KPL Observations

[Algorithm]

Perhaps peculiarities would be more apt than merely observations.

 

I ordered several of the new KPL Relays when they became available, along with some additional KPL Dimmers. The KPL Relays I received have stickers showing V1.0, and are reported by ISY as v.31; the KPL Dimmers have stickers showing Rev1.65, and are reported by ISY as v.2C.

 

All have been configured for eight-button mode. Many have Ivory stamped-buttons/trim-plates, while a few have the clear buttons. In every case, the backlight of the Relay KPLs is much dimmer than the backlight of the Dimmer KPLs, though the brightness of an on button is about the same between Relay or Dimmer, with the clear button ones obviously being brighter than the Ivory ones in both backlight and on button.

 

I've already reported in Another minor KPL bug. that on some KPL dimmers, a button in non-toggle off mode when pressed and held, causes the button's LED to turn on. These are the Rev1.65/v.2C dimmers. My older KPL dimmers with stickers of V1.4 and reported as v.29 do not exhibit this behaviour.

 

The same non-toggle off buttons on the older V1.4/v.29 dimmers, when pressed and held, will alternately send Manual-Change-Up and Manual-Change-Down, exactly as they do in toggle mode. This will of course cause ISY to alternately report [correctly] an increased or decreased level, reaching ON or OFF at 100% and 0% respectively. Unfortunately, this can lead to the situation where ISY reports the button as ON, while the button LED is actually off.

 

The same non-toggle off buttons on the new Rev1.65/v.2C dimmers, on the other hand, when pressed and held always send a Manual-Change-Down command. Though I haven't tested it, I suspect that on these dimmers, a button in non-toggle on mode, when pressed and held, would always send a Manual-Change-Up command.

 

However, a non-toggle button on the older V1.4/v.29 dimmers, when pressed normally, will send either an ON or an OFF command, depending as the button's LED is on or off. This means that a button may be changed, possibly unintentionally, from non-toggle on mode to non-toggle off mode or vice versa, simply by setting the button's LED on or off in a scene. This has required workarounds for situations such as an All-Off button, as described in the thread 'All Off' button/status -- one more twist.

 

On the newer Rev1.65/v.2C dimmers, a non-toggle off button, when pressed normally, always sends an OFF command, regardless of whether the button's LED is on or off. Though I haven't tested it, I suspect that in non-toggle on mode, the button would always send an ON command. This means that a button's LED could be turned on/off to indicate some status, while still having the button always send an OFF command, for example.

 

It is perhaps this same difference in the dimmer firmware levels which allows ISY, when setting a button to non-toggle mode, to automatically make the button non-toggle either on or off (as selected by the user) on the newer versions, regardless of the current state of the button's LED, while on the older versions the user is required to actually place the button's LED in the desired state before completing the operation.

 

I invite one and all to test and confirm these findings, as well to post observations of your own. I also welcome comments from Smarthome staff.