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    A few questions to get me started

    I'm looking into purchasing the insteon line of products for home control but have a few questions about how the hardware actually works in practice that I can't find covered anywhere.

    I'm looking at a 6 button on/off unit to control some items in a bathroom.
    One of the buttons would turn on/off a towel warmer unit.
    1) When a button is an on/off style... do you press the button to turn the device on.. and press the same button to turn the device back off? Or does it need to be a different button?
    2) When pressing a button to turn a device on, is there some visual indication on the keypad that the device is on? LED backlight, etc?
    3) If you schedule a scene to power on a device at say 7am and power off at 8am can you still manually override (lets say at 7:36am) and turn the device off by pressing the corresponding on/off button for that device? How does the scene react?
    4) If there is an LED backlight and you turn a device on with a scene does that LED backlight come on the same as if you manually powered on the device?


    A separate line of questioning.
    With that same 6 button on/off unit, is there a way to have it power electrical devices (lights, etc) and also be able to provide a volume control up/down for an in-ceiling speaker.

    Is a Hub only required if you want to do scenes and scheduling?

    #2
    1. Yes, and this assumes its using the default toggle mode. The hardware can be set to none toggle also if you so desire.

    2. The LED will light up (brighter) when actuated and go back to any defined (lower) brightness when you press the same button again.

    3. Yes, manually pressing the button will either turn it on / off. Keeping in mind it has no interaction with a program from a controller. Meaning if the program was supposed to start at 7:00 AM, and you turned it on a 6:30 AM, the program will still execute.

    How ever if the same program above does turn on at 7:00 AM, and you later press the same KPL button whether it be On-Off you're essentially over riding the program.

    4. Yes

    5. Yes many people have configured their KPL as a custom volume, skip, etc remote. This requires extra hardware and a more powerful controller though. But since the HUB II now supports the Amazon Echo, Harmony Remote / HUB, there may be other methods to accomplish the same.

    6. The HUB II / HUB Pro are only required if you wish to have some basic scheduling and also take advantage of the 3rd party integration such as Apple Watch, Echo, Harmony Remote. The HUB Pro offers native support of Apple Home Kit and any device that follows this standard. So if there are 20 Apple Home Kit devices that are compliant then ideally the HUB Pro can control them too.

    It goes with out saying you need a Apple iOS device like iPad, Touch, iPhone.
    Teken . . .

    Comment


      #3
      1. The top button is On and the bottom button is Off for the device wired to the 6-button KeypadLinc. The other four buttons are push on/push off, but they're not connected to anything. Those button are used to control other Insteon devices.
      Message from Forum Admin: stusviews passed away in April 2018. Stu was a huge fan of Insteon and a huge presence on both the Smarthome and Insteon forums, helping thousands of us along the way (he had nearly 20,000 posts to his name). We thank him for his contributions, dedication, and passion for making the Smart Home a reality. He will truly be missed.
      Saving energy is not always free. Be a world saver.

      Comment


        #4
        [USER="625"]Teken[/USER]
        Your answer of 'yes' to Q1 I assume is an affirmative that the 4 smaller buttons on the 6 button keypad allows you to press 1 single button for both 'on' and off'.

        I also see, based on your answers, that pressing one of the smaller 4 buttons will turn a device on and activate an LED backlight to indicate the device is 'active', and when you press the same button it will turn the device 'off' while also turning off the LED.

        For Q3 regarding the override if I press a button to turn on a device prior to the scene starting schedule it will still activate the scene. However since the device is already turned on I just want to make sure it won't turn the device off... it will detect the device is already on and just leave it that way.

        For Q5, I think I misunderstand how things are wired based on [USER="33"]stusviews[/USER] response. I thought that since the 6 button keypad has 6 buttons, that you can wire up to 6 devices to it.

        To give everyone the ability to provide a better quality of answer, it helps if I provide more information on the context of what I'm trying to accomplish.

        I have the following in a bathroom.
        Lights, both fixtures and recessed above the shower (on/off)
        Steam vent (on/off)
        Towel warmer (on/off)
        In-ceiling speaker wired to a mechanical volume control knob

        I would like the main 'all on' button of the 6 button keypad to turn the lights on only
        The 'all off' button would turn the lights off only.
        Button A would turn on and off the towel warmer
        Button B would turn on and off the steam vent
        Button C I would want to be volume up for the speaker
        Button D I would want to be volume down for the speaker.

        At 7am in the morning on weekday I want the towel warmer to automatically come on, and have it turn off at 8am. However if I were to wake up early I want the ability to manually turn on the towel warmer (lets say at 6:45am) while I'm in the shower around 7am the towel warmer would still stay on until 8am.

        And if I'm sending music to the speaker via an AV receiver somewhere else in the house I'd want the ability to turn the volume up and down based on how loud I want it at any particular time.
        (volume control for the speaker is not handled through the AV receiver, it would need to be handled via the keypad somehow)

        Also, based on something else that I ready, I'll need the ISY in order for the smaller buttons on the 6 button keypad to be able to independently control the devices I described above correct?

        Comment


          #5
          There are no "All On or All Off" buttons on a KeypadLinc. The On and Off buttons control only what is wired to the KeypadLinc which, BTW, controls only one wired device. You would also need devices wire the the towel warmer and steam vent. Which device you use depends on how they're controlled now.

          Yes, even if you have something scheduled, you can turn the device on manually.

          An IRLinc is needed to control volume if your sound system uses IR.

          You don't need an ISY to accomplish all these tasks, only the devices themselves and some button pushing in the correct sequence.
          Message from Forum Admin: stusviews passed away in April 2018. Stu was a huge fan of Insteon and a huge presence on both the Smarthome and Insteon forums, helping thousands of us along the way (he had nearly 20,000 posts to his name). We thank him for his contributions, dedication, and passion for making the Smart Home a reality. He will truly be missed.
          Saving energy is not always free. Be a world saver.

          Comment


            #6
            Ok, I think I know what I need to do then.
            Basically, I would get a 6 button on/off keypad and install it in-place where my existing lightswitch is for the lights in the bathroom.
            I would then get (2) on/off micro controllers : [url]http://www.insteon.com/on-off-micro-module[/url]
            and put them in the wall or outlets that the towel warmer and steam vent would get electricity from and use the keypad A and B buttons to control the corresponding micro controllers.
            Yes?

            If so, I would then only need a Hub to facilitate the scheduling of the towel warmer. Yes? (not needing an ISY)

            The final piece of the puzzle is figuring out the volume control. IR is not an option. As I mentioned, the volume is not controlled from the A/V receiver, it's controlled from the mechanical volume knob on the wall in the bathroom.

            Comment


              #7
              You could use Micro Modules, but you could also use an Insteon On/Off outlet if what you want to control is plugged in.

              There is no way to use Insteon to control a standard manual volume control. However, there are several IR volume controls available such as this one: [url]http://www.monoprice.com/Product?p_id=10220&gclid=CIzFq-KesskCFQqPaQodgvoDpw[/url]
              Message from Forum Admin: stusviews passed away in April 2018. Stu was a huge fan of Insteon and a huge presence on both the Smarthome and Insteon forums, helping thousands of us along the way (he had nearly 20,000 posts to his name). We thank him for his contributions, dedication, and passion for making the Smart Home a reality. He will truly be missed.
              Saving energy is not always free. Be a world saver.

              Comment

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