johnnyt

Am looking at buying a RPi for a couple of reasons, mostly ISY related but not exclusively, and I have a few questions for folks with more experience. ISY-wise it would be for a bunch of io_guy's stuff and perhaps other things (I forget right now what others are using an RPi for). As of today for me, though, it's DSCLink and ISYlogger. Tomorrow possibly Venlink, OWLink and maybe a few others (which reminds me I have to get off my e-duff and send him a paypal me$$age soon for all his good work) My other immediate planned use is as an XBMC media server. My questions are: 1) what are other things people use an RPi for? 2) what OS are people using and why? 3) I found info on three RPi distros for XMBC: Raspbmc, OpenELEC and XBian. Anyone know if one or more of these would allow me to do the ISY related stuff on the same RPi? 4) Will using XBMC hamper or be hampered by the ISY stuff running on it? (Not the end of the world if I have to buy more than one but if I didn't have to I'd sooner not) 5) Anyone stick a USB tuner on one? If so, repeat question 4...

Instead of IOLincs would suggest http://www.digital-loggers.com/din.html. Search my username and IOLincs to hopefully find (and be able to avoid) the problems I had with IOLincs. I think just due to too many but I also needed to query them to ensure reliability in my hvac. Too many times my IOLincs query resulted in "safeguards" I had to code activating. The querying also killed ISY performance and lead to other problems. Am on Tapatalk and don't have the links easily accessible. Try also a search of "DIN" to find more on the din relay... Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I think you might have to do "if status on" as it's unlikely the action of going on will happen at exactly 3 or 6 pm to cause the then statement to run... Of course, with "if status on" you'll get notified everyday at 3 and 6 until you clear it. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Good idea. I was avoiding garage door automation using IOLincs because of concerns around reliability of insteon, at least in my house, and some weird still unexplained behaviour I had encountered using them with my hvac. The recent postings about all on commands had me feeling pretty good about that call even though that particular issue hasn't affected me (yet, anyway... knock on wood) and I do hope it gets resolved. How are you "sensing" the door open when the (unconnected to ISY) remote or keypad is used, or are you? Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I once had a dimmer kpl beep and refuse to work when plugged into control CFL bulbs (non dimable). I had to put in a relay. If floods are incandescent, you won't have a problem. One thing I noticed about picking one kind of kpl over another is that you can't do a "replace with" from dimmer to relay or vice versa (unless something has changed recently). With respect to BFG wire, I think if you have metal junction box the grounding can occur via the screws you use to secure kpl to box and you could do away with it. Am not an electrician though so not sure. If anyone is/knows, I would also be curious to know if you could cut a few strands off the ground wire or if they really need to be that big. I have to assume they do otherwise Smarthome would have saved a few bucks and put smaller ones in I would think. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I've been using my WU key with (free) homeseer plugin for 5+ years and am still using it despite having purchased climate module because the forecast data is more accurate. I still need to run HS anyway for some math that I can't do with ISY but I do hope one day to retire it and do everything with ISY. Am also planning a PWS soon and would love to have it update ISY variables directly without relying on cloud service. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

this prompted me to update the thread I said I would update... http://forum.universal-devices.com/topic/12401-ezio8sa-mysteriously-turning-devices-on/?p=116570

I realized recently that I hadn't updated this thread with how things ended. I ended up shipping back the two EZIO8A I had (they had sent me a single band version to see if that fixed my problems and forced me to pay for it.) It took a couple of months to get my money back for the original (dual band) unit because it exceeded the 15 day refund window, although they claimed they had sent me a paypal refund sooner than that. I'll take their word for it that they tried but there was no history of it in my paypal account and it certainly took no time to fix the problem when I followed up. Anyway, I moved all the HVAC relays I wanted the EZIO8SA to control to a Digital Loggers DIN Relay http://www.digital-loggers.com/din.html (thanks to Xathros for the suggestion), which has been rock solid reliable. The only problem (perhaps) with the DIN relay is that I can't query it, however I don't need to (unlike the insteon based IOLinc solution I had before trying the EZIO8SA). Interestingly, because ISY doesn't directly track the DIN relay relays directly (I use variables to do it), I can override some HVAC settings using the DIN relay's built in web server or the iOS app for it without writing all kinds of conditions in my ISY programs to allow manual override of my automation. That's been a nice bonus that has also helped me more easily test/fine tune when I want certain HVAC events to occur and not (e.g. particularly for furnace fan on/off, dampers open/close, etc. to re-balance air temp in parts of the house) Main lessons learned: - Smartenit is NOT fixing bugs or making improvements to their insteon devices (they're focus is zigbee). I got this directly from Justin at tech support. - The documentation beyond the one pager that comes with the EZIO-series of devices sucks - Despite telling me improvements to documentation would be made and asking me for suggestion (which I wasted my time providing) no improvements were made, despite the many known bugs that aren't being fixed While I did get a refund minus Cdn-to-US exchange rate loses both ways (including for the test unit I was sent), I wasted close to 100 hours troubleshooting problems (mostly the one in this thread) that ended up being known issues. I'll let folks decide whether any of this is important to them or not but will say I don't plan to buy anything from Smartenit in the future.

I personally don't recommend the EZIO8SA. Search for it and my username for the details - am using Tapatalk and don't have them handy. (I really should update the thread on how things ended up... Got my money back for the parts but not for the ~100 hours of my time...) Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Don't underestimate your need for scenes. They are a very nice feature of insteon and needed to change keypad buttons programmatically. Also, don't underestimate the value of good support and a helpful user community. As a veteran of homeseer that still uses it for a few things (forecast data and math functions) - and many other IT products - I will say ISY support is second to none. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Word of advice if you get custom etched: use CAPS. Lower case is too small. They now say it the on the Smarthome web site but didn't always and I learned it the hard way. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Am looking to add some LED strip that I can control with ISY. Looks like I can't use just any old insteon dimmer... Or can I? I see some LED dimmer "drivers" that only work with Lutron dimmers but I noticed one said it worked with PWM dimmers. What would Smarthome dimmers be considered? What do folks here do? Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

figured it out! I needed to bracket the first two "or" conditions. D'oh! The following works as intended. If ( Status '1-MISC (Non Lighting) / HVAC / Kitchen.E-Vent' is not Off Or Status '1-MISC (Non Lighting) / Bedrooms / JeanKPL.G-Vent' is not Off ) And ( Status '1-MISC (Non Lighting) / HRV / Back KPL.G - HRV High (XLink)' is Off Or Status '1-MISC (Non Lighting) / HRV / Back KPL.H - HRV High (XLink)' is Off ) Then Wait 7 seconds Set Scene '1-MISC (Non Lighting) / HRV / HRV Venting Buttons for Prgs' Off Else - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action')

I think the second program is a red herring. It is simply something that turns the scene ON, which then triggers the problematic program I'm posting about. It is just one of many ways to make the problematic program run. Yes, there was a circular element to it because the non-problematic program re-ran as it should to change the KPL back to OFF thereby re-triggering the problematic program that turned back to ON. I watched as the non problematic programs ran "then" for a few seconds (I had put in a 7 second delay to make sure I saw it running) followed by the problematic program running for a few seconds then the cycle repeating itself until I stopped one of them. I fixed the circular issue by looking for a button press (i.e. control) instead of status. Even though I still think the second program is a red herring after more testing, I've attached it here given that I am at a loss to understand why the problematic program is running when it shouldn't so anything you want I'll provide. As suggested, I created a test program (below) and 1) manually pushed the KPL button in question ON then OFF several times (I also did it using "not OFF" as the condition), 2) ran the scene that turns the bottom ON using the GUI several times, and 3) caused the non problematic program that sends the scene ON command to run. Each time I received the appropriate notification by email. If Status '1-MISC (Non Lighting) / Bedrooms / JeanKPL.G-Vent' is 100% Then Send Notification to 'me' Else Send Notification to 'me' I think this points to two things. One, there isn't a comms issue since the button press was seen by ISY. To that I would add that the only time I've had a comms issue with the keypad in question - which has been in place for several years - has been (sometimes) when I've query the device links table - a fairly lengthy process given the KPL has 80 some links in it. (I did a device links query again just before the above testing and it did not encounter any problems.) The second thing it says to me is that the condition does work by itself. The question remains why is this program (re-posted here for quick reference) running true when the first two conditions are false. Then the program does NOT run true under the same triggering circumstances when the second condition is removed. If Status '1-MISC (Non Lighting) / HVAC / Kitchen.E-Vent' is not Off Or Status '1-MISC (Non Lighting) / Bedrooms / JeanKPL.G-Vent' is not Off And ( Status '1-MISC (Non Lighting) / HRV / Back KPL.G - HRV High (XLink)' is Off Or Status '1-MISC (Non Lighting) / HRV / Back KPL.H - HRV High (XLink)' is Off ) Then Wait 7 seconds Set Scene '1-MISC (Non Lighting) / HRV / HRV Venting Buttons for Prgs' Off Else - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action') VentButtonsONprogram.txt

Here's what happens over the insteon network when the offending KPL is included in the program: 1. The push of one of the "HRV High" buttons: 1-MISC (Non Lighting) / HRV / Back KPL.G - HRV High (XLink) Status 100% Sat 2014/08/30 07:53:44 AM System Log 1-MISC (Non Lighting) / HRV / Back KPL.H - HRV High (XLink) Status 100% Sat 2014/08/30 07:53:44 AM System Log 2. ISY calls scene to turn the offending KPL on, which I visually see turn ON in the GUI: Scene:1-MISC (Non Lighting) / HRV / HRV Venting Buttons for Prgs On Sat 2014/08/30 07:53:51 AM Program Log 1-MISC (Non Lighting) / HVAC / Kitchen.E-Vent Status 100% Sat 2014/08/30 07:53:51 AM System Log 1-MISC (Non Lighting) / Bedrooms / JeanKPL.G-Vent Status 100% Sat 2014/08/30 07:53:51 AM System Log 3. The program posted above runs despite ISY seeing all the KPLs in the condition as ON (meaning it shouldn't run): Scene:1-MISC (Non Lighting) / HRV / HRV Venting Buttons for Prgs Off 0 Sat 2014/08/30 07:53:58 AM Program Log 1-MISC (Non Lighting) / HVAC / Kitchen.E-Vent Status 0% Sat 2014/08/30 07:53:58 AM System Log 1-MISC (Non Lighting) / Bedrooms / JeanKPL.G-Vent Status 0% Sat 2014/08/30 07:53:58 AM System Log Here's what happens when the offending KPL condition is removed from the program: 1. The push of one of the "HRV High" buttons: 1-MISC (Non Lighting) / HRV / Back KPL.G - HRV High (XLink) Status 100% Sat 2014/08/30 08:10:48 AM System Log 1-MISC (Non Lighting) / HRV / Back KPL.H - HRV High (XLink) Status 100% Sat 2014/08/30 08:10:48 AM System Log 2. ISY calls scene to turn offending KPL on, which I visually see turn ON in the GUI: Scene:1-MISC (Non Lighting) / HRV / HRV Venting Buttons for Prgs On Sat 2014/08/30 08:10:54 AM Program Log 1-MISC (Non Lighting) / HVAC / Kitchen.E-Vent Status 100% Sat 2014/08/30 08:10:54 AM System Log 1-MISC (Non Lighting) / Bedrooms / JeanKPL.G-Vent Status 100% Sat 2014/08/30 08:10:54 AM System Log 3. Nothing. Button is ON and remains that way.

But ISY is the one sending out scene on and scene off commands that affect the offending kpl button AND causes the program to evaluate. If commands from ISY are not making it to the PLM I would be having issues elsewhere, and much bigger ones, in fact. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

hi apostolakisl, what happens is that my pressing the HRV High button "ON" (which works fine, no comms problems) when either of the "vent"-labeled KPL buttons is "not OFF", it causes another program to run (as expected) that calls an "HRV Venting buttons" scene to turn the two KPLs that have "vent" in their name ON. Works fine every time, triggered by an "if control HRV button ON". ISY at this point thinks (or should think) that "JeanKPL G-Vent" is ON or, perhaps, 100%. Doesn't matter whether the button itself is lit up since a scene command is not acknowledged back to ISY, meaning a comms failure would not be known (or matter) in this case. Again, in case I'm missing something.

Unless I'm missing something the problem is related to what ISY thinks the status is, not what the KPL button actually shows. The offending KPL button is not harmed (pressed) in this process, meaning whether or not the command got to the KPL doesn't matter?

not off doesn't work either but even if it did I'd like to understand why 100% <> ON. here's the code (using not OFF) in text format: If Status '1-MISC (Non Lighting) / HVAC / Kitchen.E-Vent' is not Off Or Status '1-MISC (Non Lighting) / Bedrooms / JeanKPL.G-Vent' is not Off And ( Status '1-MISC (Non Lighting) / HRV / Back KPL.G - HRV High (XLink)' is Off Or Status '1-MISC (Non Lighting) / HRV / Back KPL.H - HRV High (XLink)' is Off ) Then Wait 3 seconds Set Scene '1-MISC (Non Lighting) / HRV / HRV Venting Buttons for Prgs' Off Else - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action') and attached is the scene that's called OFF by the above and ON by another program that works and is what causes this one to trigger.

For a while now (can't remember when it started) status ON has been reflected as 100% in some case and it's been more of an annoyance than a problem. Tonight, however, I'm seeing a situation where status = 100% is causing a program triggering problem. In the attached image you'll see program conditions touching 3 different KPL's, one of which reports and can only be set to a percentage or OFF (or responding) rather than ON or OFF (or responding). Unfortunately 100% is not read as ON and the program is inappropriately triggering. It is now Running Then when ALL of the KPL buttons in the program condition are ON and it shouldn't. This causes a new program I wrote tonight that looks for an opposite set of conditions to run to send a scene ON command to turn the first two KPL buttons ON again (including the one being reported in %), causing the attached program to run again (when it shouldn't), causing the other one to run... and on and on. Removing the offending KPL (where status is listed in %) stops the madness. (Fortunately I have a 3 second delay in the action so I wasn't encountering a crippling race condition.) What am I doing wrong? Am running 4.2.10.

Light level is way off for me but certainly not reversed. Getting low levels on a bright sunny day but am getting 0 at night... I don't think I've seen anything close to 100 yet even though I should have. It's been chronically on the low side. I think Michel has passed on my report to ham weather but the problem has not gone away yet - been about a month and a half, I'd say. My source is the Ottawa int'l airport (Ontario, Canada) and you would think that weather data (accuracy) is important to an airport... Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

hi Michel, I looked up the irrigation module on the wiki as I knew little about it and think what I would rather is the ability for ISY to get data directly from a PWS rain gauge. Ideally it would have the feel of a subscription service - or maybe something could be done with an Autelis device that listens to the PWS data stream and populates ISY variables - although I realize that's perhaps a bit of a stretch and not under UDI control. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

hmm, not sure. If you mean being able to know how much snow has fallen, yes that would be part of it. While I was more asking to have a way to automatically turn on my roof cable and heated mat, it would also be interesting if there was a way to automatically turn them off when the snow stopped.

danu1964, if I send you a broken one I have, can you fix it, test it, and send it back? I'll let you know whether or not it keeps running "in prod"... I'll pay for parts and shipping.

I've attached an export of my "Car Heater" folder of about a dozen programs I've tweaked over the years in case it gives you some new ideas. Sorry, I don't have time to cut and paste them all out individually for easier readability but here's a summary of what the programs provide: When I press a keypadlinc button near my garage between 5 PM and 5AM, it "arms" the block heater to go on the next morning at 6AM then turns the keypad button OFF If I press the button a second time between 5PM and 5 AM, it turns the block heater on right away. (Could have used fast on - and am now thinking I may add that as an additional option - but I like this approach better for this application because there's no visual cue if the "double click" failed for any reason, which does happen, especially to my wife ) If I press the button before 5 PM, the block heater goes on right away if the temp outside is greater than -6 Celcius and the block heater has been on for 2 hours, the block heater cycles OFF-ON (3 mins / 6 mins) - the outdoorlinc only, not the KPL button if the hydro rate is medium or high (which happens after 7AM weekdays in Ontario) and the block heater has been on for 1 hour the block heater cycles OFF-ON as above (same program) the block heater turns off after 4 hours As an aside I had a automobile customization shop perform the following mod to my van plus run a suitable wire/outlet into the van cabin to plug an inside-the-car (120V) heater. http://www.thedieselstop.com/contents/getitems.php3?Marinco%20Block%20Heater%20Plug%20Mod. Car Heater.v4.2.8__Sat 2014.08.16 09.52.41 AM.isy