We’re building up a collection of tips for the Insteon Director mobile app. Check back as we continue to add more.
3-Way Switches (multi-way 4 or more)
When you install Insteon switches in a 3-way circuit (2 or more switches wired to the same light fixture), to program them so they are synchronized, you’ll want to create a scene in Director with 3-way switches set as both Director and Actor. Then use the scene to control them, rather than the individual devices in the app.
Pseudo Random Schedules
One way to create pseudo random schedules is to create multiple scenes for lights to appear random. For instance, if you create 3 scenes, let’s call them Sunset Weekend, Sunset MWF, and Sunset TuTh. You can schedule these scenes at slightly different on and off times that run on different days. Although not random, someone would really need to pay attention across the week to figure out they are not random. In these scenes you might turn different lights on in the house to show there is different movement. If you want to appear even more random, you could create 7 different scenes, one for each day of the
week. If you mix in different lights, someone will really need to watch your home closely for over a week to detect a pattern.
If you want to be even more geeky, you can create layered scenes. Let’s take the Weekend, MWF, and TuTh examples above. You create 6 scenes as follows:
On Weekend – Turns on a group of lights, but with no off time.
Off Weekend- Turns the first group of lights off as you turn bedroom lights on (or other lights on).
On MWF - Turns on a group of lights, but with no off time (different time).
Off MWF - Turn the first group of lights off as you turn bedroom lights on (or other lights on, different time).
On TuTh- Turns on a group of lights, but with no off time (different time).
Off TuTh - Turn the first group of lights off as you turn bedroom lights on (or other lights on, different time).
Disable A Schedule
This is a temporary hack until we add the enable/disable schedule feature. If you want to keep a schedule but disable it, you can unclick all of the days. Effectively this preserves the schedule and the on/off time, but it will not run.
Rooms are not just “rooms”
We want to remind users that “Rooms” do not need to be a physical room. In devices (and soon in scenes), you can put a device into one or more rooms, and favorites. However, you can consider a room a category or theme rather than just a physical room. For instance, you might have a room called “Summer” for the devices you want to control on your patio during the summer. Or a room called “Holiday Decorations” for the devices that control your Holiday decorations. By organizing devices into themes, you can make navigation of devices easier.
Holiday Plug-in Modules
Some customers unplug their on/off or dimmer module when they put away their holiday lights. Some have asked if it is better to leave the plug-in in place or pack it up. I would recommend you leave it plugged in. Additional plugin modules improve the speed and reliability of your Insteon network. In addition, we are working on a remote support tool that allows more diagnostic capability with these plugins left in place.
Texts & Multiple Email Notifications
When a light goes on or a motion sensor triggers you can get a banner on your phone and/or an email. Since all of the major cell carriers have an email setup for your phone text, you can also get a text (SMS) message. On the rooms view, tap on the device card, and enter the full device view, next tap the gear icon. Tap Notifications and enable email notifications. In the email field type the email. If you want to get a text add your 10-digit cell phone number per the following:
AT&T: 10digitphonenumber@txt.att.net
Verizon: 10digitphonenumber@vtext.com
T-Mobile: 10digitphonenumber@tmomail.net
For instance, if you put an open/close sensor in your mailbox and want to get a notification via text and email when your mailbox is open you would type the following:
bobsmith@gmail.com,71499922222@txt.att.net
Then type Save. An alert approval message will be sent to the phone number provided as a text. For more detail on the texting portion of this click on https://www.insteon.com/support-knowledgebase/2015/4/8/send-alerts-via-sms-using-email-on-your-mobile-phone