fitzpatri8

In the Insteon world, a "scene" is a set of Insteon-compatible devices put into a particular, coordinated, programmed state at a ramp rate. Some devices might be on 100%, some 25%, some off, others somewhere in between, but the "scene" is all those devices at that particular level. Insteon achieves that by sending a "group on" message to a group devices previous linked as responders. Insteon protocol also allows you to adjust a "group" of Insteon devices--hold the top of a paddle down and the "group" will brighten; hold the bottom and the group will dim; tap the bottom of the paddle to turn off; fast double-tap the top or bottom to turn everything 100% on or 0% off instantly. Note that you aren't actually brightening or dimming the scene--the scene is those devices at their programmed level--you are brightening or dimming the "group". When you link devices to a controller, you are creating *both* a group and a scene. What the original poster is *really* asking for is a way to use Alexa to adjust an Insteon "group" proportionally to the values of a "scene". As has been already mentioned, you can currently use Alexa to brighten and dim a group of devices (at a preprogrammed 9% increment), that just requires the Portal to issue bright/dim commands to an existing group, and all responders can react simultaneously with a minimum of signal traffic. The OP's request requires something altogether different--that would require the ISY to accept a percentage command, compute and round to a new percentage based on the level set in a scene, then send individual direct commands to each member of the group to set each to a new level. Proportional control of a group certainly isn't impossible, but it isn't supported natively by Insteon hardware, so it would require substantially more computing and signal resources than any other operation. You have to weigh the cost/benefit of such a feature to decide its worth.

That's a feature, it had been part of the Insteon dimmer design from the beginning. Tapping on a switch that is already on will toggle the local load between the current dim setting and 100%, while sending a scene on message to linked responders. That makes it easy to distinguish which load is attached vs. one connected to another Insteon device without having to take the wall plate off to look at the wiring. If your intention is to move all the responders' loads to 100% at the same time, use a quick double-tap On to send a Fast On message to everything.

The bigger problem I see is with guests. "Turn on the lights" is a common phrase if you are asking for help from someone standing near the switch, but Alexa and Siri both seem to interpret that as "Turn on *all* the lights, throughout the house". That's disappointing if someone is trying to sleep!

Toggle mode is more powerful on the KeypadLinc, with each button supporting cross-linking as well as its own toggle setting. Set to toggle mode, each secondary KeypadLinc button press sends a signal opposite the current button state. If the button is currently on, tapping sends an Off; if the button is currently off, tapping sends an On. In non-toggle mode, each KeypadLinc button press sends the identical signal, regardless of the current button state. Because the KeypadLinc is a power line device, it can be linked as both a responder and as a controller. That way, it can stay synchronized with the state of the scene it controls.

Jg, it sounds like you understand. In toggle mode, each press/hold of each mini remote button alternates between sending on/bright and off/dim. In non-toggle, each button press/hold sends on/bright. Because the battery-operated mini remotes turn off their radios between uses, they cannot hear and respond to other controllers, thus the potential of them becoming out of sync with the rest of the scene and requiring two button presses to get the desired result. Your solution is the best choice, since the ISY does track the current state of the responder devices and can send the right signal with a single button press.

I urge caution. While that cereal may be cheap now, the price of the supplemental insulin it may cause you to need later is going through the roof!

In other words: yes, the ISY-99 is too old, it doesn't support newer Insteon keypads, and it is no longer being updated to support other new Insteon hardware. Universal Devices offers a discounted upgrade for owners of older ISY devices. See the Upgrade section on this page: https://www.universal-devices.com/sales/

Seems like the problem is that you have multiple, duplicate programs, one that you trigger with the keypad and a second that you trigger with MobiLinc. Combine those into a single program that can be triggered by both the keypad or MobiLinc, then you can use MobiLinc to look at either the true/false state of that single program or the status of that keypad button.

There isn't a direct command for turning a keypad secondary button on or off. Instead, create a new scene, add that button to the scene, then turn the scene on or off.

If the dimmer was programmed with an x10 address during factory testing, or if it heard one while you were linking another controller, it may be responding to power line noise that resembles a valid x10 signal. To rule out that possibility, I would perform a quick factory reset on the dimmer, then use the ISY's Restore Device feature to rewrite only valid links.

Are you using any x10 codes or motion sensors in this setup?

That sounds like the way the second version of the SmartLinc handled things. When you set up a scene, you could assign a scene a 'status' device, then the SmartLinc would show the status of the status device any time you refreshed the page. That works for 3-ways, but could easily mislead people about the status of more sophisticated scenes. It's that disagreement about scene status expectations on more sophisticated scenes that gets us in trouble. Some believe scene status should reflect the 'average' dim level of a scene (that's how the MobiLinc app works), some say it should only display as 'On' if all the devices match the on/off/dim levels defined in the scene exactly, some say it should display as 'On' if *any* included devices are on, some say it should display as 'On' only so long as *all* devices in the scene remain on, etc. Some people want to be able to choose between these choices for different scenes. So far, the best answer has been configuring the interface to reflect no scene status. Personally, I'd like the web interface to support display of a variable next to the scene name. That way I could set up my own ISY program to define the current 'status' of each scene as it suits me. For some scenes, that status might be On, Bright or Dim (for an ordinary scene of dimmers); for a basement scene that might be "In Use" or "Off"; for whole-house scenes, that might be On, All On, All Off, or Mixed.

The Control (device) trigger only operates if you tap the button on the module itself. The If Status (device) trigger detects an adjustment to the device via any method (including the module's buttons, remotely via another switch in a three-way setup, via a phone app, using a program, using the Administrative Console, via Echo, etc.). So long as your Echo scene turns on a keypad button, it sounds like you only need to use the status of that button as a secondary condition. And Status (button) is off, otherwise don't run the program.

Congratulations! I'm glad to see that there might be some light at the end of the tunnel for those of us willing to invest in automatic load shifting technology, but I'm also more than a little cautious. If the current system of incentives is convoluted, I'm concerned the proposed idea introduces even greater complexities and increased costs. If we make this too complicated, don't we risk even more utility market manipulation like we saw in Enron's heyday?

That's the expected behavior, as the ApplianceLinc (and LampLincs of the same vintage) was a single-band, responder-only device. Responder-only devices can't be linked or operated as a controller, so the only way the ISY knows its state has changed is if another, linked controller turns it on, or if the ISY intentionally queries it to find out its current state. Newer On/Off Modules and Lamp Dimmers (the ones with separate on and off buttons on the side) can be linked as controllers, so the ISY is notified when they change state.