OH2 Insteon PLM Dev Environment

Greetings,

Attempting to get InsteonPLM working in the OH2b3 dev environment. In discussion topics, I see that Insteon PLM appears to work on HO2 if using PLM (I have a 2413S). I previously have used it under OH1 on a RasPi, but am now trying OH2 on a MAC. Questions:

  1. Where do I configure the USB port that it should use?
  2. In the dev env, do I have to do anything beyond choosing org.openhab.binding.insteonplm in my Infrastructure/launch/home/openHAB_Runtime.launch configuration?
  3. Docs look pretty good on configuring items, I assume that no “thing” needs to be configured since it is using the compatibility layer?

Thanks,
Bill

Hi Bill, I’m an openhab newb, but after much reading, what worked for me (I’m using the 2413U) was to create an “Insteonplm.cfg” file under the “services” folder. In this configuration file I put all of the insteon settings which used to be in the openhab.cfg file including the com port. Note that the descriptive text in brackets (including the brackets) after the line which includes the com port must be removed or it will not work.

Ex:
port_0=COM3 (Windows, with serial/usb modem on COM3)
poll_interval=60000
refresh=600000

Hope this helps

Now I have a question for experienced insteon plm users. How do I writer a rule which is triggered by an X10 event. I have many in wall X10 controllers and would like to trigger an event if say A.2 is sent over the powerline from one of my wall controllers.

Thanks
Steve

Thanks Steve, that was exactly it. Makes sense now that I see it … just found it difficult to dig out of the docs. While I haven’t tried X10 with InsteonPLM, I do know the 2413 can speak X10 as I used to use them for it. I would think that writing the rule should be pretty easy once you have the X10 device configured as an item. I don’t think it would be anything special in the rules, but rather properly configuring your X10 item. From the insteonplm_v1.7.md file, I would think you could configure a item for A.2 as:

Switch x10Switch “X10 switch” {insteonplm=“A.2:X00.00.01#switch”}

Thanks,
Bill

Hi Bill,

Yes, I have several of my switches configured as items as you described and I can send commands to these devices using Openhab’s Classic UI, but if I use one of my wall controllers to send the ON command to A.2, Openhab does not trigger a rule which I have coded. If I use Openhab to send the A.2 command, the event triggers properly. What I was hoping to accomplish was to trigger an event based on the powerline signal received by the modem, and not necessarily the state of a predefined item in Openhab. This would allow me to for example keep my X10 wall controllers and use them to trigger Hue lights. I have a significant X10 investment, but with the conversion to LED lighting, many of my switches/relays no longer work well.

Example of what I’d like to do:

  1. Push wall controller to send A.2 ON command
  2. Modem receives A.2 ON Command (device A.2 may not actually exist)
  3. Openhab sees A.2 ON command and triggers a rule to turn on Hue Bulb 1

I realize this would result in a minor delay from switch to action, but hey, I’ve lived with X10 technology for 20 years so I’m used to the delay :slight_smile:

Hello Steve,

Do you have any Insteon (besides the 2413U) or just X10? With your pointer, I just got first OH2 results on a MAC last night (I’m using a Sabrent DB9-USB connector, homemade RJ45-DB9 connector for my 2413S, the latest Prolific device driver, and finally “port_0=/dev/tty.usbserial” in my insteonplm.cfg file). With this, I can control an Insteon switch using OH2b3 on my MAC. However, when I manually turn the switch on or off, the insteonplm binding doesn’t respond. That sounds very similar to the issue you are facing.

A couple of thoughts:

  1. I also have OH1.8 running on a Raspberry Pi. In that config, using the same cable and 2413S, OH can both control and respond to the switch. But, using OH2 on my MAC, OH2 can control but not respond to the Insteon switch. So, is it something about OH2 or my MAC config?
  2. From what I remember of X-10, the command will be sent out, so what you are trying sounds like it should work. In that case, is it the 2413U not passing the command on, or is it OH2 and the same issue that I am seeing? That is why I asked if you have any other Insteon devices on it at this time.

In both our cases, OH2 is not responding to a signal being sent from a device, but is able to control the device. That leads me to suspect the insteonplm binding on OH2, especially when it does respond on my Raspberry Pi on 1.8. I’ll be looking deeper into this, but it may not be for several days.

Just my thoughts.

So I think I see why the InsteonBinding is not seeing commands sent by my Insteon switches. It appears that my 2413S has lost it’s ModemDB. I was away from things for about 2 months during which the 2413S sat dormant. In my RasPi Insteon logs from two months ago, I see ModemDB entries, but in my current logs I see that the ModemDB is empty. The logs from 2 months ago were RasPi only logs using 1.8. Now, the RasPi logs show an empty ModemDB as dothe MAC logs using OH2. So, it appears that the problem is not OH at all, but rather the 2413S having lost it’s ModemDB entries. Maybe it cannot be unplugged for a long period of time or it loses these entries.

This may be what Steve’s issue with X10 is. If the 2413 only passes through entries which is has in its ModemDB, then it makes sense that he would not see a X10 command such as A.2 being sent by an X10 device.

For me, it looks like I’ll have to reconstruct the ModemDB. Then hopefully things will start working in both directions.

Hi Bill,

I’ve been playing with things a bit over the past couple days, and I wanted to check to see if it was the plm or OH2. So I found another piece of software capable of controlling the plm and viewing codes received by it. Using this other software all of my commands from my X10 wall controllers are registered by the plm, so that led me to think it was all in the OH2 binding. So I tried OH2 again. I found a small typo in my items file and after fixing that, all of the codes were registered by the plm and showing up in the logs as I had hoped, horray!. But then the next day when I went to do more testing, it all stopped again. Now I’m back to the point where the plm in OH2 only seems to recognize A.2 and A.3, anything else is ignored. Bizzare. I’m going to try a complete reinstall of OH2 and the latest insteonplm binding.

Sigh!

Oh, and no, I do not have any other Insteon devices yet, (although I’ve ordered a motion detector to play with).

Do the X10 items need to be in the PLM database?

I was not able to find a way to load x10 devices into the plm database, but even so, a few x10 addresses worked as expected with the plm whereas most did not. It was as if 2or3 addresses were in the database by default and were therefore recognized, but I couldn’t find a way to add others.

DavidTCDavid Chew

January 21

Do the X10 items need to be in the PLM database?


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In Reply To

AnarchorSteve Mills

September 20Oh, and no, I do not have any other Insteon devices yet, (although I’ve ordered a motion detector to play with).


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looking at the insteon 2.10.25 software it gives you an option to add x10 devices. wasn’t sure if that was a pre-req for using the x10 devices with the PLM.

see http://cache.insteon.com/pdf/HouseLinc.pdf search X10

I tried the houselink software, but could not get it to recognize my plm on Windows 10.

DavidTCDavid Chew

February 2

see http://cache.insteon.com/pdf/HouseLinc.pdf search X10


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In Reply To

AnarchorSteve Mills

January 21I was not able to find a way to load x10 devices into the plm database, but even so, a few x10 addresses worked as expected with the plm whereas most did not. It was as if 2or3 addresses were in the database by default and were therefore recognized, but I couldn’t find a way to add others.

[imag…


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