Premise Basic UPB Scheduling?

I understand that SAI UPB devices are not currently supported in full but that some connectivity was made. At this point, I am looking for the simple ability for scheduled control of SAI links and/or devices (e.g. - activate link 23 at 11pm, etc.). Could the existing drivers allow this? I am looking into an ELK solution and know that an ELK driver is in the works but looking for a interim solution. I have all SAI devices including an SAI PIM and various switches.

Many thanks.

acalbear said:

... looking for the simple ability for scheduled control of SAI links and/or devices (e.g. - activate link 23 at 11pm, etc.). Could the existing drivers allow this? ... know that an ELK driver is in the works but looking for a interim solution. ...

Click to expand...

Disclaimer: I have no experience with UPB.

Short answer: Yes, it should work.

In Premise, you create a Schedule to control virtual objects (i.e. Home-level objects). For example, you add a generic Light to the Family Room, create a Schedule that turns that light on at sunset and off at 11:00 PM and you're done.

OK, nothing tangible has happened yet because you need to bind that light to a physical device and that's where the UPB Device Driver (or X10 or Insteon) comes into play. You bind (drag 'n drop) the virtual Family Room Light to a real UPB light revealed by the UPB driver. Whatever happens to the virtual object will now happen to the real device.

Why bother with this two-layer division of virtual and real objects? I'm glad you asked!
Your virtual Family Room Light and Schedule are independent of the lighting technology. Unbind the light from a UPB device and re-bind it to an Insteon device and everything continues to work as per the original Schedule.

The main caveat is that the Device Driver must support the desired physical device. As samgreco can attest, the existing UPB driver is dated and does not support many of the new UPB devices. Hopefully, someone with time and programming ability can revise, or recreate, a modern UPB driver for Premise (Gee, now I sound like sam!).

Or you can wait for me to complete my Elk M1 driver and control whatever lighting devices are supported by your M1 panel.

Yes, the specific devices (or at least what it THINKS is the specific device) must be supported.



I have quite a few switches working here and controllable from Premise. Do you already have switches? If so, what models? I would be glad to let you know what I know

I have quite a few 2-40's and some lamp modules (UML-E) and a few older units that Premise recognizes. I got the PIM working, albeit as an unknown PIM. The PIM can poll all the devices but for most devices its listed as unknown. If you look at the DEVICEBASE properties it lists the manufacturer (SAI) and a product ID. It also pulls the module details like room name/device name/etc. Unfortunately, it doesnt give me the other attributes to use the device.

Sam, do you have a tweaked SA driver that you can share?

Also, most of my scheduling needs are driven by links. For example - DUSK (turns on various outside lights); ALL OFF (self explanatory), etc. Can premise drive links? If this is the case, then I can use premise for my short term needs without a fully supported driver for the 2-40's which is the ideal scenario.

I did a search and it looks like someone made some progress on the drivers along with Sam. I guess that they were unable to get it fully functional?

Unfortunately, I can't help. My US2-40's are not recognized as-is. I did "tweak" a driver to change the ID number of the USQ (older model) to the ID of the US2-40, and I can get Premise to recognize the switch ONLY to control the load. I cannot get Premise to do anything with the buttons (my US2-40 is setup with 1-rocker and 4-buttons) at all. And if you use the "tweaked" driver, you would not be able to use any of the older USQ switches if you have them.

Maybe it's time to band together and convince someone to write a new driver. I have a bunch of the Fry's/HAL switches and modules that are not supported by any of the existing srivers.

samgreco said:

Unfortunately, I can't help. My US2-40's are not recognized as-is. I did "tweak" a driver to change the ID number of the USQ (older model) to the ID of the US2-40, and I can get Premise to recognize the switch ONLY to control the load. I cannot get Premise to do anything with the buttons (my US2-40 is setup with 1-rocker and 4-buttons) at all. And if you use the "tweaked" driver, you would not be able to use any of the older USQ switches if you have them.

Maybe it's time to band together and convince someone to write a new driver. I have a bunch of the Fry's/HAL switches and modules that are not supported by any of the existing srivers.

Click to expand...

Do you think you can share the tweaked driver as 90% of my switches are the 2-40's? How did you change the ID number? I will try something similar. I just want to control the load at this point.

This gets interesting. As mentioned before, I am able to get Premise to recognize a couple of older switches as it appears to have been built into the old/non-updated driver. What I also noticed is that Premise detected my UPB links as "transmitcommands". As a complete newbie, I am unable to figure out how the heck to fire these transmitcommands. Once I figure that out, I hope to then tie these commands to a schedule. Any help out there?

I'd be glad to share the driver I have, but are any of the switches you have USQ's? If so, this will break them. So it may not be a good answer for you.

As for making the transmitcommands work, I can't help, since none of mine were recognized that way.