Insteon Open/Close sensor for open only

Hello everybody,

I’m trying to migrate from UDI IoX to HA and ran into an issue with the Insteon Open/Close sensor (Triggerlink). In Polisy/IoX I can add the sensor as two devices (open on/off and closed on/off) so that I can turn on lights via Insteon scene when the door opens and turn the lights off via Polisy/IoX program 120s after the door closes. I got the sensor added to HA but it only acts as open/on and closed/off sensor. If I don’t link the sensor to an Insteon scene but turn on the lights via HA automation it takes a second or so to turn the lights on after opening the door. A second is not much but more than instant.

Any help would be appreciated.

How are you turning on the scene? Insteon.scene_on? Perhaps showing the automation code would stop people from guessing

The issue is not the Insteon scene but how HA treats Triggerlink events.

I have removed the jumper on the Triggerlink to separate opened and closed events, made the Triggerlink a controller for two switches and also made the two switches controller/responder for each other. If the Triggerlink “opens”, both switches turn on, if the Triggerlink “closes”, nothing happens as expected.

Now, with the jumper installed, HA detects the opened/closed events of the Triggerlink. But this would turn off the switches the moment that the Triggerlink is closed. With the jumper removed the switches don’t turn off on closed but HA does not detect any opened/closed events, so I can’t use the Triggerlink to start an automation on close.

I also tried to not to link the Triggerlink to the switches and have an automation turn on the switches (as a HA Insteon scene) when it’s opened. However, this causes a noticeable delay (1s+) between the opened event and the switches turning on.

If a Triggerlink is added to UDI IoX with the jumper removed, there are two devices added, one for the opened event with a true/false state and one for the closed event with a true/false state. That way I can use the opened event to turn on the switches via direct Insteon link and the closed event triggers a program that turns off the Insteon scene.

I suppose the messages sent from the Triggerlink 2421 for opened/closed differ dependent on whether the jumper is installed or not. The jumper is not even documented anymore for the newer Open/Close Sensor 2843-222, so it may be deprecated.

The goal is to turn on the switches via Insteon command (because it’s almost instant) and turn off the switches after a delay via HA automation. Any idea how this can be achieved?

I made some progress today, maybe this helps some others.

First, my old Triggerlink 2421 was only detected as Generic Sensor. Adding a device overwrite with device category 0x10 and subcategory 0x02 made it appear as the newer Open/Close Sensor 2843-222.

That newer Open/Close Sensor 2843-222 does no longer use the jumper to separate the open and close events, it’s a software only setting now. And luckily HA supports changing the property two_groups_on to true which this seems to be working even on my older 2421.

Now I can turn on the switches via Insteon direct link and turn off the switches via HA automation triggered by the closed event and call service / Insteon: Scene off as action.

It also seems like adding a second PLM is not impossible after all. With UDI IoX, the ISY/Polisy/EISY is the single source of truth, restoring a PLM will reset all devices and store the links that iOX thinks they should have. With HA and a second PLM, devices can be controlled from both sides. There is still the risk of having orphaned links but for testing it seems to be safe enough.

Big thank you to everybody that is working on HA and its Insteon integration.