larryllix

Sensing when a garage door is open would be a pretty loose situation for detection. The physical location of the door can vary a fair bit and even wind could possibly fool the sensor into thinking the door closed temporarily. The closed position is very solid for positioning as it is pressed against gaskets seals from top to bottom and vertically at the bottom for absolute position. Interesting possibility to note: If the safety release that engages the door to the drive chain is released and your HA attempts to close the door, manually or automatically, are you going to come home to a garage door closer that has been running all day because the limit switch contacts never got satisfied? hmmmmm.... Me thinks the drive train is sensed by the door limits and not the actual door, making this point moot. Been a long time since I have done this. I guess this is why the thieves just poke your release and open your garage door to get in. reminder to all to block the access via the top of the garage door to the release mechanism for security.

My Win 10 came with IE 11. I just type ISY on the URL box and then click on Install Admin Console, looking for the icon on the desktop to drag it into my HA folder. All this requires working browsers. I am a little ashamed of MS for releasing a new browser with half of it missing. Very compact though but very confusing for me and slow to run JavaScript.

Here is another but without the nice armoured cable to your box to protect your sensitive wiring. https://www.aartech.ca/product/00/AMS-37B-GY/Amseco-Industrial-Surface-Contact-2-Inch-Gap-Form-C-Gray From T.O you could walk over and pick it up. Everytime I order from aartech.ca it comes the next day, if ordered early, or the second day, if not. Shipping is usually $9.95 for medium size orders.

Same switch item. Yup to Canada that will put about $74.83 on your Credit card going to T.O. And you haven't checked out yet to discover their surprise free shipping concept and prepaid taxes with agent fees adding another $45 to the bill. This is one of the reasons Canadians are stopping buying from the USA and going to China, unfortunately. eBay is doing it too. Stick with aartech.ca. You can't beat their prices in Canuckistan.

Reversing the logic is very easy but the problem, as I recall, is when you do a Query ISY the I/O Linc reports the incorrect status, for a fleeting moment, and then your programs get triggered where you don't want them to be triggered. Middle of the night reports your garage door is open and when you look "There it is...gone!" (Eastern Canuckistani accent)

There has been mention a few times regarding the particular model of sensor people are happy with and resolves these issues. A few searches should sleuth these links out. Normally open and normally closed are terms applied to electrical contacts to indicate their fully de-energised or deactivated positions. The problem comes when devices have two states that are "at rest" or "deactivated", thus blurring the "normal" definition for those devices. Examples would be latching relays that stay in either state without power, large breakers and possibly small breakers etc.. Industry has another way to resolve devices with two quiescent states by labelling contacts as "a" and "b" being the same state as the device or backwards to the device. With a garage door people could argue that the normal state is closed and therefore while the magnet is in proximity to the sensor. Then the closed contact would be called "normally closed". This would technically be incorrect as the normal definition does not apply to the device the contact is mounted on and only applies to the electrical contact device, itself. When you have the sensor in your hand, alone, (not you) the open contact would be called "NO" and "NC" for the closed contact. We liked to use terms like "usually closed" for a normally open contact that was usually activated by a magnet or being pushed. Totally confused yet?

Funny thing, Java was almost dead and gone a few years ago. They publicly stated they would never produce a 64 bit version and it was slated for the bin. Suddenly they make a big come back and begin promoting it everywhere. There must be big incentives. I wish google would win that fight, even though I have painfully avoided the Chrome load. It is going to cost me a new laptop. My 2.8 GHz Netbook runs Java so slowly it is painful. My local weather report uses it and it takes over 2 minutes to load and then most time the current weather is blank. I think it just gives up. Admin Console load is about the same speed.

Medical isolation 1:1 transformers have a grounded shield between the primary and secondary. It doesn't jump through those ones while you have a probe in your brain on the operating table.

As an old electrical grid utility worker "ground" takes on a whole new meaning. Some farms in the rural have so much step potential across their ground it has killed their cattle. Some have to do equipotential grounding around their tubs to take a shower without getting shocks off their shower head sprinkle. I worked with an older linesman that found a street light fault in the ground with his testicles. They dug where he said and there was the 120vac insulation skinned and buried down three feet deep. Yikes! "Ground" is not any absolute and just another huge high impedance/resistance conductor path for potential drop due to people grounding everything. There is no "Earth potential". When people stop connecting everything to "ground" many of these problems go away. Make your own common and have no difference across yourself, your transistors, or your equipment. In short (pun intended) we don't connect things to ground but rather we connect ground to things, (or was it both? ) raising ground's voltage potential voltage to the same point. This is equipotential grounding and it works for lightning too, When lightning hits, be somewhere else. The Knights of Old had it right. EMPs can be stopped with faraday cage style shield made of ferrous materials. Something to conduct magnetic fields around you, rather than voltage differences, in this case, around us. If there is no difference of field there is no problem. You can never take a bath though, Ironman.

Good to know! It was a shot in the dark as I have never tried it but then I have a lighted PB and it wouldn't work for that. My PB is mounted on the side of the doorframe so people don't even see it without a light glaring at them. The latest PB I got has an LED in it and I thought I could play the diode aspect of it whereas the contacts show shorted for both polarities but the LED only shows a circuit for one way.

A browser is needed to download the Java app first. Chrome will fight you on that one and you won't likely get the java app.

I tried Edge for a few days and then turn it off and went back to IE 11 that Windows 10 comes with. I have had no admin console problems. In fact the Admin Console takes longer to and does not time out as frequently as Win 7 java did. Go into your Control Panel and change your default programs to all IE and uncheck all defaults for Edge. It sucks and seems only half developed. Slow as molasses in January when you open PDF files. favourites are two menus deep??? Yuk.

If you don't want dimming or colour changing consider getting a plug-in motion sensor receptacle plug-in and have them come on as you approach the counter. I purchased one for about $10 at Lowes in the US a few years back. They are not available in Canada and now I can't find them on the US online catalogue either.

I wouldn't. I deleted mine and ran without it for several months and never noticed any incorrect statuses. ISY/Insteon is fairly accurate with it's retries etc. If you repeat it during the busy hours you may delay or miss some HA operations.

This just sequentially queries all devices to insure that ISY's statuses are current and in sync. It is usually done in the middle of the night to avoid tying up the CPU while other activities are going on.

Yes, I believe you are mostly correct if not completely. The fine details get hazy when I haven't done it for a while. Input from others can sometimes point out flies in the ointment. If ISY goes off, usually the power is down and you don't have to worry about HA, whatsoever.

I had asked and he previous stated that he had no light. BTW: The lighted pushbuttons have lights in parallel with the pushbutton so they light up when the pushbutton is not pressed. This presents an even more difficult problem as the sensing has to fall inside the resistance window AND provide enough current to light the pushbutton lamp without sensing contact closure. If he ever adds a lighted PB he will have to connect his transformer and a relay to make this work. My worry is the 5vdc from the I/OLinc is never good for contacts, outside, with that low of a voltage and may be flakey. Darn! Now I want to go back and revisit what I did on mine to possibly improve it. People complain all the time it doesn't work and yet it never fails for me under test. I suspect the contacts are too deep for wimpy people or there is a slight time delay and they just fast poke it thinking it should work like a touch screen. hmmmmm.... should these be called "pressbuttons"?

No. ISY should be able to be disconnected after the level is set. This setting the scene presets in the devices ahead of time.

The On level has to be set to 100% for the same scene you are using. Insteon modules can hold about 250 different scenes all with independent On levels. How are you turning the LampLinc on?

OK this is what I would try. It may not work for you. Disconnect the pushbutton from all else. Wire it to the I/OLink from Gnd to Sense. No other wires in these terminals. You may want to test this to ISY or to the LEDs on the side first before proceeding. The low voltage from the I/OLinc may make a flakey PB operation. Wire transformer to I/OLinc COM. Other end of transformer to Chime. Other side of Chime to I/OLinc NO. Set options on I/OLinc to Latching Continuous. Relay Follows Input = NO Use Amin Console to test the output manually testing if the doorbell rings from device controls on ISY, Be careful not to leave the Chime on too long and heat up doorbell. Test pushbutton to see if status changes on ISY device input page. Write a program like this If control I/OLinc.input is 'On' AND variable BabySleeping is Not 1 <----add this if basic program and connections work. Then Set I/OLinc.output 'On' Wait 1 second Set I/OLinc.output 'Off; Now your ISY knows about the doorbell button pushed and can decide whether to echo the command to the chime. If I am in ISY vacation mode I send myself and wife notifications that somebody rang our doorbell. Being rural this isn't too often. Note the options allow the I/OLinc to be combined or split into two distinct parts, input and output but I cannot see any way to control this from ISY. Talk to Michel about adding this option to the language later as an improvement. Maybe I am just missing the method. This would speed up your chime response time.

Can the ISY inject the doorbell status into the Elk instead? I believe the I/OLinc can be programmed to control and link the output contacts directly from the input or separate them. If this can be done on-the-fly from ISY programs the I/OLink would be all you need except for the 5 volt sensing input and the 24vac doorbell transformer. If you don't have a pushbutton light you could possibly eliminate the transformer and just tie the pushbutton across the input I/OLinc sensing. Barring that you would require a 24vac relay to isolate the circuit voltages. That's the way I did it. I left the circuit the way it existed and tied the relay across the doorbell and the I/OLink sensing the relay contacts. My I/OLink output rings the back doorbell sound and we use it to indicate the dryer is finished since we have no backdoor button.

At 20k only one resistor should be plenty. Power = E2 / R = 242 / 20k = 0.03 Watts. Not even going to warm but wil not be enough current to trigger the Elk series detection. Current = E /R = 24 / 20k = 1.2mAmps. Not gonna' trigger the Elk sensing. Brian stated this current from the spec as 900mA minimum and this would take R = E / I = 24vac / 900mA = 26.67 ohms or less at 24vac transformer. At 16vac, less resistance. I find it hard to believe any electronic doorbell would draw this kind of power. A mechanical doorbell might draw that heavy but I have never measured mine and they do put out a few watts of sound power. Strange input sensing.

Some analysis really needs to be done to determine where the disturbance came into the house and where it went out. Surge protectors cannot typically protect against surges. All sounds like terminology but most are just spike clippers and mislabelled. It is not likely you could protect your self from surge on the grid without tens of thousands of dollars worth of isolation transformers and UPS equipment. However you can stop some of the high voltage glitches that typically don't come in on the grid supply. They come in as differences of potential across different sources eg. Phone cable to grid, cable TV to phone cable, TV antenna to ground. Your PLM is hooked between one circuit on your electrical distribution panel to your ISY to possibly another distribution panel circuit and to your LAN to your router on another. This suggests it may have come in on your ISP signal source and out the electrical grid or vice versa. Good grounding techniques in the house can alleviate these problems somewhat if it isn't a major disturbance. If you are not electrically based with experience you probably should get somebody that works in the field to looks at what happened and suggest remedies. You may have a badly bonded neutral, poor house ground , a TV antenna that is not protected and brings in the lightning shocks, etc. and may be easy to solve. The trouble with all this is it is still "best shot". An educated expert takes their best shot and you will never know if it worked until it never happens again. You can wait forever unfortunately. If breakers are tripping during storms then you have a larger problem that needs to be solved first with possibly your grid input to your house. call your utility and tell them what happened and try to get them out to check your street transformer grounding. You may need an electrician to check/prove your grounding for your service. You must also have some bad wiring before or after the breaker trips where the lightning spikes were/are leaking/breaking through your wiring insulation now. These circuit need to be scrutinised visually and/or with equipment to test for leakage. (Meggar is the brand name term classically used) You may have hidden damage to wiring. All the best. It can be a tough one.

That is the changes I suggested except I would draw source to load left to right Your resistors don't show any resistance value. Depending on value they may be a problem burning out your transformer, I/O Linc or themselves (not likely). 5w20kj is not a resistance value but rather power ratings.

I think of the Wait and Repeat this way....an analogy. Once the "Then" or "Else" program section is given the microphone it gets to talk, exclusively, without interruption (finish it's program section) from the audience (programs). A Wait or Repeat instruction is like voluntarily giving the microphone (CPU) back to the emCee (ISY) until the Wait time period is over. The emcee (ISY) checks the rest of the audience (programs) to see if somebody else wants to take the microphone (other program triggers). The emCee (ISY) respects the Wait time specified and attempts to give the microphone back to the original speaker (program) when the specified Wait time is over. All speakers are fast talkers (code is quick) and do not run-off at the mouth, interfering with other's rights to talk (run their programs) much. Speakers are picked (ISY real-time engine) in no particular order and not by age, name, or gender. Sometimes speakers send the Paige (PLM) out on an errand (Insteon comms) and other speakers (programs) have to, not only wait their turn (time slice), but also for the Paige (PLM) to get back before they can use his service (Insteon comms).