INSTEON Button Basics

Buttons on INSTEON compatible controllers enable you to perform complex home automation tasks. But most people want to start with simple scenarios: this button turns on/off this light, or maybe this set of lights. The latter are referred to as scenes: that how-to is a good guide to creating scenes that don't use INSTEON specific technology and that can control devices of multiple protocol types.

This How-To is going to focus on INSTEON specific techniques for using controller buttons. But first, let's review the specific types of INSTEON controllers:

• ControLinc - This wired controller, from SmartHome, has 5 button pairs (one for ON, one for OFF), as well as ALL ON/ALL OFF and BRIGHT/DIM pairs. In Indigo, Button 1 for this device refers to the first pair on the left, the top button being the ON button, and the bottom button being OFF. The ON/OFF buttons, when natively linked to INSTEON devices, dim/brighten all loads linked to them in real time by holding down the buttons. Unlike other INSTEON controllers, the ControLinc doesn't recognize double taps.
• RemoteLinc - This wireless controller from Smarthome has 6 ON/OFF buttons as well as ALL ON/ALL OFF and BRIGHT/DIM pairs. The ON/OFF buttons, when natively linked to INSTEON devices, dim/brighten all loads linked to them in real time by holding down the buttons. The remote also supports double-taps, which represent instant ON/OFF rather than waiting for the light(s) to ramp ON/OFF.
• KeypadLinc - This is a combination of controller and responder, since it also controls a load. It comes in a 6 or 8 button configuration: when it's in a 6 button config, the top button is the ON for the load and the bottom is the OFF. The other four are in a grid in between. In an 8 button config, the first (top left) button controls the load, the rest are available for other uses. Also, both come in a dimmer and relay version: you should read about the difference. For our purposes, we'll discuss the usage of the buttons in their default toggle mode - one press turns them on (and the key lights up) and a second press turns them off (and the key goes off). Controlling the button state directly from Indigo is more challenging, so that discussion requires a separate how-to.

These are the most common INSTEON devices used as controllers, although since INSTEON devices generally broadcast state changes, any can be used as a controller. For purposes of this discussion, however, we'll stick to one of the above.

Now, let's discuss linking devices to an INSTEON controller button via Indigo.

inst_remote_device_links

So, now you should have an overview of how device linking works. The next thing we'll discuss is an Indigo INSTEON scene.

inst_indigo_scenes