INSTEON Switches (SwitchLinc and ToggleLinc)

Posted on
Mon Apr 14, 2014 10:21 am
jay (support) offline
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Re: INSTEON Switches (SwitchLinc and ToggleLinc)

So, a couple of points: first, I don't know of an automation switch that can control fan speeds directly (besides just turning it on/off). Second, if you install a FanLinc at the fan and then directly link a KeypadLinc to it, it doesn't require any other automation to be present. Indigo can, of course, control the FanLinc and KeypadLinc from Indigo but it's not required (see the FanLinc and KeypadLinc wiki article for details).

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Posted on
Tue Apr 15, 2014 8:16 pm
jltnol offline
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Re: INSTEON Switches (SwitchLinc and ToggleLinc)

Hey Jay

I've read the Wiki you suggested, and think I understand enough about how to handle the programming part...

I'm not really sure I need fan speed control, and my plan at the moment is just a in-wall dimmer for the fan light, and an in-wall on/off switch for the fan.

However, I am considering the Insteon FanLinc, but am struggling with how to control it. Clearly there are several options.

I also like the idea of a 6 pad Keypad Dimmer in the wall....... but that device has a dimmer built in, so clearly can't supply the main power for a FanLinc.

And while I can think of ways to wire the two up so it does work for a fan/light combo, it means the light dimmer circuit in the FanLinc will be wasted, right ?

What am I missing ?

Posted on
Thu Apr 17, 2014 4:14 pm
jay (support) offline
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Re: INSTEON Switches (SwitchLinc and ToggleLinc)

So, you should probably hook the FanLinc's line wires to the manual switch that's in the second position in the jbox - so you can completely cut the power to the fan. I think that's probably code in most places in the US. I, however, don't do that (see below). ;)

The load on the KeypadLinc will be capped off and link the KeypadLinc's button 1 (the load control) to the FanLinc's light and the 4 buttons in the middle will control the 4 fan speeds. Optionally, you could also wire the fan's light to the KeypadLinc's load and you can cap off the FanLinc's light wire - thereby ignoring the light functionality of the FanLinc. Either way should work fine.

Rather than leave a switch in place to cut all power to the FanLinc, I put in a SwitchLinc in the empty space (it's load wires are capped off) and installed an OutletLinc Dimmer beside a lamp - then directly linked the SwitchLinc to the OutletLinc and created a switched outlet where there wasn't one before. Probably against code so just call me a rebel...

Oh - and maybe it goes without saying, but if you don't use the second switch to power the FanLinc, you need to wire it directly to the house mains.

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Posted on
Sun Apr 20, 2014 11:19 am
echiang offline
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Enabling Sense on a Switchlinc w/Sense 2476SS

So, I finally got around to re-wiring a floodlight to use an old switchlinc with sense (2476SS). Apparently, since smarthome discontinued this switch, they took down the manual and I could not find it with a Google search.

I do have the "Quick Start Guide" for the 2476SS and the guide describes how to disable the sense line, pressing & holding the set button and then double-tapping the set button. Based on the inlinelinc (2475S2) instructions that I found which says to do a triple-tap to enable sense, I am assuming that it is the same for the 2476SS.

Can someone confirm that a triple-tap enables sense?
Thanks in advance, Ed

Posted on
Thu Apr 24, 2014 8:34 pm
jltnol offline
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Re: INSTEON Switches (SwitchLinc and ToggleLinc)

Hey Jay

Thanks for your suggestions once again...

Pretty much decided to ignore the dimmer in the FanLinc, and use the 6 Pad controller in the wall.. seem the easiest way to get from Point A to Point B.

I have set up one FanLinc and added it in Indigo. The fan is set to HIGH on the switch at the fan.... it was setup this way, but when I click on Slow or Medium in Indigo.... its REALLY slow on both speeds... both are much slower than the normal Low w/o the FanLinc.

And any idea if there is a way to control how fast each speed is?


Also... this is an old house... I'm wondering if the hot and neural wires are reversed if that could be affecting fan speed...

Posted on
Fri Apr 25, 2014 10:07 am
matt (support) offline
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Re: INSTEON Switches (SwitchLinc and ToggleLinc)

I don't believe there is a way to change/calibrate the settings used by low/medium with the FanLinc. You might want to check with Smarthome to make sure, but if it isn't mentioned in the manual then I doubt it is possible.

I'm not sure if hot/neutral swap would effect the speed or not either. You can measure the voltage between each and ground though to determine which wire is really hot.

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Posted on
Mon Jun 23, 2014 5:57 pm
dtich offline
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togglelinc failures

hi all. i recently had a togglelinc (at least one, maybe two, still dismantling) fail in a dangerous way and wanted to share, see if anyone had similar experience.

i have four togglelincs in weather receptacle boxes outside, they control outdoor and pool lighting. the hi current switch for pool equip and irrigation controllers (all insteon) are also in this area. since install, about 6 or 7 years ago, they've worked flawlessly, no issues ever. suddenly, it seems two of the togglelincs have failed. noticed this when the landscape lighting didn't come on one night. also, the pool light was not working. i pulled the t'lincs from the box and started testing. even though the led's light and the toggle switch itself 'works' no current was flowing to the load wire. what was happening was that on the failed ones i was getting about 10vac between load and neutral, but a full 115vac between neutral and the chassis ground/bonding, whether the switch position was on or off. this should NEVER happen. i assume it is because of a component failure in the t'linc. as a failure mode this is most unsafe and should disqualify for underwriting in my opinion.

i have ordered new switches, will install soon, perhaps the new ones are of a more safe design. ? does anyone have any experience with this happening?

it is possible a current spike took these switches out, but we've had no storms or anything in quite a while. and, as i've said, they have been working for years, through storms and power outages and all sorts of things, so why fail now, i don't know. in any case, it seems i've lost two, and one of them seems to have taken the pool light with it. if that one is leaking 115vac into the neutral also, that could very well have done in the pool light. i'm sure it wouldn't like that.

at any rate, there's my story, sticking to it, anybody with similar events, i'd be interested in hearing your findings.


thanks.

Posted on
Mon Jun 23, 2014 6:29 pm
matt (support) offline
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Re: INSTEON Switches (SwitchLinc and ToggleLinc)

Did it trip the breaker in the failed state? Seems like full 110+VAC coming out of the neutral wire would have to trip it since that would be a LINE to NEUTRAL/GROUND short with no resistance (unless there was some internal resistance in the failed TL itself). Forum folks: Any electricians or EEs have any thoughts?

Thanks for the report...

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Posted on
Mon Jun 23, 2014 7:43 pm
dtich offline
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Re: INSTEON Switches (SwitchLinc and ToggleLinc)

no, breakers weren't tripped. i thought maybe the tl uses a solid state relay to control a power relay, and the ss relay fused, or died a fiery death in some way that routed ac to the neutral. couldn't figure out why the circuit would/could do that in the first place, doesn't seem safe, but... if the line in was routed to the neutral instead of the load, which seems to be what happened, there would be no overheating condition on the line in to trip the breaker (they're thermal, not gfci) and the current would just drain to the neutral bar. i assume in this case the tl's internal schema would limit the amount of current that could flow..? not sure, didn't pull the tl out and fully test it to see what was happening, i just disconnected the hot wires and capped them with wire nuts. i'll post more if i figure it out once i replace them.

thanks matt!

nice new site, btw.

Posted on
Thu Jul 17, 2014 11:43 am
bschollnick2 offline
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Keypadlinc (Dual Band)

Folks,

I'm in a bit of a quandary. My wife's Keypadlinc is acting up, and it was in a Keypadlinc TableTop enclosure.

I have a dual band module, that I can use instead, but those don't fit into that enclosure.

Has anyone found a table top enclosure that would work? And generally look nice? It doesn't have to be the same styling, but any suggestions would be appreciated.

- Ben

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Posted on
Thu Jul 24, 2014 4:31 am
bschollnick2 offline
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Keypadlinc (V2) i1 engine

Yes, it's an older model. But ti started to act up recently, so I ended up factory resetting it.

Now, it doesn't seem matter how many times I relink it to indigo, via define & sync, as well as with Re-sync links. It's not reporting key presses back to Indigo.

Is it possible that the links are not being uploaded correctly? Or that the keypadlinc is somehow ignoring the updates to it's link table?

I've also noticed a lot of 02 02 or 02 06's when communicating with this switch.

Code: Select all
  PowerLinc                       Linking - syncing PowerLinc links (address 13.AD.96)
  PowerLinc                       Linking - . . adding: INSTEON plc link to controller 0E.2B.08, flags 03, group 01, data 00 00 FF
  PowerLinc                       Linking - . . adding: (not added -- probably already exists)
  PowerLinc                       Linking - sync complete
  PowerLinc                       Linking - initializing remote device "C&B Master Bedroom Keylinc" (address 0E.2B.08, firmware version 2D)
  PowerLinc                       Linking - PowerLinc links updated
  PowerLinc                       Linking - .  reading: configuration settings
  PowerLinc                       Linking - . . . read: configuration settings 00, keypad in 6 button mode
  PowerLinc                       Linking - . . . read: default on brightness 0%, ramp rate duration 0.1 seconds
  PowerLinc                       Linking - initialize complete
  PowerLinc                       Linking - device "C&B Master Bedroom Keylinc" properties updated
  PowerLinc                       Linking - syncing remote device "C&B Master Bedroom Keylinc" (address 0E.2B.08, firmware version 2D)
  PowerLinc                       Linking - syncing all links

Jul 24, 2014, 6:20:57 AM
  PowerLinc                       Linking - . . . read: INSTEON dev link to responder 13.AD.AD, flags E2, group 01, data 96 01 01
  PowerLinc                       Linking - . . . read: INSTEON dev link to responder 13.AD.96, flags E2, group 02, data FE 1F 02
  PowerLinc                       Linking - . . . read: INSTEON dev link to responder 13.AD.AD, flags E2, group AD, data 96 01 01
  PowerLinc                       Linking - . . . read: INSTEON dev link to responder 13.AD.AD, flags E2, group 04, data 96 1F E2
  PowerLinc                       Linking - . . . read: INSTEON dev link (empty record at 0FD8)
  PowerLinc                       Unexpected command 02 62 (flushing)
  PowerLinc                       Linking - . . . read: INSTEON dev link (empty record at 0FD0)
  PowerLinc                       Linking - . . . read: INSTEON dev link (empty record at 0FC8)
  PowerLinc                       Linking - . . . read: INSTEON dev link (empty record at 0FC0)
  PowerLinc                       Linking - . . . read: INSTEON dev link (empty record at 0FB8)
  PowerLinc                       Linking - . . . read: INSTEON dev link (empty record at 0FB0)

Jul 24, 2014, 6:22:48 AM
  PowerLinc                       Linking - . . adding: PowerLinc responder for group 1 (replacing empty link at 0FD8)
  PowerLinc                       Linking - . .  found: PowerLinc responder for group 2
  PowerLinc                       Linking - . . adding: PowerLinc responder for group 3 (replacing empty link at 0FD0)
  PowerLinc                       Linking - . . adding: PowerLinc responder for group 4 (replacing empty link at 0FC8)

Jul 24, 2014, 6:23:36 AM
  PowerLinc                       Linking - . . adding: PowerLinc responder for group 5 (replacing empty link at 0FC0)
  PowerLinc                       Linking - . . adding: PowerLinc responder for group 6 (replacing empty link at 0FB8)
  PowerLinc                       Linking - . . adding: PowerLinc responder for group 7 (replacing empty link at 0FB0)

Jul 24, 2014, 6:24:11 AM
  PowerLinc                       Linking - . . adding: PowerLinc responder for group 8 (inserting new link at 0FA8)

Jul 24, 2014, 6:24:55 AM
  PowerLinc                       Linking - comparing local and remote links
  PowerLinc                       Linking - .  missing: remote link not found for persistent link 14.28.BF group 01 (adding remote link)
  PowerLinc                       Linking - .  missing: remote link not found for persistent link 0C.8A.7D group 01 (adding remote link)
  PowerLinc                       Linking - .  missing: remote link not found for persistent link 0C.8A.7D group 01 (adding remote link)
  PowerLinc                       Linking - compare complete
  PowerLinc                       Linking - . . adding: INSTEON dev link to responder 14.28.BF, flags E2, group 01, data FE 1F 01

Jul 24, 2014, 6:25:21 AM
  PowerLinc                       Linking - . . adding: INSTEON dev link to responder 0C.8A.7D, flags E2, group 01, data FE 1F 01

Jul 24, 2014, 6:26:00 AM
  PowerLinc                       Linking - . . adding: INSTEON dev link to controller 0C.8A.7D, flags A2, group 01, data FF 1F 01

Jul 24, 2014, 6:26:19 AM
  PowerLinc                       Linking - sync complete
  PowerLinc                       Linking - device "C&B Master Bedroom Keylinc" links updated


If I attempt to sync again, almost every time, it goes back through the adding of various links, as if this linking didn't do anything.

Update - The ON and OFF buttons are being seen in the log, but button 3,4,5,6 and not shown in the log, and have no effect. Well, correction, if I press and HOLD and start dimmer behavior they show up in the log as start dimmer and stop dimmer actions.

Any suggestions?

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Posted on
Thu Jul 24, 2014 12:04 pm
norm offline
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Re: INSTEON Switches (SwitchLinc and ToggleLinc)

I may be confused so straighten me out.

Wasn't your your original query about fitting in a Table Top Enclosure?

You're right about the newer KeypadLinc Relays (Dual-Band)not fitting but the new Dimmer Dual-Band versions still fit. So which do you need? The Dimmer or the Relay?

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Posted on
Thu Jul 24, 2014 7:09 pm
matt (support) offline
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Re: Keypadlinc (V2) i1 engine

bschollnick2 wrote:
Now, it doesn't seem matter how many times I relink it to indigo, via define & sync, as well as with Re-sync links. It's not reporting key presses back to Indigo.
...
Update - The ON and OFF buttons are being seen in the log, but button 3,4,5,6 and not shown in the log, and have no effect. Well, correction, if I press and HOLD and start dimmer behavior they show up in the log as start dimmer and stop dimmer actions.

That is definitely a sign the links are not in the module's memory. If a factory reset (then resync) isn't helping, then I suspect the flash memory has gone bad on the module.

Image

Posted on
Mon Sep 08, 2014 6:27 pm
kw123 offline
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battery operated switch

Is there a switch that operates on batteries, driving a small load? like a sensor but reverse.

thx

Karl

Posted on
Tue Sep 16, 2014 11:24 pm
thumpinc offline
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Re: INSTEON Switches (SwitchLinc and ToggleLinc)

So this post is touching back on the original poster, who was living in an older house with 2 Wire Switchlincs that were all going offline after a power outage. I am having the same problem. When we have rolling blackouts out here in California and our power goes out momentarily all of my 2 wire switchlincs stop responding. I then have to fiddle and reset them and try sinking them a few times to get them back online. This shouldnt be happening as the manual states that settings are in 'non-volatile memory' and that power outages should not be affecting them.

The OP said he resolved the situation because he had 'a faulty switch linc'. Unfortunately this doesnt really explain much to me - he stated he had 3 switchlincs that were all misbehaving but then his solution was he had 'one faulty switchlinc'. So does one faulty switchlinc take the rest offline? Im confused.

I have six switchlincs and having to do all this manual work each time is getting really old. Any thoughts?

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