UPB - My First time, impressions...

My real issue regarding links is not with the links, but the fact that I can't directly send commands to other devices instead I have to send it to a link, even when the switch is controlling itself. So in essence I have to create at least one link for every single device, again this is redundant. I do see the power in links if I could also directly send commands to individual devices. Once you import these into HS it gets even worse, because now I have a list of links and a list of devices, again redundant.In the HS plug in there is no way to respond to just a key press or virtual device (at least that I have found) All other items are mainly observances and not big issues.
 
SpaceCowboy said:
Not the status transmission buzz, which is obvious, but generally, on or off, the UPB switches make a hum or buzz. Am I the only one that gets this buzz?
Our switches buzz, but only when transmitting UPB.
 
sbessel said:
My real issue regarding links is not with the links, but the fact that I can't directly send commands to other devices instead I have to send it to a link, even when the switch is controlling itself. So in essence I have to create at least one link for every single device, again this is redundant. I do see the power in links if I could also directly send commands to individual devices. Once you import these into HS it gets even worse, because now I have a list of links and a list of devices, again redundant.In the HS plug in there is no way to respond to just a key press or virtual device (at least that I have found) All other items are mainly observances and not big issues.
Generally a Link is not used to control a single device. UPB has two types of device commnands, Direct and Link. Links generally are used to control groups of devices. Direct commands are for single device control.
 
sbessel said:
My speed concerns are local control at the switch of the attached load, if there is something in between or a noise issue, then I have HUGE problems that NOTHING could fix :) Push the on, and wait 1/2 to a full second and the light comes on.
Absolutely! I hated this local control latency. My wife hated it even more than me.

We have instant-on fluroescent lighting in the kitchen. And I mean instant, not just fast. With mechanical switches, it is instant. With switchlincV1-relay switches, it is almost instant. With UPB, there is a 1/3 to 1/2 second delay for turning on or off (press off, wait, light goes out). With switchlincV2-relay, it is almost instant.

Interestingly, switchlincV2-relays are not quite as snappy as I remember the switchlincV1-relays. Again, I'm talking about local control latency, not over-the-wire latency.

My theory about the UPB dimmer switches is that they were waiting to see if you did a double-tap, because you can program them to do different things for single-tap vs double-tap. My secondary theory is that the rocker front-end is communicating to the load control backend with slow UPB messages. However, it didn't seem to make any difference if you set UPStart to turn off dimmer mode and set single or double tap to do the same thing.

I wanted to try the HAI UPB relay switches (real relays, not dimmers pretending to be relays), but both of my test HAI modules died a few days apart and my wife got annoyed that I opened up the kitchen light switches YET AGAIN... That was pretty much the last straw for us. And besides, the HAI switches "felt" cheap and flimsy compared to the SA and Smarthome switches.

The transmission buzz noise that the SA and HAI devices made reminds me of cheap or failing capacitor noise in computers. I found it really unsettling.

Aside from the flakey powerlincv2 firmware and the lack of link management software, Insteon has worked really really well for us over the last two months. It has actually been more reliable than UPB, for us, in our house. And the WAF has been way higher.
 
UPBseer said:
Generally a Link is not used to control a single device. UPB has two types of device commnands, Direct and Link. Links generally are used to control groups of devices. Direct commands are for single device control.
How!? This is what I was looking for, but in the UPBStart software the only options available for control are links, not devices. I would rather not use a link for every single device...
 
Steve said:
HAI has been disconnected as will the PCS shortly.
Do you mean the HAI UPB will be discontinued? Really? If that's the case they didn't seem to stay in that market too long. What are they moving too?
 
No SpaceCowboy - disconnected, not discontinued. Simply saying I have decided on SAI switches and already pulled the HAI so I couldn't listen to it. PCS switch is not far behind. I am standardizing on the SAI US2-40 switch, the best UPB switch available right now IMHO. HAI is a great company and I'm sure their products will be around for quite a while.

My theory about the UPB dimmer switches is that they were waiting to see if you did a double-tap, because you can program them to do different things for single-tap vs double-tap.
I believe you are correct in this theory. I think this and many other questions can be addressed in Thursday nights chat. SAI is rapidly becoming a very customer focused company, so join the chat and be heard!
 
Steve,

I agree that the SAI switches are really nice. I spent lots of time in their booth at EHX last week checking them out.

I'm still all X10 Switchlincs, but will be ordering some UPB soon to start testing.

Cheers,
Paul
 
@sbessel:

UPStart's dialog boxes are interesting for sure. It's an ideosyncracy of the programming folks at Advanced Quonset Technologies. HCA has the same dialog style. I always thought the "you may want to do that but it can't be done!" dialog was hilarious myself... I agree that programming is a bit of a lengthly process but there is a lot of verification that goes on. Don't go back to an older version of UPStart because the switch database is a part of the program. As new switches are released, their unique profile is brought up by the program. This is why there are so many updates.

You will find that links take a bit understanding but they are extremely powerful. I use a lot of links now that I understand them. I've also not encountered the local load delay you mention. However, I rarely manually operate my UPB switches at home since everything is hawkeye sensor controlled. In that respect, I find that UPB devices trigger about twice as fast as X10 devices did. In other words, my lights-on delay factor when entering a UPB equipped room is about half that of X10.

My switches buzz too, but the sound isn't noticable unless I have my ear about 6 inches away from the switch.
 
sbessel said:
How!? This is what I was looking for, but in the UPBStart software the only options available for control are links, not devices.
Scott,

Links are synonymous to "Scenes". Your experience is with the US2-40, which is a hybrid switch that can be used for single load control, single load and multiple Link transmission or multiple Link transmission. The US2-40 has the ability to "hear" itself. This was done by using a Link for local load control. The local load control Link can be one Link for all of your US2-40s, it should not be allowed to transmit outside the switch, which is controlled under the Options tab in the Edit Device window for the US2-40. Back to the one Link... create it, give it a name and use it for every US2-40 that has a local load it is controlling. We put in Link 241 for production testing. However, if you do use a separate Link to control the local load connected to each US2-40, of the 250 avaialable, you will not need to worry about transmitting it outside the switch... it woutd be unique to that switch.

To control many devices from one or more locations: Open the Edit Device screen of the switch that you want to press to turn on a group of lights. Open the Link Name table and Create a Link and give it a suitable name... Dinner. Now enter the Dinner Link into the Transmit Component table of the switch that you want to press to send turn on the Dinner lighting. Make sure it is in the location of the desired rocker or button on the US2-40. Then enter the Dinner Link into the Receive Component table into every device that you want to set with the Dinner Link. This includes devices that you want to turn on or turn off, dim or brighten... any UPB load controlling device that might be affected by your Dinner "Scene". The final step is to determine if there are other locations that you might like to activate or deactivate the Dinner Link and add it to the Transmit Component table of that device.

Multiple Links can be entered into each device. The US2-40 can have a transmit Link for each button or rocker on the mounted faceplate. They can be part of 16 different "Scenes" since the Receive Component table has space for 16 entries... of course if you are controlling a local load, one of those spaces will be used.
 
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