KPL - turning off LED backlight completely

Hello-

How can I use Indigo to turn off a KPL's LED backlight completely? I can only seem to set it as low as 1, which still leaves the lights visible.

I used to have an Insteon Hub before it died. All my existing KPLs have their LED backlights turned off, as configured by the hub and insteon app.

I just got some new KPLs and am not able to do the same. I have a KepadLinc Dimmer 2334.

Thanks,
Jason

[jay (support)]

According to the Insteon developer information we have, 1 is the lowest brightness setting to which you can set the backlighting. I recall this explicitly because I had a KeypadLinc in our master bedroom that we wanted to be off. We ended up buying the black faceplate/button set which, when coupled with the low backlighting, made it basically off. I just tried a variety of values in the command and could never get the LED off entirely on 2 different KeypadLincs in my house. They are older (all are older) though so that may also play into it.

If you can get the exact command from Smarthome that turns them off then you can execute it using the Interfaces->Insteon/X10 Power Line->Send Raw INSTEON Command... menu item. If that works, let us know what the command data is.

Thanks for the reply.

I have my warranty-replacement insteon hub and could use it to set the LED backlight off completely. Is there a way that I can snoop on the network traffic and see what command it uses so that I can repeat that process with Indigo?

Otherwise, I'm having trouble fully understanding the following links. Looks like they figured out the raw command, but I'll have to set aside some time this weekend to figure out the gaps in my understanding enough to figure out what to try.

https://github.com/automategreen/home-c ... /issues/35

http://www.madreporite.com/insteon/commands.htm

http://cache.insteon.com/pdf/INSTEON_Co ... 70925a.pdf - page 8 refers to LED Backlight On and LED Backlight Off

Thanks for your help!

[jay (support)]

The first link is talking about just turning on/off the button, not the backlight, and the second link isn't useful.

The third link is an extremely old protocol spec which does contain this command which is supposed to turn off the backlight:

Command 1 Byte: 0x20
Command 2 Byte: 0x08

However, it doesn't (nor did it back when we were first writing the actions and menu items to control backlighting). I tried it using the Interfaces->INSTEON/X10 Power Line->Execute Raw INSTEON Command... menu item for all of the KPLs in my house and none worked. So perhaps it's just because mine are old. Give it a try and let me know if it works for yours (and what firmware version they are).

Thanks for translating the stuff in those webpages - no wonder it wasn't making sense to me.

I ran the raw command on one of my KPLs and it worked! The LED backlight turned off.

It's a KeypadLinc Dimmer (2334) with firmware version 45 (i2CS engine).

And for my future reference when I search for this... to turn the LED backlight back on, I used the following raw command:

Command 1 Byte: 0x20
Command 2 Byte: 0x09

I'll have to check to make sure the commands work on the other KPLs, but this is very promising.

Thanks for your help!

[jay (support)]

Thanks for the information. Matt (who is the Insteon expert) asked if I'd tried sending it as an extended message despite the fact that it's documented as a standard message. Bingo, that seems to work.

I'll update the Set Brightness action and menu to support a value of 0 to turn off the backlight completely.

Awesome, that would be great to have in a normal button click!

@Jay, has this been implemented yet? If not, is there a way to force it manually until it is implemented in the interface?

BTW, I tried sending those raw commands as a scheduled action to a KPL and it didn't seem to work

[jay (support)]

@Jay, has this been implemented yet?

Yes. Use the Interfaces->Insteon/X10 Power Line->Set LED Brightness... menu item and set the value to 0. That sends the new command. Note, I have no idea which devices this may work on since I suspect it's firmware specific. It did work on the newest KeypadLinc that I have and it didn't on the oldest (which is ancient).

OK, that worked, thanks.

I noticed though that with that setting, if you turn on a button the LED does not light up at all. Is it possible to have them all off, but when the button is pressed the light comes on?

[jay (support)]

OK, that worked, thanks.

I noticed though that with that setting, if you turn on a button the LED does not light up at all. Is it possible to have them all off, but when the button is pressed the light comes on?

I don't think so. The API setting for completely off is different than setting the brightness level (which is what we supported before and which doesn't support a 0 brightness). We just special case when the user enters 0 for brightness and call the different API.

I think I solved it. Set it to 1. Pretty much off, but the LEDs still work when you turn the lights on.