ryanmead83

That's actually how I had it originally! But was reading the ISY994i's user manual and they showed programs like this the way I did it above, with a time set from 1 time to another vs one program to turn the lights on and another to turn them off. The reason I found this way better was because if I use 2 programs, how can the ISY catch up in a power failure? Like if I have "If time is from sunset to 11pm" and an hour before sunset the power goes out and comes back on at 10pm, doing it the above way turns the light on when power is restored at 10pm. If I have 2 programs, how would I do it so that in a power failure the system knows the light is supposed to be on or not type thing since a "If the time is sunset turn the light on" wouldn't retrigger. Thanks!

I couldn't think of anything good for a subject sorry! Just a question, I have this working but wondering if this is the best way. I have a program that turns the front porch light on to 30% if we are home, and 50% if away (based on the variable set by my alarm, 0 for home, 1 for armed away), and if someone comes home while it is in away mode and then turn it off, it goes to 30% and so on. So at first I did: Program 1 IF Time is from Sunset to Sunrise and Alarm_Armed = 0 THEN Front Porch = 30% ELSE Front Porch = Off Program 2 IF Time is from Sunset to Sunrise and Alarm_Armed = 1 THEN Front Porch = 50% ELSE Front Porch = Off If program 2 is running because the alarm is armed, so light is at 50%, and someone comes home and turns it off, setting the Alarm_Armed variable to = and running program 1, the problem is that the light goes immediately to 30%, but then the "ELSE" portion of program 1 runs and turns the light off. So to solve it I did them like: Program 1 IF Time is from Sunset to Sunrise and Alarm_Armed = 0 THEN Stop Program 'Program 2', Front Porch = 30% ELSE Wait 10 seconds, Front Porch = Off Program 2 IF Time is from Sunset to Sunrise and Alarm_Armed = 1 THEN Stop Program 'Program 1', Front Porch = 50% ELSE Wait 10 seconds, Front Porch = Off This solved the problem and works fine, but I'm just trying to improve my own skill and am wondering if this is how others would do this ,or if there's a better more efficient way? The issue I find is that it works, but if there's ever more than just 2 overlapping programs, then there would be a lot of code to stop all of them and keep watching them for updates and so on. Thanks!

I figured this out sorry can't delete anymore.

Great that is easier. Do I need to do anything to poll Insteon if I ever add more devices? Most are Z-Wave so I have a program that queries them every 30 seconds for status since they aren't instant so I assume that's when this would trigger but do I need a similar one for Insteon or does it just know when it can't be reached right away?

I pretty much only use Z-Wave if that changes anything so no instant status. I have a bunch of timer programs, pretty straightforward, like "If time is sunset, then set Living Room Lamp to ON" and then another "If the time is 3am, then set Living Room Lamp to OFF", basic. I'd like to send a notification when the lamp has come on, but I want it to actually confirm the lamp is on, not just be "If the time is sunset, then set Living Room Lamp to ON and Send Notification" type thing, since it could fail turning on and I feel like the notification would still send? I was thinking it would be something like after turning it on, run the THEN portion of another program that says "Wait 10 seconds" and then queries the lamp or something but getting confused how to do it properly without it triggering all the time. I'd still need something to confirm it is on. So thought another program "If the Living Room Lamp is not off" then "Send notification" etc, but wouldn't that trigger any time the lamp is just turned off at any time? Or no since no instant status? Figure other option is no IF, just "Then: Wait 10 seconds, query Living Room Lamp, enable program 'Next Check", run IF on 'Next Check'" and then have a program called Next Check or whatever that says "If the lamp is not off, send notification?" Not sure, figure this has been done before so don't want to reinvent the wheel. Thanks!