Jimini

Thanks again for the info. I understand the cost model, a bit tricky to decide the optimum path since I likely will only make use of the ISY Portal down the road a ways and that will require more investigation of whether one of the connection would give me access to my Apple TV or my BOSE house wide sound system. Possible for the former but very unlikely for the latter. After a brief read of what you pointed me to, it appears that the software for the Network Module added to the Admin Console but somehow provides software added to the ISY programs I write so ultimately, I don't have to keep software running on my computer to log data or send email notices but can grab the logged data from ISY when I launch the Console. Is that correct? And can I create such a log such that the data can ultimately be fed to some form of spreadsheet such as Excel? From the wiki, it wasn't clear to me what format the created files might take.

Thank you, ELA, for your reply and reminding me to read again your previous report. I had read it before and was very impressed with the details you followed and reported. In reading it again, I found one important statement that I had not paid sufficient attention to in my first read, that is the necessity of executing a Query after a Calibrate. This seems very odd but now I found that indeed a Query immediately after a Calibrate results in a different value reported, one that is much closer to the requested Calibrate value. The whole calibration operation seems very odd to me both because of the need for the Query and the need to repeat the Calibrate several times to get close to but not exactly to the desired value. But by executing the Query after Calibrate I was eventually able to get to within a degree of my desired value on all three MS IIs which I have mounted on a board next to each other. Over the last three days, I have performed queries 4 times were day comparing the three MS II readouts to a room thermometer I have. Two are tracking very well, exactly matching when applying a software correction based upon the final calibration offset. One, however, performs mysteriously. With many of the reads, it also reports a value within a degree of the other two, however, on some of the reads it first reports the same value as it previously reported several hours before, but on a second query command, it reports the correct new value. On one read sequence, it continued to report the value from several house before even after three consecutive reads. I am concluding that this devices if faulty and should be returned. I do have a few questions that you possibly can help answer: 1) It appears that when powering the MS II with USB power, one does not need to put the device in set mode. Another person had commented that this was necessary but I think that is only in battery mode. Is this correct? 2) Once the devices is calibrated powered by USB, can the device be powered down to be moved to a different location without recalibrating? I assume it will hold its calibration after a loss of USB power, which will be important in operation during a general power failure? 3) Some Query commands put the ISY is Busy Mode for an extended period of time during which several pop up windows appear with the warning not power to down or change configurations, but some Query commands show System Busy for only a very brief moment and then return to Ready. Is this normal? Do you know a reason why the difference? 4) I have not done any thing with the motion part of the device. I just linked the device which produced three devices in the ISY device list. The MS II unit will often flash a red light in addition to the green light. The manual states that the red light implies "Error Controlling a Device", which is odd since I have not purposely set the MS II to control anything. There is no report in the ISY Log or Error Log associated with this device. Is this a concern? Do you think this affects its temperature sensing, which is the only purpose I intend for the device? Thanks again.

Thank you, kclenden, for this new information. This option appears to be worth investigating further before I go in the Nodelink direction. The Network module looked like something I might be interested in for the future when I first read the ISY Users Guide. But can you point me to more information about the Nework module and the ISY Portal Module? I see no information about the Portal Module in the Users Guide. And it is not clear to me if these various optional modules are extra hardware, firmware or software and how much they cost.

Not a problem. As you can see from the delay in my reply, that I only work on this ISY stuff in what spare time I can find. I found this Event Viewer. From my brief look at it, it appears to only run while I have the Admin Console running, at least the start of it's log was my launching of the console. You are correct, that I don't really want to require the computer running all the time. So it looks like I either use the system log and put up with only seeing changes to my temperature sensors, or I dig more into the Nodelink and see if that might provide a better logging system. That again will be completely new territory for me to explore. Thanks.

kclenden, my little program still isn't recording changes to my state variables. I forced the change in values as you suggested; I even just changed to value via two set variable lines in the code and still nothing in the log file. I must be leaving out some step to enable logging or enable logging of my state variables.

Very good. That's the key. Only state variables and only when they change get written to the log. I guess that is covered in some document somewhere but I couldn't find it Thanks.

If I might, I'd like to add a couple of questions to this thread. 1) In the sample program, the motion sensor node was set to query but then the temperature and luminescence was copied to variables. I have my MSIIs running on USB power and all I want to measure if the temperature. I set the temperature node to query and then copied the temperature to a variable. Is there anything problematic with doing that way? 2) I'm interested in logging data over a long period of time. It was suggested to me to download the ISY Log to my computer which has the option of putting the log into an Excel file. It looks like this should work fine, except in my attempts to try this, it appears that the temperature values from the query are only recorded in the log only if the temperature has changed. I tried copying the temperature to a variable just after the query but that also did not report anything to the log. This is someone off topic but that can be excused for a newbie, I'd like know if there is any way to force the result of a query to be reported to the log or even better to report the current value of a variable to the log. It would seem important for many other types of applications to be able to log the current value of variables. Any help will be greatly appreciated. (I don't know how my status was updated to "Advanced Member" but at best I'd classify myself as "Intermediate", and that might be a push.)

I am just starting to set up the MS II as a temperature sensor and having trouble calibrating it or even getting sensible readings. I've tried two of the three I purchased with similar results. It would appear that I haven't set it up correctly. Out of the box, I removed the battery and connected the USB cable for power. I linked the unit to my ISY using the "Link a sensor" -> "Motion Sensor II". This created three devices, the temperature sensor, Motion Enabled and Tamper, which I 've read is normal. The icon to the left of these device names in the Console listing of ISY devices looks like the capital letter "N" with a ball at the end of the up going and down going lines. Since this is my first senator device, I assume this is the normal symbol for a sensor. I did not change settings in the window that pops up in response to pressing the Options button. To calibrate, pressed the set button on the MS II (I read somewhere that it needed to be in set or link mode), selected the temperature device on the Console, typed a new number into the box just to the right of the Calibrate Temperature button and then pressed that button. The response I get to these actions is varied. Ready changes to System Busy in the lower left corner of the Console window and a few windows pop up sequentially warning me not to power down or change any settings. It's clearing trying to write to the MS II. During that period, the value I typed into the box to the right of the Calibrate button changes. Most often it changes back to the value displayed as the temperature read back which is where the operation ends with no change to the temperature reading. Sometimes it changes to a different temperature but not the one I entered and then the temperature read back also changes to that value. By repeating this calibrate sequence several times, I can get the read back to get close to the number I entered, sometimes above my value, sometimes below my value. Never the same value. One attempt changed the temperature to -17.9 degrees. I've also tried this calibrate sequence without first pressing the Set button on the MS II unit, with similar results except a few times that resulted in an error message saying that ISY could not communicate with the device. As I am writing this message, I tried repeating the sequence above a few times to make sure that I am recording the correct sequence and response but the response has changed. Firstly, I now see that as soon as I enter a new value to calibrate to and press my enter key, the system goes busy. It doesn't wait for me to press the Calibrate Temperature button. I had not noticed that before. Secondly, the popup windows warning me not to change anything are not appearing. It doesn't appear that ISY is writing to the device. As I stated above, I've tried this with two of the three units i purchased with similar results. I hope someone can point to some step I've left out because this is very frustrating.