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GadgetGuy
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Posted: August 07 2009 at 08:41 | IP Logged Quote GadgetGuy

The ovehead lights in my home theater normally turn on/off with a 0.5 sec ramp rate, for normal lighting control.

However, for theater presentations I want these lights to ramp on and off at a very slow rate (say 30 seconds).

I have not been able to discover a way to have these two widely different actions, but am sure it exists.

Anyone have any pointers?

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grif091
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Posted: August 07 2009 at 10:48 | IP Logged Quote grif091

Assuming the responder has the ability to have its ramp rate set, the “D Ramp” column of the responder link is the “Desired Ramp” rate.   Set this to the ramp rate you want the controller to have when the controller paddle/button etc. is pressed.   The Bright level and Ramp rate are stored in the responder device link record which makes it possible for every link to a responder to have a different Bright Level and Ramp Rate.

Dave posted a good explanation of the D Ramp and A Ramp columns under
http://www.power-home.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1961&PN= 1
toward the bottom of the topic.


Edited by grif091 - August 07 2009 at 10:50


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GadgetGuy
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Posted: August 07 2009 at 12:05 | IP Logged Quote GadgetGuy

Thanks Lee.

I should have been more specific. I already have the ramp times (Desired & Actual) set to 24 (8.5 seconds) but the lights are coming on in about 1 second.

They are 'triggered' by an IR command from my remote that fires off a macro called 'showtime' and 'showend'. That macro contains immediate Insteon commands of the form...

where the command on line 10 turns on a background light at a dimmed level and the command at line 20 turns off the room light.

On the Links tab in Insteon Explorer I set the two lights in the image above to be responders of the PLM and set their Desired Ramp Rate to be "24". It shows that way in the "Actual" cell, but the lights are not responding that way!   

Ken B

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grif091
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Posted: August 07 2009 at 12:16 | IP Logged Quote grif091

The ramp rate does not apply to an Insteon Direct command that you are issuing from the Macro. You must define a PLM Group, which makes the PLM the controller and the desired switch(s) as the responder, setting the ramp rate on those links to the desired value. Then use the Insteon Group command to control the device(s).

EDIT: the ramp rate is stored in the "responder to" link record which is referenced by the responder device only when a Group command is received that matches the link record. A responder device does not look at the link database when a Direct command is received. A search of the link database requires a Group number which is not present in a Direct command. A Direct command can control the bright level with the value in the cmd2 field but has no means of controlling/specifing the ramp rate with a Direct command.

Edited by grif091 - August 07 2009 at 13:57


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GadgetGuy
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Posted: August 17 2009 at 19:39 | IP Logged Quote GadgetGuy

Lee -

I never said "thanks." Your response solved the problem for me.

I now have nice slow 30 second lighting transitions for the home theater.   

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Brandon
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Posted: January 01 2010 at 14:54 | IP Logged Quote Brandon

grif091 wrote:
The ramp rate does not apply to an Insteon Direct command that you are issuing from the Macro. You must define a PLM Group, which makes the PLM the controller and the desired switch(s) as the responder, setting the ramp rate on those links to the desired value. Then use the Insteon Group command to control the device(s).


Can I set the ramp rate on the links to a desired value via a macro command?

Is the only way to modify the ramp rate for a device within a Insteon group is to manually change it via the Insteon Explorer -> Links page?

Thanks,
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grif091
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Posted: January 01 2010 at 15:11 | IP Logged Quote grif091

The link information resides in the PowerHome database so it probably can be changed with SQL but I could not begin to tell you how. Also you would have to find a way to initiate the background task to update the link database in the device itself.

If you are looking for a way to dynamically change the ramp rate of a specific device in a group definition that is probably not an effective way. You would not have any way of knowing when the device link database had been updated.


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Brandon
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Posted: January 01 2010 at 17:00 | IP Logged Quote Brandon

grif091 wrote:

If you are looking for a way to dynamically change the ramp rate of a specific device in a group definition that is probably not an effective way. You would not have any way of knowing when the device link database had been updated.


Yes, I am trying to dynamically control the ramprate. I will, however, only be having 1 lamplinc module per PLC/PLM group.

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grif091
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Posted: January 01 2010 at 18:14 | IP Logged Quote grif091

I do not recommend this but you can write the ramp rate value in the link record directly. It requires that you know the location of the link record in the responder device. The Insteon Direct command sequence would be ...

Set MSB - 0x28 - to establish the high order memory address
Peek - 0x2B - to establish the low order memory address
Poke - 0x29 - to write the new value in the memory location

The first link record starts at 0FF8 with the ramp rate located at 0FFE. Link records are 8 bytes long starting at the upper address and decrementing by 8. 0FF8, 0FF0, 0FE8, 0FE0 etc.

After the link record is changed Group commands using that link record will use the new value.

If the link database is changed such that the desired link record is located in a different location you would be changing the wrong link record.

Edited by grif091 - January 01 2010 at 18:16


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Brandon
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Posted: January 02 2010 at 15:17 | IP Logged Quote Brandon

grif091 wrote:
The Insteon Direct command sequence would be ...


I appreciate the info on the Insteon Direct command sequence. There are many moving parts to the project I am working on, and the ability to dynamically control the ramprate is lagniappe.

I will look back into, after I get further along. So far, I am very happy I stumbled across PowerHome and look forward to it helping me fulfill my New Year's Resolution of getting a lot of these half-complete projects done.   
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Posted: May 07 2010 at 09:09 | IP Logged Quote mchome

I can't figure out how to set a slower ramp rate for a timed event, searched the forum and came accross this thread.

I opened the links tab and changed the appropriate responder D ramp linked with the PLM but see no change. I think what I'm missing is how to issue a group command from the timed event instead of direct, but the explanation above isn't detailed enough (for a newbie like me at least).

I'm using a raw script of ph_insteon("KEYPADLINC1",17,255) to activate the device at sunset. How do I set the ramp rate to say 19 or so? Can someone walk me through how to accomplish this seemingly simple task?

Edited by mchome - May 07 2010 at 09:17
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grif091
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Posted: May 07 2010 at 10:23 | IP Logged Quote grif091

You are using an Insteon Direct command which does not use link formation. The Ramp rate cannot be altered using a Direct command.

A link from the PLM as a Controller to the KeypadLinc as a Responder is required. Sounds like you already have that link defined. Using the PLC/PLM Groups tab assign a Group ID that references the Group number of the PLM to KeypadLinc link. Then use the ph_insteongroup function specifying the PLC/PLM Group ID you defined. The link that you have (or will establish) will be used for this command and the Bright Level and Ramp rate in the Responder link record will control the Bright Level and Ramp rate.


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mchome
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Posted: May 11 2010 at 10:32 | IP Logged Quote mchome

That did it! Thank you!
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