UDI Supporting i3 Products

[kclenden]

Received an email from UDI indicating they are supporting i3 products on eisy and Polisy as of version 5.5.9.  Guess I have a reason to migrate my ISY944 to an eisy now.

https://www.universal-devices.com/i3-support/

Edited March 9, 2023 by kclenden

[carealtor]

"We are working with insteon.com..."

Most wonderful news I've heard.  Maybe ever. 

[Bumbershoot]

I gave my i3 Dial a quick run in my test jig last night (running 5.5.9 on an eisy) and no data was presented in the Event Viewer when status was changed at the device.  Actually, I didn’t notice any change in behavior from 5.5.7.  I’m delighted that UDI is working on supporting these devices, however.

[keepersg]

Upgraded my eisy to 5.5.9 just now.  Upgrade was seamless.  I am happy and grateful to report that my i3 Outlet adds each outlet separately now and that local control of each outlet is immediately registered in the AC.  I am so glad the companies are working with each other.  UDI is featured now on the Insteon website.

[larryllix]

7 hours ago, keepersg said:

Upgraded my eisy to 5.5.9 just now.  Upgrade was seamless.  I am happy and grateful to report that my i3 Outlet adds each outlet separately now and that local control of each outlet is immediately registered in the AC.  I am so glad the companies are working with each other.  UDI is featured now on the Insteon website.

Awesome! That is a huge change from the old Insteon attempting to hide UDI products, in some kind of competitive challenge.

[brians]

https://www.thedigitalmediazone.com/2023/03/06/home-on-155/
 

[ryarber]

Other than form factor, what is new with these devices?

[Bumbershoot]

7 minutes ago, ryarber said:

Other than form factor, what is new with these devices?

For the i3 dial and paddle, each device can be configured as either a switch or a dimmer, and they will be firmware upgradable (at some future point).

[lilyoyo1]

17 minutes ago, ryarber said:

Other than form factor, what is new with these devices?

In addition to what was said earlier, they were designed for LED lights. You can set the low end trim to minimize flickering and cutoff

[ryarber]

I don’t see a 2 wire version. Have they said if that’s coming?

[lilyoyo1]

20 minutes ago, ryarber said:

I don’t see a 2 wire version. Have they said if that’s coming?

No. Most likely not

[ryarber]

1 hour ago, lilyoyo1 said:

No. Most likely not

Well, that may limit my ability to install Insteon anyway. Caseta stuff is all 2 wire I believe. 

[larryllix]

1 hour ago, ryarber said:

Well, that may limit my ability to install Insteon anyway. Caseta stuff is all 2 wire I believe. 

I think you will find that LED lighting killed all 2-wire smart switch installations. LEDs just cannot leak enough current for the electronics to talk WiFi or any RF or powerline protocol reliably without lighting up the LED bulb.

[ryarber]

21 minutes ago, larryllix said:

I think you will find that LED lighting killed all 2-wire smart switch installations. LEDs just cannot leak enough current for the electronics to talk WiFi or any RF or powerline protocol reliably without lighting up the LED bulb.

So, do you see problems using led bulbs with caseta 2 wire switches?

[lilyoyo1]

2 hours ago, ryarber said:

So, do you see problems using led bulbs with caseta 2 wire switches?

The best thing to do is buy one and test with your bulbs. 

[larryllix]

5 hours ago, ryarber said:

So, do you see problems using led bulbs with caseta 2 wire switches?

I don't see any brand working with LED bulbs and two wire devices. However there are dummy loads you can wire inside the light fixtures / connection boxes that will likely make them work. If you have a chain of bulbs you could also use one with a small incandescent bulb in the chain.

[randyf]

I have a situation where I need to add a remote control for a ceiling light, and given where and how to control, Insteon (vs. z-wave) is the most practical choice.  However, given the availability of components, the I3 outlet is the best current option (could use an embedded device, but they aren't available; I could also use a plugin, but that is only a last resort).

 

So, as I only need to control this device (and not get status or other things that I3 offers), what is the likelihood that an I3 outlet can be turned on or off via an ISY994 (I should be able to pair it with an Insteon switch for control, but would be useful to add it to scenes or programs in the ISY)?

 

I will eventually move to eisy, and this may be something that triggers the beginning of that transition, but for now I'm in the mode if "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

There is also the ebay route to get something that will work with the current setup, but having an I3 device for its future features is also a reasonable option.

[Brian H]

38 minutes ago, randyf said:

I have a situation where I need to add a remote control for a ceiling light, and given where and how to control, Insteon (vs. z-wave) is the most practical choice.  However, given the availability of components, the I3 outlet is the best current option (could use an embedded device, but they aren't available; I could also use a plugin, but that is only a last resort).

 

So, as I only need to control this device (and not get status or other things that I3 offers), what is the likelihood that an I3 outlet can be turned on or off via an ISY994 (I should be able to pair it with an Insteon switch for control, but would be useful to add it to scenes or programs in the ISY)?

 

I will eventually move to eisy, and this may be something that triggers the beginning of that transition, but for now I'm in the mode if "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

There is also the ebay route to get something that will work with the current setup, but having an I3 device for its future features is also a reasonable option.

They indicted only the Polisy and eisy will support the I3 devices.

As the ISY994i is discontinued and would no longer get the needed firmware updates.

I have no information on linking an I3 to an I2 device in the ISY994i

[lilyoyo1]

1 hour ago, randyf said:

I have a situation where I need to add a remote control for a ceiling light, and given where and how to control, Insteon (vs. z-wave) is the most practical choice.  However, given the availability of components, the I3 outlet is the best current option (could use an embedded device, but they aren't available; I could also use a plugin, but that is only a last resort).

 

So, as I only need to control this device (and not get status or other things that I3 offers), what is the likelihood that an I3 outlet can be turned on or off via an ISY994 (I should be able to pair it with an Insteon switch for control, but would be useful to add it to scenes or programs in the ISY)?

 

I will eventually move to eisy, and this may be something that triggers the beginning of that transition, but for now I'm in the mode if "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

There is also the ebay route to get something that will work with the current setup, but having an I3 device for its future features is also a reasonable option.

It can be manually turned on/off from the isy but no status unless queried.

You can manually link the devices but if memory serves correct, you can't link via the isy. 

[Andy P]

I received my first I3 devices. Had no problem linking the I3 Dial from the EISY 5.5.9 admin console using the address printed on the front of the switch. Didn't touch the switch at all during linking.

It is unfortunate that the dial does not report local dimming changes back to the EISY, but on/off does get reported, obviously.

However, if you change the default ON level at the dial using the SET button, when you turn the switch off and back on locally, it comes on to the new level you set, but the EISY still thinks it turned on to the default level set by the Admin Console. If you then do a QUERY, it will read the actual brightness level of the switch.

[MrBill]

31 minutes ago, Andy P said:

I received my first I3 devices. Had no problem linking the I3 Dial from the EISY 5.5.9 admin console using the address printed on the front of the switch. Didn't touch the switch at all during linking.

It is unfortunate that the dial does not report local dimming changes back to the EISY, but on/off does get reported, obviously.

However, if you change the default ON level at the dial using the SET button, when you turn the switch off and back on locally, it comes on to the new level you set, but the EISY still thinks it turned on to the default level set by the Admin Console. If you then do a QUERY, it will read the actual brightness level of the switch.

Please update to v5.6.0 and then retest.

Among other specifics about the release:

Quote

Bug Fixes

• Insteon I3 Dial status not updated after turning dial

 

[Andy P]

42 minutes ago, MrBill said:

Please update to v5.6.0 and then retest.

 

 

Thanks for the hint on the update - that one snuck out when I wasn't looking!

So, the good news is that with 5.6.0 the EISY is reflecting the update in dim level caused by rotating the dial. That is great.

The other problem remains. If you change the default dim level using the set switch under the dial and then turn it off and back on, the EISY thinks it is at the default dim level set by the admin console. You can run QUERY and it will read the correct current DIM level. 

One minor quirk. Let's say you used the set button on the device to set the default level to 100%. Then you go to the admin console which shows On Level 10%. If you just press the ON LEVEL button, it won't write the change to the device because it thinks the ON LEVEL is already set to 10%. I verified that in the debug console - zero bytes written. But if you change it to 11% and press ON LEVEL, it does set the default on level to 11%.

Really glad the local dimming changes are now working. I can live with the others.

[Andy P]

One other thing I noticed when I added the DIAL device (at 5.5.9 haven't had a chance to test at 5.6.0) is that the admin console will show a default ON LEVEL of OFF (the lowest possible value) and a default RAMP RATE of 9 minutes (the highest possible value).

So, when I first tried to use the admin console to turn the device on and off, I thought it wasn't working until I changed those values to ON LEVEL 10% and RAMP RATE 0.5 seconds. Just a heads up to anyone scratching their head.

I assume this means that the EISY has no way of reading those values from the device, but maybe someone knows more about that?

[brians]

So is the Dial working 100% now? I was thinking of ordering one but am hesitant to do so.

 

 

[Bumbershoot]

1 hour ago, brians said:

So is the Dial working 100% now? I was thinking of ordering one but am hesitant to do so.

 

 

As a dimmer, they work exactly as intended for my purposes.  These things are in a bathroom and closet, so my use cases for them are fairly simple and I haven't exercised every possible use case I can think of, i.e., I don't know if they audibly beep, etc.  I haven't installed the Dial that will be used as an on/off switch yet, but when I put it in my test jig, it worked.