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jmvanden
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Joined: February 16 2006
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| Posted: February 16 2006 at 13:47 | IP Logged
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Insteon has a very competative feature on their Keypad Links whereby a user can configure several buttons in an exclusive OR configuration. This feature is very helpful when setting up multiple scenes on a single keypad. Higher end products such as Radio RA provide this feature out of the box.
The problem with this feature on the Keypad Link device is that it is VERY difficult to set up, especially when you go beyond linking two buttons together in an exclusive OR fashion. Automating the configuration of this with PowerHome would be a huge benefit to those of us trying to take Insteon beyond simple scenes.
Today, the PowerHome beta software shows these links as "Not Found", making the software difficult to manage in the case where we have cross-linked buttons on the Keypad Link.
Thank you
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dhoward
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| Posted: February 16 2006 at 16:55 | IP Logged
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This has been brought to my attention already and is something I hope to have support for in the next beta  .
However, I was planning on playing with the KPL tonight for several reasons (one of which is placing buttons in non-toggle mode...which I understand) as well as figuring out the XOR buttons. Ive read through the docs several times and call me dense, but I don't get it. As someone who sounds as if theyve already set this up, can you explain to me what XOR buttons do for you?
Thanks,
Dave.
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jmvanden
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| Posted: February 17 2006 at 08:04 | IP Logged
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Hello Dave,
You are certainly not dense. The manual does a terrible job in describing the XOR functionality and its purpose. I don’t think I would understand it either if it weren’t for some experience I’ve had with Radio RA and a similar feature.
There are a number of uses for XOR, but the one that I’m most familiar with is a situation where you have two or more scenes on one control pad. These two+ scenes use some of the same lighting, perhaps at different levels and some lights that are exclusively for one scene and not another. To get the desired effect of each scene where you want certain lights on and you want other lights that are not in the scene off XOR is one of the easiest way to achieve this. Without XOR, you first have to be sure you first turn off a scene that has “conflicting” lighting, then turn on the new scene. That is nice if you memorize the XOR in your head, but not very useful for anyone else. XOR lets you easily change from one scene to another in this situation.
Make sense?
As you also mentioned, toggle mode would also be a huge help to do via the software.
Thanks,
Jim
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dhoward
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| Posted: February 17 2006 at 09:04 | IP Logged
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Your explanation and my testing last night helps alot. It would appear what happens is that whenever an XOR button is sent, it first sends an OFF command to the XOR button (scene) that is currently on and then immediately follows that with an ON command for the XOR button/scene that was just pressed. Makes more sense now.
I could not get it to completely work in my situation, however, I was able to see what should be happening by watching the KPL lights. Ive seen two different explanations for setting this up. One involves just cross-linking the two buttons a total of 4 times (the last two with them being off) and another explanation where you actually had to use a third button on the KPL temporarily. Not sure if the different explanations are for different revs or not.
Anyways, I'll play with this some more this weekend and see if I can implement some functionality within PowerHome to simplify this whole process  .
Dave.
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PowerHome Messageboard : PowerHome Feature Requests
Topic: Insteon Keypad Link Exclusive OR config
