apostolakisl

Like Xathros said, if it is working sometimes, you probably have a comm issue. If you truly only have that single "if" condition, then there can't be a logic issue. Do you have a whole bunch of other things all triggering at sunset plus 4 hours? Is there some electrical device in your house that might be on at that time that is impairing communication? Check your program summary page. It should list the last time that program ran, the next time it is scheduled to run, and whether it ran true or false last time. You should see that it last run at roughly MN last night and was true. It should be scheduled to run tonight at about the same time. If indeed that is what it says, then you are for sure dealing with a comm issue.

You could probably hook the led up to the sense input on the iolinc also. If the device "seizes" your phone line, then you could run the 5v from the iolinc output to the phone line input on your alarm and then hook the 5v sense up to the alarm panel phone line output. When the alarm panel seizes the phone, it should cut off the 5v to the phone output wire and trigger the iolinc to register an "off" on the sense wire.

If it does not have any voltage out or contact closure to indicate it is in alarm status then you would have to rig it a bit. Does it have any led's that light up while it is in alarm or trying to dial? If so, you can solder on a couple leads to it and connect to a CAI webcontrol board and have it trigger an email itself or send a network command to ISY to do the same. When the LED turns on, the CAI will see voltage and you can use that to send a REST command to ISY. For example, the following program on ISY would check input 1 for voltage. If it is true (1), then it runs a subroutine that sets a variable on ISY to 1 (the webset command). When the voltage shuts off, it sets the variable on ISY back to 0. The webset language is set up separately and is just the REST command that sets the ISY variable you choose along with your ISY IP address, username and password. So, in summary, this toggles a variable in ISY between 1 and 0 depending on if the CAI is getting voltage or not (if the led is on). The CAI board draws essentially no current so you won't over-current your alarm panel. START TESTEQ IP1 1 CALLSUB ISYSET TSTEQ IP1 0 CALLSUB ISYUNSET END ISYSET: TSTEQ VAR1 1 RET WEBSET URL1 1 SET VAR1 1 RET ISYUNSET: TSTEQ VAR1 0 RET WEBSET URL1 0 SET VAR1 0 RET

That could work, but not in the usual way it is designed to work. The micro-module is meant to be hard wired to a regular switch and it senses that switch status and then the micro-module itself switches the load on/off to the device. So, you would still have the switch from the wrong room doing the controlling wired like that. You could put a micro-module and a switchlinc at each location and then link the switches using the Insteon communication and not hard wire the load wire from the switch to the micro-module sense wire. In other words, just cap the sense wires. Don't forget, the inline linc or micro-module can be placed in the box at the light fixture where you may have plenty of room. EDIT: Also, be sure to note that the micro module dimmer is only rated at 100 watts. The inline linc is rated 400 watts. If you have more than 400 watts you'll need the micromodule relay which gives you a full 15 amps but you get no dimming.

Are these the only 2 switches for the 2 respective lights? In other words, is the load wire for the light in room A in the switch box in Room B? If the answer is yes, then pretty much you would be looking at using an inline linc plus a switchlinc. If not, then you must have 3 way switches and it is a matter of putting a switchlinc where the load is and then putting another switchlinc at the other box.

I dont' have any Insteon motion detectors, but I believe your problem is that you are using "status" rather than "control". The motion detector is probably timing out and sending an "off" command prior to the 3 minute wait, which is terminating your program "wait" and re-evaling to false and running the "else" clause . . .which is blank and does nothing.

Just curious, with mobile linc, you have to buy it for each device, not for multiple devices on each account? Do they charge for these plugins (like voice/elk/etc)?

In the case of android, tasker handles the geo-location duties. When tasker senses crossing some threshold, it will call on mobilinc to perform the insteon duties. My experience that the state of mobilinc matters not at all. Tasker runs in the background. Just reading this thread and noticed this. Mobilelinc is not necessary to geo-fence, only tasker. Tasker can send REST commands to ISY directly. The simplest thing to do might be to have Tasker set a variable on ISY which indicates you have entered the geo-fence and then let ISY do the rest. Similarly, you set Tasker to "un" set the variable when you exit the geofence. Tasker is an incredibly powerful tool, albeit not the simplest to figure out.

The only security system the ISY natively integrates with is Elk. Elk is compatible with a couple different wireless protocols including caddx.

1) none of the hot water tank will empty if the break in the line is at a higher elevation than the tank. Most tanks are in the lowest room in the house and most water lines, at their lowest, are at least a couple feet higher than the floor of the room they are in. 2) if the hot water tank is higher than the break, it will only leak until a vacuum develops. Water can't leave the tank if air can't get in. 3) if the "break" is just a drip type leak, it will stop when the psi drops sufficiently.

Thanks for the experimental data. Just for the sake of completeness, I do not have an expansion tank on the hot water tank . . . I don't have a hot water tank (I have tankless). If you had relief tank, you would have maybe 1/2 gallon of reserve pressure. Also, I suppose if you had a hot water tank in the attic, you would have more of an issue with gravity and stuff. How much I don't know, it wouldn't take too long for the vacuum to set up and stop flow from the tank. But most people put the hot water tank in the lowest part of the house (basement/garage).

Hmm.... Didn't think of that. The lip of the mat is flush against the back wall. I just poured a cup of water down the back wall and most drained into the mat and set off the sensor. I think I'm good in the kitchen. That might not work for the utility cabinet with washer since it's a textured wall rather cabinet back. I'll have to rethink the idea of getting one for in there. The leak at my house ran down the inside of the wall. It soaked the insulation and sheetrock and got the wood floor that butted up to the sheetrock wet which is what tripped the water sensor. This was behind the dishwasher. Had I had a pan under the dishwasher and this in the pan, it never would have tripped. I had to pull the dishwasher, rip out the sheetrock and insulation and repair the pipe. I put new insulation in but didn't bother with sheetrock. I didn't see any reason for it behind the dishwasher.

Just for fun, I put my water pressure gauge on my washing machine hose bib and measured 60 psi in the system. Turned off the Elk valve. Ran 2 cups of water out of the line. The pressure went from 60 psi to 15 psi. I drained 2 more cups, the pressure dropped to 5 psi. Lets assume a slow leak. These are very psi dependent. After a cup or two of water is out, the pressure drop will almost certainly cause it to stop leaking. So putting a bunch of extra valves all over the place at best would save you a cup or 2 of water leakage. Lets assume a catastrophic failure. . . a complete rupture of a line. You might see an additional 8 cups of water after the valve shuts off. But the shut off takes a few seconds. Water has to hit the leak sensor, leak sensor has to trigger valve and valve has to shut. So no matter what you are going to see several gallons of water spewing out. At that point, what is a few cups more? The greatly added cost and complexity of valving all over the place seems unlikely to be cost effective.

If I had had one of these, my water sensor would have failed to work since my leak ran down the wall and would have gone behind and under that pad, not into it. This particular leak would have then gone undetected for probably a couple weeks and would have cost 10's of thousands of dollars since it would have ruined a big section of mesquite flooring instead of just the cost or repairing the leaking pipe. I wouldn't use it and if you did, I would not put the water sensor inside of it. . unless you plan on using 2, 1 in and 1 out. Put the water sensor on the thing you are trying to protect.

They make "smoke in a can". Or you can light up a stogie. http://www.amazon.com/UTC-FIRE-SECURITY ... B000MWWWEI

As long as you get a notification that the water detector tripped, the idea is to go there with a towel and dry up whatever leaked. Mine is connected to the Elk which is connected to a monitoring co. which calls me, along with ISY sending emails. No matter what, there will always be water there, that is the only way the leak detector can detect a leak, so you pretty much need to go dry it up no matter what. I understand that you will have somewhat more water, but I doubt that will change the big picture of going there and drying it up which results in damage avoided. Trying to put a local automatic shut off all over the place like that would be a challenge for sure. I suppose having a faucet somewhere that you can set to remotely turn on and relieve the pressure may be reasonable, but I'm questioning whether it will actually change the end result. . . which is you must show up with a towel. If you are out of town, then you need to have a person with access to the house no matter what.

Ah... Skipped on by it because it was on the data bus connection page. Thanks for pointing out the obvious. All you need to do is pull a single 4 conductor wire (or more, cat5 would work) from your keypad to the wsv. Put your relay at the wsv along with a 12v wall wart and your done. As you mentioned, a UPS could be added.

It's referenced as a feature with "One Programmable Switched Positive Voltage Output" that I had overlooked. And it's actually not documented anywhere in the owner's manual showing the location of the connections or providing any specifications. Where did you get the 50ma rating? Is the output voltage 12V DC? And yes it would be 12v though it doesn't say it. Everything on elk is 12v

The m1kp2 also has a single 50ma controllable output on it, so you wouldn't need the relay board. Just a single relay (with a 50ma or less coil) connected to the output of the keypad. Super Cheap.

Agreed. I have both Elk and Honeywell wireless transceivers but I haven't seen anything to provide a wireless relay controlled by the panel. I'll probably run a multi-strand cable from the garage to the wiring closet where the Elk is a later date. I'll probably have to run it on the exterior under he soffit and penetrate the wiring closet from the outside. It's unfortunate but I don't see another way. Via what mechanism are you activating the valve with the Elk? Elk m1g has one built-in relay and you can buy relay boards (8 per board). I have 32 relays on mine running all kinds of stuff in addition to the wsv. EDIT: Also, you can remotely locate a relay board. You will need to run an rs-485 connection to the relay board just the same as a keypad. And, don't forget that most of the Elk keypads have an output on them which you can use to run a relay, so if you have a keypad near your water valve, you need only pull a wire from the keypad to the valve.

I've really been struggling with this one. I like the reduced risk associated with having it off when away. Not only does it protect against the rare event of power outage during a leak but it also statistically means I'm far less likely to have a leak at all while away. I'm away from home 25% of the time so that means having it off would leave no pressure to have a leak at all during that time. My dishwasher and washing machine run up to an hour so I'd need a delay at least that long. The landscapers are here at any given time on Friday and need the water on then. Ice maker in the fridge wouldn't be able to fill. So there's that..... It is an electric motor. How many times can it operate until failure? I'm have no clue. Cycling it a minimum of 2 times a day and often 4 or more means it will fail a lot sooner than running a test program once a month to make sure it's still working. I also worry about the Insteon command to turn it back on failing as they occasionally do when returning home and dealing with the WAF of no water because of the HA system. The full-on HA project is already a sticky subject at times. When I think about all those things and then consider how rare it would be for there to be a power outage during a leak I shy away from the idea. Perhaps I'll feel differently once fully installed, and I've tested it out for a bit. My hose bibs split off prior to the wsv and the sprinkler is on well water, so those problems are avoided for me. I shut the hose bib valve off in the fall and drain the pipes in the winter. I paid the high price for the wsv so I can get 20 years out of the little motor in there. It is absolutely a high-end device and I see no reason that the motor in there shouldn't last longer than I do. My ice machines pulls off of my reverse osmosis filter which has a pressurized holding tank. So it keeps working fine for quite a few batches of ice even with the water off. In short, the water turning off when we arm the system is invisible from a user standpoint. The only way I know it is working is because it is in the garage and I can hear it turning the water back on when I come home. The scary thing in my opinion is the fact that you are using Insteon to control it. At some point it will fail, and I can promise you that it will be Insteon's fault, not Elk's. That is why I hardwired mine to my Elk and hardwired my water sensors to the Elk as well. But I can understand that a retro-fit may be cost prohibitive. I put mine in during construction.

Having owned a wsv for 5 years and operating several times every day (every time we arm away), and the fact that it can be manually turned, I would say that you need not be concerned about it failing. The bypass only helps you if it jams in the closed position, and having a union fitting would let you pull it out and replace it with a short piece of standby pipe you could keep "just in case" is a 2 minute job. I don't personally keep such a piece of pipe on hand since I don't think a jamming shut is a real risk. Assuming you are paying a plumber, between parts and labor the bypass is probably adding a couple hundred dollars to the project. You also end up with a pretty bulky set of pipes. You also introduce risk that somehow the bypass is left open and a real water emergency that properly shuts the wsv off does not actually shut your water off. Testing is just done when someone is not taking a shower. You for sure should have a second valve in line with the wsv between it and the city and you for sure should put a union fitting so that the wsv can be removed if need be without cutting copper. The second valve for me is at the street.

What is the purpose of the bypass? The only use I see is if you wanted to remove the Elk valve without interrupting water to the house. But I see that as a bit overkill since the Elk valve is pretty bullet proof and most home owners can go a few hours without water even if it did need to be removed. I would recommend using a union on one side or the other of the Elk. If you do need to remove it, there is no way to remove it without a union on at least one end without cutting copper. A union allows you to unhook one end and then spin the valve off of the threads at the other end (provided you leave enough clearance around the valve to spin it, otherwise you need unions at both ends). I bought 2 of them from http://www.surveillent.com/elk-elk-wsv- ... valve.aspx The price was less than $300 when I got them (each). Surveillent does not win any awards for customer service, but I did get them after about a month and they were correct. EDIT: And one more suggestion. Program your alarm system to turn the water off when it is armed away. This takes care of the risk of a power failure and pipe burst happening at the same time. If you are home and a pipe bursts, you can do a manual shut off. If you aren't home, then the water is already off. I put a 30 minute delay so my wife can have the washer finish a load . . . I don't like it, but I can't convince my wife to not start laundry/dishwasher and then leave.

The easiest way to describe a test is to tell you to disconnect all the wires at the fixture box and the switch box(s). Then turn the power back on and find the hot wire with you meter. If it is at the fixtures box, then you almost certainly have a switchloop.

If it were me, the first thing I would do is look for an easy way to get hot/neutral into one of my switchboxes. If any of your switch boxes shares the same stud cavity as a wall outlet then it is pretty easy business. Or if you have unfinished basement/attic/crawlspace above/below then you can get quick easy access to it. Otherwise, inlinelinc/micromodule. Of course you may not need any of this since you haven't confirmed a switch loop. It also used to be code to have a neutral shared by 2 circuits if they were on opposite phase. To the best of my knowledge nobody still accepts this, but it is safe. Again, the trouble is if someone in the future doesn't know the wiring and makes changes. Doing this does as also require that you use a bonded breaker which controls both hots together and forces them to be on opposite phase.