Bridging Insteon/Z-wave

[salex319]

I have a Qolsys IQ2 Alarm system (Z-wave only) panel and a houseful of Insteon including an ISY-994iZ. I want to turn on lights and stuff in my house if/when the Alarm system goes off. Having just recently integrated two z-wave On/Off modules(switches) with both controllers I now see that the ISY doesn't see traffic between the Alarm panel and either switch. I can turn stuff on from either ISY or Alarm just fine. Also if I activate a switch manually the ISY will see it. It all makes sense but I was hoping I would see the switch activation from the Alarm panel at the ISY and could then turn on lights.

 

One way I can do this is to use an Insteon device on the output of a Z-Wave switch so that when the Alarm panel turns the switch on the Insteon device will detect it and the ISY can then take whatever action I want. A little kludgey. Does anyone have a better way to do this?

[Teken]

I have a Qolsys IQ2 Alarm system (Z-wave only) panel and a houseful of Insteon including an ISY-994iZ. I want to turn on lights and stuff in my house if/when the Alarm system goes off. Having just recently integrated two z-wave On/Off modules(switches) with both controllers I now see that the ISY doesn't see traffic between the Alarm panel and either switch. I can turn stuff on from either ISY or Alarm just fine. Also if I activate a switch manually the ISY will see it. It all makes sense but I was hoping I would see the switch activation from the Alarm panel at the ISY and could then turn on lights.

 

One way I can do this is to use an Insteon device on the output of a Z-Wave switch so that when the Alarm panel turns the switch on the Insteon device will detect it and the ISY can then take whatever action I want. A little kludgey. Does anyone have a better way to do this?

 

You might want to search for people talking about integrating their Z-Wave enabled alarm systems with the ISY Series Controller. Rough memory I recall it came down to switching who was primary vs secondary controller. Keep in mind you will really need to test, validate, the expected behavior is seen because my recollection is it made the ISY Series Controller blind.

 

This is what you're seeing now in the panel so not sure that's ideal . . .

[salex319]

I've done a lot of searching along those lines and haven't seen anything that fits the bill. In my case the perfect solution would be for the ISY to be able to "look" like one or more devices in a Z-wave network. Then I could simply have the alarm system send a message to those virtual devices and I could do whatever I wanted on the Insteon side.

[stusviews]

I have a Qolsys IQ2 Alarm system (Z-wave only) panel and a houseful of Insteon including an ISY-994iZ. I want to turn on lights and stuff in my house if/when the Alarm system goes off. Having just recently integrated two z-wave On/Off modules(switches) with both controllers I now see that the ISY doesn't see traffic between the Alarm panel and either switch. I can turn stuff on from either ISY or Alarm just fine. Also if I activate a switch manually the ISY will see it. It all makes sense but I was hoping I would see the switch activation from the Alarm panel at the ISY and could then turn on lights.

 

One way I can do this is to use an Insteon device on the output of a Z-Wave switch so that when the Alarm panel turns the switch on the Insteon device will detect it and the ISY can then take whatever action I want. A little kludgey. Does anyone have a better way to do this?

 

A significant number of Z-Wave devices don't report their status unless queried. This is especially true for devices that have patent dates more that a year or so ago. That's because one company, I believe that it was Lutron, had control of that feature and the original patent expired only within the last year. Only a few other brands paid the fee to that company.

 

There's nothing the ISY can do if the feature is not there.

[asbril]

A significant number of Z-Wave devices don't report their status unless queried. This is especially true for devices that have patent dates more that a year or so ago. That's because one company, I believe that it was Lutron, had control of that feature and the original patent expired only within the last year. Only a few other brands paid the fee to that company.

 

There's nothing the ISY can do if the feature is not there.

You can create a program that queries one or more devices. I had such program querying all my devices every couple of seconds. Recently I started to replace my devices with Homeseer switches that come with instant status reporting and now I query fewer devices with longer intervals. 

[stusviews]

You can create a program that queries one or more devices. I had such program querying all my devices every couple of seconds. Recently I started to replace my devices with Homeseer switches that come with instant status reporting and now I query fewer devices with longer intervals. 

 

That must create a lot of (unnecessary) traffic on the powerline. Has that ever caused a problem. If not, then why would you go through the expense of replacing devices. What do you gain?

[Teken]

That must create a lot of (unnecessary) traffic on the powerline. Has that ever caused a problem. If not, then why would you go through the expense of replacing devices. What do you gain?

He is using Z-Wave switches not Insteon. Regardless, all the RF traffic just to poll for status is simply a band aid until a piece of hardware reports its real time status.

 

Also just to clarify I'm not sure if everyone is using the phrase *Instant Status* as I would expect it to be.

 

In the Insteon world without a controller each piece of hardware when properly linked can see real time status when turned on / off.

 

When a smart controller is in the mix using a PLM also enables a controller to see the hardwares live status and do X vs Y actions based on that status.

 

In the Z-Wave world before their version of instant status. A controller had to poll for a piece of hardware to obtain the status. It was not pushed to a controller or a linked device.

 

I don't recall what the other method off hand is but it was similar to a query / polling.

 

So this begs to ask the question if I have two hardwired Z-Wave products without a controller and instant status if I turn it on will that other item see it's live status with out polling?!?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[asbril]

Stu,  

 

It never created an issue.  What I actually did was not to query all devices at the same time but inserted  5 seconds 'wait' in between every 5 devices and therefore ISY never queries more than 5 devices at the time.

[salex319]

This is the only way I can see to do this. My alarm system turns on a Z-Wave outlet. My proto board detects the power and trips an Insteon Open/Close sensor. Then I can use an ISY program to respond to the alarm condition however I like. I wish the ISY-994iZ could "see" the the alarm system signal but I guess that's one of the weaknesses of Z-wave vs Insteon.

[stusviews]

You can use a MimoLite I/O device in place of the Insteon Open/Close Sensor if you want to remain all Z-Wave. And no battery to be concerned about.

[salex319]

Thanks. That looks like a nice device but my problem is my house is loaded with Insteon but my alarm only does Z-wave. So If my alarm goes off and I want to turn lights on I need to get a Z-wave alarm signal into the ISY.

 

I'm not real familiar with Z-wave. I know the ISY can't "see" the alarm system message that comes from the alarm to turn on a z-wave device. If I have the alarm system set the output signal on the Mimolite I/O and wrap the signal around to the Mimolite input will that trigger a message that the ISY-994iZ can detect? If so then your right that would be a cleaner solution.

[stusviews]

The ISY can recognize the Z-Wave signal transmitted by the MimoLite I/O device. I use the signal to trigger a program. A concern is if the alarm can trigger the MimoLite.

[Jimbo.Automates]

Have you tried this?

http://forum.universal-devices.com/index.php?/topic/22870-Making-and-ISY994i-a-secondary-Zwave-controller-to-Honeywell-Tuxedo-Touch

 

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[chrisheider]

I have a similar situation: just got a JAQX alarm system that supports only ZW, but my house is full of Insteon.

 

I'm a newbie with the ISY994iZW, but I did a proof-of-concept to get JAQX to turn on an Insteon device when disarmed. Here's what I did:

 

1. JAQX is the primary controller; ISY is secondary. I can add a device to either controller and the other will see it. As someone said above, put the ISY in Learn mode and tell JAQX to add a device. That seems to sync devices on both controllers.

 

2. I used an AEOTEC on-off plug-in device as the "bridge" between the two. When JAQX arms, it turns the plug ON. When it disarms, it turns the plug OFF.

 

3. A program on the ISY detects when the plug turns OFF (disarm) and it turns on the Insteon device. (I can add conditions, like only turn the light on between dusk and dawn.)

 

4. I needed another program to query the plug-in device repeatedly every few seconds for the ISY to detect the status changes.

[stusviews]

4. I needed another program to query the plug-in device repeatedly every few seconds for the ISY to detect the status changes.

 

That must cause a lot of HA traffic. Aren't you concerned that a command may be interrupted.

[chrisheider]

That must cause a lot of HA traffic. Aren't you concerned that a command may be interrupted.

 

I can tweak the interval as needed. But I agree definitely a kludge to overcome the limitations of inferior devices.

 

Ideally, I'd really like the ISY to have the ability to create "virtual Z-Wave devices" so I could avoid the whole kludgy situation.

[stusviews]

Better yet are Z-Wave devices that report their status. It really shouln't be the responsibility of UDI to make-up for Z-Wave's shortcomings. Actually since the patent for status reporting expired, any Z-Wave device that doesn't have instant reporting is old technology which will probably be around for a while with manufacturer's that attempt to avoid the cost of "retooling."

 

I can fully understand that--until consumers demand more.