Virtual 3 way

[clark21236]

I am just starting my Insteon setup and my ISY programming.

 

I ordered 2 - 2466sw togglelincs, on one order, and then 2 more on another order. These are being installed as virtual 3 way switches.

 

I had these switches linked and crosslinked to their respective virtual 3 way switch. To be more clear, the two switches in the laundry room are linked and crosslinked to each other. The same was done for the two switches in the kitchen.

 

The laundry room switches were installed a week before the kitchen switches. When the kitchen switches were installed, all 4 switches would work together. I have since found it's a good idea to factory reset the switches while installing them. I tried to factory reset the first one, and it toasted on me. The light was off, and it made a sizzle sound. Smarthome is sending me a new one.

 

So I swapped the virtual 3 way from the laundry room to the kitchen to replace the load connected switch that had failed. And of course there would be links between them. So I did another factory rest.

 

Once I got the ISY up and running, I must say the documentation wasn't that clear on how to get it to search the network for devices, it found my switches. And the links were still there. I had some programs that wouldn't run correctly, so I decided to completely start over.

 

This is where my problem is. In the ISY, how do you create a virtual 3 way switch? I see how you can link a master switch to a slave switch in a scene, but I don't see how to crosslink them. I wound up blowing the switches out of the ISY again, and linking them locally, then letting the ISY find the links.

 

Thanks for any suggestions.

Steve

[upstatemike]

Steve-

 

I would suggest the following:

 

Since you only have 4 switches I would make note of the Insteon addresses on them and then remove them from the ISY.

 

Add them back by selecting new device and entering the Insteon address for each. Be sure to use the default selection to "remove existing links" to ensure your manual linking is cleared from the switches memory.

 

Create your 2 scenes for your 3 way setups (or use the ones you have if they already exist.)

 

Add each switch to the scene it belongs to AS A CONTROLLER of the scene. (Putting 2 switches in a scene as controllers is the same as cross linking them).

 

Hopefully this will get you going.

[clark21236]

updatemike,

 

I couldn't get that to work at first. I had to delete everything and start all over. I managed to consolidate the two scenes to crosslink the switches into one. I deleted the two original and then added a new one and made both devices as controllers.

 

Thanks for the clarification. It seems to me that in the future it would be better to just use the ISY to do everything and eliminate the manual setup. Of course when I didn't have the ISY up and running when I put the switches in.

 

Thanks,

Steve

[upstatemike]

Yes I agree. Manual linking is not only harder, but if things don't go right you can be left with broken links and no way to see what really happened.

 

Over time I am eventually going to remove and re-install all of my devices in the ISY to ensure no old manual links are gumming up the works. It would have been better to do that to start with but my Insteon installation is just too large to crash it all and rebuild it from scratch at one time.

 

Now that you have it working, don't forget to back up your ISY. I do that after adding any new devices or making any other major change.

[Sub-Routine]

 

Now that you have it working, don't forget to back up your ISY. I do that after adding any new devices or making any other major change.

 

I create a backup before I add any new devices or make a major change

 

Rand

[Mark Sanctuary]

For these two questions and other general topics you will find the answers in the How To section of the Wiki.

 

Once I got the ISY up and running, I must say the documentation wasn't that clear on how to get it to search the network for devices, it found my switches. And the links were still there. I had some programs that wouldn't run correctly, so I decided to completely start over.

Search the network == Spidering My Network in ISY lingo.

 

This is where my problem is. In the ISY, how do you create a virtual 3 way switch? I see how you can link a master switch to a slave switch in a scene, but I don't see how to crosslink them. I wound up blowing the switches out of the ISY again, and linking them locally, then letting the ISY find the links.

3 way switch == Multi Way Circuit in ISY lingo.

 

I hope the How To section is helpful I keep trying to add new things to it all the time.

[clark21236]

I got my replacement switch yesterday. I took some others recommendations and factory reset it while installing it. I created my virtual 3 way scene and dropped both switches in as controllers.

 

Boy that sure was easier than the first time.

 

As a side note. When I took my new switch out, the ground wire broke right off.

 

This switch is just a virtual to the real switch, so I didn't worry too much. I rigged it a little bit to keep it in play. Kinda disappointing. You have a switch go bad, then the replacement switch has the ground break off. Darn it.

[Guest]

I got my replacement switch yesterday. I took some others recommendations and factory reset it while installing it. I created my virtual 3 way scene and dropped both switches in as controllers.

 

Boy that sure was easier than the first time.

 

As a side note. When I took my new switch out, the ground wire broke right off.

 

This switch is just a virtual to the real switch, so I didn't worry too much. I rigged it a little bit to keep it in play. Kinda disappointing. You have a switch go bad, then the replacement switch has the ground break off. Darn it.

 

Sh just crimps the ground wire to the "yoke" of the switch (basically the mounting frame/heatsink). I cant see how they can get away with that as it is unreliable in my opinion. Now think about the outletlinc using the same crimp method for the ground. That is the ground that is connected to the ground pin of the outlet.