All my Icon switches have the adjustable ramp rate as well. I bought them all during this past summer but at different times as well. I also saw that the green LED switches were cheaper so that was what I ordered however all the switches I received were amber, at least the LED looks amber enough to me and the part number on every one was 2876DB, the green LED switches should have a G at the end 2876DBG.

At any rate I was very happy to learn my switches do have the adjustable ramp rates and on rates as well.

Also I have found that the adjustable ramp rate works at the switch itself and with my remote via IR-543 but not when I turn on/off the switch using my ControlLinc controllers. With my ControlLinc controllers the Icon switches always come on and off quickly not at the slowed ramp rate I have them set at. So this is very possibly where the difference is, using my ControlLinc controllers on the non Icon switches the ramp rate does work. But this may have been caused by how I set the ramp rate (after the ControlLincs were already programmed) I have not looked into that and it is a possibility.

Can anyone touch on scenes and what is required to incorporate into an Insteon network? I'm very much in the air as to which route to take, X10 or Insteon. Scenes won't come into play for a while but they will down the road.

Insteon doesn't have Scenes, at least not in the same way that X10 defined it. In the Insteon network, each device is an independent entity, with its own version of an IP address. Each device has an internal list of the addresses for other devices you set it to control. To do a scene, you would tell one of the switches (or keypad buttons) to turn off or on other switches, at a certain brightness. Then, when you press that key, it uses its internal table to send out a series of individual commands to the other switches you've defined to tell them to turn on.

It has been a while since I've dabbled in X10, but if I'm remembering correctly each switch can be set as a member of a scene, and then when a single scene command goes out, every switch that is a member of that scene turns on. Insteon won't do this, because there aren't any Insteon commands that turn on a device without an acknowledgement to make sure the device actually responded. In the X10 world, they just send out the command and hope it gets everywhere it is supposed to. On the other hand, it can be quicker to set up the scenes in X10.

There are a variety of good protocols, each with its own pluses and minuses. UPB is a good one, as is Zwave and Insteon. At this point I really wouldn't consider X10 one of them. It served its purpose, and without it we may never have had the other protocols, but it is too unreliable given the alternatives. (I just put on my bulletproof jacket for the hailstorm I might get from the X10 folks for making that statement. ;-) )

Actually, Insteon has 'groups,' which could be considered roughly equivilent to scenes. An Insteon controller can send a Group on/off/dim command, and all receivers which are members of that group will respond immediately upon receiving the Group command. After this, the controller sends an individual command to each of the group members, which the member replies to, to indicate receipt of the group command.

I am more than ready to leave X-10 behind. I agree that X-10 has served its purpose. I will slowly replace my x10 with Insteon/x10. compatible devices. When the IR-Insteon and "RF key Fob-Insteon " converters become available I will jump at them.

I am recently finding out what poor quality my IR543 is :(

This "group" thing is very interesting. Is it built into the switches, or is it an add-on that only works with a computer interpreting and issuing commands through a program running with a Powerlinc? In other words, is it a real capability of the Insteon protocol, or is it simulated using a computer and software?

I've been doing some searches and reading on this but it isn't clear to me.

If it is in the switches, how is it programmed and used?

It is built into the switch or controller, just by programming more operations into any switch or controller, it is very simple to set up multiple signals to be sent to several devices.

Okay, so then this is just linking more than one device to a single switch? I misunderstood and thought the groups were something else that I hadn't heard of before.

Groups are part of the protocol, and work as described above. By linking more than one device to a button or controller, you establish a group. The advantage is that all members of a group will turn on, off, or dim together, and then later each member can be queried to ensure it got the group command. So they do act like scenes.

The PowerLinc V2 controller does automatically send the individual direct commands after a group command. Whether or not SwitchLincs or KeypadLincs which act as controllers also do so, I do not know. You could ask about that in the Smarthome Insteon forum. I believe I read about groups in the Insteon white paper, which can be found linked from the above forum by a search.

EDIT: I've been reading recently that the PowerLinc V2 controller actually may not automatically send the cleanup commands, but rather send them only when directed to do so by the connected device. One could ask about this in the Insteon forum.

I installed 4 23885 Switchlink relay switches and a 4003 plug-in RF base and remote. I use the remote as an all on/off security switch for some key lighting. The system works perfectly, 100% functionality so far.

Then I added an Insteon 2476 V2 dimmer for the home theater lighting in a new room along with a 4040 IR/X10 console and a 4006 IR/X10 remote so that I can dim the HT lighting with the remote through the IR base to the 2476 dimmer. I programmed the 2476 to accept the X10 on/off and dim/bright from the IR base and the X10 all on/off commands. The All on/off through the old keyfob/RF receiver works 100% to the new HT dimmer. After a recent RF all on or off, the IR dimmer input through the IR remote/base works perfectly as well. However, if the HT dimmer sits inactive for a while, the dimmer function stops working, until an RF all on or off, then IR dimming is back in business. The same thing happens with the all on/off from the IR remote. I have no signal bridging or boosting.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

I broke down and bought Insteon's starter kit along with 5 more dimmer switches. The keypad installed fine, as well as the RF bridge modules. But I failed to get a 3-way (two switches) setup working, and the second light I opened up was missing a nuetral wire in the box. The keypad was fairly easy to make work my X10 lamp modules, and easy to program with it's own X10 address so I can control it with my IR543 and universal remotes.

I STRONGLY recommend opening your light switches up before ordering any insteon switches. With no nuetral wire in the box, the Insteon switches simply won't work. Call Smarthome and they will suggest you buy an in-line module (more money) to solve the problem, or run a new cable from the light to the switch with a nuetral wire in it. Both make using insteon in an old house far from an easy retrofit.

This is completely true. Do UPB, Z-Wave, and others also have this requirement? I strongly suspect that they do. Even X-10 relay switches do. [You can't feed a tiny current to pass signal, ala the old X-10 dimmers, through an open relay.] So what choice does one have?

Hope you enjoy your Insteon devices, DB.

I opened up both the two switch boxes and the light box of my 3-way circuit, and finally figured out how it all was currently wired and what I'd have to do to wire the Insteon dimmer switches. It was more of a challenge than I expected because I'd already put X10 switch and relay there. With that success I also installed another two switches for another 3-way circuit in the house. I have a multimeter, so after finding the Line, figuring which wires were the Travelers between switches, and finding the Load wire, I installed the Primary switch. I used one traveler to send the neutral line to the other switchbox, capped off the other traveler, and then installed the secondary switch.

The dining room box with no neutral will have to wait for a new cable to be run with neutral. I've got two switches left, and suspect I'll use them for another 3-way in the house.

Anyone know how to get one of the secondary buttons on a keypad to keep track of the on/off state of the switch it is mapped to? I've got it mapped to turn on and off the Kitchen 3-way. Both of the kitchen switches track each other, but the small switch on the remote keypad won't. I can turn the kitchen lights ON or OFF with it, but if the kitchen lights are turned off with either of their own switches, the keypad button loses track and has to be pressed twice to get back in sequence. All the other buttons on the keypad do track the X10 light module status as those lights are turned on or off.

After linking the KeypadLinc button to the 3-way's load controlling switch, which you've already obviously done, then link each of the two 3-way switches to the KeypadLinc button, so that when either of those switches are pressed, the KeypadLinc gets the message [figuratively and literally :-)] and sets its light accordingly.

Thanks, Pchek. I thought I'd done that but the secondary switch was stubborn to link. It finally "took" after a couple of tries.

Now if they only had an IR interface like the IR543 for X10. I'd mapped X10 codes to the keypadlink, but they don't work across the RF Bridge, and the Kitchen 3-way is on another leg. So my remote IR control can make the keypad button go off and ON without actually turning on or off the kitchen lights.