paulbates

GT I disabled notifications some time ago. Folks have been catching interesting opportunities from SH on amazon... recently got a plm delivered for $35, and just recently 2 motion sensors for about the same price. To your point, they have been becoming x10.com a little more in the marketing/spam dept, each year that goes buy. Paul

I'm going to have maintenance done to my sprinkler system and will likely be out of town when it happens. My project is to create a simple web page to turn my 14 sprinkler zones on and off, and serve access to it through the portal. I've shut all port redirection off on my router and don't want a solution that requires back tracking on that. I've kinda painted myself in the corner with options and the simplest, safest way to proceed Access / security: I think I should create a separate guest portal account with a separate key for accessing devices. This creates a separate key, so I don't give away the key that allows access to things I've created on my main account. I'll change the password for the guest account after the work is done....(?) Web page: Create a simple single page with a set of on/off links for each zone. Option 1: place that page on the ISY and provide a link through the portal (albeit ugly long link) to the contractor, via the guest account, to use from their phone. I've used this method for my sprinkler work in the past. Option 2: host the simple webpage on the internet somewhere at an address that's a little easier to remember. I could make an easier link for the contractor to access. Though that link wouldn't give away the guest key, the zone on/off links would and the page would remain "out there" on the internet. Any alternatives, other suggestions? I don't want to get in to figuring out apps for contractors phones, and would love to avoid giving them a tablet, etc to use. Web keeps the delivery model simpler, I believe. Paul

if you have on/off buttons controlling a light via a scene, you should be able to "press and hold" the on button for the light to brighten, and "press and hold" off to dim. It will be in finer increments than 25/50/75/100 edit.. If its a CFL load it will be hard to impossible to know if what I suggested works Paul

Great, glad its working. Thanks for reporting back Paul

I think your goal is to control these lights remotely, together, via a phone app? If yes, than that what needs to be addressed. It still involves a scene. But instead of of controlling the switches with the app, control the scene. Set up the scene, and control the scene remotely with your phone. I have the Agave android app, and I can add the Scene to Agave and control separate switches in unison, together. All related lights an switches turn on, turn off and dim in unison but controlling a single scene control in agave. Paul

Ok, I see what happened. When the lights get turned on it makes the program false and it terminates. The way to solve it is to have 2 programs: Once the second program is started, it will run all the way through Program 1 If Status 'Garage Lights' is Off And ( Control 'Garage Door - Left-Sensor' is On Or control 'Garage Door - Right-Sensor' is On ) Then Run program 'program2' (Then) Else - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action') Program 2 If No Conditions Then Set 'Garage Lights' On Wait 2 minutes Set 'Garage Lights' Off Else - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action')

Are you sure it didn't pop up at the root level of Main, e.g not in the folder? Paul

There's a fix on the way to "un-set" pump mode. For now, delete the ezflora, factory reset it and then add it back in. To factory reset an ezflora, unplug it for at least 5 seconds. Press the SET button while plugging back in. Continue holding SET button for 5 seconds and then release. Paul

Hi, sure Status is the actual state the device is in. Control responds to the device actually being turned on or off: If the garage lights are on, their status is on If the garage doors are activated, the control statement responds to that act. That's what I think you intend for your program, after either iolinc senses/activates, turn the lights on for 2 minutes and then back off. There's an opportunity to enhance this with a scene, let's see if the suggested changes work first though Paul

I'd switch from 'if status' to 'if control' for the iolincs only. Them being a status of "on" and the light being set off is starting the program over again. Also, put parens around the two 'if controls" If Status 'Garage Lights' is Off And ( Control 'Garage Door - Left-Sensor' is On Or control 'Garage Door - Right-Sensor' is On ) Then Set 'Garage Lights' On Wait 2 minutes Set 'Garage Lights' Off Else - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action') Paul

Then it would be the program statements mwester listed, but instead of taking device action, set a State variable: $GarageDoorActivated = 1 when its in process of moving, and = 0 when its not. Have programs activated based on that variable change. I have a "layer" of variables like this that can be mixed and matched for various automated activities; sprinlers Paul

USe the ISY to create a new scene by using the 'New Scene' menu option at the bottom of the 'Link Management Menu' (next to 'File') Use the mouse to 'drag and drop' each switch into the new scene you created. When asked, make each switch a controller. This is the preferred way to do it, and not have to rewire. Paul

Agreed Teken, ADR is a 'problem focused' approach that heavily penalizes non-business customer for unpredictable demand peaks. I've learned to live with it under "interruptible" service we've had on our A/C for 25 years. The reality is that the demand peaks rarely happen that shut off our A/C... for very cheap power always on that meter. If you've seen UDI's proposal for RATES in a recent post, its turning the business model inside-out by not trying to manically solve it by measuring all of the details. Paul

Hey Teken, 3 reasons Lifestyle, as you suggested. We have a lot going on, an timing the chores to appliances to an arbitrary schedule did not go over well. Especially when the highest rate days are not predictable. DTE does not support AMI/ADR. I got the 9941ZS hoping to automatically control lights, appliances and HVAC based on automating the Demand Peak notifications. After over a year of persistence, I determined that DTE simply won't allow me to configure the ISY to poll the meter. How do their notifications work? They send emails and texts on demand conditions... .. That went over worse then the above item here... If I'm out of town, my wife is already at work and then get a notification.... Its simply not a manageable, practical solution as implemented here. The pain is not worth the gain: DTE has a combined gas/electric use metric, we're down 41% on that compared to prior years, mostly based on insulation, HVAC replacement/Smart Thermostats and ISY programs. While some of that was climate based, via fewer heating degree days last year vs 2014; it was only ~12% of the difference. Our energy costs are down and the projects are paying for themselves... 10% more of that bill is now not a big a number comparatively. We also averaged 15% rebates back from DTE on the investments in HVAC and Insulation projects; so they'll pay off sooner. I'm now hoping the the RATES program UDI is proposing catches on and something like that could be offered here. Probably out in the future a ways and I'm on my own automation wise. Paul

Teken The higher rate is only applied on demand peaks, and there are a fixed number of those the POCO can impose a year with these programs. They try to steer you to run appliances like dish washers, washers and dryers, off peak. You don't know for sure when the demand peak will be called, but generally the hottest business days, during the day. We have that option in SE Michigan. Here is an example of how the DTE program works. Look under Dynamic Peak Pricing. They indicate 10% savings versus the traditional program. They can call the higher rate up to 20 times a year, total of 80 hours. I have the smart meter and their app to measure use, but do not participate in the variable rate program. Paul

Hi Ron Yes, you can. My suggestion is to make a back up of your ISY first, and name it "pre trigger schedule deletion", something that will help you know where to go recover them in the future Paul

Mark I'll support that for sure. I keep saying I'm done implementing keypads, but... As a suggestion, the requirement could be to add menu options when the keys are grouped under Main...Add menu options on the right-click for alpha order, or native (A-B-C) order. Just a thought Paul Paul

Is Comcast your ISP? I live in the metro Detroit area. Comcast recently swung our IP address to something completely different: It was 63.x.x.x its now 24.x.x.x They must have done it mid morning as my work vpn went nuts for no reason. When I reversed IP'd it , I showed up as Boston, but now its correct. My ISY was ok because I used google maps and manually entered the longitude of my property, US and Canada, daylight savings -5 Paul

I understand your dilemma. 3 of mine are in direct view of the computer and I turned their scenes on and off to see which one. The others I wirenuted a cable with a plug, set them up at the computer for full functionality, then go install in their final home. One other idea to do at the beginning is to add prefixes to the key names at configure time: A-Lights, B-Garage door, etc. The AC alphabetizes the devices as they're renamed and that's when they move out of order Paul

Hi John Sounds like the PLM is either in a confused state, or possibly dead. Did you try unplugging the PLM, and ISY; plugging the PLM back in, waiting 10 seconds, and then start the ISY? Give that a try if you didn't. If it comes up in safe mode again, a factory reset of the PLM and a restore PLM would be the next thing to try, observing the restart sequence listed above. Paul

Unfortunately there is no "one size fits all answer". You may have some locations with single band devices where the access points are helping to over come line noise sources or signal suckers. Unfortunately there are no views in the ISY that shows device to PLM performance metrics, to measure the change made by unplugging the access points. I would try removing them, one at a time, and evaluate what happens. Here is an example of what I did: I used to have 2 access points and now I'm down to one. I unplugged them, one at a time and gave it a week or 2 for observation. For 1 of the 2 access points, I noticed no difference and got not complaints from the family. So its retired. However, for the other one in my garage, one of 2 iolincs would occasionally throw a message for the ISY 3am device query when the access point was removed. While I never had actual performance problems with the programs that the iolinc supported, I decided to leave that access point in place. Paul

The program is initiated based on a start condition.. but has not stop condition. There is about 24 hours of elapsed time in the statements in the program, and it doesn't know to stop at midnight Saturday and keeps running through Sunday. Short explanation, its working as designed. You can put from/to in the program's 'If', but the problem with that is that will affect the operation of the program on Friday night. My suggestion is a second program that runs at 11:59PM Saturday night that stops the first program in its tracks, and does any clean up to the lights you might want to do at that time Stop Bathrooms - If On Sat Time is 11:59:00PM Then Stop program 'Bathrooms' Set Scene 'Bathrooms / Bathrooms-???%' On Paul

Only my most recent keypadlinc, at FW v.43, has the option, name 'LED on TX'. As stu states, it causes the set button to blink to traffic when enabled. My older keypads, with lower FW versions, do not have the option. If your kepad has this feature, there will be an "Options" button in the bottom panel when you select it under Main in the admin console. After eliminating the LED lights as the problem, you could try a reset. Keypads can get flaky with age/use. Periodically I've had to factory reset them and then "restore device". You could try that, it doesn't take long. Paul

It somehow got set in the other mode. 5 button is another way to refer to a 6, since in a 6 button, top is on, bottom is off. You can use this procedure to change it to 8 button mode. 1) Delete the keypad from the ISY. 2) Gently pull the Set button out as far as it will go 3) Wait 10 seconds 4) While simultaneously holding the On/Off (upper left-most) A button and the H button, carefully press the Set button back in flush with the trim frame 5) Once the Set button is pushed in, continue holding the On/Off button and H buttons for 3 seconds, and then release KeypadLinc will (Beep) KeypadLinc is now in 8 Button Mode 6) Re-add the keypad to your ISY Paul

You can also try recreating the scene and "restore device" in the admin console on the offending switch. I mis-read your original post as an "off" only problem Paul