Insteon Bridge to FirstAlert Smoke Detectors

[matt (support)]

Yes, my understanding is that you can pair a single bridge up to multiple detectors. The commands it sends to Indigo will all be the same (so you won't know which detector it came from), but you should still get the alerts that will then update the device state in Indigo. That said, I only have one so I haven't been able to verify the understood behavior.

I have a set of four and will test each one and confirm. I am pretty sure they just all send a broadcast so it should work. I have one in the basement, two on one side of the house and the fourth one on the other side of the house. The bridge is on one side of the house so there is some distance between the bridge and the other units.

I'll report back.

They all trigger the bridge, I set them off one by one and each one was picked up. Interesting thing is that I recall when I set this up originally that if you set off one, all four would go off. But now, it seems like the two on one side of the house go off, but the other side does not. Must have enough interference in place now (we did a remodel) where they can't talk across the house anymore. I may need to pick up a couple more to bridge the gap since they are fully meshed I should be able to do that. Nice thing is that the bridge picks up all of them and sends me a text message....

Good deal. My 2 combo detectors came in and I have them installed, connected to each other and the Smoke Bridge. My wife got a scare as I was installing them tho. My hardwired detector which was already installed, went off and I programmed Indigo to send her a text. She called me in a panic. I was like Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you about that!

I have to say, it's become one of the best parts of my home automation system. I have text messages setup using Messages which goes to my iPhone. Smoke alarm goes off, it turns on every light I can turn on and it sends a text so if I'm not home I know what is happening. Love this.

Did you go with all battery-powered ones or some hardwired ones? If battery-only, how are you finding the life?

Most of my rooms have the standard 3-wire 120v alarm wiring but thanks to First Alert's product line it seems that I have to pick either CO monitoring or long battery life (120v), but not both!

Just get the best of both world's and combine them. That's what I did. I have two battery units for CO monitoring and then I hardwired the other two. Still have more to replace and I will opt for the hardwired units. They will all link to each other in the end. Pretty convenient if you ask me.

Did you go with all battery-powered ones or some hardwired ones? If battery-only, how are you finding the life?

Most of my rooms have the standard 3-wire 120v alarm wiring but thanks to First Alert's product line it seems that I have to pick either CO monitoring or long battery life (120v), but not both!

My bridge and 2 detectors came in this week (1 wired, 1 battery CO). I linked the two detectors together, and then I linked the smoke bridge to the battery powered detector (not directly to both of them).

When I press the 'test' button on either of them, I receive the "Smoke Bridge" on (testing executing) message in the log twice (I assume once per device?). So, looks good that I can set some triggers based on receiving info.

But, I'm not seeing the overall device state every return back to "Off". There is no "all clear" command in the event log either. Is it expected that the smoke bridge go 'off' at some point?

I clicked the button in the UI and that turned it off, but I don't know what that actually does. As soon as I did another test, it turned back "on" and didn't turn off on its own again.

[jay (support)]

I don't believe the thing sends a matching "event over" message for any alert - so turning it off manually is what we did to allow you to reset it's state. Of course, you don't have to trigger on the device state change - in fact, you probably should trigger on the INSTEON Command Received from the bridge.

Insteon states the following attached), looks like there is a clear message, but I have never received one.
May be we should time out the state after one hour or so.

does insteon show these messages?

Karl

=== email from insteon =====

There are 7 Groups of commands that can be sent out by the Smoke bridge. These commands are:

Group 1 - Smoke Detected
Group 2 - Carbon Monoxide Detected
Group 3 - Test Executing
Group 4 - Unknown Error
Group 5 - All Alerts Clear
Group 6 - Low Battery
Group 7 - Malfunction

To program an event in Indigo to respond to any of these group messages the trigger should be set to "Insteon Message Received" choose the Smoke Bridge and you should see these Group messages as options for your trigger.


Please do not hesitate to contact us again if we can be of further assistance.

Sincerely,


Jonathan Chappell
Insteon Gold Line
INSTEON
Reliable, Expandable, Brilliant Remote Control
Phone: (800) 762-7845
Fax: (949) 221-9240
http://www.insteon.com
======email from insteon=============

[jay (support)]

We'll look into it.

Was Indigo updated to recognize all 7 groups? I'm considering getting the INSTEON bridge and am just curious.

[jay (support)]

I believe so.

Cool. Thanks.

What exactly is the local ramp rate duration setting? It's set to half a second in the setting but I don't know what it's for.

I think this is a carry-over from the LampLinc that this unit is basically built in. The Smoke Bridge is clearly a re-worked LampLinc.

I just improved (for the next beta of Indigo 6) how Indigo handles the Smoke Bridge. It will no longer show the LampLinc UI. It will have an ON/OFF state (like a door/window or motion sensor) that will go to ON when the Smoke Bridge detects Smoke (group 1), Carbon Monoxide (group 2), or Test Mode (group 3) and will go to OFF when the Smoke Bridge sends the All Alerts Clear (group 5).

So you'll be able to create a Device State change trigger to catch if there is an important alert (smoke or carbon monoxide). At this point you'll still need individual INSTEON Received Triggers for the other messages (like battery low).

Once beta 8 of Indigo 6 is released re-sync your Smoke Bridge device to update how Indigo shows/handles the device.

I am running Indigo 6.0.0 b13 with Smoke Bridge Firmware 43 (i2CS engine).
If I activate the SB with one of the First Alert alarms, the light turns red and the status in Indigo for the Smoke Bridge changes to ON.
The log shows " Received INSTEON "Smoke Bridge" on (testing executing)"

ISSUE: Once the test is done, the status of the Smoke Bridge still shows ON. I also don't see anything showing CLEAR (maybe not since I issued the test). But, the log never shows anything either for the Smoke Bridge to go back to an OFF status. I have to manually turn off the smoke bridge.