larryllix

Another Automation Anonymous candidate!

We have gone insane from too much home automation. SkyNet has already started.

He could just run the pump off of the latching relay contact or... ... get an ISY994 box and do it all in ISY programs.

The other thing that comes to mind is to put in a latching relay with each float activating Latch and Reset. Then run one I/OLink off the contact. You can get many voltage rating on P&B? KUPxxxxx relays for decent prices. I was a protection and control tech for 35 years and wired control panels for 5 years before that. I still remember some relay solutions from back then.

That is what I was thinking of, so it looks like you are on the right trail. If the floats had a mechanical hysteresis that overlapped the other float...could work but OTOH the float never never reset to be triggered again. Actually if you could introduce mechanical hysteresis you could do it with only one float. I have seen this done with a long shaft, several locking rings and a floating, sliding ring in between the two limit rings. The second float could be used in a wider allowance for extreme limits/emergency/failure levels detector. I have seen sump pumps with this style of float system where you can adjust either stop on the same float "stick" for the float pontoon to push.

My test Alexa vocal program control to test variable/pseudoMS to vocal output (ISY Portal in&out) works fine. No snags here. Thanks!

The basic part should be easy. create a scene with the upper limit/float as the controller. Set the pump receptacle as a device 'on' create a scene with the lower limit/float as the controller. Set the pump receptacle as a device 'off' There you have all the non-ISY control you will get create an ISY program to monitor the upper float and set a fail-safe timer to turn off the pump create and ISY program to monitor the lower float and the upper float and set a fail-safe timer to query both IO/Lincs. create more ISY programs to overview/monitor things, as required and thought of, to attempt to make the system safer than just the two floats. Monitor IOLinc failure, Insteon comms missed, etc etc... Your cabinet is not metal so you should have no problems with RF standing waves inside the "resonator can" fro dual-band Insteon devices, should any be added or needed later. (new dual-band i/oLinc comes out in 2029)

I would unplug the pumps and leave the i/OLincs powered up for the winter. You wouldn't want a frozen pump to be powered up by some HA error. The minor electronics heat will keep the Rh down inside the case by raising the temperature inside the units, lowering the Rh.

With scenes you cannot have any conditional logic. They are not as dependent on ISY, for sure, but when the power is off the pumps don't work anyway. Scenes can be modified, on the fly to create conditional logic, but that still is dependent on ISY then and scenes can make your logic obscure and hard to troubleshoot, or understand, a few years later when you need to update something. That many operations per day, something will give up the ghost as contacts do not like breaking motor load circuits that much. Your ISY programming is obviously smoothing things out there. If exact levels are important your ISY program timers could be tweaked somewhat, I would think. 1-2 cycles per day could be a good compromise.

@bmercierLooks like I may have found some answers. Whatever kicked my Alexa Routines off, removes the device triggers and also disables each routine. After re-attaching each device again, I didn't notice the "disable/enable switch" was disabled. Well, I did notice it but while in the disable position, it appears to be labelled a disable switch that was Off, so I was reading it backwards. grrrrr.... It was also possible my finger was slipping on each save when clicking the back arrow and disabling each Routine, also Then, I could not duplicate the multiple speaker selection using Announcements. It turns out the Alexa app routine does not support multiple speakers directly, but the IFTT interface included does, via it's messaging option. I created a dummy Routine with an instructive name at the top of the list, because I have been caught on this before, but didn't remember it from a few years ago. I tried to contact Amazon support a few times, but the online chat contact would never answer, and I could never get an answer from the support phone number, either. Despite submitting my email address, I never received a response from that either. I will be watching for the satisfaction survey, I am sure will come later.

Sounds like @Jimbo had to make a choice of F or C to be transported, and then convert it in the NS which powers up more slowly. May need to include a "heartbeat valid" flag into every program making usage.

That seems odd. The KumoApp injections never switch out of C to F.

I have discovered my ISY Portal switched at least one table entry with another spoken. I created a new spoken entry from a state variable and it disapeared. I found it with the variable number using another entries spoken table. I deleted anything I thought was related and rebuilt those three entries. In the Alexa app I found the same thing with the spoken (MS names) switched with Routines. I have deleted accounts and rebuilt all Routines from scratch. My Alexa Routines still do not function. This also happened a few years ago. IIRC Amazon tech did something after being told and it suddenly disappeared again. I can initiate state variable value changes and see the devices in Alexa app show "motion" and then "no motion", so the ISY Portal is working fine with the pseudo-MSes from state variables. The routines can be manually triggered inside the Alexa app and they speak properly. The routines just do not trigger. I just noticed the Routines all contain blank names now. I don't remember that field existing before. Looks like Amazon modified their software and made a mess.

Thanks! This happens every 6-12 months on my Alexa. Any clues to why my ISY Portal and Alexa accounts would seemingly keep disconnecting and clearing out my Routine setups? The device list is always maintained even after disconnecting accounts for hours. When reconnected no "Discovery" is necessary as Amazon remembers everything but the Routine usage of pseudo MSes (state variables) is always lost. The trigger MSes seems to persist but the routines think they devices are gone and remove the triggers involving them.

This has become a PITA for users of Alexa Routines. It seems every time the ISY Portal disconnects from the Alexa interface all routines lose their triggers when the devices become MIA. Each time this happens all Routines have to be rebuilt again in the Alexa mobile app only (Routines are not apparent online in browsers). Yesterday I rebuilt all my Routines again but this time Alexa refuses to run them. Not sure why this time. This hasn't happened for a long time now. Still working on it. If I disconnect the accounts and reconnect them, it may fix the Routine responses but I will have to start all over again with every Alexa Routine, rebuilding them again. **SIGH**

You are using the MS II units. Not going to work well. If you select "On commands only", the MS II will only send one On command while the internal timer has been retriggered within the last timeOut set time. (0.5 minutes). Once the internal timer times out with no motion sensed for the 0.5 minutes then the MS II must see no motion for another 0.5 minutes before it will reset again. These MS II units are not good for Insteon scenes in ISY. As the sole control source for a lamp, turning it on and off as a dumb Insteon Hub would use it, it may work well, but for ISY intervention the only way anybody has found to make it work with a lamp properly is by not using Insteon scenes between the MS II and a lamp. The response time will be slower then. Both the MS II and the original MS have an internal, retriggerable timer. The difference is that the original MS sends an On command every time it is retriggered. The MS II doesn't. Also in the MS II the off cycle is dependent on the same Internal timer timing out by not being retriggered with motion. That right...the MS II will never send an On command until the MS II doesn't sense any motion for the timeOut time. It's a design error by Insteon. One is used for a scene with light in my laundry room but is set for a long timeout and is a PITA. It's on USB power and that doesn't change the operation. I have three and only use them for detection of occupancy for security, and determination of home or away

My "Alexa. Turn on security lights!", turns all outdoor lights on, turns off all indoor lighting it can find, including WiFi bulbs, RGBWW strips and Insteon lighting. "Alexa. Turn off security lights!" restores all lighting back to it's original scenes and levels.

Yeah and 3:00 AM queries also show up un-reversed and cause grief. Need to write you own code or modify the standard published code to adapt insetad of using the reverse feature.

It is very hard to tell in advance what kind of Insteon noise disturbances will be on your power lines. Usually Insteon signals can be used up to 500 feet between devices with clean powerlines. The best way to test this would be to get two SwitchLinc dimmers, one in each between building, and attempt to create a scene between them. If this doesn't work, you will have two expensive light dimmers. If it does work then proceed with more Insteon devices. ***To make this test work both Insteon devices would need to be on the same phase (leg) of your power panel. Insteon devices have a built if four tap test to prove or disprove this association.

High tech stuff. When it works, it is great! When it doesn't, it sucks.

Typically you would create a program with a time trigger for each change of level desired. Out them all into a folder with an appropriate name and never have to look at them again.

Learn to read your Events Log where it tells you max hops and hops left. Unplug a dwvice and test again. One less hop left indicates a bypass happened. This won't indicate a parallel path if the counts do not change. Sent using Tapatalk

Yup! I was born before X10. I was born around the same time 60 Hz was.

Zwave devices are always in a state of flux. As long as the zwave devices tables are part of ISY firmware ISY v5. will always be considered beta. In 6.5 years, I have never heard of an ISY994 crashing it's firmware and I have run every version since late V3.x that my ISY came with.

No links can be adjusted in the MS, only settings in the responder(s). These MSes cannot be adjusted when not in the linking mode. UDI used a scene name that doesn't exist to differentiate between scene style controls. It was always a little weird but it works and makes scene adjustments available. I am not sure this will work properly using an MS II. If you link the MS II directly to a lamp the MS II will turn the lamp off as well, or if ON Only is selected, the MS II will never send another On trigger to restart the Wait statement until the MS II stops seeing motion for it's delay time, plus stops seeing motion for the length of it's Off time as well. Yeah, the MS II sucks. There may be a way to use this technique to just block the MS II and use both On and Off events sends.