CoolToys

You mean like a "sprinkler valve"? They are cheap for a reason, I replace one every couple years when the diaphragm goes. Also they are designed to be "off" most of the time rather than on. The solenoid is off when water isn't flowing and powered when water is flowing. I would think the solenoid would over heat but the worst case is f left on too long in areas with high mineral water, they won't shut off when needed and during a power fail they will fail off I think.

It wasn't until I set "light_method" to "ELKALL" that the ELK and all the zones appeared in my admin panel. Don't know why and didn't experiment since it was working.

@JSchumann, First question is do you have an eisy or ISY? For the ISY with ELK module, click on ELK and fill in the fields I used a PC with ELK RP 2 to build a user with the name Cal, which is the nickname of my ISY (now eisy). As @Jimbo.Automatessuggested, I used the pin from the new user so I can track who comes and goes better and trouble shoot if I do something idiotic to my eisy. I do sometimes blindly build programs that crash other programs so I am trying to track things better. For the Eisy, using the The Elk Node Server instead of the module was a bit more work. Figuring out where to put the pin wasn't quite as easy as the module that integrated into the admin panel. I am on the road so I can't see the system, but I am pretty sure I needed the IP address of the ELK M1 network module in addition to the pin. That took some click and seek work to find. Once I found it, entered the ip address and pin, I selected "connect". Very quickly the Admin panel populated all of the sensors on my elk system. I like the new Elk Node with eisy a lot better. Among other upgrades, now I get instant notifications any time I am not home and a zone is violated since I have UD Mobile on my iPhone and watch. I'll check back when I get home if you don't find it, let me know I'll post better information then.

@Geddy, Sorry I did search for Elk first and found nothing. Well this is embarrassing....I had the "free" 30day trial, and it expired. Paid for the node server, Elk problems solved.

Sorry @DennisC, you are correct, I meant to say Elk node server. @larryllix, I am on the road a lot, and have not reconfigured my VPN so I will have to wait until I get home to double check I didn't make a change and that the Elk M1 thinks it is transmitting, and then submit a ticket. Probably Wednesday or Thursday before I can get to it.

Since 5.7.0 New issue. Elk Module says status is "Ready to Arm" when Elk is not ready to arm. Now the whole thing is wonky again. Ugh....

@larryllix and @apostolakisl you are both correct and that is a flaw in the logic. Changing back to sunset to sunrise (next day) after upgrading to 5.7.0 works, so all programs are back to original logic using sunset to sunrise for the test of "night".

@larryllix, Sorry not sure what you are saying. There is a program that sets the $sNight variable to "1" at sunset and another that sets $sNight to "0" at sunrise. I don't want to over simplify since I have 8 different "night modes" based on other variables, but basically when it is dark some lights should come on. $sNight is the variable I use to test for night now. Since Upgrading to 5.7.0 I changed 2 of the 9 programs back to use the time condition of "Sunset to Sunrise (Next Day)" and for one day @apostolakisl it worked. I won't call it "fixed" for another day or two. @Michel Kohanim, I didn't want to bother you with a ticket, it isn't that big a deal and the peeps here have been great helping me with ideas to get it all fixed. Isn't that why you built the forum?

@apostolakisl, Agreed that for nearly 15 years I have had almost zero logic problems with UDI. Generally it has been me trying something left in my brain from Basic, Pascal or COBOL logic that didn't work. I am sure there are times when Michel sees my name and just rolls his eyes, but he has always been there to laugh and set me back on the right track. Prior to the migration, I had a 994i/Pro/ USB PLM / Elk Module. I migrated to the eisy/Serial PLM / Elk Node server and followed the Wiki step by step, even though that bounced me all over the place. There isn't a single step by step "checklist" that is complete and in fact there are two sets of instructions that are contradictory. The Wiki version worked best but I had a long list on non working programs and spent hours troubleshooting. Looking through the forums I found lots of other people with similar problems but none with the Sunset to Sunrise issue. I was frustrated because those programs had been working for years. Maybe I presented this incorrectly. The programs had the If statement with the time of "Sunset to Sunrise (next day) in the program. None were working after the upgrade, all worked before. I created two programs to set the variable on sNight to 1 and back to 0 at sunrise, and in the other programs the IF sunset to sunrise (next day) line was updated to IF sNight = 1. Everything started working. This thread was started to see if anyone else had seen this and had an answer to solve it. Clearly there are at least two of us now who have seen this, and I will test later today if upgrading to 5.7.0 and resetting the program to use the sunset to sunrise next day option works as well. I am glad it worked for @Andy C, now we have two possible solutions. Every other "bug" or non working program since upgrading except Sunset to Sunrise and the one press of a 2342-2 Mini Remote has been fixed. I will list this not to argue with you but help others with something that appears to have worked for me when I actually had the issue. This isn't to say the @apostolakisl way won't work as well. The big picture process.... Followed the eisy update Wiki step by step to include the device restore process. What I got was about 50% of my programs remarked out because they were dependent on Elk modes, or zone status. It took a while and all of that was fixed with the Elk Node which let me do a lot more with my Elk integration. Once that was fixed I had the following issues remaining: Motion Sensor II aka MSII, none were showing motion status, thus related programs didn't work. I have four of them and each sets a variable and has at least one associated program. Sunset to Sunrise programs did not work. (Did not think to look and see if the program was "true", but event viewer showed no activity) New i3 Outlet stopped working Old version of outlet stopped working. Single press on 2432-2 Mini Remote to activate programs stopped working. Each of these issues was "fixed" as follows: Delete and relink MSII fixed MSII sensors status in admin panel - fixed. Created the sNight variable with the two quick programs of If Sunset sNight =1, if Sunrise sNight = 0 Removed Sunset to Sunrise line in programs and added If sNight = 1 (All programs work - fixed) PLM reset and restore of devices fixed the new i3 outlet. Delete and relink old outlet - fixed. Single press solution for the mini remote, gave up, bought an X-10 tabletop remote and changed the line to read If X-10 B-1 "off" then run "Bedtime". Worked perfectly, moving on. Last night I upgraded to 5.7.0. and realized a flaw with sNight v Sunset to Sunrise (next day) logic. The restart reset the variable to 0 so the house thought it was day time. Manually set to 1 and all was well. Another interesting upgrade "feature' was that every program was marked "disabled" so I had to manually reenable each one.

I gave up and created a sNight variable, and then two programs where when sunset sNight = 1 and Sunrise sNight = 0. I did the upgrade and all my programs were disabled. I re-enabled them all one at time so i am out of patience for tonight. I will try in the next day or two to use the sunrise to sunset within the programs instead of the state variables. I am starting to think the PLM may be an issue. I have had to delete several devices and reload to make them reliable.

@apostolakisl, you are correct, however for me, using sVariables does several things: 1. Easier to glance at a short list of variables to know if eisy thinks it is dark, house is occupied and power is expensive when I am troubleshooting and watching the event viewer. 2. When adding condition to a program, I only need to scroll through 7 variables, not 30+ programs 3. I understand intuitively how to make a program change a sVariable like the program "Alarm Set" makes "sGuest" and "sOccupied" instantly = "0" to save energy and set the ELK to "Armed". While I might be able to us the Action of THEN "Program" "Guest" > "Stop" for the blank/flag "Guest" program, I don't know what that does for sure and am too lazy to dig through the ISY cook book or bother to try it. Maybe someday, but not today 🏄‍♂️ You are correct that I do have some minor redundancies in my system but my way to skin the cat works for me is all I am sayin.

More testing this morning, finally broke down and rebooted my eisy. Didn't help. This morning, sitting at my desk, both mini remotes in hand and my iPhone with UD mobile and the admin panel on my screen a lot of nothing happens. The mini remotes both turn the scenes on and off. The admin panel doesn't reflect the change. The Garage Lights scene is the easiest monitor and control. Pressing mini remote "GAR" button, the light goes on and off. The Admin panel only says "ON" unless I query. Pressing "ON" on the admin panel works about 1/3 of the time and UD Mobile mirrors what the admin panel says, right or wrong. It's like the PLM didn't get it's coffee and can't "hear" any changes or the eisy stopped listening to the PLM. More troubleshooting ahead but Jeep needs a recall fixed so I have to stop.

@apostolakisl, I do understand the concept. For me personally, I like to keep it simple. When I open the "Dark" program I see what it does. It sets a variable, "sNight" so I know why I put it there. If it had no "then" or "else" function and I haven't seen it in a year I might forget why I did it. I could add comments, but for some reason I don't on my ISY, even though I have a lot of comments in my App codes to make fixes easy. All of the programs that have something to do with the state of sNight are named things like "Home Night" "Away Night" etc. It is very easy for me to find specific lines when an insteon part fails and I have to replace it or I want to change something because my wife didn't like my ideas. Over the 10 or maybe even 15 years the ISY was running my home, I needed to change things no more than once a year. For that reason alone, I don't mind a little code bloat if it makes it easier for me to figure out what I did. Call it lazy mans documentation.

Ditto, oh wait my blinds were a bit pricey.... Oh well, I'm in.

@larryllix, thanks for the input on the polling. Maybe I confused it with the Elk or something else I have here to play with. Your method of occupancy testing is also very cool. I use MSII sensors to set a state variable of $sOccupied to 1 and at 4 am or if the ELK M-1 alarm is set to away it is set to 0. This changes lighting scenes and HVAC usage when no one is there and prevents me from making the guest area dark when I go to bed if someone is in there. Your method might let me eliminate the 4 am reset. It might also make the guest area a bit more accurate in case I pop in to put out halloween decor and then leave. Something to play with. There are three major areas to the house so in addition to $sOccupied there is $Guest and $Garage as well. Some programs test one of the states, others test two or all three. There are two other states I use $sHighPower for when electricity is super expensive from 4-9. I am hoping to use the new solaredge node to monitor if I am producing or using power during that window to adjust the AC, if producing, leave AC on, if using, turn it off type thing. I am also looking into the ADR functionality for similar management. The last state is $sNight from this thread. I like the idea of one place to make changes instead of going to each program if I have to do a delete and reload like this again. So now Sunset turns $sNight to 1, Sunrise turns $sNight to 0. Yes I did add the "s" and the "i" to all of my variables too, I only code in Swift now, the last formal training was COBOL and PASCAL in the 80's so the the tips to clean up my work are helpful thanks!

@lilyoyo1, I don't have any preference on how the remote is set up. I want to press one button and have it activate a program no matter what. The method you suggested was posted elsewhere and I tried it. Since I couldn't make it work I started a new thread. For whatever reason, in four scene, 8 scene non-toggle and 8 scene toggle, the program does not activate. In Toggle if I slowly pressed twice it would work about 50% of the time. When I check the status of the remote in the admin panel it is always in the last position. When I add it to a scene it will turn off the scene every time. I am sure there is a way to do this since it used to work. I just got the ISY Cookbook to start seeing if there is a way to build a flag program or something else. Basically I want the remote to send "off" and the eisy to receive "off" and run a program every time I press the top left button. I had it working before upgrading and thought it might be as easy as my sunset problem of removing and re loading the code and device. That didn't help. I have a 6 button keypad in a plug adapter (no longer available) on one side of the bed that works fine. Press "Off" the Bedtime program runs. I just want the same thing on both sides of the bed. For fun I dug out an old X-10 controller and each time I press "X-1 OFF" it works fine too. I would rather use the mini remote but until I figure it out, X-10 sits by the bed.

@DennisC Thanks, it is amazing after having my ISY/ELK/Insteon for so many years how many other things it can do that much more I never thought of or how many ways there are to do the same thing better.

@DennisC and @larryllix, Ok, I see where my confusion is. I don't ever use a variable as the only condition to run a program. I use them to start timers. i.e. come home at 1 am to dark house. Front door opens lights come on, set $Front_Door = 1. Next program is Front Door Auto Off - [ID 002B][Parent 0001] If 'Area 1 / FRONT.DOOR' is switched Off And $Front_Door is 1 Then Wait 15 minutes $Front_Door = 0 Set 'House Front' Off Else - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action') Because the front door being closed is the status change that runs the program, this works. Looking at the example I should be using integers to increment and decrement more often to make the lights more efficient/accurate when people keep moving around maybe. Since I use MSII to trigger the internal lights around the house, I think I would have the same issues, if everyone stops moving long enough lights go out. With this particular one, if the door is re-opened the program changes to "false". I think that stops the timer but more to play with. For this thread, the Sunset/Sunrise appears to have been fixed by removing all of the references, restarting the eisy and reloading. I am down to trying to get my last program working again with a mini remote.

More testing. After trying as a 4 scene, and 8 scene non-toggle, the mini remote was factory reset to 8 scene non-toggle. The admin panel always show the status as "ON". I guess it never times out? When I switch to Toggle Mode, same problem. Whatever the last press is remains the state. So maybe there isn't a way to do a one button? Other options I tried: Using another program to change the status to "OFF" so at night the first press turns it "ON". The only option is to "Write Changes". Making it a "responder" to a scene to change its "status". Doesn't work. For the wired keypad I simply added it to a scene "House_Front" so it's Status Changes to "ON" when the lights out front turn on. Then the "OFF" Button always works as it should. Down to the mini remote. It did work before upgrading to eisy. So I did like my sunrise/sunset, deleted it and all references and started over looking at old backups to make sure I was doing it the same way. No luck.

@larryllix, My understanding is the eisy continuously cycles through the programs checking the If statements, so I will test this by replacing a state with an integer in one of my programs and see what happens.

So tonight I pressed all of the buttons hoping any one of them would trigger the program. None did. When I went to the admin panel and ran the "then" part it worked perfectly, I think the program is ok. Clearly the way I am defining the "if" is the failure. Ugh.... Maybe I will try with a UD Mobile button in a couple days when I am home again.

Ah wow, thanks for the inputs, and yes @techman, that is the main screen for the hardwired "on/off", but there is at the bottom of the screen an "Led Brightness" that I set 4/2 for every keypad in the house. In the day time you can just tell when it is on, but it is bright enough to read at night. I have set the backlight to all kinds of numbers and when I close and re-open the admin panel, the screen shows 0/0 for the backlight. The led brightness that I set does stick so I am trying to figure out exactly what this means.

So Maybe the program is the problem? It's hard to test the whole thing without taking a computer to bed. That will be tonights work I guess. All variables are state, toggled to 1 with other events during the day. It stopped between the two wait statements each of the last two nights when the MB Mini or Bed Keypad was used. The Master Bed Cabinet switch works the best but still not 100% All Off - BedTime - [ID 0016][Parent 0001] If $Edit_Guest is 0 And 'Master Bed Cabinets' Status is not Off And ( 'Master Bed Keypad.On' is switched Off Or 'Master Bed Cabinets' is switched Off Or 'MB Mini - A Up' is switched On Or 'MB Mini - A Down' is switched On ) Then $Interior_Motion = 0 $Snack_Walk = 0 $Alarm = 0 $Kitchen_Motion = 0 Set 'House Front' Off Set 'Garage Lights' Off Wait 2 seconds Set 'Garage Front Porch Lite' Off Set 'Holiday Lights' Off Set 'Temp Home Night' On Set 'Back Patio' Off Set 'FamRm Dining' Off Set 'Scott's Office Lamp' Off Set 'LR Pool Table' Off Set 'HallwayOutletCurio' Off Set 'LR Center Outlet Top' Fast Off Set 'LR Center Outlet Bot' Fast Off Set 'LR Lamp Scene' Off Set 'Entry Art Niche' Off Set 'Stairwell 3 Way' Off Set 'Upstairs Hallway 3 Way' Off Wait 4 seconds Set 'Cat's Room Lamp Scene' Off Set 'Dining' Off Set 'Party Night' Off Set 'MB Closet' Fast Off Set 'Studio Fan' Off Set 'Master Bed Cabinets' Fast Off Wait 4 seconds Set 'Studio Button Light' Off Set 'Studio A' Off Set 'Studio B' Off Set 'Studio C' Off Set 'Studio Closet' Off Set 'MB Closet Hers' Fast Off Else - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action')

When programming keypads I find this but at the bottom I have LED Brightness too. LED brightness I get, and set that up. I can't figure out why this is here and what it does. Thanks

What is the difference if I use an integer for $night and make it = 1 or a state for $night and make it = 1 when the if statement is IF $Night = 1 THEN Do "What Scott says to do". Isn't it going to run either way?