Insteon Mini remote not showing up anywhere

Third party integrations
1

What am I missing?

I go to Settings → Devices & Services → Insteon → Configure → Add Device

I click on the button on the remote and it says it was added

Screenshot 2024-11-13 105856

but it never shows up in the device list how can I use this why doesn’t it show up here? I’ve tried multiple times and it never shows in the device list.
I’m using the Powerlink USB modem. I also just recently added a Zigbee Coordinator so I don’t know if that is causing an issue.

I want to use the remote as a trigger for turning on/off a switch for a light.

FYI - I’m fairly new to HomeAssistant but I am a programmer with 30+ years of experience so I should be able to figure this out.

I was able to create other automations and scenes and even a helper toggle that I would like to trigger from this remove but I can’t figure out how to use this remote or where I can even find it after it says it was added.

Can anyone help me?

2

According to the docs, mini remotes don’t appear as HA enttities:

Pressing a button generates an event which you can use as a trigger for automations.

3

but how do I set this up? I don’t understand how to do this. for any other device I can add it as a trigger how can I use this remote?

4

I don’t use Insteon myself. These are the examples in the docs…

automation:
  # 4 or 8 button remote with button c pressed
  - alias: "Turn a light on"
    triggers:
      - trigger: event
        event_type: insteon.button_on
    event_data:
      address: 1a2b3c
      button: c
    conditions:
      - condition: state
        entity_id: light.some_light
        state: "off"
    actions:
      - action: light.turn_on
        target:
          entity_id: light.some_light

  # single button remote
  - alias: "Turn a light off"
    triggers:
      - trigger: event
        event_type: insteon.button_on
    event_data:
      address: 1a2b3c
    conditions:
      - condition: state
        entity_id: light.some_light
        state: "off"
    actions:
      - action: light.turn_on
        target:
          entity_id: light.some_light
5

I tried editing an existing automation to use this format and I get an error that says "malformed: extra keys not allowed @ data[‘event_data’]

description: "Turn off light"
mode: single
triggers:
  - trigger: event
    event_type: insteon.button_on
event_data:
  address: 3f0398
  button: a
conditions: []
actions:
  - type: turn_off
    device_id: a42d8c522f76ccffc9cae25579f336be
    entity_id: 199bef57e78db67a5c98aeafb46d9289
    domain: switch
    metadata:
      secondary: false
6

I think the Doc is misleading

I figured out how to add the trigger through the UI and then looked at the YAML and it showed this:

triggers:
  - trigger: event
    event_type: insteon.button_on
    event_data:
      address: 3f0398
      button: a

that did work but it’s not consistent and the event isn’t always firing when the remote is pressed.

any suggestions for a better remote that I can use for this?

7

this worked for just a handfull of times and now I see nothing in the logs and can’t get the remote to do anything anymore.