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nospots
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Joined: September 09 2006
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Posts: 1
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| Posted: September 09 2006 at 20:12 | IP Logged
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Hi all, trying out powerhome for its renowned link management and keypad control. The keypadlincs are a hard to understand device. I am not sure I am using the utility right. In my kitchen, I have 5 lights. One controlled by the keypadlinc, 4 by switchlincs. I want to have 6 scenes controlled by the keypadlinc (6 button). The scenes will be various combinations of the 5 lights. I have that working except I cannot control the local load on the keypadlinc with any other button then buttons 1 and 8 (on and off). I also want the other buttons to work in On mode only. Everytime I try and set them to On (not toggle or off) when I read the keypad data back they are stuck in Off. I can change them from toggle to off, but on never sticks. I am confused with all the checkboxes... what do they mean? How do I control the local load on the keypadlinc with buttons 3,4,5,6?
Thanks.
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dhoward
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Joined: June 29 2001
Location: United States
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| Posted: September 16 2006 at 16:13 | IP Logged
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Nospots,
Yes, the KPL is a difficult animal. I'll try to help by explaining a little about what it is and isnt capable of.
In 6 button mode, you would only be capable of a total of 5 scenes. The top and bottom buttons (Group 1, 2 is ignored) are essentially a single group. The top button will turn the group 1 on and the bottom button will turn group 1 off. That leaves the 4 secondary buttons as groups 3,4,5, and 6 for a total of 5 groups (scenes). In 8 button mode, the KPL treats all buttons individually and you can have 8 total groups or scenes.
The secondary buttons CAN be made to control the KPL connected load (what button 1 controls) but CANNOT be made to have different DIM levels (this really sucks BTW). So you can have buttons 3,4,5,and 6 control the load but it will be no different than if you just pressed the main button (whatever dim level the main button uses is what the secondary buttons will use). If you are controlling ANY other light than the connected load, then you can setup various dim levels as you would expect.
You can use the KPL Config Utility to setup intra-button linking. All intra-button linking does is essentially control the main and secondary button status lights. It does not control the load or any other loads...only the button status lights.
If you want to use the main or secondary buttons to control any other secondary button, this can all be accomplished using the KPL config util. If you want to have a secondary button control the MAIN button (remembering that it cant have different DIM levels), then you must create a link AND use the KPL config util.
An example of how all the little checkboxes work. If you are in the Button 3 section and you check the ON checkbox of LED 4,5, and 6, then when you press the 3 button, the lights on buttons 4, 5, and 6 will turn on or off to match the number 3 button. If you instead check the OFF checkbox of LED 4, 5, and 6, then whenever button 3's light turns on, buttons 4,5, and 6 lights will turn off. If you set this up similarly for buttons 4, 5, and 6 where you check the other 3 buttons OFF box, then it will be an XOR group so that anytime you press a button, only 1 of the 4 buttons will be lit. I don't know how useful this is, but it's there.
You can also use the KPL config util to set a button as either toggle, always on, or always off. Because the byte that controls the actual on or off of a button is protected from reading or writing (something I didnt know when I wrote the util), you can't use the util quite like it was intended. The easiest way to use the util to set the button types is to initially start will all buttons set as toggle buttons. Then go to the actual switch and press the secondary buttons to turn on the ones that you wish to change as always on and make sure that the buttons that you want to be as always off have their lights off. Once you've manually set the KPL buttons lights to match the type of button, then go to the KPL config util and change the buttons that are going to be always on or always off from toggle to on. Or you could do off, it doesnt matter as long as it's not toggle. The actual status of the KPL button lights will determine if the button is an always on or always off. Save your changes and your buttons will be configured properly. Keep in mind that the next time you enter the KPL config util, PowerHome wont be able to determine if the button is an always on or always off (that damn protected byte  ), so instead the buttons will all show as either on or off (I cant remember which). The important thing is that it will not show toggle for the always on or always off buttons. I havent gone in to change the util because Im holding out hope that a future firmware update to the KPL will unprotect that one byte.
HTH,
Dave.
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Topic: keypadlincs...
