I/O Linc to I/O Linc question

[CTBigman]

I have a customer with a barn that is 100' from the house, tried to linc a set of 2477S to control lights on barn from house with no luck. I did find a spare CAT5 between the buildings. At each building I want to linc a 2477S to an I/O Linc. Can I wire from from the house I/O linc NO + COM to GND + SENSE on a 2nd I/O at the barn, to control the lights on the barn without using an ISY? Would I use Momentary B to change ON/OFF of 2477S at Barn?

[LeeG]

The I/O Linc Sensor trips with Gnd applied to Sensor. Will that 100'+ of wire between the buildings put the Sensor into an On state, probably but it depends on the total resistance of all the connections. I doubt the manufacture (Smarthome/SmartLabs) will be able to say for sure. Connect them and see is the only way to know for sure.

[LeeG]

Note that I have a detached garage more than 300' wire distance from house. Have several Insteon devices working on both 120v legs with no problem (none are dual band) so the issue with the 2477s devices may be something else.

[Brian H]

I did some tests on a few I/OLincs and found that the resistance had to be less than around 800 Ohms between Sensor Input and Ground terminal and pull the Sensor Voltage below 1.0 volts. Where mine triggered. It was also possible for the LED on the side to glow dimly and still not be triggered. Found that with the ill fated original leak sensor I/OLinc Kits.

 

I would think that 100 feet of wire would be well below 800 Ohms but would be concerned with noise maybe false triggering them.

 

I have a home made sketch of the Sensor Input on my earlier ones and will check a later revision one tomorrow for changes.

[Brian H]

I just tested a hardware 1.8. Firmware 0x41 {Developers I2CS Kit may not be a production revision}.

It triggered at 0.970 volts to ground that was about a 770 Ohm resistance.

[ELA]

My earlier tests also suggested ~3K internal pull-up.

To confirm what Brian has already said Looked like ~700 ohm pull down would trigger.

A quick look indicated about 100ft of #24awg to be ~2.5 ohms ( 5 ohm round trip).

 

I agree that noise could be an issue as 100 ft makes a pretty good antenna.

 

Many have reported success with long runs between Insteon devices. Curious if you could possibly make it work over the power line by making sure there is a " repeater device " Near to where each end of the cable enters/leaves the buildings?