Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

New Home Construction, All Insteon outlets/switches, few getting started questions

Collapse
This topic is closed.
X
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    New Home Construction, All Insteon outlets/switches, few getting started questions

    Hello, i am in the final stages of my new home construction. I opted to go for almost entirely insteon outlets and wall switches plus fanlincs for 3 master bedroom ceiling fans. This last weekend i setup my hometroller S6 for the first time and started to bring in the light switches. I have now realized that i used the homeseer insteon plugin and should have used Marks so my next plan is to reset my hometroller and start fresh with the correct plugin. The questions i have are around linking/grouping.

    Are there clear advantages to linking switches directly from the hardware versus doing a software link? Currently i have multiple 3 ways and a single 4 way location. I have all of the 3 way linked at the device and they seemed to work well. I could not for the life of me get the multi linking portion of the 4 way to work, they just wouldnt link all together. All 3 of the 4way switches were already loaded into homeseer so i tried the software link method of linking switch A to switch B, Switch B to Switch C and then Switch C back to A...it worked for about an hour and a half with a 2-5 second delay when touching switch B or C....then it all went to hell and the lights started looping themselves...switch A would turn on and then switch B would turn off and it just kept looping the lights on and off. Disabled the software link and just have a single dimmer controlling these particular lights but would like to get the other two pads in sync.

    #2
    Welcome the the forum. Congrats on the new house and insteon implementation.

    My suggestion is to build and manage all the links via the plugin. the plugin should read existing manually created links and report them out so you can revise them via the plugin later.

    for the record, manually created links and links created via the plugin can look a little different even if they perform the same function.

    i'm not sure why you are getting a loop; that shouldn't happen. in this case. factor reset those affected devices and start clean.
    Mark

    HS3 Pro 4.2.19.5
    Hardware: Insteon Serial PLM | AD2USB for Vista Alarm | HAI Omnistat2 | 1-Wire HA7E | RFXrec433 | Dahua Cameras | LiftMaster Internet Gateway | Tuya Smart Plugs
    Plugins: Insteon (mine) | Vista Alarm (mine) | Omnistat 3 | Ultra1Wire3 | RFXCOM | HS MyQ | BLRadar | BLDenon | Tuya | Jon00 Charting | Jon00 Links
    Platform: Windows Server 2022 Standard, i5-12600K/3.7GHz/10 core, 16GB RAM, 500GB SSD

    Comment


      #3
      Thanks so much for your response Mark. If you had time and could answer two more questions that would be awesome!

      1. Knowing that i have some manual links created, and i am going to reset homeseer to start fresh with your plugin, should i need to also factory reset all of my switches or should i be good to leave as they are and bring into the fresh homeseer instance?

      2. I currently have one of the insteon USB powerline adapters hooked up to the hometroller...is that the best option i should be using? I also have a new insteon Hub(would the hub be redundant with the powerline usb adapter?)that i havent installed yet but did read that you mentioned the serial adapter is the most reliable?

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by alaskan84 View Post
        Thanks so much for your response Mark. If you had time and could answer two more questions that would be awesome!

        1. Knowing that i have some manual links created, and i am going to reset homeseer to start fresh with your plugin, should i need to also factory reset all of my switches or should i be good to leave as they are and bring into the fresh homeseer instance?

        2. I currently have one of the insteon USB powerline adapters hooked up to the hometroller...is that the best option i should be using? I also have a new insteon Hub(would the hub be redundant with the powerline usb adapter?)that i havent installed yet but did read that you mentioned the serial adapter is the most reliable?
        1. If the links are working, you should be fine to leave them. when you register the device in the plugin, the plugin will read all the links.

        2. The newer USB PLMs are more reliable than before. if you don't have a physical serial port please don't worry about using a serial PLM. Please don't bother with a usb to serial adapter--that is basically what the usb plm has built in so there is no real advantage to using a serial plm with an outboard adapter--just use the usb plm.

        The hub allows one to deploy the interface away from the homeseer server but its not as fast when returning status and inbound messages to homeseer as the PLMs.

        In general, my recommendation is to plug in the insteon interface close to the service panel(s). If you can easily colocate your USB PLM and your hometroller S6 near the service panel, that would be my recommendation for your setup.

        ps. the plugin doesn't support two insteon controllers so you can't connect a plm and hub to the plugin
        Last edited by mnsandler; February 26, 2018, 03:32 PM. Reason: ps. the plugin doesn't support two insteon controllers so you can't connect a plm and hub to the plugin
        Mark

        HS3 Pro 4.2.19.5
        Hardware: Insteon Serial PLM | AD2USB for Vista Alarm | HAI Omnistat2 | 1-Wire HA7E | RFXrec433 | Dahua Cameras | LiftMaster Internet Gateway | Tuya Smart Plugs
        Plugins: Insteon (mine) | Vista Alarm (mine) | Omnistat 3 | Ultra1Wire3 | RFXCOM | HS MyQ | BLRadar | BLDenon | Tuya | Jon00 Charting | Jon00 Links
        Platform: Windows Server 2022 Standard, i5-12600K/3.7GHz/10 core, 16GB RAM, 500GB SSD

        Comment


          #5
          Thanks again for your timely response Mark. I have a nice large network rack in my utility room adjacent to my fuse panel. I have my hometroller as well as the USB PLM central to the rack so i'll probably leave that configuration alone.

          Looking forward to getting started with your plugin this evening. I basically hit a roadblock with the free insteon homeseer plugin once i had a set of switches added and then was stuck trying to figure out how to create groups which i believe isnt even possible in the plugin i have currently.

          Comment


            #6
            Sounds good. If you have comm issues you may need to add insteon filters to your rack. You don't want that equipment corrupting the plm and insteon messages. Good luck with it all.

            I have plm plm on a dedicated circuit
            Mark

            HS3 Pro 4.2.19.5
            Hardware: Insteon Serial PLM | AD2USB for Vista Alarm | HAI Omnistat2 | 1-Wire HA7E | RFXrec433 | Dahua Cameras | LiftMaster Internet Gateway | Tuya Smart Plugs
            Plugins: Insteon (mine) | Vista Alarm (mine) | Omnistat 3 | Ultra1Wire3 | RFXCOM | HS MyQ | BLRadar | BLDenon | Tuya | Jon00 Charting | Jon00 Links
            Platform: Windows Server 2022 Standard, i5-12600K/3.7GHz/10 core, 16GB RAM, 500GB SSD

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by mnsandler View Post
              Sounds good. If you have comm issues you may need to add insteon filters to your rack. You don't want that equipment corrupting the plm and insteon messages. Good luck with it all.

              I have plm plm on a dedicated circuit
              You mentioned Insteon switches. I started off with either Lutron or Insteon ZWave switches sold at Home Depot. I mention this because the switches I was using didn't have instant status. Maybe biting the bullet and installing HS Switches off the bat would be in order.

              Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by tome10 View Post
                You mentioned Insteon switches. I started off with either Lutron or Insteon ZWave switches sold at Home Depot. I mention this because the switches I was using didn't have instant status. Maybe biting the bullet and installing HS Switches off the bat would be in order.

                Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
                Wait, are you guys talking about communicating switches other than zwave?

                Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by tome10 View Post
                  You mentioned Insteon switches. I started off with either Lutron or Insteon ZWave switches sold at Home Depot. I mention this because the switches I was using didn't have instant status. Maybe biting the bullet and installing HS Switches off the bat would be in order.

                  Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
                  Insteon switches are the same no matter where you buy them.

                  If you have a different issue, please start a new thread.
                  Mark

                  HS3 Pro 4.2.19.5
                  Hardware: Insteon Serial PLM | AD2USB for Vista Alarm | HAI Omnistat2 | 1-Wire HA7E | RFXrec433 | Dahua Cameras | LiftMaster Internet Gateway | Tuya Smart Plugs
                  Plugins: Insteon (mine) | Vista Alarm (mine) | Omnistat 3 | Ultra1Wire3 | RFXCOM | HS MyQ | BLRadar | BLDenon | Tuya | Jon00 Charting | Jon00 Links
                  Platform: Windows Server 2022 Standard, i5-12600K/3.7GHz/10 core, 16GB RAM, 500GB SSD

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by mnsandler View Post
                    Sounds good. If you have comm issues you may need to add insteon filters to your rack. You don't want that equipment corrupting the plm and insteon messages. Good luck with it all.

                    I have plm plm on a dedicated circuit

                    Are you referring to just the plug in Insteon filterlincs? would you think other network equipment in the rack could potentially cause comm issues? Currently i have my PLM plugged into the same rack PDU as the hometroller but i could plug the PLM into a dedicated wall outlet if that would be better?

                    I also had the electricians install a signal linc phase coupler in the fuse panel....but i honestly didn't quite understand what its purpose was but i was thinking it could help the signal throughout the house...

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Originally posted by alaskan84 View Post
                      Are you referring to just the plug in Insteon filterlincs? would you think other network equipment in the rack could potentially cause comm issues? Currently i have my PLM plugged into the same rack PDU as the hometroller but i could plug the PLM into a dedicated wall outlet if that would be better?

                      I also had the electricians install a signal linc phase coupler in the fuse panel....but i honestly didn't quite understand what its purpose was but i was thinking it could help the signal throughout the house...
                      Yes, the filterlincs.

                      give the system a try as-is but you might just move the PLM to the dedicated outlet to avoid the issue all together; i would.

                      the signlinc bridges the two service legs so messages can travel between them. Dual-band devices are supposed to make this obsolete but there are still insteon devices out there that are powerline only.
                      Mark

                      HS3 Pro 4.2.19.5
                      Hardware: Insteon Serial PLM | AD2USB for Vista Alarm | HAI Omnistat2 | 1-Wire HA7E | RFXrec433 | Dahua Cameras | LiftMaster Internet Gateway | Tuya Smart Plugs
                      Plugins: Insteon (mine) | Vista Alarm (mine) | Omnistat 3 | Ultra1Wire3 | RFXCOM | HS MyQ | BLRadar | BLDenon | Tuya | Jon00 Charting | Jon00 Links
                      Platform: Windows Server 2022 Standard, i5-12600K/3.7GHz/10 core, 16GB RAM, 500GB SSD

                      Comment


                        #12
                        So Ive reset my s6, setup your plugin and added the first switch in the utility room. it took multiple attempts to read each database entry for remote links and then eventually failed with the message the link table could not be read...does this indicate a comm issue? I'm going to reset this switch, and try programming it for homeseer once more then I will try moving my plm...

                        Comment


                          #13
                          So after resetting the switch it again failed configuration with the plugin. I was able to see it read some links and at least one was invalid...so I removed the links in the plugin which seemed successful and then deleted the switch and when I added it back it had only 3 links and programmed successfully....second switch is giving me the same story so it's almost like I need to bring them into homeseer, clear their links and the add them again...I would have thought doing the factory reset would remove any links but maybe I messed up the first process....second one seemed to just add now after the factory reset so it'll probably be best for me to reset each switch before adding back

                          Comment


                            #14
                            One last question for tonight....when linking two devices in the plugin, I configured the first switch to be linked to the second switch and selected cross link. The behavior is great with both switch's in sync yet in the software I only see cross links with switch a...switch b has no visible links to switch a...should I need to link a to b, and then specifically b back to a or is that happening automatically?

                            Comment


                              #15
                              I just wanted to say thanks and that it's all making a little more sense creating links now that I'm using your plugin for a few hours..the first couple switches I was fully resetting them like a first born child in cloth diapers...by the fourth switch I've figured out that I can just add it, and then program for homeseer and usually just delete one bad link...disposable diaper style haha..I'm probably not going to get to my tricky 4 way until tomorrow night but I'm hoping to have my entire first floor lights working tonight

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X