Assistance Needed In Programming 2342-222 Mini Remote

[CGarcia]

Greetings, I'm new to Insteon (and this forum) and kindly request assistance programming a 2342-222 mini remote if possible. I have installed a dimmer module (2457D2) behind 2 movie poster marquees I have in my "home theater." Using my Android device and the hub app, I created a scene controlling both marquee lights so that upon activation, the lights turn on and immediately start to dim at a set ramp rate/second until the lights are off, giving the impression that the show is about to start. This works well when I use my phone or tablet to activate the scene, but I would like to be able to turn the created scene on/off via an 8-scene mini remote (2342-222). I have read-up on the documentation that came with the devices, but I cannot find anywhere how to program the mini remote to turn on/off a scene created with the app. Can this be done? Thanks in advance.

[KSanger]

I too have this problem though with the 4 button mini remote. It does not appear to be compatible with Android. I had to use scenes in android to have two switches control two lights whenever either switch was turned on or off. Once I programmed a switch to be controlled by another switch I could not then program it to be a controller. Now I bought a 4 button mini remote and would like to turn these same lights on and off. But without support in the android app I don't know how to program the switch to turn the android scene on and off?

[ricketyca]

I have also just acquired a Hub, some dimmers etc and a mini remote. Although the mini-remote box clearly says it "works with all Insteon devices" it clearly does not work with the Insteon Hub V2 unless you have an iOS app. I came to this conclusion over the weekend and have not yet tried to confirm that with Insteon directly.

I am fortunate in that I have been able to set the mini-remote up to achieve my first goal, and thought I should share in your thread what I learned.

I had two simple scenes. ! paired two dimmers to control the basement lighting (replacing a pair of Leviton switches that were wired in). The other paired an Insteon switch and an Insteon dimmer (i did not have a second dimmer spare at the moment) to control the stairs to the basement (also replacing a pair of Leviton switches).

When I tried to manually program the mini-remote, I first set up a scene with one of each of the switch pairs. They happened to be the secondary (non-load) switches of each pair. Once the scene was created, when pressing the mini-remote on, the two switches went to their On positions (as shown by the LED) but the lights did not come on. So I deduced that the mini-remote was not linking into the existing scenes but creating a new scene. I checked by unlinking those two secondaries from the mini-remote, then linking to two "primaries" (load - which switch on the lights directly). When I now pressed the mini-remote the primary switches went to On and the lights came on, but the secondaries stayed Off (so their LEDs were at the bottom).

I therefore created a scene linking the mini-remote with all 4 switches, and now it behaves as anyone would expect. The lights come on and both pairs of switches are set to their On positions.

So here is what I have learned -

- The mini-remote does not work with the Hub V2 with either an Android or Windows app.
- You cannot connect the mini-remote to an existing scene, you need to recreate any scene you want by linking all those switches (and their On levels) to the mini-remote. It does not undo the other scenes to which they are linked.
- When a switch is turned on programmatically from a schedule or a scene activation from another switch (or a remote), it does not cause other linked devices to turn on. I don't see this as a problem or bug, it is probably more flexible this way - you could get chaining and loops otherwise without noticing it. However the disadvantage is that if you have a nice scene with lots of lights, levels and other things, you need to link all those devices manually into the mini-remote to get the same effect as when you start the scene from another device.

The documentation on how to link devices to the mini-remote was clear about how to do it, but lacked the clues that would have saved me a bit of time.

I do not know why the mini-remote cannot be handled by the Hub V2. Maybe they just haven't figured out the method, maybe the mini-remotes do not have auto-setting logic in them, but I have an old Insteon Switch that doesn't have auto-set built it, and the Hub manages to use it in scenes by prompting me when to press or hold the Set button. To me even if the App/Hub needed to lead you through the button presses on the mini-remote and the other switches it would be better than appearing to ignore the mini-controller completely. It would also mean that the Hub had a complete description of what the house settings do.

Ah well. I was very pleased with the Hub V2 and other devices until I started to program the mini-remote

[stusviews]

When you create a scene, only those devices included in the scene are responders and/or controllers. Links to and/or from other are never included. To do so can result in an infinite loop.

If you make the Mini Remote a controller of the secondary switch only, then only the secondary switch will respond. If you make if a controller of the primary switch, then only the primary switch will respond.

If you created a scene that includes two devices as both controllers and responders and you want a different device to control that scene, then add that different device (e.g., Mini Remote button) to the existing scene that contains both devices, the primary and the secondary devices.

[ricketyca]

Thanks Stu. You described it succinctly! Can you expand a bit on the last paragraph? How can I add the mini remote to an existing scene? I cannot see the mini controller on the Hub V2 App, and the instructions only show how to link the mini-remote to one or more devices. I can see that I could link all the devices in an existing scene to my remote, but I think that is really a new scene isn't it? I don't want to argue semantics at all but I could not see how to "add to an existing scene" without the Hub V2 and as I indicated I do not see the way to get the mini-remote into the Hub V2 environment. If it matters, I use Android and Windows to edit my Hub V2 settings.

[stusviews]

When you select Edit Scene, look for Add a Member. Alternately edit the device you wand to add, select scene memberships, Add.

[ricketyca]

Stu, I am possibly not clear. How can I make a mini-remote an addtional member on the Hub V2 app? I have not seen a way to add the mini-remote to the Hub. If you were describing generally how to add a device already on the Hub to an existing scene, rather than intending that it could be done on the Hub, my apologies!

[lilyoyo1]

You need an IOS device to add mini remotes. Other OS's do not support the remote.

[ricketyca]

Aha - thanks ilytoyo1 for that explanation. I will hope for a newer version. I now see on the Google Play Store that there are several issues people have been experiencing with the Android version and that the developers say they are close to issuing an update to address them. Then they will work on "app parity" with iOS

Meantime, with a fairly simple system and stable phones and PC, I have not seen many of the issues listed on the Play Store - Phew

[lilyoyo1]

Your welcome. Anytime. I'd take those reviews with a grain of salt. Insteon has it's quirks and is far from perfect but there are times when I read reviews and can tell it's a personal issue more than a device issue.