Hi,

I'm trying to set up my multiway switches in Indigo, such that if a switch is activated in Indigo, the other switch in the Multiway circuit will then have the same status (in Indigo) as the other switch.

I've been following the Overview of Scenes, Groups and Multiways on the PA website - in particular this part:

The other option would be to treat one of the lights as the master (say “Kitchen Accent Lights”), and when that light changes, you match the other light to it's brightness. You would do that with a “Device State Changed” trigger, watching “Kitchen Accent Lights”, when “Brightness Level” “Has Any Change”. Then, for the Action, you'd execute the following AppleScript as an embedded script:

set the brightness of device "Dining Room Accent Lights" to brightness of device "Kitchen Accent Lights"

My first attempt with the Applescript in an Action Group was successful - works great:

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set the brightness of device "3rd Flr Hall, 2nd Flr Switch" to brightness of device "3rd Flr Hall, 3rd Flr Switch"

My second attempt at Applescript in an Action Group looked essentially the same to me, but consistently yields an error:

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set the brightness of device "Isld Halogens, W Swtch" to brightness of device "Isld Halogens, S Swtch"

The error is always the same:

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Jul 15, 2011 1:37:03 PM
  Error               script error: around characters 0 to 102
  Error               script error: A descriptor type mismatch occurred. (-10001)

Does anyone know what I might be doing wrong, or why I keep getting this

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descriptor type mismatch occurred (-10001)

error???

Thank you for any assistance!

Are both of the devices in the second script dimmers or is one a relay device? Relay devices don't have brightness values because they only turn on and off. If that's the case, then the script would look something like this:

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set on state of device "Isld Halogens, W Swtch" to on state of device "Isld Halogens, S Swtch"

Yes - the second set are both dimmers.

As was the first set ...

Do you get that error when you hit the "Compile" button or when you hit the "Run" button, when you have it open in Action Group editor?

Also, make sure you have the names right.

Well, I only had the "Compile" button in the Action Groups editor available one time - at the very beginning. Since then, it's been grayed out - possibly because I've been copying and pasting in the editor, to modify / create new Applescripts in the Action Group editor.

To test what you said, I deleted the offending Action Group, and started there from scratch again, by pressing "New".
The Compile button was available, and what I typed:

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set the brightness of device "Isld Halogens, We Swtch" to brightness of device "Isld Halogens, So Swtch"

compiled just fine But then when I pressed the "Run" button I got the same "Descriptor type mismatch (-10001)" error.

You only need to make a change in that text box for the compile button to become available.

Try copying/pasting this:

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tell application "IndigoServer"
set the brightness of device "Isld Halogens, We Swtch" to brightness of device "Isld Halogens, So Swtch"
end tell

I followed your directions exactly ... Copied and pasted:

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tell application "IndigoServer"
set the brightness of device "Isld Halogens, We Swtch" to brightness of device "Isld Halogens, So Swtch"
end tell

Here's the error (again), with a slightly different intro:

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Jul 15, 2011 6:34:53 PM
  Error               script error: around characters 30 to 145
  Error               script error: IndigoServer got an error: A descriptor type mismatch occurred. (-10001)

Would it help to shut down and restart Indigo, or anything else like that? I've already done "Define and Sync" on each of these two switches more than once, trying to get this to work...

Doesn't that mean that the name of your device in the applescript doesn't exactly match the name of the device in the Indigo database? Maybe the commas are throwing it off?

I thought of that, too.

But the first set of dimmer switches that I tried to do this with also have a comma in their name. And the trigger / action group for them works like a charm - exactly as it should.

I did make a type-o at first when I was doing them, and the resulting error number was different - I think it was (-10006).
Anyway, as soon as I corrected the mistake, everything was hunky-dory.

Did you check the names as I asked above? Try renaming those devices to something very simple - like "Switch 1" and "Switch 2". I suspect you've gotten some odd unprintable characters in the real device names somehow so they aren't matching. I think it's "Isld Halogens, So Swtch". Commas should be fine in device names - it's unprintable characters that may cause problems.

Wow, it finally works !! You were obviously right on, about what was happening.

I tried what you said - changing the names to Switch 1 and Switch 2. But there was something Indigo didn't like about the syntax, and I couldn't fix it: Here's what I had, and the error message:

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tell application "Indigo Server"
set the brightness of the device "Switch 2" to brightness of device "Switch 1"
end tell

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Jul 15, 2011 8:43:08 PM
  Error               script error: around characters 55 to 63
  Error               script error: A “"” can’t go after this identifier. (-2740)

Then I changed the Applescript embedded code in the Action Group to this:

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set the brightness of "Switch 2" to brightness of device "Switch 1"

And that's when it worked.

Can you tell me - what caused the possible corruption in the name entries? How can I avoid that happening again?
I'd like to switch the names again, from "Switch 1" and "Switch 2" to something a little more meaningful to my installation. What are the rules of thumb, for trouble-free names?

Thank you again for your help - I would never have come to this solution on my own!

Actually, the successful string was this:

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set the brightness of device "Switch 2" to brightness of device "Switch 1"

I forgot the first 'device'...