Owner's Manual (Complete)

Chapter 14—Visual Scene Editor

The Home Control Assistant

Is this just an obscure point and if so how does it affect you?

From the example above, suppose you want HCA to initiate Scene One. You want HCA to do the

same thing that pressing the KeypadLinc button does. Can HCA do that? No it can’t. Just like the

other KeypadLinc can’t initiate the scene, neither can HCA. And just like the above example, you

would have to create a new scene with HCA as the controller and the LampLincs as the responder.

Now we have three scenes that have the same effects – all three LampLincs go to 50% in 2 seconds

- but all three scenes are not the same scene.

In many ways this is annoying as you have to create a lot of “duplicate” scenes. You may have

many controllers that all want to do the exact same thing and you have to program each of them to

do that. Good thing you have the VSE!

This also affects the ability in the VSE to test a scene. If you are creating a scene that is not

initiated by HCA, when you use the Activate and Deactivate VSE right-click menu picks HCA

can’t control the scene with a simple scene command. It has to simulate the scene by sending each

responder commands to adjust them to what would have happened to them had the scene controller

initiated the scene. HCA will have varying degrees of success in doing this.

VSE, the linking tabs, and the multi-way wizard

There are several other methods in HCA that create scenes. One of these is the Multi-Way Wizard

– described in the Insteon appendix – and the linking tabs on the device property dialog.

Like the VSE these tools update the linking table stored in the devices. So their effects can be seen

in the VSE after they have performed what they do. That is, if you link HCA to a KeypadLinc

button using the property tab, next time you open the VSE on that KeypadLinc you will see a scene

where the KeypadLinc is the controller and HCA the responder.

In this way the VSE is the “tool above them all” in that it can do whatever the linking tabs and the

Multi-Way wizard do. But those tools may be more convenient to use as they were created to

handle specific common tasks so don’t forget them!

Using scenes

Using the VSE you can create scenes. But what to do with them? If they are scenes controlled by

one of your Insteon devices – a KeypadLinc button or SwitchLinc paddle for example – you use

them by pressing the button or tapping the paddle.

If the scene is one that HCA initiates, you can use the Visual Programmer Scene element to cause

HCA to send the commands to initiate the scene. You an also use the Visual Schedule to schedule

the scene initiation as part of your schedule.

For more information see the User Guide chapters on Schedules and Programs.