Insteon Light Bulbs - Turn themselves on after power interrupt

[Krusty66]

I've got a few of the Insteon LED light bulbs.  I've discovered what I believe is a fatal flaw in them that renders them useless.  Maybe there's a workaround, but here's what happens:  The bulbs are to be placed where power is constant to them.  So don't put them in a socket controlled by a switch, for instance.  OK, not a problem.  So I've got them in various locations in the house including the bedroom, where its pretty nice to have lights that can be dimmed to a real low level or brightened to extremely high levels - all with the control of a mini-remote.  Or so I thought until 3am one night when we had a momentary power blip.  You know - the kind that happens so fast you'd' never even notice it, but in the morning you find your microwave clock blinking?  Well, that 3am incident was a great time for me to discover that Insteon bulbs, regardless of what their current on/off/dim status is, will set themselves to 100%-full-bright-On when power to them is interrupted like this.

 

How nice it was to have the equivalent of 100 watts blaring in my face at 3am.  Ditto that in 3 other locations in and around the house.  So I pose the question - is there a way to make it revert to its former state (before the power outage)?  Or better yet, just set itself to Off rather than On?  I live in an old neighborhood and in a place where lightning is common year round and in the middle of the night.  I don't need the threat of 100 watts waking me up every time there's a storm or somebody crashes into a utility pole.

[Teken]

The API that governs the Insteon LED bulb indicates two different behaviors can be accessed. Unfortunately UDI has not programmed their firmware to allow user access to change how the LED bulb reacts.

 

Perhaps you can send in a request asking if they will add these features in the next firmware release.

[G W]

Funny this happened at 3am.

 

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

[stusviews]

Are any of the bulbs in a location where there was a switch? If so, how many wires are in the switch box? You can disregard any ground wires.

[larryllix]

Funny this happened at 3am.

 

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

He did say

     "....but in the morning you find your microwave clock blinking?"

 

[larryllix]

I've got a few of the Insteon LED light bulbs.  I've discovered what I believe is a fatal flaw in them that renders them useless.  Maybe there's a workaround, but here's what happens:  The bulbs are to be placed where power is constant to them.  So don't put them in a socket controlled by a switch, for instance.  OK, not a problem.  So I've got them in various locations in the house including the bedroom, where its pretty nice to have lights that can be dimmed to a real low level or brightened to extremely high levels - all with the control of a mini-remote.  Or so I thought until 3am one night when we had a momentary power blip.  You know - the kind that happens so fast you'd' never even notice it, but in the morning you find your microwave clock blinking?  Well, that 3am incident was a great time for me to discover that Insteon bulbs, regardless of what their current on/off/dim status is, will set themselves to 100%-full-bright-On when power to them is interrupted like this.

 

How nice it was to have the equivalent of 100 watts blaring in my face at 3am.  Ditto that in 3 other locations in and around the house.  So I pose the question - is there a way to make it revert to its former state (before the power outage)?  Or better yet, just set itself to Off rather than On?  I live in an old neighborhood and in a place where lightning is common year round and in the middle of the night.  I don't need the threat of 100 watts waking me up every time there's a storm or somebody crashes into a utility pole.

I learned my lesson with X10 modules years ago.

 

Hue bulbs do the same stupid thing but the MiLight bulbs and strips don't. I have mostly MiLights now.

 

This feature is designed to have the bulbs on a switch so you don't have to walk around with an app glued to the side of your head. 

 

I have a power up program for ISY that turns my Hue bulbs off, so I only have to tolerate a few minutes of operating room conditions in the middle of the night.

[Brian H]

The short availability 2454D SocketLinc Dimmer. Acted the same. Power fail and restore. Always was On at 100% even if it was Off at the time.

[Broyd]

The API that governs the Insteon LED bulb indicates two different behaviors can be accessed. Unfortunately UDI has not programmed their firmware to allow user access to change how the LED bulb reacts.

 

Perhaps you can send in a request asking if they will add these features in the next firmware release.

Hi Teken,

 

Can you point me to the documentation that describes these two different behaviors?

Is there any way to set these behaviors without using software to accomplish it?

This seems to me to be a pretty serious omission in the settings for these devices.

It would certainly be a no-go limitation for me in terms of acquiring these bulbs.

Thanks for pointing this out.   

[Teken]

Hi Teken,

 

Can you point me to the documentation that describes these two different behaviors?

Is there any way to set these behaviors without using software to accomplish it?

This seems to me to be a pretty serious omission in the settings for these devices.

It would certainly be a no-go limitation for me in terms of acquiring these bulbs.

Thanks for pointing this out.   

 

Hello Broyd,

 

You may review the pages 30, 31 which indicates the bulb can be set to operate to always on vs last known state: http://cache.insteon.com/developer/2672-222dev-052014-en.pdf

 

Of note the bulb also offers some limited diagnostics which for me I find interesting and useful. Which was the CRC Error Count.

 

NOTE: These features are only available via software there is no manual method to force the bulb to go into the two modes. This is up to UDI to follow the API and enable these features so the end user can access them.

[Krusty66]

Gary and Larry, I'm not sure what your comments mean about "Funny it happened at 3am" and "Microwave was blinking".  There's either a joke there I'm not getting or your not following what I'm saying.  I live in a place where power goes out frequently.  It doesn't go out for hours at a time.  We just get a lot of "brownouts" or quick blips.  Most often its during the night and early morning.  Old neighborhood, power on poles (not underground), lots of lightning.  Usually you wouldn't know it happened, but the telltale sign is always the clock on the VCR or whatever blinking "12:00".  The quick power outage reset the clock.

 

My Insteon bulbs are not on sockets with a switch.  But you can test my observation by doing that.  Set one up properly (with continuous power to it), then cut power (via switch or lamp toggle or circuit breaker), then put power back on.  The light will them come back in the ON position.  100% ON.  Like blinding, eye burning, Close Encounters of the Third Kind bright light in your face while you're trying to sleep.

 

Thanks for the comments from others about the Insteon Bulbs having options for changing the setting in this power outage situation.  I will attempt to use the software to make it happen.

[Brian H]

3 AM is also the normal time [unless you changed it or disabled it] a System wide module query is done.

Some have seen the hard to pin down All Module ON occurrence. With the 3 AM Query.

[Teken]

I'm afraid you misunderstand what I offered here. The options I noted are only available via software but at this time it's not available because UDI has not incorporated these options.

 

Thus, the problem you have now will remain until such time as UDI offers such options.

 

 

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The highest calling in life is to serve ones country faithfully - Teach others what can be. Do what is right and not what is popular.

[Broyd]

Thanks Teken! Great information. Obviously the ability is within the bulbs capabilities.

 

If you used HouseLink on a PC with a USB PLM, could you access those features, set them as required, and then move the bulb to your ISY-994i system? 

 

"This is up to UDI to follow the API and enable these features so the end user can access them." I think this is a serious omission ... just my opinion ...

[Teken]

Thanks Teken! Great information. Obviously the ability is within the bulbs capabilities.

 

If you used HouseLink on a PC with a USB PLM, could you access those features, set them as required, and then move the bulb to your ISY-994i system?

 

"This is up to UDI to follow the API and enable these features so the end user can access them." I think this is a serious omission ... just my opinion ...

It's been quite awhile since I used HL2 but don't recall the option(s) to select last known state vs full on ever being available for any hardware device.

 

I'll take a look but highly doubt it's there since HL2 was abandoned long ago. ☹️

[Broyd]

Thanks again Teken. How on earth could those options be configured then?

[Krusty66]

OK, 3AM was randomly selected by me in my example but has nothing to do with the coincidental 3AM module query.  Much as Paul Simon (Wednesday Morning, 3AM) and Matchbox 20 (3AM and it Must Be Raining) made the same random time selection.  There is no connection.

 

Teken, I was excited that the tech document might lead me to a fix.  So the capability is there, but there is no way to do it from here as an end-user?  I use an ISY-994i.

[Teken]

I gather if there are enough people asking UDI to update the drivers for the LED bulb it might happen. But if history is any indicator I wouldn't hold my breath.

 

There are several Insteon devices which have features / options which UDI still does not support. I was asked to create a poll to see if the public wanted them and the end result was very positive. More than two years later none of these features / options have ever been incorporated into later firmware releases. ☹️

 

One can only hope but hope don't float!

 

 

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The highest calling in life is to serve ones country faithfully - Teach others what can be. Do what is right and not what is popular.

[Teken]

It should be noted if someone is technically inclined they could subscribe to the developers group and gain access to the API. Smartlabs would send you the API key and from there the Dev would need to turn on/off the feature they require.

 

Using the HUB II via the API Key is the formal supported method at this time. I am sure someone with a 2413S PLM and the same could accomplish the very same though.

 

There are quite a few coders in this forum but no one to date has ever stepped up to the plate to offer their services.

 

Then again it's not really a big surprise to me given most people are self absorbed into themselves.

 

 

=========================

 

The highest calling in life is to serve ones country faithfully - Teach others what can be. Do what is right and not what is popular.

[G W]

He did say

"....but in the morning you find your microwave clock blinking?"

 

Yes he did. But still. 3 am and lights on.

 

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

[Michel Kohanim]

Hello everyone,

 

This is the poll that Teken is referring to:

http://forum.universal-devices.com/topic/15103-insteon-feature-options-support-poll/page-?mode=show

 

I do urge everyone to read all the pages as it seems there's probably a misunderstanding somewhere in the posts above.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[larryllix]

OK, 3AM was randomly selected by me in my example but has nothing to do with the coincidental 3AM module query.  Much as Paul Simon (Wednesday Morning, 3AM) and Matchbox 20 (3AM and it Must Be Raining) made the same random time selection.  There is no connection.

 

Teken, I was excited that the tech document might lead me to a fix.  So the capability is there, but there is no way to do it from here as an end-user?  I use an ISY-994i.

Sure, buy  or borrow a SmartHome Hub, programme the bulbs and take the Hub back telling them it isn't compatible.

 

Better yet, find a friend with a Hub....group Hub anybody?