Guest Posted June 3, 2007 Share Posted June 3, 2007 I noticed on my KPL that there is a button on the bottom of the screen called "Buttons Grouping." How is this used? I didn't see anything in the user guide. Link to comment
Michel Kohanim Posted June 3, 2007 Share Posted June 3, 2007 I noticed on my KPL that there is a button on the bottom of the screen called "Buttons Grouping." How is this used? I didn't see anything in the user guide. heatvent, Button Grouping allows you to make mutually exclusive behavior for your KPL buttons. So, for instance, if you want When Button A is On, then Button B and C to be off (and vice versa), then you drag and drop buttons A, B, and C into a group. With regards, Link to comment
Guest Posted June 4, 2007 Share Posted June 4, 2007 When would you want to use this feature? Can you give me an example? I am guessing you have a KPL with multiple scenes for the same devices and you only want one on at a time? Link to comment
Michel Kohanim Posted June 4, 2007 Share Posted June 4, 2007 When would you want to use this feature? Can you give me an example? I am guessing you have a KPL with multiple scenes for the same devices and you only want one on at a time? Precisely! i.e. Movie Scene, Party Scene, Vacation Scene, etc. Link to comment
GPG Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 I tried to do this, but it did not seem to save the changes I made. I dragged button g to buttons group 1 and button h to buttons group 2. In the groupings window the buttons were moved under each grouping. I clicked OK and the busy progress bar showed up. When I went back to the groupings window, the buttons no longer appeared under the buttons group 1 and 2 where I dragged them. I tried this for buttons already controlling another device and also for buttons not used yet and it did not make a difference. Is there a step or procedure I am not doing? Thanks Link to comment
Michel Kohanim Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 I tried to do this, but it did not seem to save the changes I made. I dragged button g to buttons group 1 and button h to buttons group 2. In the groupings window the buttons were moved under each grouping. I clicked OK and the busy progress bar showed up. When I went back to the groupings window, the buttons no longer appeared under the buttons group 1 and 2 where I dragged them. I tried this for buttons already controlling another device and also for buttons not used yet and it did not make a difference. Is there a step or procedure I am not doing? Thanks GPG, Buttons inside a group are mutually exclusive. i.e. if you put button 1 in group 1 and button 2 in group 2 then nothing happens. If you want buttons 1 and 2 to be mutually exclusive, you should put buttons 1 and 2 in the same group. I hope this helps, With regards, Link to comment
kcshipley Posted June 29, 2007 Share Posted June 29, 2007 I finally grabbed an unused tabletop KPL and started playing around with Buttons Grouping to see what it did. For those of us who still don't quite get it, I think I have a real-world example where buttons grouping would be nice. I might use it upstairs with a ceiling fan: Assume an 8 button KPL with buttons: A B C D E F G H Put blue lenses on B,D and F and label them "Fan hi", "Fan med" and "Fan lo", respectively. Then put them all in Group 1. This makes a nice vertical "bar graph" type interface, where only one of the three buttons are lit, OR none (fan off). One button-push gets you anything the fan can do. Of course, this would only handle the user interface end! I did a similar stunt with a 2-speed stove fan some months back. It required 2 X-10 appliance modules - one for fan power (on/off), and a second for fan speed (lo/hi) which powered a 4PDT relay to route the (switched) power to the hi or lo speed "taps" on the fan (and appropriate indicator lamps). Link to comment
GPG Posted June 29, 2007 Share Posted June 29, 2007 kcshipley, That's a very good example, and I especially like the idea of color coding the buttons to indicate the group. I have kitchen lights with a mixture of full on, all dim and some dim. I have the KPL in 6 button mode, because I wanted the Large On button to represent All on full, which is the most used selection. Unfortunately, I couldn't use the A button in the group with B and C. What I did was group B and C and use triggers to maintain the status with the A button, which does not control a load, but instead is linked to an In-Line link. There may be a better way, but this is the best method I have come up with so far. Link to comment
kcshipley Posted June 29, 2007 Share Posted June 29, 2007 GPG - From what I hear, v2.3 will be a vast expansion on trigger capabilities. Maybe you will come across a more elegant way to do what you want, then. But hey, if it works, why break it? When I first got the colored lenses for my KPLs, I went a bit overboard with the color coding. Things became more distracting than it was worth. So I backed off, using a scheme close to the following: Blue for fans Green for outside lights Red for computer power Yellow for small plug-in appliances (crockpot, radios, etc) To me it seemed best to leave white for almost everything else. Link to comment
Mark Sanctuary Posted June 30, 2007 Share Posted June 30, 2007 And I think the guys (Michel and Chris) must have their nose to the grindstone to get 2.3 done by tomorrow because we have not heard from them in a while. Link to comment
GPG Posted June 30, 2007 Share Posted June 30, 2007 I agree and frankly I wouldn't expect to hear from them until they post the announcement that 2.3 is available. Link to comment
Sub-Routine Posted June 30, 2007 Share Posted June 30, 2007 I like this grouping! Is there an error that prevents me from adding more than one button on a KPL or ControLinc to a scene? I was really liking the way I can add several SwitchLincs as controllers to the same scene instead of creating new scenes with the same responders. Ideally, I would like to see the Button Groups available to add to a scene. Thank you, Rand Link to comment
Michel Kohanim Posted July 1, 2007 Share Posted July 1, 2007 I like this grouping! Is there an error that prevents me from adding more than one button on a KPL or ControLinc to a scene? I was really liking the way I can add several SwitchLincs as controllers to the same scene instead of creating new scenes with the same responders. Ideally, I would like to see the Button Groups available to add to a scene. Thank you, Rand Hello Rand, Yes, unfortunately we still haven't figured out a way to allow more than one button from the same KPL to be in the same scene. Apparently KPL cannot send a group command to itself! Do you have any ideas on how to fix it? As far as release 2.3: yes are up to our noses and have not yet fully tested everything. We are hoping to have it fully tested and published soon. Thank you all for your patience, With regards, Michel Link to comment
Sub-Routine Posted July 1, 2007 Share Posted July 1, 2007 Hello Rand, Yes, unfortunately we still haven't figured out a way to allow more than one button from the same KPL to be in the same scene. Apparently KPL cannot send a group command to itself! Do you have any ideas on how to fix it? No, I have no idea how to fix it. Triggers would be counter-productive. I think a work-around would be to create a new Scene by copying the Responders from another scene. (Copy of ...) Then one could select a new Controller (different button) and set new levels for the Responders. It would be more convenient, if not quicker, than doing it manually. Thank you, Rand Link to comment
Michel Kohanim Posted July 2, 2007 Share Posted July 2, 2007 Hello Rand, Yes, unfortunately we still haven't figured out a way to allow more than one button from the same KPL to be in the same scene. Apparently KPL cannot send a group command to itself! Do you have any ideas on how to fix it? No, I have no idea how to fix it. Triggers would be counter-productive. I think a work-around would be to create a new Scene by copying the Responders from another scene. (Copy of ...) Then one could select a new Controller (different button) and set new levels for the Responders. It would be more convenient, if not quicker, than doing it manually. Thank you, Rand Rand, I do understand and agree. Thanks so very much for your continued support, Regards, Michel Link to comment
sfhutchi Posted July 3, 2007 Share Posted July 3, 2007 Don't know if it would be feasible... but is it possible to have the button control another 'controller' that is not on the KPL? This way the scene could include the load on the KPL because the scene is 'actually' controlled by another device or button. I understand that the traditional way to do this wouldn't work... not sure if there is a way to work around this. Link to comment
Michel Kohanim Posted July 3, 2007 Share Posted July 3, 2007 Don't know if it would be feasible... but is it possible to have the button control another 'controller' that is not on the KPL? This way the scene could include the load on the KPL because the scene is 'actually' controlled by another device or button. I understand that the traditional way to do this wouldn't work... not sure if there is a way to work around this. sfhutchi, Yes, that would work but then again, how would that notify the other devices of the status? i.e. they all have to master so that the status is synched up between all of them. With regards, Michel Link to comment
sfhutchi Posted July 3, 2007 Share Posted July 3, 2007 Not sure... Just brainstorming on the question about how to have a KPL button control a scene that includes the load on that KPL. Link to comment
Sub-Routine Posted July 3, 2007 Share Posted July 3, 2007 Not sure... Just brainstorming on the question about how to have a KPL button control a scene that includes the load on that KPL. Triggers. Have a trigger call a scene. The scene would only have to be in the ISY (no controller). However, I believe the button has to be linked to another device (my spare LampLinc) before it sends the group command that the PLM will see. Rand Link to comment
Recommended Posts