Controlling the LED on a UPB device
- Thread starter cornutt
- Start date
Sometimes. If you are using a device like a Keypad Controller with push-buttons, you can definitely change the LED on those anytime with a command. I think with wall switches, the LED state is based on the programming for the switch and the state of the light. But, having said that, the programming for a switch can be changed remotely, so you potentially could turn the LED on or off be reprogramming the LED function of a switch. But here is a problem. At least for Simply Automated switches, lets say you reprogram the LED to be always on instead of always off, I don't think it changes LED state until you toggle the switch on or off.
hucker
Active Member
On SA switches you are not given direct control of the LED. You can configure it to do what ever you want as it tracks the load, but you cannot control the LED independent of the load. I wanted to do use the LED for some feedback but fould it could not be done. As mentioned you would need to reprogram the LEDs. Reprogramming takes a while so for fast feedback it wouldn't be great, though it might be just fine for shutting down all of the LED's when the house is unoccupied. Sort of wish they had forseen this need, but it doesn't surprise me.
drozwood90
Senior Member
True
I was going to do something like that...and ran into this exact situation...You had to toggle the switch to "refresh" the LED's new state.
I didn't try just toggling an associated link (say a null link?)
--If this worked with the Null Link...then I would just have to work on some way of firing off the appropriate messages to re-program the switch...I suppose it would be like a delayed LED tracking...
--Dan
hucker
Active Member
UPB LED's will only change state when the local load changes state (or you put the switch in diagnostic mode where the LED flashes). I don't think there is a way to get a dummy link to do anything useful.
What UPB needs is a command to directly control the state of all of the LED's on a switch. This would be a new command in the protocol, NOT "reprogramming the switch's LED behavior". Such reprogramming takes about 4 seconds per switch. It would take 5 minutes to turn off all of the LED's in my house!
I actually think this is a useful feature because at some point UPB switches are going to have some form of multil LED state, it just makes too much sense (100% speculation on my part here). In general the LED state display is screwed up for UPB. If I have 5 switches that control a single load, the only switch that will track the state of the light is the one controlling the load. For the most part this made me choose to have all of the LED's in the house always be blue since it was confusing figuring out what the heck was going on. Give me the ability to say that LED tracks state of light X and that would help!
I agree, there need to be commands to control the LED directly. There's a lot of potential to use the LEDs for various kinds of feedback, but only if they can be commanded. I have garage lights which the controller is programmed to shut off at 11 PM because I sometimes forget. But there have also been times when I've been doing things at the workbench late into the evening, and the light shut off on me, and the garage is pitch dark without lights. I wanted to have the LED turn red (or even better, flash red) ten minutes before shut-off time.
Steve
Senior Member
I won't disagree that there may be some use for direct control of the LEDs on UPB devices, but IMHO you have several things you can do for this specific scenario, that in fact are probably even better. Depending on what equipment you have, here are just a few things you can do...
1. Just blink the main light a few times before they go out. Sure this could be a safety thing if operating machinery, but its certainly better to have a quick blink than the lights just shut off.
2. Put a motion detector in the garage and do not shut off the lights if motion detected. You can configure it in a variety of ways.
3. Do you have a speaker in the garage? Use your HA system (assuming you have something) to announce 'Lights out in 10 min'. This can be a dedicated speaker or part of a distributed audio system.
There are some other things you can do as well but this should at least give you some food for thought.
PaulD
Active Member
My switches are 100% US240 and I have them doing that today. I do not know if this applies to other brands.
Where I have a multi-way setup (does not matter how many switches are involved), I use UPstart to config all switchs to ( a ) enable the transmit function on the buttons ( b ) load a link into all the switches to tie them together for the multi-way operation and ( c ) on the options tab for each switch , click the "Report light level after any button or rocker is pressed". Once this is done, the LED on all switches track the on/off condition of the lights being controlled. For me, Green is ON and Blue is OFF.
hucker
Active Member
Mine are 1130's so I'm sorta stuck. That is a good reason to get 240s
PaulD
Active Member
I did not realize I could do this when I first decided to go 100% US240's in my new house. I went 100% with US240's for maximum flexibility in reconfiguring switches even where I could have used other less expensive switches because I would then know what model every switch contained and how it was wired. In the end, I am very happy with this approach because I have reconfigured a number of switches to do stuff I never envisioned when I first built.
You could swap out selective switches to the US240 to get this capability. BLACK FRIDAY is upon us and I see discounts from several vendors that would save you a few bucks on the US240. I see that AO is offering an additional 15% discount thru 29 Nov for everything they sell.
drozwood90
Senior Member
I took care of this by taking the "remote" switches, capping the load wire and basically making them ALSO respond to the same link as the one actually controlling the load.
This way all my switches per "link" believe they are the "load-master". For instance, in my hall (4-way), the one switch at the top of the stairs controls the lights, however, the one at the bottom and the one at the end of the hall also turn their loads on and off when the link for 2nd-flr-hall is set to activate. Thus all LEDS on those switches correlate.
--Dan
drozwood90
Senior Member
I do this with a slow DIM. For rooms that do NOT have dimmable lights, I generally put either an Audio indicator, or I have a separate light that I flash.
--Dan
drozwood90
Senior Member
Paul,
Can you post a few screen captures of a master and a slave switch in a 3-way setup? I think this seems safer then my setting the load high on ALL switches on the link.
If it's what I think it is, I'd like to ensure I do the same to keep my LEDS in sync, BUT be able to keep only the MASTER as the load.
--Dan
PaulD
Active Member
Dan...not able to capture a screen shot right now but here are the steps in PCAccess...
1) Create a link to use such as "Kitchen Light"
2) In your master switch (aka...load switch)
- add the new link to both receive and transmit list
- on Options tab, check the box to "Report light level...." as well as the box "Rocker 1 transmits"
3) In your slave switches (aka...no load switches), repeat step 2 for each switch.
With this arrangement, any switch in your 3-way will transmit the "Kitchen Light" link as well as the corresponding LED light level and all other switches will receive the link and make its own LED track the on/off condition.
drozwood90
Senior Member
Paul,
That is what I have, except for the transmit LED light level.
I do not think you need to have the transmit LED level ticked. Just by having the Link set for Rocker 1, you are essentially forcing the link to control the LED on all switches that correspond to that link.
--Dan
That is what I have, except for the transmit LED light level.
I do not think you need to have the transmit LED level ticked. Just by having the Link set for Rocker 1, you are essentially forcing the link to control the LED on all switches that correspond to that link.
--Dan
