fryfrog

But to be clear, it won't be the same as using something from the same protocol. If all your switches and remotes were Insteon, putting them in a scene would program the *devices* themselves, meaning that if the ISY croaks everything still works. If you use a program, the ISY has to be working. It has to receive the signal. It has to react. It has to tell the zwave device to whatever. I do it and it is quite reliable, but it is worth knowing. I use my Insteon keypads to control a networked whole house fan. And the ISY also controls zwave thermostats based on the same programs. But if the ISY barfs, I lose all that.

Is this what you guys are talking about? I put one in when I first started Insteon'ing... but I couldn't see any difference before or after. Since it is on its own breaker, I suppose I could turn it off and try some experiments.

I mean... you just write your programs so that can't happen. I'd call this a bug in your implementation. No?

Yeah, and you need to have the amount of water applied correct-ish since it'll lop that amount off of the amount of watering required.

The outdoor unit will give you control of on and off, which it sounds like will be useful for *controlling* a run-away pump situation. You might still have to combine that with the syncrolink to see when it turns on and off.

I think most of the plug in modules can actually also detect on/off, so you could maybe use one of those instead. You could write a simple program that just always turns the pump off after it has been on for some amount of time. It'd also give you control from afar, if something happens and a pipe breaks... you'll be able to switch it off. Combine it with some strategically placed water sensors and it could be turned off automatically.

Are you trying to access it "remotely" while you're on the same network? This rarely works, to test you really do have to do it remotely. And like stusviews says, if an external checker says it isn't working... it almost certainly isn't working. Make sure you're forwarding the right port on the outside to the right port and ip address on the inside. Setting up a static dhcp lease for the ISY will make things more stable too.

They sound tiny, I can't imagine they draw too much power to just straight up use one of the plug in modules. I'd probably pick the outdoor one for the ground. I stand corrected, if the vac is http://dustlesstools.com/productdetails/D1603/Slurry%20Vacuums.php#productDetailsTab2 that is 11A @ 120v on its own. And the compressor, if it is http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_122381_122381 is 15A. Are they currently on the same circuit? If they are and you flip them both on at the same time and it doesn't kill the breaker... they're clearly over-rated. But even then, I might consider a plug in device for each one.

Really, all that matters is the combined load of the vac and compressor. Even if they're on a 20 amp breaker, if their ratings are only 5a combined... you're fine. It'd help to know those details. Are they small, lower power devices? Or huge, power hungry ones.

The picture makes it look like it has a set button for each outlet. Does this jsut show up as two devices in the ISY?

The device on the saw isn't used to power it on/off (that'd be silly), it is used to detect that the saw has been used and that the vacuum is needed to suck away the dust. If your goal is to walk into the room, flip a switch and have the shop vac and air compressor turn on and stay on, you can do that very easily with any of a wide variety of devices.. This plug in device will handle 15A / 1800W and this one has a ground (I just got one to control the gutter heaters on our house), I imagine you could reasonably plug both the air compressor and vacuum into it just fine. To control it, you'd need a switch. If the distance isn't too far or you have other Insteon devices, you could use a little remote to control it. If you want it wired permanently, you could replace one of your switches with a 6 button dimmer keypad. The On/Off buttons would control whatever the switch you replaced was controlling and you'd bind one of the 4 other buttons to the device the vac and compressor are plugged into. If you have a gang open, you could just snag an on/off switch instead of a keypad. You can do the same sort of thing with ZWave of course. If your ISY has a zwave module, you're fine for using it w/ the ISY. I'm assuming your ISY has a PLM for Insteon? But for *this* little bit, you don't even need an ISY. If you have one, setting it up in the ISY would just be for convenience. Until you start doing cooler things like... use a motion detector to turn things on like the lights and air compressor when you walk into the room. Use load detectors at each vacuumed tool to turn on the shop vac for 5-10 minutes.

Most of the straight up on/off Insteon devices have pretty high load ratings, I think the outdoor module would work. I think even an Insteon switch would work. For controlling it, I think most of the newer devices are actually load sensing and can be a controller. I'm assuming your shop vacuum is connected to say, your saw... you stick a plug in on/off module on the saw and one on the shop vac. You make the saw's a controller and the shop vac a responder, then when you switch on the saw, the vac will switch off. If you stick the ISY in between them, you could have the ISY turn on the shop vac when a device is turned on... but stick a timer / wait in so that the vac doesn't turn off for a few minutes. That way, it won't be starting and stopping every time you pull the trigger on the chop saw or whatever. For the compressor, you'd need a switch near where you're using the air. Maybe a wireless remote? Or maybe for the compressor it'd be a turn it on when you walk in, turn it off when you walk out. For that, maybe a motion sensor in the room along with a wait to cover moments of stillness? Since the air compressor will turn off at the right pressure, that'd be enough.

My first step would be to pair the lock w/ in a handful of feet of the ISY. After making the mistake of installing them first and *then* trying to pair them, I won't do that again. Once they're paired you can do a couple of at desk tests to confirm everything is set... then install it. You're probably going to need repeaters to get the signal to the locks and they need to support repeating the encrypted message. I've got a couple of the Aeotec repeaters, but after hearing that their Siren does a better job I snagged a few of them. If you plan on using zwave for other devices, that might be good enough. Edit: This really belongs in the zwave forum.

You probably want *all* the devices you add to your "Downstairs" scene to be responders, otherwise every switch will control every other switch.