Mustang65

Here is an email i received at noon today from Insteon. At least they sent something out for 2019. Read what they have to say click on the link Latest Insteon News....

I was watching one of those interviews with the Insteon , forgot his name, Steve??? Well, in response to one of the products question, he mentioned that Insteon has far to many products, and left it at that. So reading between the lines..... Also here is the top of their Press Release page.. not much for 2019, wait nothing for 2019

Since 2.4Ghz Wi-Fi has 14 channels, why can't the modules be programmed to use different Wi-Fi channels instead of all on say channel 3. Maybe, door sensors on channel 6, motion sensors on channel 4, leak sensors on channel 8, media on 5.8Ghz. Granted it would need a dedicated Wi-Fi router (or a HUB) designed for this purpose. Just a thought for future technology. 2.4Ghz for Home Automation/Control/Energy Management... 5.8Ghz for laptops, media centers....

I never did either... until one day I realized, why should I pay higher energy rates for drying my cloths when I can dry them for less $$$ by just switching time I run the dryer. I wish there was an easy way to rewire the cloths dryer to work with ISY, so I could just throw the clothes into the dryer, close the dryer door and ISY would start the dryer/notify me that it started, it already texts me when it stops. Have not seen any products that will remove and fold them. Although, we do have that portion covered... wife yells out from the living room, got a text dryer is done... so I take them out, lay them out and she folds them. On occasion, my small coffee pot gets left on and can stay on all day $$$$. My air compressor, dish washer.... not much you can do for the HVAC here in Florida. What I am working on now is having ISY/GEM monitor the electric for the HVAC. I want to program ISY to let me know when the HVAC is running and it sees that the HVAC is using more power than it normally does (maybe 5 or 10% above the normal load reading), which COULD be an indicator for the start of some problem. I already have 4 DS18B20 temperature sensors mounted on various places in HVAC to monitor the compressor input/output temperatures (on my Arduino at this time). I have used the GEM to balance my loads. When I got the GEM the first thing I noticed was that one of the mains was way out of proportion to the other. It took about a week but they are almost equal. Again, 1950's electricians just wired things in with no thought on loads. As for the coffee pot, it is the only thing on one of the breakers (after kitchen remod), so ISY can look at the GEM output and see that the coffee pot has been on for more than 6 minutes and shut the circuit down. With the X10, I just put scheduled off commands to cover my butt, now I want to get the most out of the GEM/ISY. The GEM and ecobee have already saved me $500, when the HVAC was not heating the house. Called the service guy on a Saturday, said it was the HVAC circuit board and it would cost $500 to get/install on Monday. I pulled the GEM data and the ecobee data, matched the times and noticed that the HVAC heat pump was shutting off at exactly 40 degrees. Checked the ecobee and noticed that heat pump was programmed to shut down at 40 degrees, lowered the temp and we were back in operation. Being retired every penny saved is a penny toward more electronic gadgets..... Sooner or later, California residents may be FORCED into Home Automation/Control and Energy Management... look at SOLAR in CA

Agree with that, but the end result is the same, a happy end user. If the new housing industry ever gets its act together and gets all the compatibility issues resolved, what is the difference then of buying a new house with everything that talks to each other, with little or no interaction and is transparent to the end user or the ability to purchase the individual parts of the bundled new house system that has all the different modules, sensors..... that are designed to work together as one system and is transparent to the end user. You purchase their hub(s), and the individual needed parts. Today, we are trying to get everything to talk to each other by tying them together using what ever means possible and the result is... well just look at the posts for interfacing these other systems.

I believe we are only focusing on the "Retrofit" segment of the vast housing market. We are at a point in time where we need to piece part the home Automation/Home control to come up with a system that we want and maybe works. If you look at the new homes, and there will probably be around 1 million new starts this year, in the future this is the area that the Home Automation/Control and Energy Management product design will more than likely get the most attention. If the builders associations ever get their act together and come up with a set of new home automation guidelines, at a reasonable price, the home automation/control/energy management segment will really take off. But, with all these different Wi-Fi solutions, and each of them saying they are the best solution, I do not see that happening soon. In the new home sector, I think you will see a Home Automation hub(s) of some sort, that will interface with an Energy Management hub and they will work together. I do not believe this is wishful thinking, it is just a matter of time before one of the large national home builders puts this into motion. Who will benefit from this... all of us.

I think Mainstream will purchase a hub, but it needs to be "Transparent" to the end user.

I believe that eventually the company that has the best "Plug and Play" Wi-Fi hub will force the others out of the market. I personally think Wi-Fi is the worst way to go, but it is the most inexpensive, also everyone has it in the house and IOT has everyone's ear. When they get an easy plug and play, you purchase a hub and you want to add a module or a switch sensor or what ever, you just tell the hub to update "NOW", and it will somehow go out and look for the new Wi-Fi thing that it can add. Ask you if this is what you wanted to add, add it, ask you to name it, test it with you and give you a "You have successfully added your "Kitchen Wall Switch", I just turned it on and off. Did you see it go on and off? Say yes or no. Now it's your turn to ask the system to turn the light on and off. Did it work? ...... Would you like to add another item?" Why do I think this? Well, as an example, my neighbor had a new HVAC unit installed with a Honeywell thermostat. A few years ago, while I was checking my media center's Wi-Fi router I saw his thermostat. His house is about 75' away form mine. One would think that the thermostat signal would not be strong enough to go that far. I walked over to his house, asked him how his new Honeywell thermostat was doing and showed him on my phone that it was not really protected. Needless to say he was shocked, the installer never informed him and so I walked him through setting up a new password on his thermostat. It still had the default user/PW. I have an Engenius Wi-Fi signal extender that captures signals for a good mile to mile and a half (LOS). I use it for my RV while dry-camping, and campgrounds that do not have great AP's. It is amazing what you see on there with no protection. I also use it for checking my Wi-Fi things. My wife, well if I pass on before her, I really feel sorry for my son (a techie), his phone will be ringing everyday. When she says she is going to call support, she calls my cell phone from the living room. I am considered "SUPPORT" and does not want anything to do with a Smart Home other than pushing the remote button or asking Alexa to do something. I cannot think of anyone else that wants to get involved with home Automation because of how difficult it is. So as I mentioned, the company with the best "Plug and Play" Wi-Fi hub, will take it all!

Geeeeeee thanks, I think I will wait to see how Polisy Pro is going to handle the Zigbee/smart meter hardware.

DUKE Energy just installed my new Smart Meter last month. It is a: Centron, OpenWay, by Itron Codes: See below pictures Has anyone had any interaction with DUKE Energy (Florida in my case)? I am looking at connecting to the new Smart Meter, but not sure of the easiest way of going about it. I have the Zigbee module on the ISY994i, currently interfaces with my Burltech GEM/DashBox for Electrical data. The two things of interest are the HAN and IHD. Do I have to purchase a module from someplace that links to the Smart Meter and then be linked to the ISY or does the ISY connect directly to the Smart Meter with the Zigbee module? I do have the ecobee 4, but I am reluctant to interface that because of the possibility of DUKE overriding my settings (AC or HEAT). Your thoughts

What is your definition of shortly?

Sorry, I missed the factory reset information while searching. Running 5.0.12. I uninstalled the Motion Sensor, did a factory reset, reinstalled it, again came back as a 2842, but continued. After the install was over, I created a new scene with a light and it works fine. I had the sensor about 10' away from a dual-band device. The screen now shows the current status of the sensor. Later, I will try reinstalling it next to the PLM to see if that makes a difference with accepting as a 2844, if not it works fine now.

I had the 2844 up and running with a program and last night I noticed that it was not responding to motion. This is a new sensor and the LED does flash when there is movement. So I deleted it and reinstalled it. So I used the "Link Management" >>> "Link a Sensor" >>> "Motion Sensor. I put in the address, named it and switched the default 2842-222 to the correct 2844-222. When I selected "OK" , I noticed that the program automatically changed back to the 2842. When installed, I get a Can not talk to the Motion Sensor type error. I deleted it again and used the "Install New Insteon Device" and filled in the needed information with the 2844. It did the same thing, changed it to the 2842.... then when I try to add it to a scene, I get the same can not talk to motion sensor .... The screen that shows the sensor On/Off is not showing it. I read a few items regarding Factory Reset the sensor. Doesn't deleting it reset it? If not how do I do it. I pulled the battery out after each attempt. I do see the motion sensor's 3 entries in the left column.

Thanks, GREAT explanation, will give it a try

I know there is a 30 second timer where the motion sensor status = "On", and I timed it watching the status change to "Off" before the code of 1 or 2 minutes passed.

I have a bunch of 2844-222 Motion Sensors. I have one just outside pointing toward one of my back doors. Installed the Motion Sensor and ISY sees it. All good so far. I decided to write some basic code to test the sensor. The below code works perfectly, but only works if I enter the "Set 'Lights - CarPort' Off" in the Else section of the code. When I had the line of code following the "Wait 15 Seconds" (If section) the light comes on when there is motion, but does not shut off. The 15 seconds, was tried with 1 minute and 2 minutes with the same results. I have no problem leaving the code this way, but just trying to understand why there is an issue with having that line of code in the "Then" section? Works the same way with or without the Sunset/Sunrise code. Your thoughts, CarPort Light - [ID 000D][Parent 0001] If 'MotionSensor - CarPort-Sensor' Status is On And From Sunset To Sunrise (next day) Then Set 'Lights - CarPort' On Wait 15 seconds Else Set 'Lights - CarPort' Off

The V.34 leak sensor I have had sitting on my desk for the last 2 years, so returning it is out of the question. Will post if there is an issue or if not.

I just noticed that I have 2 versions of the leak sensor. 1 leak sensor is V.43 and the other 4 are V.44. Issues with using the 2 different versions?

Well, that project will begin tomorrow Thanks

I just finished installing 5 new "Leak Sensors" and after going through this entire thread, with all the changes along the way, is there a copy of the latest and greatest code anywhere? Thanks

Thanks, I need to pick up a 2 gang before the wife gets back home on Monday. This will keep my PAR (Partner Acceptance Rating) in the 90's. I just replaced 2 switches in an old 50's version of a 4x4 electrical box, which is a lot smaller. One switch controlled a wall outlet under the front window the other the outside front porch light. Hard wired the wall outlet and installed an Insteon on/off switch. Even works. Two done 13 to go.

Quick question, Will the Lutron wall switch plates work with the Insteon wall switches?

The ecobee SMART (Commercial) thermostat I originally had, until the humidity circuit died and caused the firmware to do weird things, had an option for notifying a HVAC repair service if things were outside their normal settings. Never activated that feature. If you think about it, if the thermostat/HVAC processors sense that the coolant level is dropping it could send the ecobee an alert and the ecobee could send the home owner an alert. Maybe averting a cooling system disaster ($$$). Also, if the coils are constantly freezing up it could also let you know and readjust the defrost cycle time. Maybe some day, but not in my life time. There are a lot of things that could be monitored: Duct air flow (dirty filter), compressor temperature (overheating), excessive amount of compressor load on the electrical, the list goes on.. but the HVAC and Thermostat would have to make some standard decisions based on all that data and alert the user. But it would have to take the "THINKING" part out off the consumers decision making Dream on....

The PAYNE HVAC system I have (14 years old) has its own internal timer that will not let the AC start up again until it has been idle for 5 minutes. It doesn't care what the thermostat is requesting, which is the way I like it. I really wish that thermostats had interactive communications between it and the HVAC system. Example, the Payne HVAC system we have goes into defrost mode every 30 minutes (of run time), which after actually watching it over a period of time, determined that here in Florida it was unnecessary (for a AC/heating cycle) and increased the time on the mother board to 40 minutes. I could probably increase it more, but there are to many variables that could make that a bad idea. The defrost mode runs for 2 minutes to insure that the coils are not freezing over. The problem is, the thermostat just keeps telling the HVAC sys to keep the AC/Heat running, which is what is should be doing, but does not post a message on the thermostat that it is in "Defrost mode". This also affects the ecobee's green mode into activating the AUX heat source (electric coils $$$) to kick in, not always but it has happened a few times. The issue I have is that there is a different sound (with all of the PAYNE systems like mine) that it makes and of course the air temperature is affected by this cycle. So, the wife automatically says that the AC/Heat is not working, and I have to go to the back bedroom and listen to the heat pump to hear what sound it is making. It would be nice if the ecobee 4 and Payne would display that it is in "Defrost mode", and I would not get my brain going. I am currently working on a thermostat enhancement that will have 2 LED's on the ecobee, Green will show NORMAL operation RED to show "Defrost Mode". I have the DS18B20 temperature sensors in place (attached to the coils) and currently wired to Home Automation box where the ISY, GEM Dash Box, Arduino and Raspberry Pi are located. I am adding circuits that will tell me if the reversing valves are active or inactive (heat or cold). I would like to install a pressure sensor to monitor the coolant, but that would mean purging the entire system (still a Freon based HVAC). So I guess I will just monitor the existing system's pressure switches. The data will be stored in a dB for trouble shooting if needed. When I need to replace the existing HVAC system, I will try to find one that has a Thermostat that is interactive (probably not available yet), or uses sensors that can be used for more information. As a reference, the data from the GEM energy system and the ecobee data that gets downloaded each month helped isolate a thermostat programming issue that would have cost me AT LEAST $500. Somehow, and I never mess around with the settings once they are set, the Heat Pump low temperature cutoff was raised and the AUX heat set point was changed. Between the stored data from the 2 systems I was able to isolate the problem, but here is why an HVAC system controlled by a 3rd party system would not be recommended... trouble shooting could become a nightmare.

Just received this letter from Rob Lilleness, Insteon's CEO, along with a 50% off coupon. Interesting that less than an hour of saying that I was converting to Z-Wave, I got this email.