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bhlonewolf
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| Posted: December 23 2007 at 14:09 | IP Logged
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I tried searching the forums but couldn't find an answer:
Is there a way to change the state of a KPL button without doing it through a PLC group? I'm trying to write a few macros and without this functionality, it would eat up a lot of PLC groups (4 for each 6-button KPL, 7 for each 8-button KPL). It would be great to tell the KPL to update a certain button! :)
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cmhardwick
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| Posted: December 24 2007 at 10:04 | IP Logged
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I believe Dave mentioned you can use the cleanup function, but I'm not sure how to. I never looked further into it. ph_cleanup or something similar. The KPL and the buttons have to be in a group and then you specify the button or soemthing along those lines. Working from memory long ago  I'll hunt the post up as it was in response to a question I posed along the same lines.
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cmhardwick
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| Posted: December 24 2007 at 10:11 | IP Logged
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Ok, found it.
From Dave:
Quote:
What you need to be able to do is via groups, be able to select what command the device should respond to be that On, Fast On, or Off and then have a command to "trigger" the group. Alas, this is not in the Insteon protocol.
The best you can do here is to use PowerHome to accomplish what you want rather than linking. Then when you press the appropriate button, the links will set the light levels, PowerHome will fire a trigger and then cleanup the KPL button levels.
I'll use this space to highlight a little known feature of PowerHome. Creating special groups like this in the PLC will tend to eat up your available PLC groups fairly quickly. To work around certain Insteon limitations, I people are creating alot of 1 device groups so that they can achieve things like multiple ramprates for turning on a single device. PowerHome has a function (ph_insteongroupcu) which allows you to send just the Group Cleanup message of a group. What this means is that you could setup groups with lots of multiple devices and then just control individual members of that group rather than the entire group. Say you want the ability to turn your lights on remotely at a slower ramprate than is set locally. Say you want this ability on every light in your house. If you've got 50 devices, then this would eat up 50 of your available PLC groups. However, you could do this with 1 group by putting every device in this group with the desired ramprate and then controlling individual devices with the ph_insteongroupcu command rather than controlling the entire group with the ph_insteongroup function.
Please note that if you start using this technique that devices controlled with the ph_insteongroupcu command will not reflect the correct status in the Device Status screen (PowerHome 1.03.4.9 and earlier). This has been fixed in the upcoming version.
Hope this helps,
Dave.
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As you can see, you still have a group, but just one BIG group for you KPLS, with all the buttons in it for each KPL. I haven't tried this so I don't know the format of the command or anything. Let us know what you find when testing it. I could use it on some of mine as well. (like when you have a "scene" that turns some lights on and others off and you want to keep the KPL buttons in sync)
Edited by cmhardwick - December 24 2007 at 10:15
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bhlonewolf
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| Posted: December 24 2007 at 10:34 | IP Logged
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Hmmm interesting -- I think this will work (I'll give it a try). However, I'm also wondering if there's a way to read the current status of a KPL button?
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bhlonewolf
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| Posted: December 24 2007 at 15:27 | IP Logged
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OK, unfortunately I can't figure out how to get this to work, either (at least not while saving any groups).
What I'm trying to do is write a "cleanup" function for my KPLs. The problem I'm having is that, on a couple of the buttons, there's a tendency for the buttons to not update despite being all linked. I believe this happens because people (including myself) tend to hit multiple buttons at the same time. So, in my case, I guess I could do the group cleanup by having 1 group for each button, and put all the buttons on each individual KPL in the same group. This would probably cut down on the groups by a few...
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bhlonewolf
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| Posted: December 26 2007 at 11:01 | IP Logged
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Ah, I get it now...
What I can do is create a group for each KPL button, and then put each button from all the KPLs in that group. (What you said :)) So no matter how many KPLs I have, it would use 8 groups. (Actually, with load, only 7...)
Still seems like I should be able to turn on/off a button programmatically without, but this is at least a decent workaround.
Edited by bhlonewolf - December 26 2007 at 11:02
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cmhardwick
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| Posted: December 26 2007 at 13:14 | IP Logged
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I agree. Do you have to make a group for each button? Can you just put all KPLs in one group with a link for each button on each KPL, that way it's just one group.
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bhlonewolf
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| Posted: December 26 2007 at 18:52 | IP Logged
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Yep, I believe you need a group for each button (except for load, so up to 7, or 4 if they are all in 6 button mode). Then you can just send cleanups as required... I only have 3 and perhaps 4 KPLs, so really the question is more theoretical, but I really thought there was a way to send a command to a KPL to change a button state ... hmmm ...
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cmhardwick
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| Posted: December 26 2007 at 21:49 | IP Logged
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From what Dave said, it would be NICE if it was possible, but apparently, at the time of the posting, it's not part of the protocol 
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