Scene issue with Insteon Devices & Isy99i

[Deca]

Hi there,

 

I have setup a scene to control 4 landscape lighting transformers (scene is called landscape lights).  I had this working fine before when I was controlling each transformer independently through a program.  I read that this isn't the ideal way to do it so I setup a scene to accomplish the same thing.  I've tied this scene to a button on an insteon keypad linc but for the most part the scene is run each night through a program in the ISY.  It's something like, if the time of day is 30m past sunset, turn on scene "landscape lights" until time is 11:30pm else turn off the scene.  This seems to work fine for three of the four lighting zones but one zone will not come on or off when run as a scene.  Run as a lighting event on it's own it will work fine.  If I try to run the scene from the keypad linc (controller) it does not work either.  Could someone please offer a suggestion as to what could be causing the issue here.  Thank you in advance.

 

 

[paulbates]

Hi there,

 

I have setup a scene to control 4 landscape lighting transformers (scene is called landscape lights).  I had this working fine before when I was controlling each transformer independently through a program.  I read that this isn't the ideal way to do it so I setup a scene to accomplish the same thing.  I've tied this scene to a button on an insteon keypad linc but for the most part the scene is run each night through a program in the ISY.  It's something like, if the time of day is 30m past sunset, turn on scene "landscape lights" until time is 11:30pm else turn off the scene.  This seems to work fine for three of the four lighting zones but one zone will not come on or off when run as a scene.  Run as a lighting event on it's own it will work fine.  If I try to run the scene from the keypad linc (controller) it does not work either.  Could someone please offer a suggestion as to what could be causing the issue here.  Thank you in advance.

 

It could be noise, and low voltage lighting transformers are culprits I've had trouble with. One of the symptoms is it "won't turn off". Turning it on powers the transformer that then produces line noise that overpowers additional insteon signals. Not sure if you're using outlelincs, I've found them to be more sensitive to transformer noise that switches/inlinelincs

 

The reason it works with direct calls and not a scene is that scenes don't provide follow-up verification messages, where direct calls do. In those cases the signal conditions are marginal and will sometimes work.

 

There are a couple of approaches

• Send the off command multiple times with a couple second pause in between (not a fan of this one, but it can work)
• Put a filterlinc between the offending transformer and switch/outletlinc

I used the filterlinc method, until last week when I replaced all of my yard lights with low voltage LED. The new transformers didn't create the noise problem.

 

Paul

[paulbates]

You can also try recreating the scene and  "restore device" in the admin console on the offending switch. I mis-read your original post as an "off" only problem

 

Paul

[Deca]

Paul, thanks for the help.  The one zone that is problematic is using an outletlinc that I have installed in my garage.  All the others are either switchlinc or an outdoor on/off module.  I've recently been switching my mr16 bulbs over to LED's as well.  I'll make sure I get them all swapped out and see if this helps however, I'm using the same transformers with the only change being LED bulbs so maybe not.  If not, I can try plugging the transformer into a regular outlet and use another outdoor on/off module that I have.  If all that fails, I guess I can remove that device from the scene and add it to the program after the scene is turned on or off but that kind of defeats the purpose of a scene  .  Thanks for your help.

 

Darrell

[stusviews]

Create a scene with only the problematic OutletLinc as a responder and create a program to run that scene only. Do you still have a difficulty?

[Deca]

Stusviews, I'll give that a try tonight and will advise.  Thanks.

[Deca]

So I created a scene with only the problematic device as a responder and I still had issues.  I've removed the scene now and just created a program that runs each of the four devices independently.  Not ideal but a work around that seems to work. 

[stusviews]

That seems like a communication problem, but I don't know why a program would work, but a scene won't.