change Insteon device link brightness/load pct via program

Posted on
Sun Jun 23, 2019 6:08 am
welchgregusa offline
Posts: 101
Joined: May 29, 2013
Location: Orlando, FL

change Insteon device link brightness/load pct via program

I have some closet LED lights I'm controlling using an In-LineLinc Dimmer and a Hidden Door Sensor. Presently I am using Indigo's "Manage INSTEON Device Links" feature to link the devices, so that my server does not have to be involved. However, I would like to have different LED (dimmer) brightnesses depending on the time of day—lots of light during the day, but much less at night. I realize there are many ways to do this via Indigo triggers, etc. but I would prefer a direct link for minimal latency, etc.

Does anyone know if it's possible (and how) to programmatically change the brightness associated with a link between the In-LineLinc Dimmer and the Hidden Door Sensor?

I have tried sending raw Insteon commands to set the "on-level" of the In-LineLinc Dimmer per the developer notes for the device (http://cache.insteon.com/developer/2475DA2dev-102013-en.pdf) and seem to succeed (when I look at the device in Indigo it shows my "default level") but opening the door still results in 100% brightness (whatever was set using Indigo's "Manage INSTEON Device Links" interface). I'm presently trying to see if I need to also affect an "all-links" action. I've wondered about using Python, e.g., indigo.rawServerRequest, but that's apparently undocumented (understandably).

Thanks for ideas/instructions.

Posted on
Mon Jun 24, 2019 8:54 am
jay (support) offline
Site Admin
User avatar
Posts: 18200
Joined: Mar 19, 2008
Location: Austin, Texas

Re: change Insteon device link brightness/load pct via progr

The brightness is stored as part of the direct link between the devices, not as a global setting. Even if it were possible, I wouldn't attempt to regularly rewrite links like that: they are somewhat failure prone and could cause the link tables in the device or PowerLinc to become corrupt and require a factory reset (this is a relatively common failure on Insteon devices).

Best to just do it with triggers.

Jay (Indigo Support)
Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

Posted on
Mon Jun 24, 2019 7:58 pm
matt (support) offline
Site Admin
User avatar
Posts: 21411
Joined: Jan 27, 2003
Location: Texas

Re: change Insteon device link brightness/load pct via progr

One trick you can do in a case like this is create a direct link from the sensor to the In-LineLinc for the dimmest brightness setting. Then you can create a Trigger that catches that command and sets it to the higher brightness value. Lastly, you can create a pair of Schedules in Indigo that both enable and disable that Trigger based on the time-of-day. So you would have the Trigger enabled when you want the higher brightness. In that case it will be a two step process (lower brightness than the higher), but only in the higher-brightness case.

Image

Posted on
Tue Jun 25, 2019 3:35 pm
welchgregusa offline
Posts: 101
Joined: May 29, 2013
Location: Orlando, FL

Re: change Insteon device link brightness/load pct via progr

Thanks guys.

Matt: I tried that (read it somewhere in another topic) but ran into a little trouble with a race condition. I had to delay the high-brightness daytime trigger so that the low-brightness direct link didn’t “overwrite” it afterward, and it seems I have to make the delay several seconds otherwise I see dim, then bright, then dim again. I’m guessing this might be in part due to the global Insteon setting to “always send group/scene cleanup message”—seems like cleanups might be trouncing my trigger. Make sense? I might try disabling that setting for a while to see if I notice “ill effects”.... Thanks again

Page 1 of 1

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 4 guests