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Dimming the LEDs on Insteon switches?


ctviggen1

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Supposedly, it's possible to dim the LEDs on Insteon switches by using the Insteon hub.  I have a hub but have never used it.

Is it possible to dim the LEDs on Insteon switches using the ISY?  I don't see an option for this in the admin console.  For instance, this is what I get for an Insteon light, but "backlight" appears not to do anything:

 

image.png.b2f6afc505a84c719e167fb254bf128a.png

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Backlight is what you're looking for.  You need to set the value and then click the button to the left or click the word "backlight" itself.  

There's also a minor GUI bug when you select the next device it will claim it's at whatever you set for the last device... just click the "backlight" button if you want to set it to the same thing.

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I had no idea.... Thank you!  I thought that since "backlight" said zero when the light obviously was not zero meant it did not work.  Or possibly I tried it by adjusting the level and then not completing the action.

What I did was adjust the level of the backlight and then click the button "write changes".  I'll use the "backlight" button. 

My next question.  If we lose power, there are about 10 switches where I manually go to each switch and set the LED light level as low as it will go.  Is there any way to run a program on start up that would do that for me? 

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14 hours ago, ctviggen1 said:

My next question.  If we lose power, there are about 10 switches where I manually go to each switch and set the LED light level as low as it will go.  Is there any way to run a program on start up that would do that for me? 

hmmm I wonder why you have to do that?  Are they old switches?  I don't have issues that require me to intervene after a power failure.

 

But yes, you can set backlight in a program too:

image.png.e811f43c4aa76a51c98828bd9c6e8a8b.png

If you're going to do this at startup I'd add a wait to the top of the program, just to get it away from all the things that happen at startup.

For Run at Startup you can leave the If body blank and then after Saving the program, switch to the Summary Tab of Programs, find the program and right click it then pick Run at Startup from right click menu.

 

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 11/26/2020 at 10:03 AM, MrBill said:

hmmm I wonder why you have to do that?  Are they old switches?  I don't have issues that require me to intervene after a power failure

Interesting.  I have a variety of switches.  Most / all lose their LED settings.  Just had the power go out last night (60+ mph winds), and most of the ones I care about come back with the LED on full blast.  The switches I care about are in the bedrooms, bathrooms, and hallway between these. 

Now how old these are, I don't know.  I went to buy more from Smart Home this past Black Friday, and everything was sold out.  But I guess even if I did that, I wouldn't be able to test, since those are for other rooms.  The only rooms I've not done with insteon are the "dining room" (an office for us) and the "playroom" (now also an office).  For those, I wouldn't care about the LED brightness.

Francis0, that is a really good idea.  How many light switches did you add?  Could you add them all with no delays?  For instance, I have 15 switches just for the bathrooms, hallway, and bedrooms. 

Since the power went out, I'm revisiting this. I will set it up as per Mr. Bill (thank you for that), to run when the system starts. Is there any way to run whenever you want?  There are no conditions, so maybe control it via Alexa (which I think enters at the "then" part). 

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On 12/25/2020 at 4:26 PM, ctviggen1 said:

Is there any way to run whenever you want?  There are no conditions, so maybe control it via Alexa (which I think enters at the "then" part). 

Some people adjust backlights twice a day (sunset/sunrise), you can specify the IF anyway you desire whether it be a schedule, button press, really any condition....

and yes Alexa can be used to actuate... as either then or else...

 

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26 minutes ago, MrBill said:

Some people adjust backlights twice a day (sunset/sunrise), you can specify the IF anyway you desire whether it be a schedule, button press, really any condition....

and yes Alexa can be used to actuate... as either then or else...

 

Thanks.  I used what you recommended above, then ran just the "then" part (I think by right-clicking the program and choosing "run then" or something like that).  This seemed to work for the 15+ lights I had on there (though not all of them were bright after the power outage).

I'll have to think about turning the LEDs up and down, and for which ones I'd do this. For the bedroom, bathroom, and hallway areas, to me, if it's night, you want them low.  If it's day, you can tell whether the switch is on or off because the corresponding light would be on or off. 

There are a bunch of these switches in the kitchen and living areas.  Maybe dimming those at night would be good? I'll have to test that.

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  • 5 months later...

Sorry to resurrect this thread but does anyone know what the default for backlight is for both keypads and switches? I would like to do what MrBill suggested running 2 programs one at sunset and one at sunrise. But not sure what to "reset" the leds back to with sunrise as the led backlight shows 0

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This is the program I ended up using.  I'm using zero and 100 percent:

image.png.f2f4d12da19be52838a655326b8fb261.png

My only other program for LEDs is one where I run it only after restart/power loss, and it (re)sets a number of LED lights to zero.  I never turn them back on.

I have not done more than this, as most of the time, I don't mind the 100%.  The "basement" light switches are near the projector/screen, so I want them off at night.  The other switches are in bedrooms or in the hallway of bedrooms (my daughter doesn't like the looks of two glowing LEDs across the hall, thinks they look like eyes). So, I set them at zero, and leave them there.

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8 hours ago, Ajax said:

Sorry to resurrect this thread but does anyone know what the default for backlight is for both keypads and switches? I would like to do what MrBill suggested running 2 programs one at sunset and one at sunrise. But not sure what to "reset" the leds back to with sunrise as the led backlight shows 0

IIRC, the backlights have no status back function. ISY only know what it last set them to.

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8 hours ago, Ajax said:

Sorry to resurrect this thread but does anyone know what the default for backlight is for both keypads and switches? I would like to do what MrBill suggested running 2 programs one at sunset and one at sunrise. But not sure what to "reset" the leds back to with sunrise as the led backlight shows 0

I found in a bank of three Switchlincs I need to set each backlight at different values to make the brightness all look the same. Therefore there doesn't seem to be any consistent setting for "default".

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