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UpstateMike
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Joined: February 18 2006
Location: United States
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| Posted: September 10 2006 at 11:37 | IP Logged
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I am looking for a way to keep Insteon keypadlinc buttons in sync with the switches they control and I am wondering if there is a way to do it in PowerHome? The problem is that when a SwitchLinc Timer V2 expires and shuts off or when a PC sends a direct command to a switch, the associated KeypadLinc button does not get updated.
What I would like to do is poll all switches that are linked to a keypadlinc button every couple of seconds to verify that they are in sync. In cases where more than one switch is linked to a keypadlinc button, I want the button to be ON unless ALL of the associated switches are off. So if I press the keypadlinc button that is supposed to shut off three switches and one of the switches fails to acknowledge that it turned off, then the keypadlinc button should stay on (or go back on) to indicate that at least one linked switch is still on.
I don't need to poll every Insteon device I have, just the ones linked to keypadlinc buttons (maybe 50 or so). They would need to be checked at least once every couple of seconds; otherwise I will already have walked away from the keypadlinc before the true status is displayed.
Is this something that PowerHome can already do?
Edited by UpstateMike - September 10 2006 at 21:54
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dhoward
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Joined: June 29 2001
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| Posted: September 15 2006 at 22:44 | IP Logged
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Mike,
Ive seen your post on other forums and some of the other answers and it appears that most have not fully read or understood your question  .
First things first, this definately cannot be done with a pure Insteon solution. You would first cross-link your KPL buttons to the controlled lights but due to the way Insteon works, as soon as a remote switch is switched off, the KPL button would also go off regardless of the settings of the other switches. This has always been what I thought was one of the flaws in the Insteon design. However, it would be difficult to overcome without having a lot more intelligence built into each individual switch.
That being said, you should be able to accomplish it one of two ways. Both ways would require some external intelligent Insteon monitor such as PowerHome or similar home automation package. The first method would be as you describe. Do what you can with cross-linking and then have PowerHome or similar perform status requests to appropriately set the KPL buttons. You could perform the status checking in real-time or you could rely upon stored transaction history within your automation system. Depending upon the number of linked switches, it may take several seconds to status request each switch (especially dependant upon other background traffic). Im not sure about other software, but PowerHome would have a little trouble with this since there is not currently a command that performs a status request and waits for the appropriate response. You can easily send a status request command from PowerHome but it doesnt wait to see if the response comes back or not.
So to use method 1 with PowerHome, you would be better off trying to go on stored status history. You would need to create triggers driving off of every switch and KPL button and have a macro that is called to evaluate the stored status of involved switches and appropriately set the KPL button. This should solve the problem of keeping the KPL button on if any light is on but won't really address the problem of the KPL turning off the lights and a remote switch missing the communication and staying on. PowerHome stored status would think the light is off so you would have to send a status request for each switch, wait an appropriate amount of time and then try again. Definately kludgy. This would also have to be the method if using the TimerLinc (or whatever it's called  ) since in another post you indicated that it sends no Insteon traffic when it shuts off.
The second method which is really not much different from the first, would be to completely rely upon PowerHome or similar for proper control. Basically, you wouldnt create links between switch and would only create links between the PLC and the switches. You would then use triggers to control all the lights appropriately. You would have to have incoming triggers for the KPL and remote switches as well as outgoing triggers on the switches to monitor direct commands. You would still have the same problems with the TimerLinc requiring a status request and missed communications.
If you wanted to do the status request using PowerHome, it can be done. You would create a macro and send the status request to each device involved. Just after the last status request, you would go into a loop with a wait command and query the laststatus update column of the last device in your status request list. When the date is updated, you know that all the status requests have been performed and you can break out of the loop and perform the required KPL control.
Nothing seems to be easy or an elegant solution and I don't believe any system would be able to handle this much better.
Hope this helps a little,
Dave.
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PowerHome Messageboard : PowerHome Feature Requests
Topic: Synchronizing KeypadLincs
