LFMc

It might be due to new email verification (2 factor) requirements that Google, Yahoo and others are putting on devices and computers using your account. I use Yahoo to send my ISY email and had to go in and add specific authorization for each device I had that wanted to send email. Not sure how to do this on Google, but this might be your issue.

Thanks for the detail. They do put a bit of a heavy requirement for direct access. Almost as they don't want to have to deal with end users like us. Where did you see the once per 30 minute max inquiry you mentioned? I didn't find anything in the document other than 3k per day.

https://www.smartmetertexas.com/Smart_Meter_Texas_Interface_Guide.pdf It appears to be open to all to view. If you have any troubles, lmk and I will download it for you. If implemented for the ISY, this would be a great add on module that I would be willing to pay for in the future. The section that reads the meter real time is called ODR or On Demand Read vs. the Green Button D/L of data that is always a day behind.

UPDATE: After about 2 weeks, I got a call from a tech at ONCOR in response to my email asking for support. He apologized profusely about the delay getting back to me and was extremely helpful in resetting the HAN link on my meter to get my ISY ZS working with the meter again. He asked me about the brand of my gateway and he recognized the UD brand immediately and was very complimentary of it. So, it seems that ONCOR is still at least servicing the existing HAN customers. I have no idea what might happen if we move to a new home in the ONCOR area, but thankfully there are no plans for that right now. Not being a hard core programmer, I am looking for a way to run an automated query of the smarthometexas.com web site to retrieve the "get meter reading now" button response. I have no idea if this is possible with something like CURL or not (or maybe a custom node in Node-Red), but it would replace the need to even have a ZS card in my ISY if I could program it. Looking at their API doc, it says they allow up to 3000 queries a day (about 2 queries per minute), but the rest of the info in the doc is over my head for the most part. If anyone is interested, I will post a link to the API doc.

More depressing news. Some how the TDU's have convinced the Texas Legislature that HANs are not needed for "new" customers. Now you have to go the the SMT web site and click on the "green" button to get a "demand" reading. Totally useless and is nothing but a gimmick to appease some users. How would you ever know that your billing rate just peaked to 1000x higher for the next hour? We are going backwards. https://www.utilitydive.com/news/texas-regulators-approve-new-smart-meter-rules-limiting-access-to-real-tim/576093/

I agree, obviously. I think this is possibly a legal issue, at least in Texas. The consumers had smart meters forced on us in the name of "money saving" and ability to manage usage. In addition we have to all pay a fee every month for the benefit of having a smart meter. Given the onslaught of bad press this last week about people being billed $10,000 for power because they were on "wholesale" contracts, this refusal to support HAN devices will make them look even worse in the public's eyes. I guess now would be the time to bring this issue up with the media and with the legislature.

Just Googled Oncor han support and saw this article. I pray it is not true. But who knows. https://www.rainforestautomation.com/state-texas-residents/

Hi V, welcome to the confusing world of HAN devices. :-9 After Texas shut down HAN management via SmartMeterTexas.com, I have had no interaction with them. About 4 weeks ago, I somehow accidentally reset my ISY trying to copy the SD card in preparation of upgrading it to 5.x. After restoring it, the ISY no longer talks to my meter. My SEP repeater does still talk to my meter, so I probably need to ask Oncor to open up the "join" feature on the meter so my ISY can reconnect to it. So, you are ahead of me trying to get Oncor to respond. I have had actual phone discussions in the past with Oncor engineers and they did send a tech out to my house once to check the meter's HAN function. So they are responsive to me prior requests. It seems that once or twice a year my meter's HAN function locks up and stops feeding data to me. It turns out if power is removed from the meter (i.e. hard reset), then the HAN function returns to normal for another few months. So when that happens, I have to wait for a power outage or go through the trouble of convincing the Oncor service person that I know what I am talking about and cajole them into humoring me and resetting my meter. Of course that shuts down the power to the house for about 1 second and resets everything. ? Simply rebooting my internal HAN devices never fixes the problem. I will probably call them this week and cross my fingers that I get someone that even knows what a HAN is. Please let me know how you contact them and how it goes. If I succeed before you, I will post it also. As to your last question, I have no idea if there has been any change releasing them from the PUC ruling that they have to support HAN devices.

Great to hear the good outcome and good support help. But do you mind sharing any root causes you/Brad found that solved your problems so others don't stumble on the same issues?

Inseon switches cannot be combined with standard switches to control a single load. Each switch in a multi-way must be replaced. I have instances in my house where I have dual and triple switches that just are not used. On these I put in one insteon and cap the others off. Then If I want to have another second or third switch, I will put in a KPL 6 button switch as a primary to another light and use one of the soft keys as a secondary switch to the primary of the other 2 or 3 way. Also, even if you have multiple panels, I would think you still only have two legs of power (110x2 in the US). So technically only one bridge would be needed to support PL signaling. But PL losses on long runs to and from any power panel is a possible problem. One way to minimize this is to put your ISY PLM in an outlet right at the power panels to cut the PL signaling losses in half. But this also may put your PLM in an area that is "off center" to the rest of your Insteon wireless devices making the chance of more wireless hops probable. It depends on the configuration of your house and if the power panels are centrally located or not. The PLM doesn't have to be right next to the ISY. Also, do not forget the whole house surge protector! Cheap insurance.

One year on, and Oncor is still sending my ZS data without any issues. Have you heard anything further?

Is there a way to setup a key word search and get automatic notification on any new posts matching the key word criteria? For instance, I want automatic email notification when someone uses the words "For Sale" in their post. Any ideas?

FYI, Rich says he has disposed of these.

Just a suggestion, but you could probably load up an Android simulator on your Surface Pro and run apps on it via Google Play. Check this out https://www.androidauthority.com/best-android-emulators-for-pc-655308/

OK, I guess I have been waiting for a good reason (for me) to switch to V5, this may be it. Lol. Nice way of suggesting I catch up with the times. (-; Thanks all!

Hi All, I was hoping to find an easy way to do this, but I have not found it. I need to enter a value into an ISY (v 4.7.5) variable with the Insteon 2441TH set point temp and the current temperature. Also I would like to direct set the thermostat's set point from a variable. I have found no way to put the temps into a variable. I can put the thermostat into a known/fixed set point and then increase or decrease the temp in one degree increments accordingly, but I have found that the thermostat occasionally doesn't respond to the up/down 1 degree command and I have no way of knowing that occurred. If anyone knows a way to make this happen, I would appreciate some insight. --Leon

The IC rating is in the specs and yes they are self sealing. I didn't leave them on long enough to test the heat level. I was impressed that at low dimmer levels they were only using about 1-2 watts each. I recently had to replace my roof and I had 5 curb skylights. So I had the roofer cover them completely so they no longer exist from the roof side. I still have the tunnels inside the house. So I am insulating the upper area and putting these lights in place in the tunnel to emulate the sun. I plan to set them at 4000k (sun light level) and then auto dim them based on the position of the sun in the sky to give the appearance of sunlight coming from the skylight. Of course I can override them to get full brightness at any time and some will be used with motion detection to act as a night light when walking through the room at night.

It is IC rated, so it can be in direct contact with insulation according to specs. The temp selection is a switch on the back, so you probably won't be changing it very often once installed, but it is doable.

Found a great deal on the clearance table at Lowes this week: https://www.lowes.com/pd/Utilitech-85-Watt-Equivalent-White-Dimmable-Canless-Recessed-Downlight-6-in/1001767890 A 6" canless ceiling light, 85w and switchable from 2700K to 5000K in 5 steps. It would dim to 8%, instant on, no hum, and works great. I got mine by talking down the associate and buying them all for $10 ea. Obviously not a bulb, but works great for a can replacement or adding to a new location.

I'll take a shot at it. It was like a pocket internet device that once you paid for it (or got it for free with a new checking account) and put a battery in it, it would play music of your favorite genre for free, tell you jokes, news, weather and other useless information from thousands of web, er, frequencies. Unhackable, no sign up, no fees, and only two buttons (dials) and one switch. The choice between bands was AM or FM, FM was for stereo and higher clarity (bit rate) but short distance and AM was for longer distances, esp at night. Makes me long for the nights listening to Wolfman Jack on KNOX skipping over the Appalachian mountains to my room at night. Oh and yes, good for tracking down RF leaks by using the AM band. (-:

At 12 watts each, if they don't perform as lights, you could always make LED spot heaters out of them. ?

I use them in the bedroom lamp stands and they are more than bright enough. ? Who reads a book in bed anymore anyway? Also I use them in the bath vanity lights that take 8 bulbs, each. ? Never had any complaints about them being too dim.

For bulbs, I have two sources: 1. Utilitech Pro from Lowes 2. Hyperikon from Amazon Both brands work great, but I have stopped buying the Hyperikon. Their tech support is GREAT and very responsive, but I had about 20% failure (out of 20 bulbs) in my first batch I bought. To their credit, they replaced them very quickly. Even sent me an extra bulb to cover the *one* flood bulb I had left that had not failed. I had 3 floods fail out of 4 and one 4' fluorescent LED tube bulb fail. I have not had any regular bulbs fail yet, they do not hum or buzz on insteon and they dim very smoothly down to <5%. To be fair to Hyperikon, it seems I had a bad batch of floods and they made good on all of them. I think the LED 4' tube failure may have been self inflicted. They can be run without ballasts. The Utilitech bulbs also work great, no hum, no buzz and also dim to <5%. But I think they obtain full brightness somewhere close to 50%. A very minor issue. I have put out about 6 of these and only have one location that seems to blink occasionally, but it seems like it has something to do with Insteon activity elsewhere. I switched to Lowes due to their easy return policy and being local. I also put in about 25 Utilitech Pro recessed retrofit down lights (into the ceiling can lights). These also work great, no hum, no blinking and dim to <5%. But I did find out that one of my switches was wired backwards when they would stay on at a very, very low level when the switch was off. The lights were neutral switched. These particular units were not on Insteon yet. I have yet to have a Utilitech bulb fail so far.

Until you can ping the IP, there is nothing else to do. In a direct PC to ISY connection, there is no DHCP to even give the ISY an IP address. Have you looked up the default IP on the ISY so you know your computer is on the right sub net?

Was it on a static IP or still using DHCP? Any chance the IP changed? Maybe something going on with your DHCP server? If you have it direct to the computer port, there may not be a DHCP connection. If the ISY defaults to it's own default IP, your computer may not even be on the right sub net. Also, have you researched the blinking light to know what it is telling you?