Turn on lights simultaneously (coming from an Insteon user)

Configuration
1

I’ve always been using Insteon devices and I really love:

  • Ramp Rate feature
  • Turning on all lights simultaneously at the same ramp rate, in a scene

I just tried creating a Scene in HA and looks like it turns on lights one by one. Is there any way lights can be turned on all at the same time, with or without a scene?

Thanks.

2

Might try this to trigger in a scene.

3

From Light Group’s documentation:

controlling the state of the grouped light will forward the command to each child light

@efurban
It’s my understanding that Home Assistant does not currently support the concept of a hardware-based scene. In Insteon (and other lighting protocols) you can transmit one scene command that all devices receive but only selected devices will act on it. These selected devices are programmed to respond a desired way when they detect the scene command (like turn on to 50% brightness at a specified ramp-rate).

So with one transmitted hardware-based scene command, a group of lights can activate concurrently thereby creating effects like synchronized dimming of many lights. Attempting to duplicate the effect by sending each light its own command (like with Home Assistant’s software-based scene commands) usually doesn’t result in synchronization. Many commands are transmitted (one per light) so there is a propagation delay between each transmitted command.

4

thank you. it does make sense.

5

@efurban one way to do this is through webhooks and third party services but than you are at merC of external servers.

6

Hi I am also having this issue. It was NOT doing this before I updated Home Assistant, so something has been changed with the update causing this. Previously when I turned on all my lights in my living room it was instant. Now they turn on one at a time - home assistant seems to be waiting for each light to turn on now before proogressing to the next one. It did not do this before.

7

I am very new to Home Assistant, I used to use stringify and over there the only way to have simultaneous response was to call the scenes not group of lights otherwise you would get the so called popcorn effect. I think it has to do with the way insteon hub is built it can only receive one message at the time.

8

@fxcoolby I just pushed an update to allow INSTEON scenes to be triggered from HA. Since you are using a HUB you can create the scene in the Hub app ( you can creat them in HA too but the Hub app is easier). Then you create an automation calling the service insteon.scene_on or insteon.scene_off. Once it is accepted into the release I will let you know and send a link to the documentation.

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9

Wow, you are the best, I was waiting for this for such a long time. This way I can retire OpenHab completely. I would love to buy you a Coffee to show my appreciation.

10

Much appreciated thank you !

11

Any updates?

12

It does take a release or two before new functionality it included. I will let you know which release it will be included in.

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13

Awesome, can’t wait to kiss goodbye to openhab for good.

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14

This is in the beta release for 0.96 so it will be out in the next major release or you can use the beta 0.96.0b1

15

Good stuff, I tend to stay away from bata, but do you know when 0.96 is going to be released?

16

Hey Harris, so I have updated to 0.96; however, there are no scenes loading up. Do I need to remove and add the Insteon component again?

17

Scenes don’t appear as entities. They are triggered via automations.
automation:

  # Trigger an INSTEON scene 25
  - id: trigger_scene_25_on
    alias: Turn on scene 25
    action:
      - service: insteon.scene_on
        group: 25
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18

I see. I am sorry I was looking at the wrong place. Great job works flawlessly. Is it possible in future updates that it works with scene entities? So one can see if a scene is on or off from the front end, or do you think that Insteon hub won’t be compatible for HA scenes?

19

Hello Harris, I am wondering if you have pushed a new update to the Insteon scenes? Now when I trigger the scene it only turns on some of the lights not all of them. However, I noticed it also updates the status of the lights in the front end as well.

20

If “some of the lights” are turning on then it is unlikely to be a change in the software because that means the message is being sent. It likely means there is an issue with devices not receiving the message. This may be an interference issue within your house. Did you add any appliances or any other large electronics lately?

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