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GSOUZA
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| Posted: October 30 2006 at 01:03 | IP Logged
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Hello, Im new with this insteon stuff and after i saw it i love it and install switches, dimmers, relays appliances and lamplincs on my house.
after play a lot with direct keypad links and power home software, i would like to know how can I do a trigger, dont know if its the correct way to do it, so when i send a FAST OFF from a switchlinc, power home receive it and send a ALL-OFF for entire house?
thanks in advance,
Gustavo
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dhoward
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| Posted: October 30 2006 at 13:45 | IP Logged
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Gustavo,
Welcome to PowerHome!
What you'd like to do is relatively easy with the latest beta version of PowerHome 1.03.4.9. You'll need a couple of prerequisites though. First you'll need to make sure you have a link from the switch that will be sending the FAST OFF to the PLC. This is what PowerHome will trigger on. The second thing you'll need is links to do the ALL OFF for the entire house. Insteon doesnt have a specific ALL OFF command like X10 does and would require either a PLC group with every device in it that you would send an OFF command to or have every device in a PLC group (any group, doesnt matter as long as every device is at least in 1 PLC group where the PLC is the controller) and then send an OFF command to PLC group 255 (the global group). Once you've got these groups setup, then you just need to create a trigger like this:
TRIGGERID
TRIGGERDESCRIPTION
Device Control
INSTEONGROUP+GLOBALGROUP+FASTOFF
Queued
Active
Insteon Group In
ID of FASTOFF switch
1
Fast Off
1
This should do it for you. Let me know if you have any problems or questions.
Dave.
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GSOUZA
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| Posted: October 31 2006 at 01:28 | IP Logged
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Hello Dave,
thanks for your promptly aswer. i did it and it worked. but i noted that its to slow for the computer to execute the all off function. maybe my power home isnt configured correctly. could you please tell me good options to use in insteon explorer? pool interval, max failures, status scan, link spider, what of these options i need and witch ones could slower the power home.
ps, I use a pentium 4 2.26Ghz with windows 2003 Server just for automation and now this computer is working with only power home 1.03.4.9
thanks
Gustavo
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dhoward
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| Posted: October 31 2006 at 10:55 | IP Logged
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Gustavo,
If you've got an Insteon PLC group configured with all of the devices and PowerHome is just triggering this, then it should be near instantaneous. The only thing that may have slowed it down was if PowerHome was in the middle of some background Insteon operation (such as creating a link or scanning a remote record). If the background operations is just a Poll Status or similar, then it should be relatively quick. Check your Event log and the times to see the incoming Insteon, when the trigger fired, and when the outgoing Insteon was sent.
As far as configuring the Insteon Explorer, the defaults are usually about the best. I like the Poll Interval at 10 seconds as background operations will be picked up on relatively quick without too much impeding the foreground operations (such as your ALL OFF trigger). Max Failures should probably be set around 5. If it's set at 5 and you're still getting devices flagged as failed, then I would take a hard look at my Insteon network and try to determine where my problems lie. I don't like link spidering so I leave it off. Some people like to turn off "Status Scan" but I usually leave it on. You can turn it off if PowerHome has at least scanned all of your devices once and you will ONLY be making link changes using PowerHome instead of tap-tap. If PowerHome has already scanned the local devices level, ramprate, and X10 address, then I would probably disable "Level/Ramp/X10 Scan" as well. I "only" turn on "Write Level/Ramp/X10" when Ive made changes and need to update those devices. After updating, I turn this off.
For the least amount of interference from background Insteon operations, I would set Poll Interval to 10, Max Failures to 5, and uncheck everything else ("Scroll Log" and "Tab Scrollbars" are visual aids and don't matter).
Let me know what your eventlog showed concerning times and we'll try to see what the problem is.
Dave.
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GSOUZA
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| Posted: November 01 2006 at 01:15 | IP Logged
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Ok Dave,
now its working very well. i leave just the status scan because the statistics about the system.
1 more thing i did some scenes with one keypad controlling some devices and i use the keypad configurator from power home to chose leds status so when button 3 is on, button 4 is off and when i press button 4, button 3 will shut off the led.
the problem is when i send a all off command, the status of the led wont change. so if im using scene from button 3, after an all off command, everything goes off with exception of the button 3 led that remains on.
thanks in advance,
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GSOUZA
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| Posted: November 01 2006 at 21:08 | IP Logged
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Dave, dont worry about the led problem, i did exactly like other post and reset the keypad and after that i linked first the secondary buttons and last the load button. now its working.
one thing i noted is that using the trigger, some times one or two devices wont respond to all-off command.
its not a problem with the trigger i think because other devices shuts off. but i cant tell that is a faulty device too because the problem vary from devive 1 to device 2, sometimes device 3... what could be the problem?
thanks,
Gustavo
ps. im going to support you. i will buy a license because your software really fits for my needs. you are far away from the competition. keep the good work and promptly helping us a lot.
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dhoward
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| Posted: November 02 2006 at 00:05 | IP Logged
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Gustavo,
I was going to suggest the problem was either a link needed to be created to the KPL button 3 or you should look at the link creation order bug. It looks like you found it though  .
Your problem with some devices not responding to the "All Off" is most likely a communications issue. I see this all the time. A group command from the PLC (to either group 255 or another specific group) is a single broadcast command that is not acknowledged. Any device that hears it and see's that it's supposed to respond will do so. Since some devices (probably most) are responding, that means that the command is definately being sent. It's just that some devices may not be hearing it. In my own situation, it always seems to be 1 or 2 lights that are furthest away from my PLC. If you do it enough times, you'll probably start to see that it's always the same few devices.
Now, what can be done about it. Well, possibly more RF SignaLincs could improve the signal and SmartHome will always tell you you can add more Insteon devices. What I would probably do is just make my trigger send the group All Off command 2 or 3 times in succession. The devices that may not have heard the first command would more than likely hear subsequent commands. This would be the first thing I would try.
HTH,
Dave.
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GSOUZA
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| Posted: November 02 2006 at 10:53 | IP Logged
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Good. i didn't realize it. how can i do it? 3 or 4 times trigger.
thanks,
Gustavo
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dhoward
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| Posted: November 03 2006 at 17:56 | IP Logged
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Gustavo,
To change the trigger so that it sends the same command 3 times, you can do it a couple of different ways. You could create a macro that consist's of 3 lines of "Device Control" like you specified in the trigger and then have the trigger call the macro or you can just convert the triggers action type of "Device Control" to a "Raw Formula" and use the formula below (based upon the original DEVICE CONTROL example above):
ph_insteongroup("GLOBALGROUP",ifastoff,0) + ph_insteongroup("GLOBALGROUP",ifastoff,0) + ph_insteongroup("GLOBALGROUP",ifastoff,0)
HTH,
Dave.
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PowerHome Messageboard : PowerHome Programming
Topic: Insteon Triggers (ALL-OFF)
