HouseBot

I've got the Insteon Starter Kit (2 SignalLincs, 2 LampLincs, and a ControlLinc) and a USB PowerLinc. After installing the 2 SignalLincs, 1 LampLinc and the ControlLinc, I can control the LampLinc via the ControlLinc.



Next I installed the PowerLinc and the Housebot plug-in for it. I can now control the LampLinc by changing the Power State property. However, when I use the ControlLinc to change the state of the LampLinc the Power State property is not updated. Also, it is not clear as to what the Get Status property is supposed to do. When I manually change if from state "No" to "Yes" it thinks a moment, and then Housebot changes the state back to "No". But the Power State property is not updated to reflect the current state of the LampLinc.



Here's the log output from the SDM (with some of my annotations):



------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SDM log on startup

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

downloadTimer started

timerActivate enabled

SDM:DM=active,1.01.10.146,1/7/2006 11:32:26 AM,responded,00.D5.F4,2.12



------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SDM Log after:

Changing Power State flag for Insteon LampLinc from On to Off

Changing Power State flag for Insteon LampLinc from Off to On

Using a ControlLinc to turn off Insteon LampLinc

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



downloadTimer started

timerActivate enabled

SDM:DM=active,1.01.10.146,1/7/2006 11:32:26 AM,responded,00.D5.F4,2.12

UIERR:OnDMIsReadyChange: Member not found

UIERR:OnText: Member not found

si:00 D5 F4 01 44 8E 05 13 00

UIERR:OnText: Member not found

PLC:eventraw=03

PLC:eventraw=04

UIERR:OnEvent: Member not found

UIERR:OnText: Member not found

UIERR:OnEvent: Member not found

UIERR:OnText: Member not found

PLC:receiveinsteonraw=04 01 44 8E 00 D5 F4 25 13 00

1/7/2006 11:34:10 AM:ackmsg=01.44.8E:OFF at OFF

PLC:setOnLevelText=01.44.8E,OFF

PLC:eventraw=03

UIERR:OnINSTEON(#4): Member not found

UIERR:OnText: Member not found

UIERR:OnText: Member not found

UIERR:OnEvent: Member not found

UIERR:OnText: Member not found

PLC:eventraw=08

PLC:receiveX10raw=00 17

PLC:receiveX10=E9

UIERR:OnEvent: Member not found

UIERR:OnText: Member not found

UIERR:OnX10: Member not found

UIERR:OnText: Member not found

UIERR:OnX10Address: Member not found

UIERR:OnText: Member not found

PLC:eventraw=08

UIERR:OnEvent: Member not found

UIERR:OnText: Member not found

PLC:receiveX10raw=01 13

PLC:receiveX10=E Off

UIERR:OnX10: Member not found

UIERR:OnText: Member not found

UIERR:OnX10Command: Member not found

UIERR:OnText: Member not found

si:00 D5 F4 01 44 8E 05 11 FF

UIERR:OnText: Member not found

PLC:eventraw=03

PLC:eventraw=04

PLC:receiveinsteonraw=04 01 44 8E 00 D5 F4 25 11 FF

1/7/2006 11:36:28 AM:ackmsg=01.44.8E:ON at ON

PLC:eventraw=03

PLC:setOnLevelText=01.44.8E,ON

UIERR:OnEvent: Member not found

UIERR:OnText: Member not found

UIERR:OnEvent: Member not found

UIERR:OnText: Member not found

UIERR:OnINSTEON(#4): Member not found

UIERR:OnText: Member not found

UIERR:OnEvent: Member not found

UIERR:OnText: Member not found

UIERR:OnText: Member not found

PLC:eventraw=08

PLC:receiveX10raw=00 17

PLC:receiveX10=E9

UIERR:OnEvent: Member not found

UIERR:OnText: Member not found

UIERR:OnX10: Member not found

UIERR:OnText: Member not found

UIERR:OnX10Address: Member not found

UIERR:OnText: Member not found

PLC:eventraw=08

PLC:receiveX10raw=01 12

PLC:receiveX10=E On

UIERR:OnEvent: Member not found

UIERR:OnText: Member not found

UIERR:OnX10: Member not found

UIERR:OnText: Member not found

UIERR:OnX10Command: Member not found

UIERR:OnText: Member not found



------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Note that I've got a couple of x10 ms12a's firing off on E8 and E10, just to muddy the waters.



It would be good to have the Power State property properly reflect the state of the LampLinc, but it looks like HB can control the LampLinc's.



Tim M

tjm000 wrote:However, when I use the ControlLinc to change the state of the LampLinc the Power State property is not updated. Also, it is not clear as to what the Get Status property is supposed to do. When I manually change if from state "No" to "Yes" it thinks a moment, and then Housebot changes the state back to "No". But the Power State property is not updated to reflect the current state of the LampLinc.

There were some serious problems with the "Get Status" property. I've changed it to work better now. You will need to actually poll the status of the device using a time device and task. I need to setup a polling delay property to make that a bit easier.



See this postfor more info on the update.

Anybody using the Insteon plugin? If so, I'm interested in hearing your results.

Hi Scott,



I got a hold of a few insteon devices and started playing with your plugin. It seems to work pretty well so far but I'm just getting started. So far I have installed the 2414U USB Powerlink V2, a 2456D3 LampLinc V2 and a pair of 2442 SignalLink RF.



I'm still tring to figure out the linking needed between the controller and the LampLink. I got them to link so the controller controlled the LampLink and your housebot plugin worked fine. I tried playing around a bit and unlinking them and it seems the plugin could still control the LampLinc which surprised me. Perhaps I didn't really get them unlinked. I wish they would include a manual with this controller. The quick install guide they provide does not give any details on how to link and unlink things to this controller.



I had one crash and dump of the Smarthome Device Manager. Unfortunatly I did not record the error info. I'll capture it if it happens again.



I have not figured out if the controller can be linked to a LampLink so a state change is received by your plugin. I tried a couple things like linking them and getting the LampLinc to come on by fiddling with the switch on the lamp. I also assigned a X10 address to the LampLink and tried turning it on and off using X10 to see if that was reflected in the insteon state in housebot. I'm not sure if the LampLinc send out any status changes under these circumstances or if I was unable to link it to the controller but I didn't see the staus reflected unless I set get status to yes and polled it from smarthome. Once I get a switch installed I'll play more with this and report back.



One thing I'm not sure will work in my setup. I use FireDeamon to run HouseBot as a windows service so I don't need to be logged in to the computer for it to function. This has always worked fairly well. I don't think the Smarthome Device Manager runs when I'm not logged in so this may be a problem trying to use Insteon. It would be nice if your plugin talked directly to the controller like it does for the x10 powerlinc. I'm not sure how hard this is compaired to using their device manager.



I have noticed that multiple commands are sent at just under 1 second apart like you observed. It's not really a problem for me but I expected it to be much faster than x10. Also I see a lot of errors in the smarthome device manager log similar to what is posted above by TJM000. I tried the smarthome manager essential, timer software they have available on the 2414u order page. I didn't see similar errors when that software was running. I sort of looks like they are trying to send your software some info that you are not excepting. perhaps these errors have timeouts that are slowing the command rate down.



Anyway so far so good and I'll keep playing. Are you still planning on implementing x10 control through this device?



Mark

kilowatt wrote:I tried playing around a bit and unlinking them and it seems the plugin could still control the LampLinc which surprised me. Perhaps I didn't really get them unlinked.

The linking is a bit confusing. The reality is that you don't need to link ANYTHING for HouseBot to control it. It can send the commands to ANY device without being linked. The linking is important if you want the device to notify HouseBot of changes (2-way).

I had one crash and dump of the Smarthome Device Manager. Unfortunatly I did not record the error info. I'll capture it if it happens again.

If it's the SDM crashing, there's probably not much info in the dump that I will be able to use. The SDM is still in beta too, so it may have it's own issues.

I have not figured out if the controller can be linked to a LampLink so a state change is received by your plugin. I tried a couple things like linking them and getting the LampLinc to come on by fiddling with the switch on the lamp.

I had to play with this a bit also to get it to work right. I forget the exact sequence (which button I had to hold and which I just had to press).

It would be nice if your plugin talked directly to the controller like it does for the x10 powerlinc. I'm not sure how hard this is compaired to using their device manager.

I started down that path initially. Right from the start I ran into timing issues in the protocol and they had just released the ActiveX SDM, so I went that route because I don't really have the time these days to take the long road. Hopefully that's what Meedio will do with the Insteon plugin that they have announced.

Are you still planning on implementing x10 control through this device?

I am. Just haven't got to it yet.

Scott - I started playing with it a bit a couple of weeks ago, but got sidetracked in recent weeks with other projects.



If I remember correctly I did manage to link the light module back to the controller and was able to receive a state update (ie. two-way stuff) in addition to the normal one-way control. Now that the basics seem to be working with the Insteon modules, I'm going to buy a few more of the light and appliance modules and start to include them in my automation setup.



I saw that meedio announced that they were going to provide a plug-in, but based upon other comments here, I'll believe it when I see it.



I too would like to have the X-10 portion working with the Insteon controller because I'd like to ditch the old cm11a that I have. Occassionally, it'll get boogered-up (that's a technical term) and I'll have to unplug-it and let it "rest" so that it's mind returns.



Thanks for all of your efforts to date, and whatever you plan on in the future.

Is it neceesary to have the ControlLinc to create links between devices or can you get away with just the PowerLinc USB and then start adding devices?

You don't need the controlLinc. HouseBot will allow you to control lights from the USB Powerlinc without even linking them (Insteon Linking that is).

If you want HouseBot to receive status changes from devices, you need to link the Insteon switch(es) to the PowerLinc, but you don't need the ControlLinc to do that.

You can have a controlLinc trigger events in HouseBot if you link the controlLinc and the usb powerlinc and then use an Insteon Group Device.

BTW, I hope to have updated Insteon support this weekend sometime.

Good news followed by Great news!!! Go ScottBot!

Sadly I've met my electronics quota for the month...two new UPSs, a wifi print server, and I have my eye on an ebay auction for a new heatsink. Gonna have to wait to buy some more toys until mid-May

I guess that should be enough time to figure out if neutral wires are run in my apartment.

Scott-
Thanks for the continued support of Housebot! I've been out of town and am just getting back to setting up some more capabilities of the system. I love the Insteon support. Please keep working on the X10 support for us-- that would be great!

In your previous post you talk about how to trigger an event with the ControlLinc... What do you mean by a "Group Device"? Does that mean I need to put all the device I want to control (incl Meedio commands) into the same device folder on the Housebot Server? What do I do to assign a task or send a command via the buttons on the controllinc? Can I reprogram the Brt/Dim buttons or are they pre-assigned?

Along those lines-- any sample commands for sending to Meedio to: Start a specific music stream, for example?

Thanks again for a great product!

Naylia, can I get in on your monthly stipend of electronics? lol

Kyle

Dreamstriker wrote:Please keep working on the X10 support for us-- that would be great!

Check out this post for info on an updated Insteon plugin with *most* support for X10.

In your previous post you talk about how to trigger an event with the ControlLinc... What do you mean by a "Group Device"? Does that mean I need to put all the device I want to control (incl Meedio commands) into the same device folder on the Housebot Server? What do I do to assign a task or send a command via the buttons on the controllinc?

The current Insteon plugin has an Insteon Single Group Controller Device. You will see it as an option when setting up a device for the PowerLincV2. This device will respond to group commands sent from the ControlLinc (or any other Insteon controller) by changing it's Power State Property Value to indicate the new group state. The trick to get this to work right is to correctly link the ControlLinc to the PowerLinc. You would first press and hold a ControlLinc channel button for 10 secs to get it into linking mode. Then press and hold the PowerLinc program button for 10 secs. After they are linked and the HouseBot Insteon Group Device is setup correctly, pressing a button on the ControlLinc should cause the Group Device in HouseBot to change. Once you've got that working, then you can control things using Tasks just as with any other HouseBot Device.

I just setup a ControLinc with an Insteon Group Device, no problem with all buttons. But with the KeypadLinc, I can only get the first button (Group 1) to control the Group Device. The KeypadLinc is currently in six button mode. Could it be using a different set of group numbers? ie. NOT 2-6?

Also:

ScottBot

Do you think you could expaned the Insteon Group Device so that it sends signals to the KeypadLinc to change the status LEDs?

Thanks for all the great work

bjlamarca wrote:I can only get the first button (Group 1) to control the Group Device. The KeypadLinc is currently in six button mode. Could it be using a different set of group numbers? ie. NOT 2-6?

I'm not sure how you assign (or link) different group numbers to the different buttons. Maybe there's a way to put the PowerLinc into program mode from the Hardware Interface that would allow me to specify a group number, but just pressing the program buttons on the Device doesn't really allow you to specify.

Do you think you could expaned the Insteon Group Device so that it sends signals to the KeypadLinc to change the status LEDs?

It's really the same issue isn't it? You can get it to control any button that is linked as group one.

There is definitely more work to be done with the Insteon plugins. I'm moving in about a month and will likely add more Insteon devices myself.... thats what typically drives the development

I am in a similar situation, I just purchased a two floor townhouse after renting for a while. During renovations I personaly replaced every switch in the house. I currently have 8 SwitchLincs, 1 In-Line SwitchLinc, 3 KeypadLincs, 6 LampLincs, 3 ApplianceLincs and two ControlLincs. I would be more than happy to beta test any Insteon plug-in development.

One bug that I would like to mention:

When a SwitchLinc is turned off, the dim level on the housebot device does not change to '0' to show it is off.