Insteon Configuration

If you have not discovered already, there are two main sources of configuration options inside MisterHouse:

• mh.private.ini - This file generally contains global settings, generally not device specific settings
• mht files - These contain device definitions and links

Insteon mh.private.ini Settings

A detailed discussion of the mh.private.ini file can be found at Private Ini. The only Insteon required entries in the mh.private.ini file are those that define the configuration of your Insteon PLM. These settings are discussed in detail in InsteonPLM, but generally the setting looks something like:

Insteon_PLM_serial_port=/dev/ttyS4

Marc Merlin also provided a full sample mh.private.ini file that he uses, this has long served as the standard example Marc's mh.private.ini file. You can also see a list of other user contributed mh.private.ini files.

Insteon mht File

MHT files are a user friendly way of defining devices, a detailed description of what an mht file is can be found at MHT files. You can have as many *.mht files as you like. The convention is to name the insteon definition file insteon.mht. There are a few examples that use items.mht as well. MH will load all .mht files it finds in the code directory so some users find it easier to maintain Insteon settings in a separate file. Keep in mind two things:

• MHT files are read in alphabetical order. So if you use multiple files, be sure that they order the files are read in will result in good code.
• All MHT files need to be stored in your code directory (misterhouse/code or equivalent).

The only required Insteon definition in an mht file is as follows:

INSTEON_PLM,   PLM

Don't forget that .mht files must start out with the format line, 'Format = A'

Start up MisterHouse for the First Time

Before spending any time adding devices to MisterHouse, you want to make sure that the most basic form of MisterHouse can run.

By now, you'll want to make sure insteon debugging is enabled in mh.private.ini, run tail -f /var/local/src/misterhouse/local/data/logs/print.log or equivalent, restart mh, and watch the logs to make sure you are not getting any errors.

If all of this goes well, you next want to start defining the Insteon devices and linking them to the interface.