CPrince

With the shortage of Insteon products I figured I would try out Z-Wave. I broke down and upgraded to Isy ver 5.3, bought the new Z-Wave 500 board ver. 6.82.01 and set it up. Seems to work. I purchase a Fibaro Motion Sensor per @lilyoyo1suggestion. So now I am trying to configure it. note: "Query" and "Write Changes" appear under the settings. I just moved up in picture above to save space. So for configuration I have a "Set Configuration", "Parameter Number", "Parameter Vales", "Write Changes. I want to write 900 to parameter 64. The manual says 2 bytes. It doesn't say "unsigned" or "signed" which is a option. Being battery operated I have to open communication by pressing button B once. So now what order do I click on the buttons to write to the device. How can I verify this change was successful? Is there an App or something I can use to program this or read the configuration? I am not using a Z-Wave hub just the Isy. Next I want to put 300 in parameter 42.

@lilyoyo1Thanks for the reply. All three of my new (2844) motions sensors are configured outside of ISY. Two are reporting membership. Isy added these, not me. But not a problem as ISY does not run them except for battery low. More of a cosmetic problem. I am a detail guy. Now for the battery low problem. It looks like the 2844 does not have a battery low like the 2842 did. My previous programs for the low battery are all yellow flagged . So I need to recode them for the new sensor. However, you say that the 2844's need to be plugged in to report the light level, battery level, luminance, battery power etc. data. Then I would not need a battery low if they were plugged in. lol. All is good. I did not have it before and it looks like I will not have it now. I will set something up in the odd case the sensor does send out a low battery level on day.

I have four motion sensors. 1 2842-222 and 3 2844-222. I am at Isy 5.3. I added the motion senors back at version 4.9 before upgrades. All my sensors show up as 2842-222. The new sensors show up as old sensors. Okay I figured that issues out. I deleted them and re added the new sensors and now they show up as they should. During the process they showed light level, battery level, luminance, battery power etc. All looked good. So I saved my config and rebooted. Now they only show status (on/off). All the other good info is not reporting. This is not really a problem, but one of the things that bugs me and keeps me up at night. The sensors are all directly linked to the corresponding light (outside of Isy in case Isy fails). Ie bath sensor turns on bath light, closet sensor turns on closet light and office light turns on office light. All works. What really bugs me is that bath and office show the correct memberships (far right on the Isy display. However closet shows nothing. No memberships. No scenes. I blew away closet light and sensor and re added to no prevail. I really wanted to tap the luminace vales of the sensors but that seems not possible at this time as they are not reporting.

Oh yea, that was easy. I wrote a routine last night and it failed miserably this morning. This morning plus 5 hours later I think I got it! I did not want to ask the forum as I need to learn this logic better. I chose Exception over Holiday as Holiday is too cliche. Plus I am retired and everyday is a holiday. Note, 11.01 is my test date. Maybe I overdid it with ()'s, but it seems to work. Set Exception Variable - [ID 006A][Parent 0001] If Time is 12:03:00AM And ( $iISY.MonthOfYear is not 11 Or $iISY.WeekOfMonth is not 4 Or $iISY.DayOfWeek is not 4 ) And ( $iISY.MonthOfYear is not 9 Or $iISY.WeekOfMonth is not 1 Or $iISY.DayOfWeek is not 1 ) And ( $iISY.MonthOfYear is not 5 Or $iISY.WeekOfMonth is not 5 Or $iISY.DayOfWeek is not 1 ) And ( $iISY.MMDD is not 1.01 ) And ( $iISY.MMDD is not 7.04 ) And ( $iISY.MMDD is not 12.25 ) And ( $iISY.MMDD is not 11.01 ) Then $iException Init To 0 $iException = 0 Else $iException Init To 1 $iException = 1

@MrBillThank you. It took a lot to digest your suggestion. That in turn made me think more. Plus the fact that I unplugged an Insteon module that crumbled in my hand and trying to find a replacement. Not easy. So now I have a logical calendar in the ISY. We have fixed holidays (1/1. 7/4, 12/25) and we have calculated holidays (Thanksgiving, Labor day and Memorial Day). So why not create a new program with a new variable $iException right after we run the program "Set Date Valuables" Then instead of calculating this in every sub-program that depends on special days, I could just check $iException. This is much easier. Now I have to clean up all the old code.

This is a 2 part program. The first part is to turn lights on shortly before sunrise but not before a certain time. This parts works (thanks @MrBill) The second part is the days I do not want it to run. I have predefined variables for the days I do not want the lights to come on using Julian dates. IToday is the current day. I have a program to increment the date at midnight. I will pull from the Node Server ISY time data soon. I have upgraded to 5.3.0 and pulled and deactivated the Zwave module. Atrium Lights On AM - [ID 005D][Parent 0063] If ( On Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri From Sunrise - 45 minutes For 2 hours and 30 minutes And On Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri From 6:45:00AM For 2 hours and 30 minutes ) And ( $iToday is not $iNewYear Or $iToday is not $iMemorial Or $iToday is not $iJuly4 Or $iToday is not $iLaborDay Or $iToday is not $iThanksgiving Or $iToday is not $iChristmas Or $iToday is not $iFloat ) Then Set 'Atrium / Atrium Lights' On Else - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action') I am probably missing something stupid like set of (), but I can't find it.

Got it. I will get the 500 board in a few weeks and upgrade. Thanks

@lilyoyo1 Did you go to 5.3.4 with the Z-wave 300 board in place? Just curious.

Okay, I emailed support and haven't hard back. I guess going to 5.3.x is the answer. Gmail just hit me with the 2 step even though I have selected less secure. Now I have to go around and find out what I am bouncing off gmail if anything and fix it. I put WireShark on my mail server and found the problem. The problem was in the negotiation of which authentication method to use. It was having a problem with the PLAIN method. Actually my server was having an issue with the PLAIN method. I fixed that and hope I did not break anything in the process. So I am doing it all in house as I would prefer anyway. Thanks again.

@Michel Kohanim, @MrBillThanks for the tip. I just emailed support, looks like support is Michael. I dread Gmail. I think they are going to not allow me to disable 2 step authentication this week. This is going to mess a lot of stuff up. I have an email and Exchange server here but neither seem to work with ISY. I wish I could pull an email log from ISY. It is easier than pulling it from an active Exchange server.

My bad. 5.0.16C, I just can't keep these versions straight. I have the 300 zwave board. Okay so the mail problem is related to the 5.0.16C version. I will look into the "Michael back in May" and look at 5.3.3. I may just pull the 300 module and go 5.3.4. Thanks for the info.

I upgraded from 4.9.0 to 5.0.13C. I can no longer send email or text messages using the default (built in) mail server settings. It worked fine until I did the update.

@MrBillThanks again, the upgrade to 5.0.16C was painless. Thanks for your trick on how to visually backup programs to a text file. I actually had to use it for one program. Now I am learning about the Node Server thing. I am trying to set Open Weather Map up now.. Just for the record I tried the IOLink and the Raspberry Pi sensor. It worked, but not very well. Very hard to adjust. The other problem is the IOLink is very particular about where it is plugged in. I know it is old school single band. Even after plugging a dual band module into it, poor results. It loves the outlet in the garage! @lilyoyo1 "I use the lux sensor in zwave motion sensor" What exactly are you using? I found an Aeotec tri sensor. I am looking for low light and not the absence of light. Can your thing return a value or be set to trigger at a certain light level? When I first stated out with ISY I bought it because of the weather module, which has since been discontinued. I was going to use the weather to turn on the porch lights when a storm is approaching. Here in Texas it can go from cloudy to darkness in minutes; especially in the summer.

Thanks to @MrBill and others I have pretty much mastered the sunrise sunset thing. How every I have been toying with idea of a light sensor to work in conjunction with sunrise/sunset, for those heavy overcast days. I am stuck in the past. I have an ISY994i IR Pro with a 300 series Z-Wave module running 4.9.0 firmware. I want to upgrade to like 5.0.13 or something (the first 5x version) so I can incorporate my sirens and keep my Z-Wave. On the other hand I can't find much that will operate on the Z-Wave 300 platform; so I could do without the Z-Wave. I am just not sure where to begin. I have read articles in this forum about going to 5, to do this you need that, and the horror stories of upgrading. I can't find the 5.0.13 firmware anywhere. Anyway I am not sure what KUMO and Wireless Tag Node Server is. I am thinking I need to really do a major upgrade to use either. My current system does about 99% of what I want it to do. So you know, what they say, if it aint broke, don't fix it. They also say no guts, no glory! Anyway I was thinking of using a Raspberry Pi light sensor with a IOLink to write a value to a variable. The sensor has 3 wires. 5 volt, ground and signal. There is a variable resistor on it to adjust the level. Using logic I think I can get what I need. @theojtthanks for posting this as I will give it a try. I just needed motivation.

Follow up. I spent an hour trying to clear the communications error. Finally got up out of my chair and over to the KeypadLinc and pressed some buttons. I went back to my desk and I cleared the communications error instantly. The KeypadLinc must have locked up or something. I added a 5 second delays in both programs. As far as the LED's turning on at night for no reason, I am thinking it is a HouseLinc issue. HouseLinc runs a maintenance routine at 1 AM. HouseLinc is no longer running. Now I just have to wait an see. Thanks again.

Guy's thanks! Okay I am migrating from HouseLinc to ISY. These were the last 2 programs to be migrated from HouseLink to ISY out of about 75. I actually migrated them to ISY but started having issues with both. So I disabled on ISY and renabled on HouseLinc. They were not running concurrently on both ISY and HouseLinc. Both PLMs were plugged into the same extension cord and not a surge protector or UPS. They were not piggie backed. Both switches are dual band and the keypadlinc is Keypad with Dimmer[2334-232]. The PLMs are current version. I just pulled the PLM for HouseLinc and re enabled the programs on ISY. I will see what it does. Hey my luck day. Routine just ran with HouseLinc PLM removed and we are still failing. Tabletop Box.1,A,B,C and D are the LeypadLinc. II will try adding "wait"s to the program. Attached are the 2 programs Thanks for your help.

I have a SwitchLinc dimmer, SwitchLinc on/off and KeypadLinc 5 button, mounted in a box that sits by my bed. The SwithLinc on/off turns most of the lights in the house off or on by a program that catches the on or off pressed on the switch by ISY. This seems to work pretty well. I had to insert some "waits" to increase reliability. The SwithLink dimmers is directly linked to my bedroom lights, it doesn't need ISY to function. This works well too. The KeypadLinc is using 4 scenes to set the fan high, med, low and off. I copied this out of the ISY Cookbook. This works well too. So my problem is the LED's on the 3 switches. I have 2 simple programs. On sunrise +2 set the SwitchLinks LED's to 20% and the KeypadLinc to on 6/ off 1. Then I have another program that at Sunset +2, turn the SwitchLinc LED's to 0% and KeypadLinc to on 0/ off 0. This is so hit and miss it is driving me crazy. The the LED's on the SwitchLinks turn on in the wee hours of the morning, sometimes. This is usually followed by a red exclamation mark in the devices list. It takes forever to clear the exclamation mark. I get a communication error. I have to query and do write updates many times to reset the KeypadLinc. I have had this running on my HouseLinc with no issues for over a year. The HouseLink PLM is plugged into the same outlet as the ISY PLM. This is the only program left running in HousLinc. Obviously I am not running the same routine on both devices at the same time.

I am about 99% complete as far as moving all my HouseLinc programs and devices to an ISY944i. I have been on HouseLinc maybe 10 years. In the process of moving my devices using the spider method with keep all links, I have acquired about 7 scenes that I don't have a clue what they are. I have 2 scenes with all responders and 1 scene with the old HouseLinc PLM. Then I have some crazy scenes like the washing machine appliance module controlling the front porch light. I assume I can safely delete these? Now the smoke detector controlling the bedroom light I would keep. While I am working on scenes (I am old school X10/Insteon 35/10 years) I would write a program like bedroom off, living room off, dinning room off, kitchen off, etc., etc. for a bed time routine. I am seeing iISY is hit and miss in this area. Isy might miss the kitchen light and leave it on. I don't know if it is because HouseLinc is USB and ISY serial. So I have added a wait 1 between each off. This seems to be more reliable. Would a better solution be creating a scene?

@gzaharYour explanation was spot on. I read the first three words and it instantly made sense. @MrBilland @apostolakislYou guys really drove it home with your in-depth explanations. Thanks so much

Mr Bill, My brain is fried. The second example worked fine. At first I thought it didn't. Review of the security cameras proved that it did. I am at a lose with the "for" argument. I did a lot of reading on it and am no better off. I am reading the 700 page ISY Automation Cookbook. What does the 6 represent? I changed it to 2 as I thought it was going shut the lights off in 2 hours. Wrong.

MrBill, sorry I did not see you full response to the second part. let me review,

MrBill, thanks for the fast response. You first solution is spot on. I had to poke around to find the settings. It was a great learning experience. The second example makes some sense, but is not clicking. I may be a bit slow. Sorry. So it has to be sunrise -30 (4:45 currently) and 5:30. to hold off turning the light on at 5:30. It should work today and for a few months. But the window from 4:45 to 5:30 will be locked in because of the and 5:30? So what happens in December? Sunrise -30 (6:00 December time) and 5:30. Won't the 5:30 make the logic false? Doesn't the and 5:30 kinda hardwire it in? Thanks so much!

I would like to do some more advanced sunrise/sunset programs. Sunrise/sunset is relative to the earth and the sun, but not really the time of day. Time of day is a constant and sunrise/sunset is variable. With that being said if I want to to turn my porch light on at sunset -30 minutes and off 6 hours later in the month of December it will be different in July. In the winter the light would come on around 4:30 and turn off around 10:30. This is good. However running this is July will turn the lights on around 8:00 and off at 2AM. This is bad. I thought of breaking this down in to 2 separate programs. One to turn on the lights and 1 to turn off the lights. However I don't want them going off at the exit same time every day. Maybe 10 PM plus or minus 30 random minutes. I can't see how to do a plus or minus random number. Every controller I have worked with has had this function. Another issue is the lights in th AM. Lets say I want the lights to come on at sunrise -30 minutes but not before 5:30. Sunrise right now is 5:30. So the lights turn on at 4:45. This is bad. In December the lights would come on at 5:45. This is good. I am new to this device, sorry if this has been asked many times.