Lights on with burglar alarm

[Guy669]

Looking for advice. I have my ISY programmed to open all indoor and all outdoor lights when the burglar alarm is triggered. I also have it programmed to flash the outdoor front lights a series of time when in burglar alarm.

What I'm trying to accomplish is to have the ISY shut all the lights when the correct code is entered in the ELK keypad. However, I would like to keep any lights that was already opened prior to the alarm on.

Any idea how I can make this happen?

 

[elvisimprsntr]

I do the same thing, except all lights are on for any alarm (security, medical, fire, etc.) and flash the exterior lights. I decided not to restore lights since it is a such a unlikely event in the first place. didn't seem worth the time and effort, for little return.

Although I haven't used variables in the ISY, perhaps you can store the lighting state and restore once the alarm is acknowledged.

 

[tmbrown97]

You've got your work cut out for you... basically, as each light is changed, you'll need to store the setting for each in a variable so you can go through each one individually to restore afterwards. It's possible, but a PITA.

 

[gatchel]

I have a rule that turns on all of our "Panic" lights during an alarm or when a "panic" button is pressed on certain KPL's. Good luck trying to get each light to return to is prior state. A panic event happens so few and far between that it wasn't worth it when I could just press the Panic button on a KPL to turn off the scene adn then turn on the light I need.

 

[Guy669]

I guess you guys are right. The alarm state shouldn't happen many times so for the times it does ill contend myself to reopen the lights manually.

Now that we established that, is preferable to have the lights on rule with the isy for the alarm state or with the elk? Does it really make a difference?

 

[elvisimprsntr]

I put event rules in the Elk since those are not likely to change. Time based rules in the ISY. The Elk is notorious for DST problems.

 

[Guy669]

when adding the rule in the ELK to turn on all the lights when a burglar alarm goes on, do I really need to select the lights one by one or is their a way to select something that would include all lights? I have insteon switches

 

[elvisimprsntr]

I have an ISY for Insteon control. I created a scene containing all my lights, which the Elk turns on the scene. Also allows me to change what is in the scene without having to re-import my ISY lighting into the Elk every time, only when I add a new scene. Do not use "all devices" as the will attempt to turn on all your Insteon devices, including things you don't want.

 

[Guy669]

cool thanks