KPL monitoring multiple light status

[Jimbo.Automates]

I have a KPL button that I use to show the status of a bunch of lights which is used turn them all of at once when any of them are on.  I know others do this as well, but they are tedious to setup and I'm wondering if there is a better way that I am not aware of, or possibly an enhancement to the ISY to make this easier.  I've long wanted to do this better and another post from last night was asking a similar, but slightly different thing.

 

To simplify this, let's say I have 3 switchlinc's  and I want a button on one my KPL's to be lit when ANY of those switches are on, then when the button is turned off, all switches turned off.  It can also be used to turn them all on at once as well, but for my use, it's mostly just to turn off any light around the house, or a group of rooms.

 

Based on what I know, there are 2 ways to do this:

 

1. Create a scene for each switch, switch1, switch2, switch3 with the switches as controllers, and the KPL.A button as a responder in each of them. Then another scene switchall that has the KPL.A as the controller, and all 3 switch scenes as responders.  This works great so whenever one or all of the swtiches are turned on, the KPL.A is also turned on, then when the KPL.A is turned off, all switches turn off.  The problem is, if you turn on switch1, then turn on switch2, then turn off switch2, the KPL.A turns off.  This makes complete sense because of how insteon works, but isn't ideal.

 

2. Create a scene switchall that has the KPL.A has the controller, and all 3 switches as responders.  Then have a program that turns on the KPL.A if any of those switches are on.  As my insteon system has grown, this has become tedious to add the device to the scene, and the program.

 

Is there a better way of doing this with Inteon/ISY?  If not, I would like to make a proposal for an ISY enhancement to make this easier.  

 

Have the ability to check the "status" of a scene, basically "if in scene switchall any device is not off".  This would allow us to have a simple program to monitor the scene since all those switches have to be in the scene anyway.  Mobilinc kind of does this when showing the status of the scene, by showing a percentage of lights in the scene that are turned on.

 

This is probably not a new idea, and has possibly been discussed before, but in all my searching I haven't found it with a better way to handle this.

 

- Jim

Edited December 31, 2014 by Jimbo

[oberkc]

Option 1 will not do as you want, I don't believe.  If all three switchlincs are controller of the KPL button, then turning one off will turn off the KPL button, even if the other two are still on.

 

Option 2 is the way I would do it.

[stusviews]

Here's the program I use:

 

DR Front Off

If
        Status  'CR / Devices / CR Ceiling Light 80' is not Off
     Or Status  'KT / Devices / KT Ceiling 50' is not Off
     Or Status  'LR / Devices / LR Ceiling Light KPL 20' is not Off
 
Then
        Set Scene 'DR / Scenes / DR Front Off Button' On
 
Else
        Set Scene 'DR / Scenes / DR Front Off Button' Off
 
The DR Front Off button is in non-toggle off mode. If any one or more of the three devices is not off, then the button is lit. The button is not lit only if all three devices are turned Off.

[Jimbo.Automates]

Option 1 will not do as you want, I don't believe. If all three switchlincs are controller of the KPL button, then turning one off will turn off the KPL button, even if the other two are still on.

 

Option 2 is the way I would do it.

Yes, for that is the part I don't like about option 1.

[Jimbo.Automates]

Here's the program I use:

 

DR Front Off

 

If

Status 'CR / Devices / CR Ceiling Light 80' is not Off

Or Status 'KT / Devices / KT Ceiling 50' is not Off

Or Status 'LR / Devices / LR Ceiling Light KPL 20' is not Off

 

Then

Set Scene 'DR / Scenes / DR Front Off Button' On

 

Else

Set Scene 'DR / Scenes / DR Front Off Button' Off

 

The DR Front Off button is in non-toggle off mode. If any one or more of the three devices is not off, then the button is lit. The button is not lit only if all three devices are turned Off.

Thanks. Yes, that is what I was going to change to, but tedious to add all the lights to the scene and the program. Especially for the whole house off.

[oberkc]

Perhaps you don't need to add them all to the program, but can identify a few key devices (the canaries in the mines) that, if the scene is on, then one of these would certainly be on?

[stusviews]

Each device being tested is part of a different scene except, of course, the scene that turns them all off. Those three devices are the "canaries in the mine." The Front Off scene actually turns off 20 devices/buttons. The only purpose of the program is to illuminate the button.

 

There are two "Front Off" scenes. One in which the Front Off button is the only controller and the other, referred to in the program as "Front Off Button," has the button, a responder, as the only member.

[Jimbo.Automates]

Thanks for taking the time to respond! I will be changing how I do this based on your suggestions.

 

Does anyone think that having an option for a program to check the status of a scene is a good solution for the future? Seems that having the option to say "if in scene allfront any responder is not off" or "all responders are not off"?

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[oberkc]

That has been discussed from time to time. There is, I understand, no native insteon definition of a scene being "on". Beyond that, how does one define a scene being on? When every device in the scene is NOT OFF? Every device exactly matching the ON level when PLM is controller?

 

It gets messy pretty quick.

[EricK]

I define as scene as being on if all members are at the scene defined levels. For some members this means off. We have two scenes, dining and night, in the great room that I use monitoring programs for. The 4 Kpl buttons that control the two scenes are turned on and off depending upon whether the scene is "on or off". This is controlled by monitoring programs. Attributes are the same for the Kpl buttons and isy.

There are 6 lights that should be on and 2 off for the dining scene. It is nice to be able to look at the Kpl button to see if the scene is on or not. For the most part this is all very simple for my wife. She uses the buttons for those two scenes and the all off.

[Jimbo.Automates]

Yes I do the same, but don't need programs, I just use mutually exclusive scenes which works great