Posted October 22, 200717 yr One nifty trick you can do with PowerHome is to define a ControLinc as a 6-button device. You can then program links to this 6th "phantom" button. Even though there is no physical button on the ControLinc for direct control, the devices linked to the phantom button are included when using the ALL ON and ALL OFF buttons on the ControLinc. Is there a way to tell an ISY that a ControLinc has 6 buttons so you can program the links to the "phantom" button?
October 22, 200717 yr Hello upstatemike, No! ISY does not support phantom buttons. All on/off are already supported by the virtue of your INSTEON devices being linked to the PLM. As such, you can use My Lighting to send an All on/off to the whole system. With kind regards, Michel One nifty trick you can do with PowerHome is to define a ControLinc as a 6-button device. You can then program links to this 6th "phantom" button. Even though there is no physical button on the ControLinc for direct control, the devices linked to the phantom button are included when using the ALL ON and ALL OFF buttons on the ControLinc. Is there a way to tell an ISY that a ControLinc has 6 buttons so you can program the links to the "phantom" button?
October 23, 200717 yr Author No problem, I was just curious. The ControLinc is kind of unusual because it is a six button device in a 5 button case. In a room with both RemoteLincs and ControLincs it is handy to program ControLinc button 6 the same as RemoteLinc button 6. That way All Off and All On buttons on both controllers operate the same lights.
October 23, 200717 yr Do you mean I could map to the All On and All Off buttons to my All Scene by way of sixth linking? Michel is this possible to setup the Controlinc to link the “All On†and “All Off†to the ISY?
October 23, 200717 yr Mark, That feature has been available for a very long time now. The only thing we do not support is the 6th button on the ControLinc. With kind regards, Michel Do you mean I could map to the All On and All Off buttons to my All Scene by way of sixth linking? Michel is this possible to setup the Controlinc to link the “All On†and “All Off†to the ISY?
October 23, 200717 yr Mark, Because we have to know the status of physical buttons ... dealing with phantom buttons is like dealing with ghosts: you might experience strange behavior and not know where it came from. With kind regards, Michel May I ask why it's not supported?
October 23, 200717 yr Oh the sixth link is not a direct link to the All On and All Off buttons. The All On and All Off buttons are triggering the sixth button in a remote fashion.
October 23, 200717 yr Author Oh the sixth link is not a direct link to the All On and All Off buttons. The All On and All Off buttons are triggering the sixth button in a remote fashion. That is correct. Maybe I should not have used the term "phantom" as it is causing confusion. Each set of buttons in a ControLinc corresponds to a group. There are 6 of these groups in a ControLinc but only 5 sets of buttons. (Sort of like a KeypadLinc in 6-button mode where 8 groups exist but only 5 are used in that configuration). You can program links to the sixth group but there are no local buttons to turn the group on or off. The sixth group WILL go on and off along with the other 5 when an ALL ON or ALL Off is sent from the Controller because these buttons include all 6 groups.
October 23, 200717 yr The sixth group WILL go on and off along with the other 5 when an ALL ON or ALL Off is sent from the Controller because these buttons include all 6 groups. Yeah that would be difficult to support.
October 23, 200717 yr Interestingly enough there is no problem creating up to 255 groups for a ControLinc. AFAIK, any Insteon controller can have this many groups, though only a PLC/PLM can control this many groups. That was in my search to add devices to All On/Off as well. Group 255 is supposed to be for All On/Off. I never did follow up on the results. Rand
October 23, 200717 yr Author The sixth group WILL go on and off along with the other 5 when an ALL ON or ALL Off is sent from the Controller because these buttons include all 6 groups. Yeah that would be difficult to support. Not sure Why. If you think of the ControLinc as a 6 button device you would support it the same way that you would support a 5 button ControLinc. The sixth button will never get pressed but if you support it as if it could, then everything else works as expected with respect to All On and All Off.
October 23, 200717 yr The thought here is in the Controlinc the All On and All Off buttons are not linked to an actual group, they are internally launching all the six button linked groups. I am thinking more and maybe the 6th button would not be so hard to manage, because the ISY does keep a variable for each button, and it always "follows" the All On and All Off buttons of the Controlinc. Kind of like a Keypadlinc non-load button LEDs follow a group.
October 23, 200717 yr One gotcha I could think of though is if you have "6 groups" linked to all those buttons and launch the All On and All Off you could not predict the outcome because you don't know what group has priority when they all lanuch at one time.
October 23, 200717 yr Mark, As I mentioned before, we already do support the All On/Off button on CL, RL, and ISY. At the moment I don't see why we would want to support a phantom button regardless of the level of difficulty since there are much more important features to implement. With kind regards, Michel The thought here is in the Controlinc the All On and All Off buttons are not linked to an actual group, they are internally launching all the six button linked groups. I am thinking more and maybe the 6th button would not be so hard to manage, because the ISY does keep a variable for each button, and it always "follows" the All On and All Off buttons of the Controlinc. Kind of like a Keypadlinc non-load button LEDs follow a group.
October 23, 200717 yr Mark, You don't have to set them up. By assigning different devices to different buttons, they automatically end up in the All On/Off for that CL. With kind regards, Michel Cool, how do I setup the All On and All Off buttons then?
October 23, 200717 yr I see it functions as it was built but I can't link it to my All Lights scene in the ISY.
October 23, 200717 yr Mark, That's the whole point: whatever is linked to your CL is turned on/off when you click on the All On/off button. If you want all your lights to be controlled by All On/Off, then you have to have all your lights linked to at least one of the buttons on your CL. What you are witnessing has nothing to do with the 6th phantom button. With kind regards, Michel I see it functions as it was built but I can't link it to my All Lights scene in the ISY.
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