Insteon-3 way solution...

Ok, so far my whole HA system is Z-Wave. I’m turning to Insteon for a possible solution to a 3way issue I have where one of the boxes has a neutral and the other doesn’t.
An article on the insteon website indicated that insteon doesn’t use travelers, so I should be able to convert my traveler into a neutral.
Anyone here will be more well versed in Insteon than myself...can someone chime in and confirm this as a viable solution?
Any advice will be welcomed and appreciated!

Yep you can use the traveler as a neutral. Grab a roll of white marking tape from your local hardware store and wrap around the traveler at each end so you (or somebody else that comes after you) will remember that conductor is wired as a neutral and not a traveler. Marking tape is essentially the same as black electrical tape but it is not as wide and comes in different colors. Home Depot, Lowe’s, and such usually carry it in a multi-pack that will contain several colors of small rolls.

Terry


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Thanks guys,
I've had this circuit apart before attempting a Z-Wave control scenario. That's when I discovered there was no neutral in the box at the base of the stairs. Going on my short memory, I believe that the box at the top of the stairs has the Hot, Neutral & 2 travelers that run to the bottom of the stairs. The box at the base of the stairs receives the 2 travelers from the upper box, and is connected to the load (sconce) that lights the stairwell.

I can only confirm this once I take the switch out again. If I am correct, I should be able to repurpose the travelers into one Line and Neutral to get those into the lower box. That lower box would then directly control the load it is connected to. The switch at the upper box could be programmed to control the switch at the lower box.

Those are my current thoughts. Anyone with alternate insights please do not hesitate to comment. I'm out of town now so it will be a few days before I can get back into this little project.

Ok, confirmed.
I can use the 2 travelers from the upper box to make the lower box the "main" switch since the load runs to the lower box.
The box at the top of the stairs will be powered with the Load lead capped off, and slaved to the lower switch.

Once this is done, do I "link" the two switches from within Indigo, or do they have to be linked before adding into Inidgo?

This will be my first installation of Insteon switches...it looks promising and I may be running indigo switches from now on as I like the
functionality and hookup better than the few Z-Wave switches I have so far.

[jay (support)]

You can use Indigo to link them, just make each switch a controller of the other.

You will undoubtedly eventually run across the issue of the two getting out of sync when you control the main one from Indigo. See this wiki article for an explanation and how to deal with it.

I've been using Indigo (w/Insteon) for a number of years, but am strictly a neophyte. I have a few schedules, and a couple of triggers, but no scenes, groups, scripts, or other sophisticated constructs. I'm looking for some guidance on setting up a basic 3-way switch configuration. I want to replace two conventional 3-way switches with a pair of Insteon 2477S Switchlinc switches. The load is a single kitchen ceiling fixture. I've read the on-line help and Wiki articles about links, and searched the forum. I've read through 8 pages of the sticky thread about links at the top of this forum. It made my head spin ( I suspect a lot of the content there is way out of date). This thread from last fall is the most relevant article I've found.

I've already figured out the wiring dilemma as described above by Gman34758, and repurposed one of the traveler wires to get a neutral to the switch box that didn't have one. But I'm perplexed on how to use Indigo to define and sync the required links to the two 2477 switches (one a 'responder' and one a 'controller'?). Under Indigo's Interfaces menu, there are two selections for managing links: Manage INSTEON PowerLinc Links and Manage INSTEON Device Links. Which is the right one to use, or do I have to define links in both? I'll want to use Indigo software and the mobile app to turn the ceiling light on and off.

In the last post in this thread, Jay offered a warning that I will undoubtedly run across the issue of the two getting out of sync, and referred to a wiki article "Scenes, Groups, Multiway Lights, Oh My!" I've read through that article, and it left me even more befuddled. It suggests using Python scripts to make multi-ways work properly. Unfortunately, Python scripts are way beyond my pay grade!

I'll be grateful for any advice that will help me achieve my objective of replacing two conventional 3-way switches with a pair of Insteon switches. I had thought this would be a straightforward task, but there's more to it than I expected.

Thanks.

[jay (support)]

The linking part is easy: you make each device a responder of each other - so when you manually control the local switch, the other switch responds as well.

The wiki link about multi-way says everything you need to avoid the out-of-sync issue. It clearly says that the script at the bottom is an alternative to using the Match Brightness action. Read through it again, particularly this part:

The other option would be to treat one of the lights as the master (say “Kitchen Accent Lights”), and when that light changes, you match the other light to it's brightness. You would do that with a “Device State Changed” trigger, watching “Kitchen Accent Lights”, when “Brightness Level” “Has Any Change”. Then, for the Action, you'd just select the Device Actions→Light/Appliance Controls→Match Brightnessaction on the Actions tab. You could then uncheck the Remote Display checkbox for the “Dining Room Accent Lights” so that they don't show up in Indigo Touch and you'd only need to control “Kitchen Accent Lights” to control them both.

Jay,
I had missed (overlooked?) the requirement to make each switch a responder of the other. Only one switch is connected to a load. The other is purely for control, and has nothing connected to its Load wire. So I don't understand the logic behind getting it to respond to the other one (the switch that is wired to the kitchen light). However, if that's how to make a 3-way work, that's what I'll do:-)
But I'm still confused by the syntax. On each of the two switches, do I add New Link to Responder (and choose the other switch)? Or add New Link to Controller?

As for the multi-way wiki article, am I correct in assuming the the issue with syncing (or lack thereof) has to do with syncing the brightness across multiple loads? In my setup, there are no brightness adjustments happening. My two switches are 2477 Switchlinc units, not dimmers. And there is only one load - a kitchen ceiling light. The wiki article suggests that the out of sync issue arises when there are multiple loads being controlled by multiple switches. Therefore, perhaps I don't have to worry about syncing?

Thanks a lot for your help.

Dave