larryllix

"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. " How is this device interfaced with ISY?

I use motion detectors everywhere to detect presence/away. 6 - X10 old units and 3 Insteon units. In the bedrooms they are mounted over the head of the beds (on top of the usual picture) so people sleeping cannot trigger them but upon rising the BR lights go on time-dependant brightnesses. If there is no motion anywhere for four hours we are away. If there is motion in the mudroom and no motion elsewhere for 20 minutes we are away. (our usual exit) Between 11 PM and 8 AM doesn't count = only update to occupied status (just sleeping) If there is motion in the workshop building between 11 PM and 8 AM then flash some lights, text message me and ring the doorbell.

Should be 120 kHz and 131.65 kHz. 120 MHz probably wouldn't travel down a powerline very far.

I have my ISY within a few feet of my main panel, right beside my noisy co-gen inverter, and a plug-in dual-band module within a few feet of the panel in my shop building. The building is coated in metal foil insulation and a steel roof so I know RF doesn't get there well. That works very well for me. I assume the powerline gets the signal there for that zone. I have never bothered with Access Points and never have a problem communicating between the two. My X10 modules have big problems at the far ends of the house, especially when the inverter is running. I have to avoid some receptacles for X10 usage but the Insteon units always work everywhere. I have had a few misses in the last year with Insteon but they always heal with a query.

For critical operations you may want to avoid scenes. Apparently scenes do not get the feedback and comm retires that individual commands do in the Insteon world. That may cause some disastrous unwanted results should a command not "catch" at the remote end and you don't know it. For lighting? Who cares if one light doesn't respond but for critical equipment...? Back to the X10 level. Edit: font adjustment...weird

I was going to install a driveway snow melt system in my new house. After researching this field I discovered I couldn't afford it. I had a smaller system inplace in my porch slab but the concrete guy put the pipes (yes in my absence) too close to the edge and I punctured one with railing installation. Snow melt systems typically need the snow melt sensor to work properly. The snow not only needs to be melted but completely dried up or you have a sheet of ice when the heat shuts off, making things worse. Perhaps in a milder climate zone where only small amounts of snow come to be annoying? I don't know how you could replace a snow-melt sensor with a logically designed timer and not just "over-time" the heat causing more energy consumption or having to visully inspect the result every hour. Good luck with it though.

It not just getting caught in the dark basement. Most people can feel their way to a light switch up steps or just yelling for somebody else.. The main problem is going down the stairs and it suddenly goes black. People's feet tend to freeze while your body motion continues forward, reaching for the handrail, and you can't see, blinding half your sense of balance, at the same time. I believe this warning is on every wired-in motion detector information enclosed with the device.

Where's the induction coil in the garage floor? We all hate dragging extension cords to work behind our cars.

There are many places that advise against putting automatic lighting in stairwells without other lighting. If the lights go out in the middle of a descent it could be disastrous for some.

Provider account combination. I had that same thing on my old provider and an older phone style. It may be your account setup with the provider.

I have two 2441ZTH thermostats connected, each with a completely different firmware version. ISY994i has no listing for either of these devices in it's pulldown device listings. I assume it was never supported properly and working with 2441TH's device setup somehow. The older firmware t'stat unit can be set by ISY whereas the newer unit cannot. The mode settings function the same. My ISY with r4.2.5 can set the newer f/w unit's clock, now. Previous ISY f/w versions could not. ISY's Inc/Dec temp commend does not function with either 2441ZTH's despite being able to fully read and set the temp set-points on the older f/w 2441ZTH unit. There is no spot in ISY's device setup to read the remote probe temperature in either f/w version, even if the 2441ZT units did send an external probe's temperature.

Did it work in a previous version?

I was thinking more that the turn off time was just a complication to be avoided, although I do have my own 3 am shut-everything_off program myself. Some temp zones could be used to save energy somewhat too. If time is 4 am and temp is below -20 Then run program 2 (if) Else - Program 2 (disabled) -------------- If temp is below -30 Then set heater on wait 4 hours turn heater off Else wait 2 hours set heater on wait 2 hours turn heater off

Did you need a guaranteed 3 hours to defrost the thing? If your temp drops below -20C at 7:55 am you will only get 5 minutes of defrost cycle. Similarly if you had a deep cold cycle that warmed up at 4:05 am you would only get 5 minutes worth. That maybe OK depending how fast the engine block warms up to weather changes. Perhaps a single time based decision that initiates a 3 hour cycle without any cycle cancelling logic?

That all makes sense. I had to laugh that there is actually a "Bad caps forum". I dealt with some watt transducers that, at after 15 years of service, the PS caps went. Strange then seven other same vintage units blew within a month of the first one. Thanks!

Too bad you didn't consider the replacement as a spare. I take it you consider it a "fix" then? Do you feel all caps replaced were necessary or was it more like, "While I am here..."? I get the impression the two smaller caps had no indications that you could logic out? Thanks! Thanks!

@Brian Slightly off topic but I never saw any results of your fix for your PLM. IIRC you replaced the PS cap in your PLM???

Thanks! With only the occasional comm failure I haven't needed to spend the time to understand all the cryptic hexadecanimals yet. Mosty I only see Don and val d'offing and hopping with each other and having INST-SRX , so far.

I wired one connected between my PLM receptacle and with lees than three feet of wire from the distribution box. It seems to work well to pass the X10 signals from phase to phase but with the Insteon signals....? I have enough dual-band signal repeating units to never know if it does anything. Since the signals are close enough in frequency the thought is it will work well with Insteon, also. With about 20 units and an PV co-generating inverter on one phase making electrical noise when the sun shines I get the odd device comm failure less than one per month. Some of my X10 units will not work at the 100' feet of cable end of the house but the Insteon always works everywhere.

Whatcha' drinkin' on a Saturday night? You did!

@LeeG Sorry for the bit of a sidetrack but... What is the difference between Dim/Brighten vs Fade Down/Fade Up. I have only used them a few times and just tweak usage until they function as desired, so far.

Sounds like more Java problems. This happens to me if I let the Admin Console fall into background processing or go to sleep mode. Perhaps doing a Java cache clear may help this somewhat. It seems until Java gets scrapped this isn't going to go away. I just downgraded back to Java 7 u67 from Java 8 to see if that helps some of the forgetfulness of ISY. Too early to tell yet.

Is this lack of operation consistent? Does it vary with time of day? Is it always the same units that do not work? Have you checked your link tables in the ISY against the links installed in the devices? Perhaps ISY has forgotten links to the devices.

Now you got me thinking! A 9v (NiMH?) battery with a trickle charger running the CAI board could make a good UPS backed system. or even a dioded-in 9v alkaline battery for grid failure carry over? OTOH: When the grid is out not much else is functioning.

The energy still has to come from somewhere and the device linked to doesn't store or produce power. Again if you are considering running the CAI off a 9v battery it should last about an hour. We haven't touched the Peukert factor. The main SWE3 sensor chip is the DS2438z chip rated at 50-100uA but even a 10K pullup is going to draw 0.9mA not to mention the HIH-40xx humidity sensor. With a 2mA draw you could expect about 250 hours= 10 days out of a 9v battery rated at 500mAh .http://datasheets.maximintegrated.com/en/ds/DS2438.pdf