tome

Hi Michel, Thanks for the response. I can think of several reasons that one might want to have the ISY run during a power outage and to know the status of the PLM... 1. I will have an ISY at a remote site that has UPS (and generator) for some circuits including my phone system, internet access equipment, and LAN gear. I will remotely monitor the ISY (and other equipment). 2. If I am using Insteon thernostats to control/monitor my HVAC system, which is backed up by generator) and the ISY is unreachable, then so is my HVAC system. 3. I would view it as a feature for the ISY to be able to log power interruption events by being in communication with the ISY. 4. The UDI network module supports running a web server on the ISY. If I was using it for that purpose I would certainly want it on UPS! I think you (UDI) need to think outside your current box on what the ISY is and what it's capabilities are. Thanks for listening! Is it under My Programs or is it hidden in the ISY? If the former, I must have deleted it... Tome

Ok, so to see if I understand what is going on (and to see if you understand what is going on )... You can set the timeout ONLY to be as short as the Off timeout on the MS, right? That is, if you set the 'For 15 minutes' to 'For 1 Second', the lights will go out at 5 minutes (which is what you have your MS timeout configured for) +1 second. You can configure it any number of seconds/minutes/hours longer then 5 minutes but not shorter, am I right? With the off program above, anytime (day or evening) someone is in the room you will be sending Off commands for the scene every time the MS is tripped then times out, won't you? Tome

And what about jumper 5? Thanks Tome

So here we are nearly two years since the last post in this thread and 2.7.8 is in testing. I am curious what the expected behavior now is if I put my ISY on a separate power supply? Does the ISY know when the PLM reports a power outage, or that the PLM is not reachable due to a power outage (or other problem)? Does it stop executing programs in that case? Does it know when the PLM becomes reachable and will it sync the status of devices and resume programs? Is there still a 3am query in the ISY? Thanks, Tome

I like your approach. Out of curiosity, what is your Timeout set to? Also, what are your jumper settings on the MS?

I asked: And Michel responded: I couldn't for the life of me figure out why setting On-Only mode (Jumper 4) didn't seem to make any difference to the updates I was seeing from the MS on the ISY. It turns out that Jumper 5 causes (at least) Jumper 4 to be ignored. If I put Jumper 5 off, in other words set NO Remote Software Management, I can control On-Only using Jumper 4. If I enable Remote Software Management, then Jumper 4 is ignored and Off is always sent. Also, having Jumper 5 off or disabled, does NOT prevent the ISY from setting the 3 variables it knows about (Timeout, LED brightness, and Dark sensitivity). But the ISY has no way to control the other settings in software that I can see. Perhaps Smarthome knows how to set these parameters (those controlled by Jumpers 1,2,3 & 4) in software if Jumper 5 is enabled? I can't understand the behavior if not...

Thanks, and good to know. I have a vacation house and I want to be able to remotely control the t-stat before we arrive or after we leave. Dying to do it right away, no, but I am going to do this and want to in the next few months at the latest. I hope Venstar updates the T1900 in that timeframe and I can use it as is. Excellent! Thanks for this, it clears things up a bunch. A couple questions. What is considered emergency heat? I had a geothermal system prior to this and emergency heat (forced air over electric coil -YIKES!) came on if the system couldn't heat using geothermal. My current system uses the heat pump down to about 25 degrees, and then brings on the gas furnace. Is the gas furnace considered emergency heat or just stage three heat? Maybe I don't have e-heat...? Is it... Stage 1 -> heat pump compressor lo Stage 2 -> heat pump compressor hi Stage 3 -> gas furnace Are the 2 stages of fan speed on the furnace separate from the stages? Ok, I understand t-stat programming for time-of-day setbacks, etc., etc. I was thinking that in order to have the t-stat call for the proper mode of the furnace (stage 1, stage 2, etc) and/or heat pump (compressor speed 1 or 2), it may have to be programmed to do it differently for different systems. You are telling me that they are all basically the same and the t-stat will do the right thing with some possible minor tweaking time between stages and temp differential. Good! Thanks again. I will talk to the guy who installed my system when I go to do this and might even have him come and help me install it if I run into problems. Tome

I looked at this controller. It is nice indeed. But at $270+ it is pretty pricy to do what the t-stat should handle on it's own. I may consider this if Venstar takes too long to modify the T1900. This made me think of something else...This controller, and probably the Venstar t-stat will require programming (or configuration) to control my system. My current Carrier supplied t-stat works well, as far as I can tell from the perspective of comfort and cost to operate. How can I figure out what algorithm is used in the current t-stat in order to configure the new one to match it or is this operation already built-in and it will just do the right thing? Tome

Michel, using the above link I Removed the email address I had set with the PC. I then Saved and attempted to add an email address. When I clicked on the "n/a" the resulting popup did not have an Add button. I did not clear the Java cache. If you drag the Add/Edit/Remove window out to the right you will see the Add button. However, on my Mac I cannot add addresses either unless.... In the Add/Edit/Remove dialog, after adding the entry and typing in your email (or other) address you MUST hit return. If you click OK before hitting return, the address just appears as "Enter your full email address here@domain.com". You shouldn't HAVE to hit return, but even if the intf requires that, "Enter your full email address here@domain.com" shouldn't be a valid address so it shouldn't let you do this. Tome

You are a bit out of my league in HVAC control I don't know the nomenclature for the various abbreviations or what function they perform (or how to hack them). I was asking one of the tech guys from Venstar and was told it wouldn't control a 2-speed heat pump. The diagram I have for my system is below:

The T1800 can accept the humidity module but it is an add-on you must purchase. The T1900 comes with the module installed. BTW, for those that might care...This thermostat (T1700, T1800, T1900) does NOT yet control Carrier Infinity 2-speed heat pumps. They will control dual fuel, two-stage furnaces but not a multi speed compressor in a heat pump. I spoke with Venstar tech support and was told that sometime in the beginning of 2010 there will an update to (at least) the T1900 that will allow it to control a 2-speed heat pump.

But how does that account for an On and an Off in the same minute? Also, I thought using status on a motion sensor was incorrect because a motion sensor could not be queried for status? I thought I had read that in another thread... Tome

I have two programs. EntryMotionOn: If From Sunset To Sunrise (next day) And Control 'EntryMotionSensor-Sensor' is switched On Then Wait 1 second Set 'EntryLightsEast' On Send Notification to All Else - No Actions (To add one, press 'Action') and EntryMotionOff: If From Sunset To Sunrise (next day) And Control 'EntryMotionSensor-Sensor' is switched Off Then Send Notification to All Wait 1 second Repeat 2 times Set 'EntryLightsEast' Off Else - No Actions (To add one, press 'Action')

My program on the ISY that control lights based on a motion sensor also notifies me when my entry courtyard motion sensor is tripped (on as well as off). Last night I got these messages. The motion sensor is set for a 5 minute timeout. Seems like a bug in either the motion sensor or the ISY: ==================================================== EntryMotionOn 'EntryMotionSensor-Sensor (13 F4 9A 1)' set On at 12/27/2009 02:49:35. ---------------------------------------- At: 12/27/2009 02:49:35 Program: EntryMotionOn Device: EntryMotionSensor-Sensor (13 F4 9A 1) Action: On ==================================================== ==================================================== EntryMotionOff 'EntryMotionSensor-Sensor (13 F4 9A 1)' set Off at 12/27/2009 02:49:35. ---------------------------------------- At: 12/27/2009 02:49:35 Program: EntryMotionOff Device: EntryMotionSensor-Sensor (13 F4 9A 1) Action: Off ====================================================

Well, I do admit my ISY isn't doing all that much yet since I only have a dozen devices or so and a half dozen programs mostly running at sunset/sunrise. However, as I said I am running a little program that notifies me if my motion sensor goes off and the ISY connects/disconnects from my SMTP server within several seconds when I trip the MS. Tome

Ah, very likely this is the difference. Possibly one of the fixes in 2.7.7. I would normally not run an alpha software but I must say that this one of the most stable bits of code I have ever seen in alpha. I would highly recommend 2.7.7 and apparently a new release is about to come out 2.7.7/2.

It's not my mail provider. Like I said, I currently have Homeseer set up the same way, if my doorbell I/O Linc is triggered, I get the email instantly (4 seconds tops from ringing the doorbell, to my Blackberry). It is somewhere between 18 seconds (the best I could get) to somewhere around a minute with the ISY. I tried port 25, and 587... it is faster with 587, but 18 seconds is still too slow for my visual notification. I'll continue playing with it some more. I am using TLS on an obscure port. I just checked it again, my ISY sends the mail to my server within a couple seconds of the execution. BTW, I am running 2.7.7 alpha. What version of software is on your ISY? Are you sending it from both Homeseer and ISY at the same time? It could be that your provider is closing one of the connections from your home and then the ISY has to retry. Just a guess, but I wouldn't make any assumptions about the cause until you can verify that the ISY is holding the notification. Unfortunately, I don't see a way via Event View or Telnet to see what the ISY is doing. Can you send it to a different destination where you could watch it come in?

I suspect it is your email provider (or server if you run your own) and not the ISY. I have tested this with my ISY and it sends the mail nearly instantly after a program is executed. I can watch the mail logs on my mail server (which is physically across the country from where I live) and see the ISY always send email within a few seconds of the request to do so.

Ok, so it is nothing to worry about then..?

I was playing around with my motion sensors before mounting them and sometimes see the message "Process Message: failed" in the Event Viewer (see below). What does this mean? Wed 12/23/2009 04:17:08 PM : [iNST-SRX ] 02 50 13.EF.B7 00.00.01 C7 11 01 LTONRR (01) Wed 12/23/2009 04:17:08 PM : [standard-Group][13.EF.B7-->Group=1] Max Hops=3, Hops Left=1 Wed 12/23/2009 04:17:08 PM : [ 13 EF B7 1] DON 1 Wed 12/23/2009 04:17:08 PM : [ 13 EF B7 1] ST 255 Wed 12/23/2009 04:17:08 PM : [iNST-SRX ] 02 50 13.EF.B7 00.00.01 C7 11 01 LTONRR (01) Wed 12/23/2009 04:17:08 PM : [standard-Group][13.EF.B7-->Group=1] Max Hops=3, Hops Left=1 Wed 12/23/2009 04:17:08 PM : Duplicate: ignored Wed 12/23/2009 04:17:08 PM : [iNST-SRX ] 02 50 13.EF.B7 00.00.01 C7 11 01 LTONRR (01): Process Message: failed Wed 12/23/2009 04:17:08 PM : [standard-Group][13.EF.B7-->Group=1] Max Hops=3, Hops Left=1 Wed 12/23/2009 04:17:08 PM : [iNST-SRX ] 02 50 13.EF.B7 12.9F.2A 42 11 01 LTONRR (01) Wed 12/23/2009 04:17:08 PM : [standard-Cleanup][13.EF.B7-->ISY/PLM Group=1] Max Hops=2, Hops Left=0

Yes, I see what you mean now. Thanks!

Well, I have been using iLinc Pro for a few weeks now. I can say it works, gives me access to my devices scenes and control of programs. It seems reliable and so far has not failed to allow me to control anything. There are some things I wish were different in the user interface but the developer seems responsive and willing to listen to users so I suspect it will continue to improve. It wasn't inexpensive, but I am using it often enough that I think it is worth the cost. Tome

I see the advantage here but, this could also be handled by ignoring motion after switch is turned Off for a time, right? This I don't understand. Let's say I have a program that when motion is sensed, turns on my lights. It leaves them on for, say 5 minutes and then shuts them off. If I used On-Only, the lights will go out after 5 minutes even if I am still in the area. It will send an On again, but they will go off, then come on. That doesn't seem desirable. With On/Off, I can keep them on 5 minutes or when I get an Off command, which ever is later. So, the lights would never go off while I was in the area. Is my logic broken?

I thought it interesting that it comes with Remote Software Management disabled.

I got a couple 2420M motion sensors (REV2.0) and have a question about the jumper settings and how the 2420M appears in the ISY. I would like to get the settings right before I mount them as they won't be in a location that will be easy to get to. When I added it to the ISY is says v.00. Is this normal? No questions about these two... Jumper 1 is Sensitivity Jumper 2 is Disable LED Jumper 3 is Night-Only Since the ISY can control things is there a reason to enable this? I read a thread where someone said battery life is actually worse in Night-Only mode (unless of course SH changed something in V2.0) Jumper 4 is On-Only I don't see a reason that I would want to set On-Only, again since the ISY can be programmed to deal with the notifications, it seems like I may want Off, or not, but having it enabled is good. Also, in On-Only if someone stays in the area and I turn the lights out based on time someone might get left in the dark. With Off enabled I can check to see if Off came before turning the lights off...Yes? I guess battery life may be saved if it is On-Only - is that the only reason to use it? Jumper 5 is Remote (Software) Management Can the ISY manage the 2420M remotely? If so, is there a reason NOT to enable software management?