apostolakisl

who is DEF CON?

Not worried. If SH screws this up, then the patents will all be sold to settle the bankruptcy and someone else will start producing them. And I have to say, security? I mean if someone is so hard up for something to do with their time that they drive up to radio range of my house and turn my lights on and off . . . I mean come on.

Just to be clear, SSH is a protocol, not a program. Lots of terminal emulator programs (the program on the remote computer that pretends to be a terminal on the host device, polisy in this case) have the SSH (secure shell) protocol built-in. I use Putty. It is via the SSH protocol that the terminal emulator program communicates the user interface.

I certainly have no problem using SSH and executing an ifconfig command from the terminal window. But I also share @asbrilthoughts regarding Ethernet. My intention is to simply plug it in. If indeed I did that, would the device simply use dhcp?

Is polisy going to run the admin console on itself instead of syncing to a java console on your computer? It sure would be nice. The java thing needs to be reset every time your computer goes to sleep and it takes like 20 seconds or more to load it up.

I'm pretty sure there is no load minimum on an Insteon dimmer switch. Insteon dimmers use a triac dimmer and I don't think triacs have a minimum load. It isn't like a ballast, it is just passing through the line voltage (clipped when dimmed).

found an equation that figures wire melting current/time relationship. It appears that the relationship between time and melting is linear. So, twice the amps, half the time sort of thing. I can't vouch for the below, but it looks good at a glance, except I don't follow the "Area" number. I believe it is intended for sizing the wire in a fuse. Example: 16 gauge copper wire: Tmelt = 1083, Area = 2581 circ mil, Time = 5 sec, Tamb = 25 E= Area in CM (of the wire)B = Tmelt (of the wire)- Tamb in deg. CD = 234-Tambient in deg. CT= time in seconds.So, E = 2581, B= 1058, D=209, T=5ThenIfuse = E* SQRT {<LOG[(B/D)+1]>/(T*33)}Ifuse = 2581* SQRT {<LOG[(1058/210)+1]>/165}Ifuse = 2581* SQRT {<LOG(6.04)>/165}Ifuse = 2581* SQRT {0.781/165}Ifuse = 2581* SQRT {.00473}Ifuse = 2581* 0.0688Ifuse = 178A

Like I said earlier, I have 3 of the leviton branch panel devices. With this thread, I found myself at leviton's website where they discussed the "best" protection as also including a main panel protector in addition to subpanel units (plus point of use devices). I think I may go ahead and do that. It appears I need two of them since my main power feed from the meter splits to two panels, a 150 and a 200 amp. The main panel leviton model is considerably less expensive than the sub-panel model. I presume this is because it works by shunting to ground as opposed to whatever more complicated way it deals with surges at the sub-panel.

I won't argue with this. I guess what it comes down to is the actual current and the actual time. But, no doubt, you can flash vaporize a metal really stinking fast with enough juice. Ever hammered a nail through a wire? The nail vaporizes faster than the circuit breaker can pop. I once had a failed AC compressor vaporize a 12 gauge wire (3 phase unit). Though I have no idea how long it took. Fortunately it didn't set the building on fire because the wire in question was in an outdoor conduit about 20 feet from the unit. We had a discussion after finding the fried wire as to what the odds were that there would be more damage elsewhere and if we should run an entire new wire from the panel. In the end, we decided not to run a new wire but rather just the section from the j-box at the building entrance to the unit. 3 years later, all is oK. It may also be that voltage spikes aren't accompanied by current capacity. So once you give a path to ground, the voltage may drop precipitously when there isn't any available current to keep the voltage up. A static electricity discharge.

First off, I say, when all else fails, read the directions. So, I followed them as per my earlier posting. My house is 12 years old and was wired by qualified electricians, so I will take the leap of faith that it will work as spec'd. Second, there is no way in the world that 12g wire and a 20amp breaker (which is what the instructions call for on the surge protector I installed) are going to shunt thousands of amps anywhere. Those items would simply explode in a cloud of vaporized copper and plastic. My take, electric destruction occurs because of current, after all, electricity is current, otherwise it is just electrons. Electrons move in the presence of potential differences between point a and point b when a conductor sits between. Voltage is all about your reference point. Perhaps at its most fundamental level, voltage could be measured relative to having equal number of protons and electrons, but who can measure that? And that serves no point anyway, since we are looking to define electricity and electricity is all about the potential difference and its affect on current. Anyway, make point a and point b equal, there will be no flow, there will be no harm. My suspicion, is that protection is achieved by allowing neutrals and grounds to rise in potential to meet the rise in potential on the line. All 3 could rise to a million volts and you wouldn't even know it provided the rise on all 3 happened in unison and then dropped off in unison. So in short, I believe this is about charging everything equally, to prevent current, not re-directing current. Looking at it a different way. The wire that is theoretically bringing in the surge is very fat, 2-0 I think on my sub-panels. That wire can handle vastly more amps as compared to the 12g wire that the surge protector uses. So the surge suppressor can not possibly protecting by outflowing the amps that might come in my service wire. Tell me how it could be otherwise?

My solution is . . . .no telco.

Oh, lets see. I suppose you could look at the original post you so authoritatively quoted me on where I respond to another use saying that "I have 3 of those" referring to the model he lists. But for the benefit of those out there who actually need help, it is the leviton 51120--1. The name for this device is "branch panel mounted surge protection device". Yes, that is the title of the instruction sheet, first three words are "Branch panel mounted".

That is not how they work. Read the instructions.

I have these as well. I have 3 panels and put one on each panel. They are very easy to install if you understand how a panel works and know how to be safe in there. I have had them for 10 years and have had no problems. Of course, I have no idea if I would have had problems without them. Realize that these surge blockers are designed for power spikes on the utility lines. Utility line spikes can come from things besides lightening. Surge blockers are not for lightening strikes that hit something else in the area of your home and flow through your home. The idea for preventing a lightening strike in the area from entering your home is the Faraday cage concept. Sensitive buildings will implement this to the nines, but for the common home owner, have one (and only one) good ground. Never connect buildings to each other. If you are running communications between buildings, use fiber or radio only. No copper! Two grounds is a recipe for disaster.

This is a bedroom ceiling fan being used for comfort in hot months, lets not confuse the subject. No bedroom ceiling fan I have ever seen does anything but move the air in the bedroom around in circles, within the bedroom. There is one reason and one reason only that a bedroom ceiling fan such as that would be a comfort item and that is because it causes windchill and aids in evaporative cooling of skin. While I suppose it could help dry out a sweaty bed, I have my doubts that a bed would be so full of sweat that in 16 hours it wouldn't dry out by itself. Maybe if you lived in a swamp with no AC. And all I have to say about that is ewwww. The fact is, the fan is going to burn about 100 watts. 100% of those 100 watts is going to end up as heat. If no one is in the room, then there is no one to feel the wind chill and the room has what amounts to a 100 watt space heater running.

It would be an odd home that running a bedroom ceiling fan would cause air to circulate beyond the room itself in any meaningful quantity. . . to say, move cooler air from a different room into that room. But even so, why would you want to move cooler air from the part of the house you are in, to a room you are not in. Considering that you have then moved the warm from the room you are not in, to the room you are in. And again, made all of the house hotter on average. If indeed your ceiling fan does draw cooler air from other parts of the house into your bedroom, then it would only be logical to run the ceiling starting shortly before you plan on going to bed (assuming you are mostly only in the room to be in bed).

I guess physics is different where you live.

Aside from any program issues, your physics is wrong. Ceiling fans do not cool rooms, they heat rooms. The electricity running the motor makes heat. Ceiling fans are for the purpose of creating wind chill. Wind chill only works on warm objects located in cooler environments (ie human bodies), not empty bedrooms. The fan moves the warm envelop of air that surrounds your 98 degree body away from your body so that your skin is in contact with cooler air (assuming the actual temp is less than 98). In addition, the air around your body is more humid from evaporating perspiration, and the fan moves that humid air away exposing your skin to drier air allowing for more evaporative cooling. So I would scrap the whole program, you don't want the fan running unless someone is in the room. Either turn the fan on manually when you enter the room and off when you leave, or use an occupancy detector.

If you answer the questions I posted, your current situation would be more clear.

Restore PLM does go out and write changes to all your devices. I just did it a month or two ago on 5.0.15 with a new plm. When you did the restore plm, did it go through and write to all of your devices? You would have seen the little green 01010 next to all of your devices and then it would have gone through and, one by one, said "writing" in green, then it would have gone back to normal. And if indeed it did that and cleared all the green boxes next to your devices, then all the layers are working. Your ISY to PLM and PLM to devices has to working to write a change to a device. Also, you don't have to have the correct PLM on your ISY to directly control devices from ISY. So even if the links got written wrong (or not at all), you can click on a device in the left hand tree and control it. If you can't then either the new plm is bad or there is some sort of comm issue. You only need the PLM/devices to have the correct links for ISY to see the device changing status. The deal is, your PLM has a one-on-one scene with each and every device in your house, so when you change the status of the device, the PLM (and by extension ISY) also is part of that change, just like when you link two light switches, when you change the one, the other changes. Also note: If ISY does not have a PLM connected, it will tell you and go into safe mode. So if you are not getting that warning, then ISY sees the PLM, Furthermore, the PLM has a working serial port and you have a working serial wire between it and ISY.

Elk relays all have a no and nc connection. So you use one side for open and the other to close. At least that is how it works for the elk branded wsv which ihave. And I set elk to turn h2o off 45 minutes after armed away. So the valve gets regular usage and the water is off almost always while not home. Also check the elk specs for amp draw allowed. You probably can power all of your stuff on the main panel.

I have GRI 2500 devices at home. I just bought a bunch of 2600 for the office. The 2500 are a straight-up 2-wire zone connection. They are NO circuits and thus alarm on closing the circuit (opposite of most alarming zones, but Elk allows for that). The down side to 2500 devices is that they are not supervised. If a wire or device fails, there is a good chance that the zone will stay in an open state, and thus you won't know about it without testing. The upside is that it is a simple 2-wire connection. The 2600 units require 4 wires, two for power and two for the security loop and exist in a NC state. So, like any other NC security zone, you can supervise them with EOL resistor. The downside of course is that you need to run 4 wires and have a 12v power supply available (Elk has ample power built-in for most any residential install). They function similarly to a 4-wire smoke detector. With supervision, there are very few situations where a failure in the system doesn't either show a trouble or alarm condition on the panel.

Yes, you have to have the xep. Arm/Disarm from ISY program, no. But you can arm/disarm from ISY console without the Elk module. You could indirectly arm/disarm by having ISY change the status of an INsteon device to something specified in an Elk rule, triggering the Elk rule to arm/disarm. Elk can send you notifications of being armed/disarmed via email, email to text, or a phone call. This is all Elk . . . ISY not involved. Elk rules work very very reliably (If I really need something to happen for sure, I don't use ISY, I used Elk rule even with the Elk module). As far as limitations, I don't know, I mean they are different languages and each has its up and downs. I have my leak detectors hard wired to Elk. And yes, my Elk speakers announce a water emergency, call central station, and shuts the water off. I consider the water thing a security system thing, not home automation, and it resides entirely on Elk. My ISY has no role at all in the water thing. EDIT: Just to put this in context, I had my ISY and my Elk for several years prior to the module being a thing. So I did jump through a number of hoops to get the two working together. EDIT2: And it has actually worked as advertised. I did have a leak behind a dishwasher that was running water into the subfloor under my hardwood floor that the Elk picked up. Without it, my first signs of an issue would have been my kitchen floor popping.

While I can't speak specifically to an Insteon water detector, Elk rules can respond to the status of (most, many, all???) Insteon devices natively(light switches for sure, I've done it) without the ISY Elk module. If you export your Insteon config from ISY and import to Elk, the devices will all be there ready to use in either the "Whenever" section or the "Then" section. From there, you can hardwire the water valve to the Elk, or you can use an Insteon i/o link to control the valve. Again, not 100% sure if Elk can talk to Insteon devices natively that aren't standard light switches. Again, none of this requires the Elk module. When you import the Insteon network into Elk, the Elk will use the ISY as a passthrough device relaying the lighting commands to the PLM. Go to the 27 minute mark in this video. https://www.elkproducts.com/m1-integration-partners/insteon Though I still think the $99 is worth it for the module.

If you have an Elk and an ISY, I highly suggest spending the $99 and getting the Elk module for ISY. It is very complete and allows you to streamline all of your programming into ISY instead of using Elk rules. Elk rules are not the greatest, especially when it comes to organizing and editing after the fact. However, if you choose not to do that, and you intend on using both Insteon and Elk connected water sensors, then you will need to use Elk rules to do everything. Elk has built-in ability to control Insteon devices and you can export your Insteon configuration into Elk https://www.elkproducts.com/m1-integration-partners/insteon Once that configuration is in Elk, you can use Elk rules to manage both Insteon connected devices/sensors and Elk connected devices/sensors. I haven't so much as looked at that stuff for about a decade now since the ISY/Elk module was released.