Insteon PLM Plug-In Version 1.7.2 Beta

[mnsandler]

Hello Mark.

Recently I have purchased 20 plus Insteon devices and have been installing them throughout my large sqft home. I paid & downloaded your Insteon PLM Plug-In Version 1.7.2 Beta software and am not sure if it is installed correctly.

I followed the instruction and cut and pasted the new dll file into the homeseer folder and then rebooted.

Right now I am having issues with homeseer trying to Scheduling Polling. It just keeps doing it over and over every 15 seconds. Below are some of the feed from the log.

Also, other than installing your software is there any other settings or such that I need to amend?

Thanks

Charlie.


8/12/2012 6:58:45 AM - Insteon - Starting Scheduled Polling...
8/12/2012 6:58:45 AM - Insteon - ..Finished Scheduled Polling for 0 devices.
8/12/2012 6:59:00 AM - Insteon - Starting Scheduled Polling...
8/12/2012 6:59:00 AM - Insteon - ..Finished Scheduled Polling for 0 devices.
8/12/2012 6:59:00 AM - Insteon - Starting Scheduled Polling...
8/12/2012 6:59:00 AM - Insteon - ..Finished Scheduled Polling for 0 devices.
8/12/2012 6:59:15 AM - Insteon - Starting Scheduled Polling...
8/12/2012 6:59:15 AM - Insteon - ..Finished Scheduled Polling for 0 devices.
8/12/2012 6:59:15 AM - Insteon - Starting Scheduled Polling...
8/12/2012 6:59:15 AM - Insteon - ..Finished Scheduled Polling for 0 devices[/COLOR].

Everything seems to be working as expected.

The polling msgs are normal for debug mode. Change the debug setting to Normal to eliminate them

[sharrisct25]

So far no good.

Mark,

I have tried disabling pooling and the problem got worse.

I have disabled Media Center, VistaMCE, MC Control, and the BT Connector leaving twitseer, ultraweatherbug, acrf2, sagewebcamxp, Prolifix and your plug-in enabled still.

Despite this we have not seen an improvement in the button response. Do you think I should try disabling the zwave interface? I added a Z-stick recently might that be interfering?

[mnsandler]

Mark,

I have tried disabling pooling and the problem got worse.

I have disabled Media Center, VistaMCE, MC Control, and the BT Connector leaving twitseer, ultraweatherbug, acrf2, sagewebcamxp, Prolifix and your plug-in enabled still.

Despite this we have not seen an improvement in the button response. Do you think I should try disabling the zwave interface? I added a Z-stick recently might that be interfering?

I doubt the zwave is interferring, others have both technologies running just fine.

my guess is there is noise on the line causing this issue.

can you post the comm stats for this device from the plugin Device page . i want to see the Hop data and Msg Quality

[sharrisct25]

Here you go

Testing communications complete for Office Office Light (0D.C6.46)
Ping Results: 11 out of 20 attempts = 55%

Summary of ping responses:
<TABLE border=1 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR><TD>Message Stat</TD><TD>Count</TD><TD>Percentage</TD></TR><TR><TD>1 Hop (Excellent)</TD><TD>11</TD><TD>55%</TD></TR><TR><TD>2 Hops (Good)</TD><TD>0</TD><TD>0%</TD></TR><TR><TD>3 Hops (Poor)</TD><TD>0</TD><TD>0%</TD></TR><TR><TD>Failed</TD><TD>9</TD><TD>45%</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

[sharrisct25]

Here is the whole table

See attached

[mnsandler]

Testing communications complete for Office Office Light (0D.C6.46)
Ping Results: 11 out of 20 attempts = 55%

Summary of ping responses:
<TABLE border=1 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR><TD>Message Stat</TD><TD>Count</TD><TD>Percentage</TD></TR><TR><TD>1 Hop (Excellent)</TD><TD>11</TD><TD>55%</TD></TR><TR><TD>2 Hops (Good)</TD><TD>0</TD><TD>0%</TD></TR><TR><TD>3 Hops (Poor)</TD><TD>0</TD><TD>0%</TD></TR><TR><TD>Failed</TD><TD>9</TD><TD>45%</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

i saw the whole table as well.

so why is the ping test so bad if the msg quality indicates excellent.

i would check the other devices plugged into that same office circuit and see if there is a noisy device plugged.

[sharrisct25]

I did find one thing

Not sure if it will make a difference but I have 2 devices 6 button keypads that have died (started to do the buzz and blink thing) I have not replaced them yet so I just pulled out the reset button and had forgotten to stop polling them on the plug in. I just set them to a 0 poll and I will see if that helps the message reliability. I do not think they are on the same circuit but they are on the same phase.

Past that I think there are only a few items on the same phase, a outletlinc and a dual band insteon wireless module.

[pbibm]

sharrisct25
For me, that buzz blink thing is from wiring problems and associated with older homes where rewiring has been done. It's happened to me twice when

• two breakers feed the same wiring. I have a place in my house where 40 year old wiring met 10 year old wiring and the electrician wired both to the same box. I had the buzz blink there
• If an out let was wired to the panel backwards, hot and neutral are actually reversed from what their colors are. I had a buzz blink there as well.

A plug in power tester will usually show specific or unusual problems when this happens. For what its worth, I have been able to reset and rewire the ones that buzzed/blinked... however the physical switch for the A button quits working.. it causes the buzz blink. If you don't wire it the keypad link can still be used for virtual circuits.

[aviatordave]

Quick question about the LED Brightness settings under "Custom Settings". I see that the default brightness setting is 52. I got the impression that I can change the brightness of the LEDs on devices but when I tried to change a Switchlinc to "0-Lowest" with the aim of turning the LEDs off, nothing changed. Playing with a few other brightness settings yielded no changes either. I tried this with a 6 keypadlinc as well because there is a lot more LED light to see and I'm not positive if there was any change but the differences between 0 and 116 didn't seem that great if there were.

Am I applying this setting the way it's intended and it's just that the range of brightness of the LED's isn't that great or is this setting for something else?

Basically I'd like to be able to shut off the LEDs if it's possible. Is this possible?

-Dave

[mnsandler]

Quick question about the LED Brightness settings under "Custom Settings". I see that the default brightness setting is 52. I got the impression that I can change the brightness of the LEDs on devices but when I tried to change a Switchlinc to "0-Lowest" with the aim of turning the LEDs off, nothing changed. Playing with a few other brightness settings yielded no changes either. I tried this with a 6 keypadlinc as well because there is a lot more LED light to see and I'm not positive if there was any change but the differences between 0 and 116 didn't seem that great if there were.

Am I applying this setting the way it's intended and it's just that the range of brightness of the LED's isn't that great or is this setting for something else?

Basically I'd like to be able to shut off the LEDs if it's possible. Is this possible?

-Dave

there should be an Op Flag for disabling the LED altogether. setting the brightness all the way down should be the minimum dim but not off.

can you tell me the 4 digit devicetype code from the insteon.ini of the devices you are testing. I'll check/test. This is all pretty basic/common functionality between the devices.

[jdntx]

LED on/off/brightness

I came here to post about a FanLinc issue, but I might be able to provide some more info on the LED brightness. I've noticed the same thing, and it is only with certain switches.

Dave, I'll attach a VB script I wrote that runs every day at sunrise to turn the LEDs off and at sunset to turn the LEDs on. There are also some lines commented out where I was experimenting with the brightness, but not all of my switches respond to that command, which I assume is the issue that you're talking about as well. However, turning them on and off (Program Op Flags) is different from setting the brightness (Program Settings), and all of my switches seem to at least let me turn them off.

Mark, here are some of the details I've noticed about the brightness:

- I have some 2476D switches, v5.31 and v5.60, FW 40/i2 and they do not respond to the brightness setting from your plugin. However, they can be dimmed using the set button and the paddle on the switch itself. [DeviceType=0119]

- All of my FW 41/i2CS switches are settable using the plugin, plus some of my dual-band 2477D switches that are still on FW 40/i2. The key here appears to be that even though they aren't FW 41, they are above v6.0. [DeviceType=0120,0130,021C]

- I have a couple of v5.9 KeypadLincs that are FW 40 and the brightness can be set on them as well. [DeviceType=011B]

- The relays [021C] have a different brightness scale from the dimmers. Not sure why, but the minimum brightness of the dimmers (0 on the dropdown, value=11) seems to be much brighter than the minimum of the relays. I estimated the equivalent relay brightness to be around 160 if I'm trying to make them match. Your plugin has the minimum dim value set at 11 for dimmers, but through code I can set it down to 1 and they actually can get much dimmer. Not sure if there's a reason that's not allowed or not.

I've got all of the brightness combinations commented in my script if you want to use that to test with your own switches. The one I'm using is 254 (value=255) for relays and 89 (value=100) for dimmers. This seems to make all of the switches match, including those that can't be set. If I could set the older dimmers, I might use the second combo of 160 and 11. Since I can't post attachments, here it is:

' Set up event to call SetLedState("On") or SetLedState("Off")
Sub SetLedState(state)
    Dim insteon, value, devices, device
    insteon = hs.plugin("Insteon")
    value = IIf(state = "Off", 1, 0)
    devices = hs.GetDeviceEnumerator
    While Not devices.Finished
        device = devices.GetNext
        If device.interface = "Insteon" And InStr(device.dev_type_string, "SwitchLinc") > 0 Then
            insteon.TriggerAction("" & Chr(2) & "" & Chr(2) & "8" & Chr(2) & device.hc & device.dc & Chr(2) & "LED" & Chr(2) & value)
            If value = 0 Then
                If InStr(device.dev_type_string, "Relay") > 0 Then
                    'insteon.TriggerAction("" & Chr(2) & "" & Chr(2) & "7" & Chr(2) & device.hc & device.dc & Chr(2) & "LEDBrightness" & Chr(2) & CStr(255)) ' (254)
                    'insteon.TriggerAction("" & Chr(2) & "" & Chr(2) & "7" & Chr(2) & device.hc & device.dc & Chr(2) & "LEDBrightness" & Chr(2) & CStr(160)) ' Match to minimum dimmer brightness allowed by plugin (159)
                    'insteon.TriggerAction("" & Chr(2) & "" & Chr(2) & "7" & Chr(2) & device.hc & device.dc & Chr(2) & "LEDBrightness" & Chr(2) & CStr(0)) ' Maximum allowed by plugin (255)
                    'insteon.TriggerAction("" & Chr(2) & "" & Chr(2) & "7" & Chr(2) & device.hc & device.dc & Chr(2) & "LEDBrightness" & Chr(2) & CStr(1)) ' Minimum brightness via code
                Else
                    'insteon.TriggerAction("" & Chr(2) & "" & Chr(2) & "7" & Chr(2) & device.hc & device.dc & Chr(2) & "LEDBrightness" & Chr(2) & CStr(100)) ' (89)
                    'insteon.TriggerAction("" & Chr(2) & "" & Chr(2) & "7" & Chr(2) & device.hc & device.dc & Chr(2) & "LEDBrightness" & Chr(2) & CStr(11)) ' Minimum allowed by plugin (0)
                    'insteon.TriggerAction("" & Chr(2) & "" & Chr(2) & "7" & Chr(2) & device.hc & device.dc & Chr(2) & "LEDBrightness" & Chr(2) & CStr(127)) ' Maximum allowed by plugin (116)
                    'insteon.TriggerAction("" & Chr(2) & "" & Chr(2) & "7" & Chr(2) & device.hc & device.dc & Chr(2) & "LEDBrightness" & Chr(2) & CStr(1)) ' Minimum brightness via code
                End If
            End If
        End If
    End While
    insteon = Nothing
End Sub

Hope that's helpful to someone.

[mnsandler]

jdntx,

thanks for the details.

FWIW, i use the same dimming code on all switchlinc dimmer devices. I track devices at the devicetype and firmware level only. so different hw versions are not accounted for.

SH isn't consistent with the led dimming ranges and scales on relays.

i don't have a devicetype 0119 fw 40 to test. But it doesn't surprise me that the led dimming works via the physical buttons and not my code. probably just a fw bug that was never caught.

[aviatordave]

The Op flag toggle worked fine. LEDs went off with no problem. I'm not sure how to find the 4 digit devicetype code you're looking for from the insteon.ini (I'm still new at this but I'm learning!) The switches are 2476DAL and 2477DAL and seem to be a mix of i2CS and i2 protocols. The keypad is a 2487S, i2 protocol. All ordered at the same time so I'm not sure why the mix of protocols shows up . . . but they all work fine so I'm not concerned about it.

jdntx - Thank you for the VB script. That could come in quite handy if I can figure out how to plug it in to HS. My programming experience ended in college back in the 90's however, with a firm grasp of BASIC. Sadly, not VB, just B. I see a lot of people talking about setting up scripts in HS but I don't have the foggiest idea of where to set something like that up. Can anybody point me towards a post/thread/etc that gives some basic info about setting up a script in HS?

Thanks for all your help! I'm continually impressed with Insteon, this forum and HS and the people who support all of it!
-Dave

[jdntx]

The device type is in the Insteon.ini file in HomeSeer's config folder. It would look something like this:

[Device 2]
DeviceID=12.34.56
DeviceName=KeypadLinc
DeviceLocation=Living Room
DeviceType=011B
FirmwareVer=40
PollingInterval=0
Protocol=2

To run the script on an event, there should be a "Run Script" option when you go to the Action tab when creating the event. You can either pick from scripts you've already written, or you can create a new one. Just enter a name for it in the "Existing or new script name" field, click on the "Open Script Window" button, paste the script in and save, and then you can set the parameters. For instance, to use my script to turn off the LEDs on all SwitchLincs, you'd set the "Optional parameters" field to:
("SetLedState", "Off")

However, I noticed when walking through this example that there's a new script action I didn't see before. Maybe it's new to the 1.6 or 1.7 version of the plugin? You can pick "Insteon Actions" and it has options for setting OpFlags and Settings. Of course, if you have lots of switches my script would be easier than having to set up an action for every Insteon device separately, but it's nice to have a quick and easy way to do it without a script.

I'm new to all of this too, and I've been evaluating all the options like X10, ZWave, Insteon, and different ways to control it. I went with almost all Insteon except for a few things like thermostats and door locks. I've received a mixture of protocols/firmwares on the Insteon devices as well. Luckily I got into it after they already had the i2CS version of the modem, which is the main thing. Some of the keypads that I just ordered are still i2, so I guess they still have old inventory that can get shipped out. As far as I can tell, things are backward-compatible so it shouldn't be a problem.

Mark, a side note on the scripting... I had started with the old 1.4 Insteon plugin and was using a different method (TransmitDeviceCommand) to toggle the LEDs. Then I found the new plugin and the methods changed, so I had to use TriggerAction. I think there was a private method called SetOpFlags or something like that, but I couldn't call it from the script. So I used Reflector to track down what it was doing. In a future version it would be nice to have public methods execute all of the "Insteon Actions" in the event actions because my current method of doing it would break if you changed how those internal methods work.

[aviatordave]

Ahh! *That* .ini file. :-l

Mark, the devicetype = 0120 for the Switchlinc and the Keypadlinc = 021E. There *MAY have been some change between 0 and 116 with the keypad light level but if there was, it was pretty hard to discern. That may just be a property of the LEDs . . . limited dim range . . .

For somebody who professes to be somewhat computer savvy, I feel a little silly not having found that right away. I had done a search of the C drive for *Insteon.ini" and nothing was returned, oddly enough. Ah well. I'm going to chalk it up to raising twin two year olds. There is a certain amount of drain on your brain that comes with this.

Anyway, jdntx, thanks for the tutorial. I'll play around with it and see what I can come up with. I've got a scant amount of other stuff plugged into HS as well. Zwave and RFXCOM. I like the Insteon stuff the most so far. I think it's that the devices communicate through the wiring as well as RF for the dual band stuff that makes the system so much more reliable. (no offense to those Zwave fans out there, I'm sure there are plenty of you who have great, solid Zwave networks) This whole home automation thing started for me because I wanted to control the ambient temperature of a room based on the water temperature of the pool in that same room. no Insteon controls there, ironically. Once that HA bug bites though . . . there seems to be a constant drive to move forward. Some times I feel like a bit of an addict the way my wife rolls her eyes at the things I suggest to automate. Fortunately she enjoys the benefits so I get some slack on most things, but then there's the conversations like this: "But Honey! Think how cool it would be to have an RFID chip on the mailbox door! We'd know *Exactly* when the mail arrived!!" Her:"So this is why we need to run low voltage power out to the mail box???"

I'm getting way off track for this forum. Sorry Mark. Keep up the good work!

-Dave