Confirmation

[Cormacs]

Hi,

I was just curious if there was anyway for the ISY to confirm it's commands. I have one program that puts my insteon thermostat Fan Mode to "On". The problem is my thermostat is right close to my invisible dog fence radio and I believe the odd time it overloads the radio in the thermostat and blocks the signal. Is there anyway to have the ISY confirm that it's command has been received? I thought by adding a Query device after the command in the same program would do the trick but it hasn't. Here is the program I have so far...

 

Stove On - [ID 001E][Parent 0012]

If
        'Garage / Garage Thermostat - Main' Temperature <= '$Stove_Setpoint Degrees'
    And 'Garage / Garage Thermostat - Main' Mode is Heat
    And 'Garage / Garage Thermostat - Main' Fan Mode is Auto
 
Then
        Set 'Garage / Garage Thermostat - Main' Fan Mode On
        Set 'Garage / Garage Thermostat - Main' Query
 
Else
   - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action')
 

The times that the command isn't received I can look on the ISY admin console and it shows the fan mode as "ON" but when I query it manually it automatically goes back to "Auto". Then the program re-runs and usually that time the thermostat picks up the command. I know most people will say why don't you just separate the two devices but I'd rather not have to re-wire either device if I could just make a simple command to confirm the ISY's command is received.

[Techman]

You might try adding a dual band module such as a range extender, lamplinc dimmer, or on/off module near the thermostat but away from the dog fence. That should help improve the reliability of the thermostat signal.

The logic for using one of the external Insteon modules is that they have better RF coverage than a module embedded in a wall.

 

[Cormacs]

There are three other devices in the garage. One is a plug in I/O device. I consider my Insteon network pretty strong since I only have a 1000 sq.ft and over 30 dual band devices. I haven’t had any issues with any other devices. But I guess the thermostat only being an RF device isn’t smart to be directly on top of the antenna wires for the dog fence. I’ll do some playing around, I may attempt to add the command twice in the program so it sends the command more than once.

[Techman]

1 hour ago, Cormacs said:

There are three other devices in the garage. One is a plug in I/O device. I consider my Insteon network pretty strong since I only have a 1000 sq.ft and over 30 dual band devices. I haven’t had any issues with any other devices. But I guess the thermostat only being an RF device isn’t smart to be directly on top of the antenna wires for the dog fence. I’ll do some playing around, I may attempt to add the command twice in the program so it sends the command more than once.

The dog fence can put out a lot of "RF interference"  the wire acts as a large antenna which may not play well with Insteon. 

One option that may help is plugging the transformer for the dog fence into a Filterlinc.