I just did a long-overdue Indigo update and thought I'd try out the "LED Brightness" command. I set the brightness of my office light SwitchLinc to 1 and the LED was basically off. neat. Then I set it back to 100... and it's still only half as bright as the SwitchLinc right next to it. Is there a bug with this dialog that values over 100 should be allowed?

Device is a SwitchLinc Dimmer, Firmware version 38 (i2 engine). Here's the log of my brightness experiment:

Code: Select all

Jun 25, 2012 11:53:39 PM
  INSTEON Commands                Opening dialog for menu "Set LED Brightness..."

Jun 25, 2012 11:54:10 PM
  Sent INSTEON                    "Office Ceiling Light" raw insteon command (2E 00   00 07 06 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00; ack: 00)
  INSTEON Commands                Opening dialog for menu "Set LED Brightness..."
  Sent INSTEON                    "Office Ceiling Light" raw insteon command (2E 00   01 03 03 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00; ack: 00)
  INSTEON Commands                Opening dialog for menu "Set LED Brightness..."
  Sent INSTEON                    "Office Ceiling Light" raw insteon command (2E 00   01 03 FF 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00; ack: 00)
  INSTEON Commands                Opening dialog for menu "Set LED Brightness..."
  Sent INSTEON                    "Office Ceiling Light" raw insteon command (2E 00   00 07 7F 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00; ack: 00)
  INSTEON Commands                Opening dialog for menu "Set LED Brightness..."

Jun 25, 2012 11:55:48 PM
  Sent INSTEON                    "Office Ceiling Light" raw insteon command (2E 00   00 07 7F 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00; ack: 00)
  INSTEON Commands                Opening dialog for menu "Set Motion Sensor LED Brightness..."
  INSTEON Commands                Opening dialog for menu "Set LED Brightness..."
  Sent INSTEON                    "Office Ceiling Light" raw insteon command (2E 00   01 03 FF 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00; ack: 00)

Jun 25, 2012 11:58:31 PM
  INSTEON Commands                Opening dialog for menu "Set LED Brightness..."

Jun 25, 2012 11:58:59 PM
  Sent INSTEON                    "Office Ceiling Light" raw insteon command (2E 00   01 03 80 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00; ack: 00)
  INSTEON Commands                Opening dialog for menu "Set LED Brightness..."
  Sent INSTEON                    "Office Ceiling Light" raw insteon command (2E 00   01 03 FF 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00; ack: 00)


So... any idea how Indigo can set this LED back to full brightness?

I've experienced this issue as well with my SwitchLinc Dimmers (also almost all version 38). I believe this to be a bug in the firmware, not in how Indigo is sending the data. I say this because I have another SwitchLinc Dimmer (dual-band) with firmware 40 that behaves as expected with the same command.

Yeah - unfortunately as we specify in the documentation that command isn't supported consistently across devices or firmware versions so your mileage may vary. A factory reset should completely reset it.

I just used the manual LED brightness adjustment method described in the SwitchLinc Dimmer manual for getting the LED back to the level I wanted (press and hold SET until beep, press and hold SET again until beep, press and hold SET a third time until beep, then hold the up or down paddle to set the LED brightness to the level you want). That way I didn't have to factory reset it to get it back to 100%.

Yep, that's what I did too. The manual brightness setting from the owner's manual works as documented.

I did like the idea of having all my LEDs dim at night, but not if they're going to wind up all at random brightnesses the next day. Seems more of a novelty than a useful capability at this point.

tintivilus wrote:I did like the idea of having all my LEDs dim at night, but not if they're going to wind up all at random brightnesses the next day. Seems more of a novelty than a useful capability at this point.

I had the same thought. It'd be cool, but without replacing all my SwitchLincs with newer firmware versions, it's not implementable really.

tintivilus wrote:Seems more of a novelty than a useful capability at this point.

Which is exactly why we didn't implement it in the base Indigo UI - we don't add features that we can't be sure work consistently. Adding it to the plugin was a toss up on my part (nsheldon sorta pushed me in that direction). Think of the plugin as a place where we can experiment with features that we aren't fully confident in implementing in the standard UI.

I was wondering why the option was hiding in a plugin and not under the device properties. Makes perfect sense now. I agree, I'd rather have the functionality as a "beta" than not have it at all.

Any chance some of the various firmware quirks will be better understood and supported in the future, or is expanded/enhanced functionality like this strictly take-it-or-leave-it?

tintivilus wrote:Any chance some of the various firmware quirks will be better understood and supported in the future, or is expanded/enhanced functionality like this strictly take-it-or-leave-it?

For this one, no. There is nowhere in the INSTEON docs where we can actually get a good list of which firmware supports this command and what differences there may be between them. We've asked for this information but it doesn't appear to exist.

Other stuff, even though it may be better understood and documented, is just not terribly useful for most people so cluttering up the interface with little used stuff is less desirable than putting it in a plugin (and it's usually easier to implement in a plugin anyway) so most of it is likely to stay there as well. We may move some of it into the more direct UI locations but it'll be on a case-by-case basis.

tintivilus wrote:I'd rather have the functionality as a "beta" than not have it at all.

Agreed. I like having the options. I think Jay's and Matt's choice to provide some beta/unsupported features through plugins is a great way to offer features that don't meet the reliability/consistency standards needed to be implemented in the main GUI.

jay (support) wrote:Adding it to the plugin was a toss up on my part (nsheldon sorta pushed me in that direction).

Ha, sorry. Didn't mean to come off as pushy.