WayneUrso

Thank you. But I am no longer trying to get anything working with ISY. Once I have migrated totally to Google nest, the ISY will be abandoned and will not be in any use.

I'm not sure if I still have the packing material or not. I was convinced that this was going to be a fairly painless upgrade just like the other times that I updated my ISY over the many years that I've used them. But I was clearly too optimistic. As I write this, I am trying to get Google Nest up and running with a WiFi outdoor outlet. I got a TP-Link KASA outdoor outlet that I am able to turn on and off via Google nest. I have set up routines for turning the lights on and off. Assuming that this works as I hope, I will be replacing my Insteon Switches for other light switches compatible with Google and creating routines for those lights also. Once Google nest is up and running, I am unsure of whether I can return the ISY without packing material or not. That's a consideration for a different day. Thanks very much for your help. I could have spent quite a bit of time trying to do what is far more difficult than I had hoped. Best regards!

The description clearly says “Automate with Amazon Alexa DEVICES! The whole ISY Amazon Product page is vague at best, and that vagueness is what prompted me to make a purchase that simply does not work in any way that is reasonable for my situation. And in regards to Wave Z Range, what difference does that make if the detailed specs for operation say that the operating temperature must be 32 or above, when I live where it gets much colder than that. Suppose I got some mesh devices in between my ISY and the z-Wave Outdoor outlet. Would that make the thing work in the environment where I live when the temperature goes to zero? I seriously doubt it.

Thank you. I appreciate your helping to get to the bottom of “Alexa Compatible”.

Hello Mr. Bill, You are correct that there is confusion in that one sentence. I'll take some responsibility for the confusion, but I have attached images from the Amazon page where I placed the order. Nowhere does it say that Alexa devices are controlled indirectly, but I will admit that it says compatible with Alexa which, in hindsight, seems very vague. With regards to Z-Wave, the distance of the outdoor outlet to my ISY is about 40 feet. That does not seem like a huge distance, but I'll admit that I am new to Zwave and perhaps I need some sort of a repeater between the outlet and the ISY. That being said, for many of the Z-Wave outdoor outlets, when one examines the specs closely, the operating temperature is 32 degrees and above. Clearly, 10 degrees is quite a bit less than 32, so I would guess that temperature is what got in the way, and not range. With regards to Z-Wave and Alexa, the marriage of those two is not in any Alexa Hub, but as previously stated, the vagueness to me came directly from the Amazon product description. With regard to cold and heaters, I actually never mentioned "Heaters". I mentioned cold because my Zwave outlet is in an area that gets very cold. And it is used to control only lights. When I get some time, I will look over your link to the Feith thread to see what kind of hoops I need to jump through to get both the ISY and the Alexa hub talking to each other via variables. But since the tasks that I need done are rather simple like "Turn on the outdoor lights 40 minutes before sunset", or turn off outside lights at 11:30, it might just be easier to ditch the ISY and only use an Alexa Hub or a Google Hub to do those simple tasks.

Hello Mr. Bill, Thanks very much for your posting. To answer your question, I have had a few different models of ISY over many years, and have been very pleased with all of them. My last ISY could only handle X10 or Insteon Devices. And I was happy with that limitation until my trusty Insteon Outdoor Outlet, which worked very well for many years, croaked. I found that I could not get a replacement Insteon Outdoor Outlet. I saw that they latest model of ISY could apparently handle Z-Wave, and Alexa, and since outdoor outlets were readily available for both Z-Wave and Alexa, I opted to upgrade to the very latest model of ISY in recent weeks. I initially got a Z-Wave Outdoor Outlet, and that idea simply did not work. Where I live, it gets very cold in the Winter, and the very first night that I attempted to use that Z-Wave outlet, the temperature went to10 degrees. The device would not work in those cold conditions. My trusty Insteon handled that and much colder temperatures without problems. So, I returned the Z-Wave outlet, and picked up an Alexa Outlet. I had assumed that I could simply import the Alexa outlet into the ISY just like I had done with the Z-Wave, and that’s when I reminded myself about the word “Assume”, and how it could make an *** out of me. And that’s exactly what it did to me. Since Z-Wave was a dead end, I was hoping that there was some sort of an easy way of using Alexa devices with the ISY, and from what I have learned, it isn’t a very intuitive and straightforward process. And all of this prompted me to ask the experts here to help me understand what I was obviously missing in my ISY knowledge base. I am now thinking that perhaps I ought to abandon the ISY idea, and simply get a Google or Alexa hub, with devices that actually work without fuss with one of those hubs.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I think I need to dive into Polyglot.

Thanks very much for the suggestion. I will certainly check it out.

Thanks very much for the suggestion. I’ll check it out!.

Thanks very much, kzboray. I have no idea o how to do what you are suggesting, but I’ll research it to see if it is something that I can handle. I appreciate your help.

Hi, I recently got the newest ISY994i with Z Wave and Alexa. I am hoping that I can add Alexa Devices (or possibly Google Devices) to the ISY, and control those devices via an ISY program. I cannot figure out how to make Alexa or Google Devices visible in the Console. In particular, I have an outdoor outlet that can be controlled from my iPad via the Alexa app, or via the Google Home app. Is it possible to make that outdoor outlet a visible device undies the ISY console? Please note… I only have the outlet. I do not have an Alexa Hub, nor a Google Nest Hub. Is it possible that I need to buy a hub in order to be able to import that outlet into ISY?

Well the Range Extenders did the trick. Everything is now working reliably. Thank you everyone who assisted.

Thank you everyone for terrific support! The load is simply 1 light fixture that has two 60 watt equivalent CFL bulbs in it. I thought about possible noise in the line from those CFL's, and swapped them out for incandescent just to try something different. No change in results. That being said, the whole house is filled with both LED light bulbs, and also CFL bulbs with virtually no incandescents. Also, my home is within a 1/4 mile of the end of the electrical line as I live in a wilderness area. Drive 1/4 mile down the road, and there isn't any electricity to be found for several miles. I know that the home routinely gets hit with spikes and brownouts since it's such a rural area. Consequently there is a whole house surge protector wired into the service panel. The PLM is on a power strip located in my office, but there is nothing isolating it from the rest of the electrical system on it's hot leg. I should add that I have successfully used the very same ToggleLinc's in two other areas of the same home, and those two work reliably.

Thanks very much for the excellent suggestions. I have just ordered 2 range extenders in the hopes that they fix the problem. I will certainly let you know if this fixes the situation, or if I am still experiencing problems.

Thank you very much for getting back to me, Lee. I am using an Insteon 2406H Hard Wired Phase Coupler for bridging the two legs. I suspect that two of the ToggleLincs are on the same Leg s the PLM. The reason why I say this is that when I do a 'Start Linking' command from the controller software, the ISY994 recognizes 2 of the 3 ToggleLincs and never notices the 2C 3A C1 Toggle Link. Although two are seen during the Link Up process, they never complete due to "Cannot Determine Insteon Engine". For the 2C 3A C1 Toggle Link, I simply try to add a new Insteon Device by typing in the Insteon Address, but ultimately fail to add the device for the same reason as the other two that fail. I did do a restore Modem (PLM) after unplugging it and replugging it in. Thanks again, Lee. --Wayne