Homelink integration

This may not be news to a lot of you, but it was a nice little project that made me think "why didn't I do this earlier?"

We automated our entire home with Insteon/Indigo about 4 years ago. Everything works like a charm, all the lights, A/C, pool equipment, sprinklers, whole house music, you name it. One thing that always bugged me was that we had to get inside the door before we could turn the lights on. We have motion sensors outside that should turn them on automatically, but they're the only non-100% reliable parts of our automated home.

We don't use our garage, so I have never given much thought to the Homelink system in our cars. But last week, it occurred to me that maybe I could use them and trigger things to my liking. I did some quick research, and what do I know, most of them are X10 compatible. So I purchased an X-10 SLIM FIRE POCKET REMOTE KR19A / RKR24 ($4.86 including shipping) and a X10 WIRELESS TRANSCEIVER TM751($9 including shipping) on eBay.

Today, the items arrived, and after programming the Homelink buttons to the remote, it worked like a charm. I now have three buttons in each of our cars, that send specific X10 codes, and Indigo picks them up through the TM751. I put the TM751 receiver up in the attic, with the antenna coming out of a vent under the roof. Even with the cars parked along the street, the signal is picked up every time. And so far, I haven't noticed any Insteon signal degradation due to the X10 traffic. I'm using one button to trigger the "welcome home" scene, another one for an "good-bye" scene, and the third one to start the audio system.

The next project will be converting our deadbolt to Insteon. Maybe even tying into the Homelink system. Have to think about the security of that.

What a nice little addition for less than $15. I wish I had thought of that years ago.

This is a great tip. Do you know if there are any Insteon-only products which could work to do the same thing? I would like to do something similar.

Thanks!

"welcome scenes" are the best! A few other ideas for doing this:

1. Use a vehicle sensor - obviously this is predicated by having a place where you can put it that catches your car passing by, but they don't necessarily have to be IN the pavement. I buried the coils just alongside the driveway and it works perfectly. Be sure to get one that is directional!

2. Turn on foyer/porch/landscape lights when front door opens. Use data from alarm panel or install an alarm-type sensor with an IOLINC.

3. Trigger on garage door opening. Again you can do this as in #2 but there's another trick - use a relay or optocoupler to detect the light bulb sockets on the garage door motor's housing. You can also read the limit switches that are attached to the internal gearing.

4. Use a motion sensor - but you'll probably get false positives once in a while.

[jay (support)]

Great ideas! Combine Sean's #1 & #3 above with some logic that figures out whether the car is coming or going and set the appropriate scene.

You can do #1 with the I/O Linc - INSTEON Indoor/Outdoor Photobeam Entry Alert Kit. It's not quite as invisible as the vehicle sensor but since it's a kit it's pretty easy to install.

You can also do #3 with the I/O Linc Garage Door kit, which would also allow you to control your garage via INSTEON - nice if you forget to close it for some reason (I do occasionally - I have a timer that sends me an SMS if the door is open for longer than 1 hour - I can then close it even if I'm not at home).

And a tips for #2 - You don't actually have to interface directly to the alarm system - you can insert an I/O Linc into a wired zone just like any other sensor and it'll report if the zone is open or closed. I did this because while my alarm system can have a serial port added to it, it's more complex to talk to it than I care to tackle. So I just skipped talking to the panel and I monitor the zones directly. If you don't have any wired alarm sensors, you can use a TriggerLinc which runs on a battery and doesn't need any wires.

And a tips for #2 - You don't actually have to interface directly to the alarm system - you can insert an I/O Linc into a wired zone just like any other sensor and it'll report if the zone is open or closed. I did this because while my alarm system can have a serial port added to it, it's more complex to talk to it than I care to tackle. So I just skipped talking to the panel and I monitor the zones directly.

Jay: Can you talk about this installation idea a little more? While I am familiar with the concept of a "NO" or "NC" contacts on an I/O unit, I don't know how professional alarm systems work. I had assumed they all did home runs from each sensor to the alarm panel (which looks true at my house), but then then seem to be bound together in pairs for their zones.

While that sounds logical, without unwiring everything (which I hesitate to do), I don't know how the wiring works. Example: I assume the door sensors are in a NC state, but what about motion sensors in the house - how do they get power? Does a small voltage flow through the NC door circuits to power the motion sensors?

Nirvana for me would be for my existing alarm system to stay intact, but have Indigo piggyback off the sensors for an extra level of sensing when the house is not armed (think: door bell chime when a door is opened and occupancy sensors from the motion sensors).

Can you give me a 1,000 foot view on how the writing would work to put an Insteon sensor inline with the alarm system. Do I just put a NC sensor in parallel with the "zone" groups?

TIA,

We don't use our garage, so I have never given much thought to the Homelink system in our cars. But last week, it occurred to me that maybe I could use them and trigger things to my liking. I did some quick research, and what do I know, most of them are X10 compatible. So I purchased an X-10 SLIM FIRE POCKET REMOTE KR19A / RKR24 ($4.86 including shipping) and a X10 WIRELESS TRANSCEIVER TM751($9 including shipping) on eBay.

After running this for a few months, are you still happy with this solution? It would seem to solve an issue I am having with arriving home and fumbling with my iPhone. I love the concept of pushing a button in my car's ceiling instead

If you get a chance, let us know how well this has worked out.

TIA,

[jay (support)]

The IOLinc would just go in parallel to the other sensors in a given zone. For wireless sensors (probably your Motion Sensors) on your alarm system I don't think there's a good solution without doing some serial comm with your panel.

My zone wiring looks like this:

Panel->sensor1->sensor2->sensor3->[etc]->Panel

I just inserted an IOLinc at the end:

Panel->sensor1->sensor2->sensor3->[etc]->IOLinc->Panel

NC since that's how the zones work. Even if each of your sensors is on a home-run, for practical purposes that's how each zone is wired, so you just need to find the "end" and insert an IOLinc.

Thanks Jay. I'll try and get up the courage to try it this weekend.

The current alarm system is rat's nest of wiring, so it's going to take some tracing and a miner's helmet to figure out what goes where. Lucky I have the schematics of the alarm board, so I know the basics.

The IOLinc would just go in parallel to the other sensors in a given zone. For wireless sensors (probably your Motion Sensors) on your alarm system I don't think there's a good solution without doing some serial comm with your panel.

My zone wiring looks like this:
Panel->sensor1->sensor2->sensor3->[etc]->Panel

I just inserted an IOLinc at the end:
Panel->sensor1->sensor2->sensor3->[etc]->IOLinc->Panel

NC since that's how the zones work. Even if each of your sensors is on a home-run, for practical purposes that's how each zone is wired, so you just need to find the "end" and insert an IOLinc.

I just hooked up an IOLinc as as a test, looping the circuit through the IOLinc GND and Sensor terminals, and it senses the door open like a champ. I'm now going to get an IO board with a larger sensor array and complete the project.

THANKS!

[jay (support)]

Cool!

On a related note, I am considering getting a EZIO8SA, as it has 7 inputs. I may need up to 10 (I haven't tested all the sensors in the house yet).

Do you know of a better device to be checking up to 10 I/O statuses on NC circuits? Otherwise I will just buy two EZIO8SAs. Or perhaps two EZIO6I as that's a cheaper solution.

TIA

[jay (support)]

Nope. I've considered it myself for multiple zones but haven't taken the time to figure out the one I need.

After running this for a few months, are you still happy with this solution? It would seem to solve an issue I am having with arriving home and fumbling with my iPhone. I love the concept of pushing a button in my car's ceiling instead

If you get a chance, let us know how well this has worked out.

TIA,

After the initial success, it quickly disintegrated. The X10 receiver continued to lose connection after being plugged in for more than an hour. Power cycling helped, but was obviously not a solution. I never tried it with a replacement unit, old memories of unreliable X10 tech kept coming up

I've been thinking about ordering a SimpleHomeNet EZX10RF, but the price is a bit steep just for this little application. If I end up getting one, I will report back.

-Dan

After the initial success, it quickly disintegrated. The X10 receiver continued to lose connection after being plugged in for more than an hour. Power cycling helped, but was obviously not a solution. I never tried it with a replacement unit, old memories of unreliable X10 tech kept coming up

I've been thinking about ordering a SimpleHomeNet EZX10RF, but the price is a bit steep just for this little application. If I end up getting one, I will report back.
-Dan

I was wondering about that. I hated X10 for its constant unreliability, and was fascinated to hear if it got better

I've been doing an install in my house, and toying with ideas as to how to detect "I just drove in the driveway - set house to Welcome Home". I've looked into driveway sensors (expensive!), I've looking into weatherproofing motion detector(s) (unreliable due to squirrels, and other cars, etc), and then I found you idea which is very, very clever.

If I get an EZX10RF, I'll report back as well. No plans at the moment, but who knows ...

I know I'm a nOOB, but I just got a EZIO6I installed, and configured with Indigo, but I can't seem to make Indigo see any change in the contacts.

When I configured it, I didn't change an of the Module Settings, so they are at the default (all unchecked). Indigo sees the switch, and can poll it for status (see below)

Code: Select all

 Sent INSTEON        "Alarm EZIO6I #1" input binary states request (received: 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0)
Sent INSTEON        "Alarm EZIO6I #1" input analog value request (received: 534, 725)

However, with a touch GND to I1- or to I1+, or even I1- to I1+, I don't see anything in the Indigo logs. Counter that with my I/O-Linc device, where I crossed the sensor with the GND, and it works great on a NC circuit.

I'm sure I am doing something fundamentally wrong here. Or am I? At this point I just want to hand-test the contact sensors for an NC circuit. I don't care about doing anything fancy (yet).

Comments?