Insteon 6-button wall switch not following instructions

[KConover]

I have an Insteon 6-button wall switch in my dining room that has served me well for many years. But recently it seems to be developing Oppositional Defiant Disorder: not paying any attention to instructions I send it. I had to replace an Insteon wall switch that had died, one that controls the track lights in the dining room. Like all the other lights in the dining room, and for that matter those throughout the house, I want them to come on with a 2.0 second ramp.

I wired in the new switch, and used the Replace function to replace it in my ISY994i. I set it to come on with a 2.0 second ramp when used with local control… works fine.

I checked to make sure both the dining room and kitchen 6-button switches were still set so that "D" turned on and off all of the dining room lights with a 2.0 second ramp, just like they worked before.

I have been fighting with this 6-buttton switch and now with the 6-button switch in the kitchen, as they both seem to have developed ODD. Pressing D on either one of them makes the track lights come on instantly despite my telling them, through the ISY, to turn on more slowly. So I don't think it's a hardware issue with the 6-button switches, though it could be a problem with the paddle switch that controls the track lights.

Looking in the Admin Console (LAN), everything looks OK, as shown in the picture below.

I have right-clicked Dining Room Track lights (both for the dining room and kitchen 6-button wall switches) and clicked:

• Write Updates to Device
• Restore Device
• Restore Link Between Dining Room Lights and Controller (both of the sub-menu items)

I have clicked the button at the bottom right of the screen that says "Write Changes."

I have clicked the button at the bottom right that says "Options" and made sure "Program Lock" is unchecked.

I have clicked on the Dining Room Keybad.D just above what's highlighted in the picture (I mistyped Keypad but I think it was a Freudian slip) and checked to make sure that the ramp rate was set to 2.0 seconds – it was – and clicked the Update button.

None of these things have worked, nor do they provide any error messages.

This wouldn't be so bad, except the dining room 6-button keypad is right next to where one of the spotlights is aimed and it's like getting a laser in my eye every time I turn on the dining room lights.

I seem to be out of buttons to push. Anyone have any other suggestions, other than ones that start with reformatting my hard drive, I mean, physically replacing the Dining Room Track Lights paddle switch?

Thanks for any insight.

[lilyoyo1]

3 minutes ago, KConover said:

I have an Insteon 6-button wall switch in my dining room that has served me well for many years. But recently it seems to be developing Oppositional Defiant Disorder: not paying any attention to instructions I send it. I had to replace an Insteon wall switch that had died, one that controls the track lights in the dining room. Like all the other lights in the dining room, and for that matter those throughout the house, I want them to come on with a 2.0 second ramp.

I wired in the new switch, and used the Replace function to replace it in my ISY994i. I set it to come on with a 2.0 second ramp when used with local control… works fine.

I checked to make sure both the dining room and kitchen 6-button switches were still set so that "D" turned on and off all of the dining room lights with a 2.0 second ramp, just like they worked before.

I have been fighting with this 6-buttton switch and now with the 6-button switch in the kitchen, as they both seem to have developed ODD. Pressing D on either one of them makes the track lights come on instantly despite my telling them, through the ISY, to turn on more slowly. So I don't think it's a hardware issue with the 6-button switches, though it could be a problem with the paddle switch that controls the track lights.

Looking in the Admin Console (LAN), everything looks OK, as shown in the picture below.

I have right-clicked Dining Room Track lights (both for the dining room and kitchen 6-button wall switches) and clicked:

• Write Updates to Device
• Restore Device
• Restore Link Between Dining Room Lights and Controller (both of the sub-menu items)

I have clicked the button at the bottom right of the screen that says "Write Changes."

I have clicked the button at the bottom right that says "Options" and made sure "Program Lock" is unchecked.

I have clicked on the Dining Room Keybad.D just above what's highlighted in the picture (I mistyped Keypad but I think it was a Freudian slip) and checked to make sure that the ramp rate was set to 2.0 seconds – it was – and clicked the Update button.

None of these things have worked, nor do they provide any error messages.

This wouldn't be so bad, except the dining room 6-button keypad is right next to where one of the spotlights is aimed and it's like getting a laser in my eye every time I turn on the dining room lights.

I seem to be out of buttons to push. Anyone have any other suggestions, other than ones that start with reformatting my hard drive, I mean, physically replacing the Dining Room Track Lights paddle switch?

Thanks for any insight.

Looks like you're updating the switch and not the scene/controller of the scene

[KConover]

Thank you.

I should have added that I also right-clicked the Dining Room Keypad.D that is in blue that is five lines above the one in red, and made sure it was set to a ramp rate of 2.0 seconds, and clicked the Update button. Several time. And still that track light is suddenly blinding me when I turn on the lights. Didn't get an error, and it didn't change the ramp rate.

I also tried setting the ramp rate for Dining Room Keypad.D to 4.5 seconds and clicked Update, and it's still trying to blind me.

Any other thoughts?

[lilyoyo1]

11 minutes ago, KConover said:

Thank you.

I should have added that I also right-clicked the Dining Room Keypad.D that is in blue that is five lines above the one in red, and made sure it was set to a ramp rate of 2.0 seconds, and clicked the Update button. Several time. And still that track light is suddenly blinding me when I turn on the lights. Didn't get an error, and it didn't change the ramp rate.

I also tried setting the ramp rate for Dining Room Keypad.D to 4.5 seconds and clicked Update, and it's still trying to blind me.

Any other thoughts?

Same as my previous statement. In regards to the actual switch itself, make sure you click the ramp rate button after you change the ramp rate. In regards to scenes, you must update the controller settings(device in red) as well as the scene setting 

[KConover]

So the "Ramp Rate" button really is the "Sync Ramp Rate" button? Interesting.

Thank you.

I needed to go to the Dining Room Keypad.D section, go down to the Dining Room Keypad.D line there, change the ramp rate there, and then click Update.

I have to admit I find the user interface design of the console just a bit confusing. Another part of the UX that confuses me is the arrow buttons, for example next to the ramp rate. When I click it, it blanks the dropdown list so that nothing is showing and you can't type anything in the blank box and says "Index" to the right. Clicking the arrow button again brings back the dropdown list.

While I've got an expert's ear/eyes, can you explain the significance of this button?

Thanks again.

 

 

[kclenden]

On 2/13/2023 at 6:49 PM, KConover said:

While I've got an expert's ear/eyes, can you explain the significance of this button?

Not an expert, but . . .

When you click the arrow such that it shows "Index" to the right of the dropdown, the dropdown should now be populated with all your Integer variables.  Choose one of those variables and when you click "Update", the value of the variable will be used as an index into the option's dropdown values, and that value will be set for that option.

An example will probably help.  Look at the "Ramp Rate" dropdown.  You should see values starting at "9 minutes", followed by "8 minutes", "7 minutes", "6 minutes", "5 minutes", "4.5 minutes", etc.  The first value is in the 0 position, the second the 1 position, and so on.  So if you set to "Index" mode and choose an integer variable whose value is 0, then click "Update", your "Ramp Rate" will be set to "9 minutes".  Choose a variable whose value is 2 then an "Update" would set the "Ramp Rate" to "7 minutes", and so on.

Edited February 18, 2023 by kclenden

[KConover]

Well, you're an expert compared to me at least as far as this button! Thanks very much.

I'm a UX (user experience/user interface/user interaction design) dweeb and we emphasize something called "discoverability": you should be able to figure out what something clickable on your screen does. The classic way to do this it with a hover state (hover your mouse over it) that then shows a tooltip (a little popup box that tells you what the button does). I'm not sure you could condense all of that to fit into a tooltip!

For some other tips on usability, you could check out my site about usability of medical software at: http://ed-informatics.org/

Edited February 18, 2023 by KConover

[RPerrault]

parkland uses epic - not sure what they use for dictation but its sso

like most applications, informatics systems need a robust user acceptance group to provide input - two way input - but good luck getting a doctor to participate in a user acceptance group

[RPerrault]

but they had a rough go of getting cerner out of the lab 

 

[dex]

On 2/18/2023 at 8:49 AM, KConover said:

I'm a UX (user experience/user interface/user interaction design) dweeb and we emphasize something called "discoverability": you should be able to figure out what something clickable on your screen does. The classic way to do this it with a hover state (hover your mouse over it) that then shows a tooltip (a little popup box that tells you what the button does). I'm not sure you could condense all of that to fit into a tooltip!

For some other tips on usability, you could check out my site about usability of medical software at: http://ed-informatics.org/

 

@KConover I feel your pain.  I am a user experience design leader, too.  There are too many cringe-worthy aspects of the UI and interaction design of this system to count.  

I would love to see a brilliantly usable, beautiful system UI on all of this. It would be transformational for UDI to do so and would likely yield a substantial ROI through dramatic adoption and growth and greatly reduced per-user support costs. 

But I suspect the investment and commitment required may be out of reach or, more likely, not a priority for the UDI business.  

That said, my perception is that UDI's primary focus is to equip developers and solution integrators with robust advanced capabilities, leaving it to those folks to make robust, usable end-consumer experiences.  Along the way, they also serve a substantial community of complexity-tolerant enthusiasts. 

I will say that @Michel Kohanim and team have a phenomenal track record of listening to this community and responding. Feedback like what you posted above is the kind of thing that can incrementally work its way into improvements here and there.  It doesn't address the systemic Ux issues, but does help.

 - Dex

 

[kzboray]

@KConover It sounds to me like you are not properly configuring the scene. To do what you want you will need to properly configure a scene to change the ramp rate for all attached devices. Take a look at this, it should give you the information you need to create the kind of scene you want.

https://forum.universal-devices.com/topic/41015-how-to-setup-automated-brightness-changes-by-time-of-day-with-manual-override-and-alexa-integration/