| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| joehuber |
Posted - 07/07/2012 : 6:13:48 PM
I recently installed a ceiling fan and needed a remote control. My wife liked the looks of the RemoteLinc2 so I bought one along with a Fanlinc. As with most of my Insteon purchases it is a love and hate experience.
The Fanlinc installed easily and works perfectly. I can reliably control the fan and its light via HouseLinc just as expected. And the RemoteLinc2 seems to communicate well with it too. Not sure if it's a direct RF path to the Fanlinc2 or via one of several access points I have around the house.
However getting the RemoteLinc2 programmed in any sane way was a nightmare, even using HouseLinc. Since virtually all SmartHome software has been a PITA I wasn't surprised and so I kept at it until I finally got things working OK.
I had ordered the 8 Scene version of the RemoteLinc2, thinking I could use 4 buttons for the 4 fan speeds, 2 buttons for light ON/OFF and two spare buttons to control other Insteon stuff. Well by default the buttons on the 8 Scene version all work in toggle mode, meaning with each press they alternately send an ON or OFF command. But since the RemoteLinc2 cannot know whether the device is actually on or off it can easily get out of sync and will send an ON command to an already ON device or an Off command to something that's already off. This isn't good in general, but is especially problematic with a Fan since its speed doesn't change quickly so it's hard to tell if the first press worked or if you need to press the RemoteLinc2 button again. Definitely not wife friendly.
So I tried using HouseLinc to set the RemoteLinc2 into the "Always ON" button mode, where a button press always sends a scene ON command. There's a nice radio button in HouseLinc for this but I could NEVER get HouseLink to change this mode in the RemoteLinc2. It's frustrating because there's very little feedback when trying to sync into a RemoteLinc2. In the end I gave up on using HouseLink to set this option and used the lengthy button press dance on the RemoteLinc2 itself. With this approach I could get some things to turn on but getting them to turn off was much more tedious. I needed to create a separate scene where sending it a Scene On command would turn the device off. I never got this working well with the Fan...
So I decided to try the RemoteLinc2 in 4 Scene mode, where each scene has separate On and Off buttons. The scenes would be Fan Low, Fan Med, Fan High and Fan Light. Note this results in having three buttons that can turn the fan off (one in each Fan Speed scene) which seems like a waste. Of course HouseLink has an option for 4 Scene mode, but again it seems incapable of pushing it to the RemoteLinc2. So I did the button dance on the RemoteLinc2 itself.
So now things work reasonably well. But it sure took a lot of experimenting with workarounds to get a simple fan remote control working. Especially when this device pairing is specifically recommended on the Fanlinc device page.
I wonder if anyone else has a better approach that doesn't waste two buttons by having triple Fan OFF functionality? |
| 6 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Tfitzpatri8 |
Posted - 07/08/2012 : 10:24:20 AM
No, the current beta is v.26.
Try the add device trick to update device properties. Re-adding the device pops up an message about the device already being installed, but it does trigger an immediate sync on battery-operated gear. |
| joehuber |
Posted - 07/08/2012 : 10:16:47 AM
It took me a while to figure out exactly when the RemoteLinc2 would synchronize. The HouseLinc message says it will sync the next time RemoteLinc2 is "Activated". But what specifically constitutes an Activation; power On, or some specific manipulation of the set button or any press of any key??? Seems to be any press of any key. But although I could use HL to change the button links I could NEVER get HL to change the mode from 8 scene toggle to 8 scene Always On, or to 4 Scene no matter what I tried.
I'm using HL 2.9.26 which software update installed recently, didn't know it was Beta until you mentioned it. That explains why it's so "unpredictable". |
| Tfitzpatri8 |
Posted - 07/08/2012 : 12:00:06 AM
quote:
Originally posted by stusviews
BTW, I'm not sure that setting the buttons to non-toggle on will allow adjusting the fan light brightness level.
Excellent point, Stu, you lose the ability to dim by holding the button if the buttons are in non-toggle On mode. What you can do is set a longer ramp rate, press the button to turn the light off, then hold the On button twice to brighten to the desired level.
Also, it looks like the latest beta of HL is having trouble with automatically synchronizing properties on the next RL2 button press. If you have the same trouble, re-add the RL2 device to HouseLinc and hold the set button in for 5 seconds to manually trigger it to synchronize. (HL will complain that the device is already in its database, but it will then sync.) |
| stusviews |
Posted - 07/07/2012 : 11:33:25 PM
Another method (requires two HouseLinc events):
1. Change the RemoteLinc 2 to 4-button mode.
2. top left button: event-Off sets fan to high (or medium)
3. top right button: event-On sets fan to medium (or high)
4. 2nd button: link as fan slow, off will turn fan off from any speed
5: 3rd button: link to fan light
6. bottom button free
BTW, I'm not sure that setting the buttons to non-toggle on will allow adjusting the fan light brightness level. |
| Tfitzpatri8 |
Posted - 07/07/2012 : 10:27:42 PM
I understand SmartLabs actually took some flack for the perceived wastefullness of previous product packaging. They used to include both 6 and 8 button frames on every KeypadLinc, and people complained that they had to throw out a bunch of perfectly good parts they didn't need. For the RL2, they actually did a customer survey before deciding how to handle the recharging situation--include a wall charger with each unit, include a cable, or let the customer purchase just what they need a la carte. Since the switch only needs to be recharged every few months, if you get 6 RL2s you don't really need more than 1 charger. By selling components separately, folks who have a pile of compatible celll phone chargers or cables already are set, and others can buy only what they need, all without the environmentalists putting SmartLabs on their hit-list!
The trick for using HouseLinc to program all battery-operated devices, including the RemoteLinc 2, is to understand that they put their radios to sleep after transmitting to prolong their battery life. Changes to a device's properties and link tables are cached until the device is used again, then the changes are pushed out.
That's also why the RL2's 8-scene toggle mode doesn't reflect changes made by other devices--since it doesn't 'hear' other devices turning the device on and off, each button press simply sends the 'opposite' of what it transmitted last time. You can see what the RL2 sends out by watching the LED response--if the LED shows green you are transmitting the scene ON or Bright command, red and you are sending the OFF or Dim command.
The non-toggle On mode is my favorite way to use an 8 button RL2 to control a FanLinc. Using HL, you can set two buttons to turn the fan light on and off, 4 buttons to set fan speed to low, med, high and off, then you have two more buttons for favorite scenes, like setting both the fan speed and dimmer level both to your favorite levels with a single button press. Use HL's Scenes feature to create a separate scene for each RL2 button. Create and name a scene, check the Controller box for the RL2 button, then check the Responder boxes for the appropriate FanLinc function. Click Edit to customize the dimmer level and fan speed, then Save the scene. That'll write the changes to the FanLinc immediately. When it is done, press one of the On buttons on the RL2 to allow HL to push the changes out to the battery-operated controller.
Don't stress about the learning curve. It's easy to experience a 'choice overload' sometimes with all the features available, but as you get to know what each unit is capable of you'll appreciate the flexibility to set things up just as you like them. |
| joehuber |
Posted - 07/07/2012 : 6:24:40 PM
One other thing I should have mentioned is that the RemoteLinc2 requires a MICRO usb cable to charge, and it's NOT included. I had read other user's complaints about the lack of an included charging cable, but wasn't too concerned because I have lots of usb cables with the little connector on one end. Well all of mine are the MINI usb which does to fit the RemoteLinc2.
So be careful and make sure you have the newer and even smaller MICRO usb cable. |
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