New conversion to Insteon, basic questions

[Candide]

I am in progress with converting to Insteon with an ISY99i and so far so good.

I just have a few questions:

 

- Is there any reason why a one single scene should not have 2 (or more) controllers? Is it better if they are different - like remotelinc, program or KPL?

For example: I have a scene with 2 lights both on 2476D dimmers. One dimmer controls the other so both lights come on together. This works fine.

 

I also have a remotelinc and want one of the buttons to control the same two lights. Should I add a second controller to the scene - or create a new scene (copy of the existing) and have only one controller per scene?

 

- Using the Remotelinc with 2473 outlets works fine, as an On-Off button. But with the 2476D dimmers there does not seem to be a way to have the dimmers come "on" (either full or to a preset). The remotelinc button only is able to "dim up" the scnene lights. Am I missing somethig or is this just how they work?

 

Thanks in advance for any replies...

[MikeB]

I also have a remotelinc and want one of the buttons to control the same two lights. Should I add a second controller to the scene - or create a new scene (copy of the existing) and have only one controller per scene?

 

Absolutely just add a 2nd controller to your scene - saves time and links.

 

- Using the Remotelinc with 2473 outlets works fine, as an On-Off button. But with the 2476D dimmers there does not seem to be a way to have the dimmers come "on" (either full or to a preset). The remotelinc button only is able to "dim up" the scnene lights. Am I missing somethig or is this just how they work?

 

So, you have a scene containing 2476D dimmers and a RemoteLinc as a controller, but hitting the RemoteLinc button ON does not turn on the 2476Ds? That should work. In the scene, click on the RemoteLinc controller button and make sure the on levels are set correctly.

[Candide]

Thanks for the reply.

 

I have 2 scenes with dimmers.

 

Scene 1 has 2 2456D3 Lamplinc dimmers.

Scene 2 has 2 2476D switchlinc dimmers.

 

I have both set with buttons on the remotelinc as controllers.

 

They both work the same way - I need to hold the top of the button down and they "fade up". If I take my finger off the button they stop fading up. If I just click the button fast - nothing happens. If I click the button on a scene with the 2473 outlets they come right on.

 

In the dimmer scenes, the individual devices and on the remote button I have the On Level set to 95% and the fade up to .3 seconds.

 

If I go to one of the 2476D dimmers, the controllerm and click it on - both lights come on to the On level and at the ramp up rate.

 

I also have the scene's in a sunset program - and that works fine, as expected. It is just the remotelinc that is not working exactly as I would expect.

 

Also, I need to press "All On" and "All Off" twice to have it work.

Do the "All" functions only work for lights controlled by that Remotelinc -- i.e. not for ALL defined devices, as an X10 command would work?

[Candide]

Ok, this was a little strange so I did the following:

I tried the "factory reset" - which did not work.

 

I removed all Remotelincs from the ISY control - then did the factory reset.

This required re-linking all the buttons, but now it is functioning as it should.

 

A 'tap' and the lights come on, pres and hold and it dims-up.

[MikeB]

but now it is functioning as it should

 

Glad to hear! Definitely an odd one...

[Candide]

I think at one point when configuringing the remotelinc the first time I may have pressed an "extra" button when putting it in communications mode. I also noticed that the LED was not flashing when buttons were pressed.

 

 

A separate question - can scene's be nested?

 

That is - can I create, for example, 2 scene's with 2 lights each, then create a "master scene" with the two scene's as members (instead of all 4 lights) ? Is one better than the other?

 

In the programs - what is the difference between the "status" and "control" items under conditions?

 

Thanks...

[yardman 49]

I think at one point when configuringing the remotelinc the first time I may have pressed an "extra" button when putting it in communications mode. I also noticed that the LED was not flashing when buttons were pressed.

 

 

A separate question - can scene's be nested?

 

That is - can I create, for example, 2 scene's with 2 lights each, then create a "master scene" with the two scene's as members (instead of all 4 lights) ? Is one better than the other?

 

In the programs - what is the difference between the "status" and "control" items under conditions?

 

Thanks...

 

 

Hello Candide:

 

Scenes cannot be nested in other scenes.

 

"Scenes" are groups of lights with specific levels, rates, etc. You can either create these manually (via the ISY devices themselves), or via the ISY. In the latter case, the ISY becomes a "member" of the Scene, and becomes "aware" of the other devices. Most people using the ISY use the latter approach for all of their Insteon devices.

 

The Link Tables that govern the scenes reside in the devices themselves. Devices are thus only aware of the other devices which are direct members of their scenes. They don't know anything about scenes of which they are not direct members. Thus, you cannot have a device in a scene control scenes of which it is not a direct member.

 

****************************************

 

There are two workarounds:

 

1) create a new "Master Scene", with all four lights responding to a single controller. Insteon devices can be responders in many different scenes.

 

2) create an ISY "Program" that responds to the button press of the controller, and then sends commands to the existing scenes. This creates a little time delay, but also enables you to do more with less scenes. Another limitation is that you can't dim or brighten "on the fly" with this approach.

 

A great feature of the ISY is the flexibility that it gives you in this regard. You can only use it for creating & managing scenes. Or you can go to the other extreme, and write all kinds of crazy programs that operate on various triggers.

 

 

Best wishes,

[Sub-Routine]

 

 

In the programs - what is the difference between the "status" and "control" items under conditions?

 

Thanks...

 

Status is the state of a device and control is when you press a button.

 

Rand

[Candide]

Thanks to everyone for the responses.

They have been very helpful.