Giving Guest Access to Portal?

[xjsimon]

I have a kind of odd question. I have my sprinkler system on an EZFlora device. I have a landscaper coming when I'll away from home and I'll be unable to trigger each of the zones for him. 

Any idea on how I can easily give him access to just that device to remotely trigger the sprinkler zones? I have garage doors and lights and everything else on the system too, so I can't give him full access.

[lilyoyo1]

Not that I'm aware of

[bmercier]

16 hours ago, xjsimon said:

I have a kind of odd question. I have my sprinkler system on an EZFlora device. I have a landscaper coming when I'll away from home and I'll be unable to trigger each of the zones for him. 

Any idea on how I can easily give him access to just that device to remotely trigger the sprinkler zones? I have garage doors and lights and everything else on the system too, so I can't give him full access.

In ISY Portal, under Connectivity | IFTTT / Webhooks, you can enter devices there and have them be triggered from an external source. This is triggered using a simple HTTP GET. To get the URL, click on the icon besides the X.

You could control this using IFTTT or anything that can trigger call urls. 

This could be as simple as a few URLs in an email for your installer.

This is relatively safe as only the devices entered there can be triggered. However, if you have other webhooks for different purposes, then this gives away the key. I would change the key after the installer has passed.

Benoit

[xjsimon]

That is perfect. I thought there might have been a way to trigger events using a GET HTTP command. That's a great idea!

I'll look around for a how-to on that.

Thank you!

[bmercier]

In the dialog box, click on the question mark to get help.

[xjsimon]

My other idea was to use an 8 button remote control and give that to the landscaper. I'm not really familiar with the old x10 connectivity, but noticed the EZFLORA has x10 compatibility and ordered a very cheap 16 device x10 remote. Got it and tried programming the remote to the EZFLORA and no response. Now I'm thinking it probably needs a x10 to insteon transceiver so they can talk to each other. I'm guessing the EZFLORA isn't going to pick up the x10 RF signals? Can anyone confirm that?

Very much appreciate the help.

[dbwarner5]

yes, you would need an X10 transiever to receive the x10 signal from the remote and then propagate it into your house wiring system, of which then the EZFLORA would pick it up just like any Insteon type signal. You would need to set up the x10 codes appropriately. 

It wasn't clear what 8 button remote control you were referring to above, but  if its an Insteon 8 button Remote Linc  device, you can easily program any of those buttons to turn on each zone for x minutes and then turn it off..... In this manner you could get 8 zones directly. 

An alternative programing technique if you have more zones is to have certain buttons cycle through a few zones.. with one button as a dedicated all off. If you have 7 or less, then you could still have a dedicated off button and each other button would turn on zones 1-7. The landscaper would just have to be using the remote, somewhat close enough to the house to ensure the signal gets picked up.

I do something similar with one where I use the buttons to control the garage doors., So in the winter when out snowblowing, I can easily open and close the garage doors and that works from quite a distance out. 

[xjsimon]

On 4/13/2020 at 1:38 PM, dbwarner5 said:

yes, you would need an X10 transiever to receive the x10 signal from the remote and then propagate it into your house wiring system, of which then the EZFLORA would pick it up just like any Insteon type signal. You would need to set up the x10 codes appropriately. 

It wasn't clear what 8 button remote control you were referring to above, but  if its an Insteon 8 button Remote Linc  device, you can easily program any of those buttons to turn on each zone for x minutes and then turn it off..... In this manner you could get 8 zones directly. 

An alternative programing technique if you have more zones is to have certain buttons cycle through a few zones.. with one button as a dedicated all off. If you have 7 or less, then you could still have a dedicated off button and each other button would turn on zones 1-7. The landscaper would just have to be using the remote, somewhat close enough to the house to ensure the signal gets picked up.

I do something similar with one where I use the buttons to control the garage doors., So in the winter when out snowblowing, I can easily open and close the garage doors and that works from quite a distance out. 

Thanks so much for your response. To clarify, I picked up a 16 device x10 remote (thinking I could save some money instead of buying the insteon remote). But thanks for confirming x10 won't work without the transceiver. I went ahead and ordered the 8 button insteon remote. Fortunately I only have 8 zones on my ezflora, so shouldn't need any tricks to program multiple zones to a single button - but those are great ideas!

Thank you!

[dbwarner5]

1 hour ago, xjsimon said:

Fortunately I only have 8 zones on my ezflora, so shouldn't need any tricks to program multiple zones to a single button - but those are great ideas!

Great.. for programming, since you only have 8 buttons and 8 zones, you can write a set of programs that if button A is pressed, and the zone is off, then turn it on, otherwise, turn it off. That way the landscaper can turn them on and off easily.