulb with your specific configuration directly. There are many Insteon dimmer revisions, all addressing different issues. Some of them I recall related to specific flickering conditions. You may or may not have the revision that addresses the flickering issues. Bulbs themselves have specific characteristics that cause them to flicker on one circuit but not another. It's beyond my pay grade. I can just share with you my personal experience. I'd just go out and get the bulbs and see if they do the trick or not. If not, hopefully you've purchased them from a retailer that has a good return policy for situations like this.

The easiest solution is simply to find an Insteon motion sensor. They're available on eBay and other places online even if they're not on the Smarthome site. No repeater necessary, no protocol conversion. The other alternative might be to used a wired motion sensor attached to an IOLinc.

You can find Insteon motion sensors on eBay still. if your setup is primarily Insteon based still, using an Insteon motion sensor has its advantages. The timeout period can be set to different values. The latency of the sensor is relatively minimal. ZWave sensors are also an option, but the sensor may be affected by the number of devices on your ZWave network and where the sensor is located in relation to the ISY. I personally have on Schlage sensor which has a fixed timeout period. That can be a potential issue for certain applications. I don’t know about sensors from other companies. X10 sensors might be a low cost alternative too. The X10 signal is wireless and would require a tranceiver near the ISY.

Yes, that is the menu pick. I am not the only user who noticed nothing happens when activating this pick. Not sure why.

Selecting the menu pick does nothing, as others have pointed out. If the new way to access ISY externally is via the portal, why keep this at all?

So thank you to all who have responded.I have a portal subscription already and accessing the ISY this way is fine. One has to ask why the menu pick for managing certificates hasn't been removed from the Admin Console. It seems to serve no purpose based on the lack of functionality and rationale described here, only serving to be a potential unnecessary call or support request generator. Why not clean up the UI?

First, let me say that I have very little knowledge or understanding of web security. As a user, all I really care about is being able to access the application in question. That said, I have followed the advice regarding the use of ISY Launcher to start the Admin Console on my local area network. I wish to access the Admin Console when I am outside of my local area network.To that end, I have set up the port forwarding necessary to access the ISY externally. I obtained the IP address my home connection uses, then set up an entry in the ISY launcher to access the Admin Console externally. After successfully launching the Admin Console, I get an error saying that my security certificate is expired and I need to update it. In the AC Help dropdown, there is a menu pick for managing certificates, but it brings up nothing when invoked. Found a post from another user on this forum about the same issue with certificate management, but the ensuing discussion is over my head. What is required to access the Admin Console externally without certificate errors? Thanks.

FWIW, I wrote a test program to try email to text notifications using my T-Mobile number. It worked. I used the default SMTP settings. I did not try testing the message length, just a short text alert. If one were to try Pushover, what would the Network Resources setup look like?

Magnitude Lighting makes a line of transformers which I found works reasonably well with Insteon dimmers.

When you see this behavior, was the Admin Console idle for a while? Sometimes the Admin Console loses its connection, even if it does a refresh when you relog in. I find it best to close the Admin Console and restart it. Usually the queries will refresh correctly after that.

I've been playing with ZWave devices of late. Here are some tips: 1. If you have the means to relocate your ISY to the very center of your home, I would do this. You'll generally have more uniform coverage this way over the long run. Having the ISY located in a place with an outlet nearby that's easily accessible makes it easier to add a ZWave device. 2. It's best to add any new devices close to the ISY for the best results. You can always move the device where you want, provided it's within the range of the ISY or a repeater device. 3. Plug In devices seem to have the best range compared to devices installed in wall. 4. If the device you are attempting to manage is located in a place where the ISY cannot communicate with it, either directly or with repeater devices, add some plug in devices between the target device and the ISY to create the mesh between them. The plug in devices don't necessarily have to do anything, other than to act as repeaters. Best to make sure no one unplugs these devices any time so as not to compromise the link. 5. 500 level devices are faster in responding than the 300 level devices. If you have a latency issue where a light doesn't turn on as quickly as you want and it's a 300 level device, swap it out with a 500 or 700 level device. The latency drop is noticable.

I have a few ideas to put forward that I haven't fully qualified. That said, I can't think of any negatives at the moment: 1. Use a X10 motion sensor. They're wireless, battery operated and low cost. Install a tranceiver to convert the signal to powerline X10 near your PLM and I think this might be an easy way to achieve your objectives. Some of the motion sensors have seals to make them usable outdoors. Both the sensor and tranceivers are pretty readily available. 2. Use an older Insteon motion sensor. They have programmable countdown timers. I think the default is 30 seconds but you can adjust the ON time to be longer. 3. Use a ZWave motion sensor if you have the add on Zwave board in your ISY. If you go this route, I would make sure the countdown timer for the ON duration is adjustable to your requirements. I know that with the one ZWave motion sensor I've tried so far, the countdown duration is a fixed 4 minutes and it cannot be adjusted.

You could always check to see if the switch controlling the load was turned on and set a variable to indicate that the switch was manually turned on and set the variable to zero and enable the countdown program for turning off the light by motion sensor when it is manually turned off. When the motion sensor is activated, you can check the value of the variable to see if the switch was turned on manually. If it was, then you can disable the countdown program. I think that is what you're asking for.

I used to think that Insteon was just completely unreliable because the build quality was highly suspect. After completing my current install and using for a while, I've changed my opinion somewhat. Coupled with ISY and in particular the ability to set retries for commands that get lost on n-way switch circuits. I think it's much better than my old install for the fact that it's dual band and Smarthome seems to have improved product quality somewhat. The jury is still out for me as far as reliability is concerned. But armed with the ability to repair my PLM, I think I'm good for a while. Most of the devices in my current install are dual band devices where my previous installation had more single band devices and a few dual band ones. I tried Wifi plugs in the form of Wemo modules and Smartthings; if your Wifi coverage is good, they seem to work okay. I don't think you get the mesh networking aspect of signals being repeated between devices that you do with Insteon or ZWave. Someone here can correct me if I'm wrong. But I've had a couple of Wemo plugs have problems communicating back to the Smartthings hub, presumably because of range issues and interference where the plug was located. I'm thinking that if you have enough ZWave devices to provide adequate coverage, that may be a good alternative. The number of manufacturers making ZWave devices is comforting from an installation lifecycle perspective. My personal issue with ZWave devices is that they generally don't look good, industrial design speaking. The newest Nokia/Smartlabs offering look nicely designed, and so does Lutron's offerings. ZWave devices seem to fall into two categories: really generic and plain, or a device that has a very sophmoric, toylike design. There's no elegance to these devices. If I was looking to replace my Insteon installation, I would be looking at Lutron. I've never seen a Lutron installation with glitchy issues. Their dimmers work great and any questions about reliability have never come up. They look good and purposeful. I've seen a total of 6 Lutron installations. A small sample size for sure, but no one who has one of the installations has ever chatted with me about how to get around this problem or that problem. It costs more for sure. But you get the assurance of a well engineered, reliable product. There's a separate discussion on this site about questions some people have with the latest wireless offering from Lutron. I'm personally just waiting to see how well these wireless retrofit systems work in practice.

While the prevailing sentiment now seems to be a move towards Z-Wave, I would caution you on your approach with respect to migrating to Z-Wave: As many others have suggested here in various ways, it's imperative to build out your Z-Wave network starting with the devices closest to the ISY and work your way further away from the device. That is if you're considering a slow migration. Like dual band Insteon, the reliability of your install is highly dependent in the number of devices deployed across your space. My first Insteon installation was made up of mostly single band devices with access points and a few dual band devices installed. The integrity of the installation had a lot to be desired, with virtual multiway switches not syncing with each other and erratic behaviors. It was awful in hindsight, made worse by the reliability issues people talk about. My current Insteon installation is comprised of mostly dual band devices with a few single band devices sprinkled in. The reliability of this installation is significantly better than the first one. The takeaway for me is that dual band Insteon is essentially like Z-Wave, working predominantly across wireless signals rather than powerline. I'm sure this isn't completely true, but my current installation has so many dual band devices evenly distributed across the space and it works so much better. It's hard to imagine how one would get a super reliable Z-Wave install without going all out and replacing your Insteon devices with Z-Wave, or doing a gradual migration starting from the ISY out.

I've been playing with Z-Wave devices recently. The observations others have had are worth repeating here: 1. The reliability of your Z-Wave installation is wholly dependent on the number of Z-Wave devices in your installation and how far each device is located from each other. For example, to have a one or two device installation that has one of the devices two floors up from the ISY is not going to work. But if you have devices that are close enough to talk to each other from the ISY, like lights on a string, it's possible to work your way up to the device two floors up with intermediary ZWave devices acting as repeaters and make it work. 2. When installing the new ZWave device, it's always a good practice to remove it from the network even if it was never asssociated with it before adding it. Also, it's a good practice to be within close proximity of the ISY when adding the device for the best experience adding the device, if at all possible. I had the idea that ZWave was going to be a good and solid alternative to Insteon when I started this investigation. Now, I'm appreciating the existing Insteon installation for its capabilities and performance. In addition to trying new ZWave devices, I've tried using a few Zigbee devices on a Smartthings hub. From the things I've tried so far, the Zigbee devices communicate farther than the ZWave 300 and 500 devices I've tried do. I haven't tried any 700 devices because the ISY module supports only 300 and 500 devices. I have not upgraded to Polisy yet.

Thanks for the information. Nice to know that a ZWave network reverts to the lowest common denominator. If it’s critical to ensure one is using only Zwave devices of a certain pedigree, how can you tell from the Admin console the relevant device information? With Insteon devices having the device name and version number is very helpful. Any similar information offered for ZWave devices? 300, 500, 700 type device?

Also, can ZWave 300 devices act as repeaters for ZWave 500 or 700 devices? I can see a scenario where I use the old ZWave On/Off modules as repeaters to connect a ZWave 500/700 lock to ISY, for exampe.

I've been adding a few ZWave devices to my installation recently. A few plugin on/off modules to start. I have a Utiltech moisture sensor and a AT&T Digital Life garage door controller I'm thinking about adding. After reading some of the posts here, and how there are different ZWave versions, I was wondering if it's okay to mix old and new devices in a setup. Some ZWave 300, some 500 and 700. Or, do the devices that are used all have to be using the same version controller?

For the commerical industry, I'm sure there are good, well-designed solutions. Same thing for high end residential installations. The mass market stuff isn't though, and the players in the space for the most part are pretty immature IMHO. While Philips is a well known company in lighting, I wouldn't necessarily call the Hue offering to be a very complete line. From a product offering perspective, Insteon is pretty comprehensive, less a good lock offering, and Lutron is reasonably comprehensive lighting control offering. You can cobble a bunch of Z Wave products from different vendors but industrial design maturity is in the eye of the beholder. Things tend to look like a collection of mismatched assemblies in the Z Wave installations I've seen so far.