KeypadLinc Button Group

[brmeeke]

Hi Mark,

I have recently purchased a FanLinc and a KeypadLinc for our bedroom. I created a Group (Button Mode Toggle, HS Control On/Off only) that would control the 4 speeds of the fan. As documented, the radio buttons operate as expected. When I turn on the Fan Med button, the Fan High button turns off.

Next, I created a series of events that will step the fan speed down during the night and ultimately turn the fan off around 4am. The assumption that I made was that an event would turn the Fan Med button ON which by default would turn the Fan High button off. The same characteristics that I see when I physically press the button. Unfortunately, this morning I found that all four buttons were turned ON.

Did I do something wrong in my setup of the KeypadLinc or is this the way that it will operate when HS3 is changing the buttons? I could always implement a button maintenance event that ensures that it only has 1 button turned ON at a time but that seems counter-intuitive when I have already created a Button Group.

Thanks


Brian

[mnsandler]

Brian,

these issues are fw shortcomings with the fanlinc and kpl.

the fanlinc is a responder only device. thus it can't affect/control other devices (ie kpl btns) Even if it could, the kpl btns wouldn't respond the same via remote commands as they do when controlled locally.

so you will need events to keep the kp btns in sync with the fanlinc speed

[brmeeke]

Hi Mark

Thank you for the prompt reply.

Just to make sure that I understood your message correctly, I need to create an event that ensures that I only have 1 Keypad button turned on at a time. The button grouping does not factor into the behavior. That means that when an event fires which is going to change the speed of the fan then I need a general housekeeping event that will fire first which will turn off all of the buttons before the new speed is selected.

Is that correct??



Brian

[mnsandler]

Hi Mark

Thank you for the prompt reply.

Just to make sure that I understood your message correctly, I need to create an event that ensures that I only have 1 Keypad button turned on at a time. The button grouping does not factor into the behavior. That means that when an event fires which is going to change the speed of the fan then I need a general housekeeping event that will fire first which will turn off all of the buttons before the new speed is selected.

Is that correct??

Brian

I'm not sure. let me try a few things and get back with you

[joegr]

You could also create four groups (with HS as the controller).

Group 1 - fan high - fanlinc fan on high - keypadlinc fan high button on, keypadlinc fan med button off, keypadlinc fan low button off, keypadlinc fan off button off.

...

Group 4 - fan off - fanlinc fan off - keypadlinc fan high button off, keypadlinc fan med button off, keypadlinc fan low button off, keypadlinc fan off button on.

[mnsandler]

I think Joe has the right idea.

this will require the least amount of work building events, and get you the fastest/best results

[mnsandler]

if you do use an Event, the "control a device" action will update the hs devices and the kpl btns correctly when grouped in a radio button style.

so you could trigger on the fanlinc changing speeds and then create the appropriate action.

[brmeeke]

Hi

I did some experimenting this afternoon and created a series of Groups as Joegr suggested. I then modified my existing Events to trigger the Group settings instead. It was great because I was able to simplify the whole process by deleting the housekeeping event that did the system reset. The groups simply change the state of the buttons and the Fanlinc exactly as needed.

I am going to do some more testing later today but first pass seems to work exactly as I hoped.

Thank you

[Mats2]

Hi,

How do I do this part:

(with HS as the controller).

thanks
Mats

[mnsandler]

create a group within the plugin and do not assign a controller device. the PLM will be the controller which is effectively what was suggested

[brmeeke]

Hi Mark,

I have been playing with the Groups in HS3 and have changed some of my Events. So far, everything seems to work as I expected. The one thing that does surprise me a bit is that I still needed to create a Cleanup Event which would trigger if the Devices that are in the Group were not in sync.

As an example, I created an Event which consists of two Insteon switches, HS3 is the controller. I have an event that turns the Group devices ON and both of the Insteon switches respond appropriately. What surprised me is that I thought that the Group would automatically keep all of the devices within the Group in sync. In other words, if I manually turned ON one of the switches, I expected that the other switch would automatically turn ON as well. I know that I can select one of the devices in the Group as being the Controller and that seems to address part of the problem. But then I need to figure out which device is the Controller and then what happens when I touch the other device? Does that mean that I need to create another Group which names the Second device as the Controller? Wouldn't that get out of control very quickly?

Am I missing something about Groups? Perhaps this ability to automatically force consistency of the devices within the Group is more of an enhancement request.

What do you think??


Thanks

Brian

[joegr]

Groups do not in any way bind devices together. Groups are just a way to tell a bunch of different devices to do something in particular (can be different for each device) at the same time. For example, I have a group to turn all my exterior lights on at the same time. Sometimes, I want to do that. However, I do no want all my exterior lights to always come on together. Most times, I just want to turn one of them on.

To accomplish what you seem to be wanting to do, try cross linking the devices together.