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tlawjr
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| Posted: November 07 2008 at 12:26 | IP Logged
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I thought I understood this, but I just can't seem to grasp it. I am trying to use PowerHome to setup scenes. Doing this at night, I set the levels I want for various lights by either going to the Insteon switch or adjusting each from PowerHome. I thought, through polling, that PH would "report" those levels on the links screen, thus allowing me to save them as scenes--the idea being to avoid tap-tap. These will be linked with several KPLs. Also, though I have spent some time looking through various forums, I may not be fully grasping groups as they pertain to scenes. Would someone step me through this?
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TonyNo
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| Posted: November 07 2008 at 13:48 | IP Logged
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I'll get into more detail later, but, for now...
What you need to do is create a group, set the levels and rates that you want, then assign the devices to that group.
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grif091
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| Posted: November 08 2008 at 14:52 | IP Logged
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There are two options at the top of the Insteon Explorer that may help. Check the Level/Ramp/X10 Scan and Write Level/Ramp/X10 options.
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Lee G
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tlawjr
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| Posted: November 09 2008 at 00:46 | IP Logged
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I'm still confused. TonyNo, when you say create a group, do you mean under the PLC/PLM tab? Or are you referring to the Links tab? Would you and Lee G be more specific?
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grif091
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| Posted: November 09 2008 at 04:55 | IP Logged
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I take the term Scene and Group to mean the same thing. They are the same thing from Insteon hardware perspective. There is not a hardware Scene versus a hardware Group. A Group/Scene is two or more devices that have been linked together. I use an example to explain. You have SwitchLinc A, SwitchLinc B and KeypadLinc button 4. SwitchLinc A is connected to and controlling the physical load. You would like SwitchLinc B and KeypadLinc button 4 to have the same affect on the load as SwitchLinc A and you want the status lights on each device to be in sync. You create a Group in Insteon devices cross linked together to accomplish this.
From a link perspective, SwitchLinc A is a controller, with SwitchLinc B and KeypadLinc button 4 as responders. SwitchLinc B is a controller with SwitchLinc A and KeypadLinc button 4 as responders. KeypadLinc button 4 is a Controller with SwitchLinc A and SwitchLinc B as responders. With these links in place, the load can be controlled from any of the three locations with the status lights all in sync. If the load is turned on by pressing the ON paddle of SwitchLinc B, SwitchLinc A and KeypadLinc button 4 will both indicate the load is On. If the KeypadLinc button 4 is used to turn the load Off, SwitchLinc A and SwitchLinc B status indicators will also indicate the load is off.
Each responder link record above has a slot for storing the Bright level and Ramp rate to be used when acting as a responder to the respective controller. Pressing SwitchLinc A paddle On, as it is controlling the load, uses the Local Bright and Ramp rate settings to determine how bright and how fast the load will turn on. Pressing SwitchLinc B paddle On sends a message to SwitchLinc A to turn On with the values in the responder link record in SwitchLinc A corresponding to SwitchLinc B as controller used to control the Bright level and Ramp rate. Pressing KeypadLinc button 4 sends a message to SwitchLinc A to turn On with the values in the responder link record in SwitchLinc A corresponding to KeypadLinc button 4 as controller used to control the Bright level and Ramp rate. All three Bright level and Ramp rate definitions; Local, responder to SwitchLinc B, and responder to KeypadLinc button 4 can have unique values.
If you establish the links using the Set button technique you preset the Bright level and Ramp rate to the desired values before creating the links. Each device User Guide explains how to set the Local Bright/Ramp values versus those values to be used when creating a responder link record.
If PowerHome establishes the above links, the link information stored under the Links tab contains the Bright level and Ramp rate values used to create the respective responder link records.
For performance reasons I don't think PowerHome normally reads or writes those values during a device Status Check unless the Level/Ramp/X10 Scan and Write Level/Ramp/X10 options have been turned on.
A PLC/PLM Group is created if you want PowerHome to have the same Controller ability as SwitchLinc A, SwitchLinc B and KeypadLinc button 4 in the above Group example. Under today’s hardware abilities it is not possible for PH to send a command to SwitchLinc B to instruct it to send out Group commands as if the paddle on SwitchLinc B has been pressed. There are rumors and speculation that that capability is coming. For now a PLC/PLM Group has to be defined where PH is the controller and SwitchLinc A, SwitchLinc B and KeypadLinc button 4 are responders for PH to control that Group.
EDIT: just changing a bright level at a device does not cause PH to adjust that information in the link definitions. It is not uncommon for folks to change the bright level of a light. You would not want PH to change link definitions every time someone manually changes the Bright level. If you want to make permanent changes to these values, change the link definition information in the Links tab and Save the changes. PH will roll those changes out to the device. Be sure the Enable Pending option is checked; otherwise the changes will remain pending.
EDIT2: If PH would find the load controlled by SwitchlLinc A at a particular Bright level, where would PH apply that information. The Local device information, the SwitchLinc B responder link record or the KeypadLinc button b responder link record. There is no way for PH to know the intent simply by finding that the device Bright level has been changed.
Edited by grif091 - November 09 2008 at 05:31
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tlawjr
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| Posted: November 26 2008 at 22:31 | IP Logged
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Lee G: Thanks for a great explanation of how this works. After setting up a group/scene, I'm still wondering if there is a way to set the lights locally at certain levels, then go back to PH to capture those settings. At that point, the levels are set.
As I understand it so far, a group has to be created and levels set on PH. If the levels are not what is desired, they have to be tweaked on PH.
Am I understanding this correctly?
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grif091
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| Posted: November 26 2008 at 23:23 | IP Logged
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Dave did a post in the following Topic describing how to set the local levels using PH.
http://www.power-home.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1961&PN= 1
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Topic: programming links
