Mustang65

I was loading a new 2852 (v3.0) leak sensor and ISY is stuck "Linking" for the last 45 minutes. No, I was not sitting here for 45 minutes, I came back and found it still trying to link. How do I stop the linking? I do not want to shut down the program. "Xing" out of the linking does nothing. Running 5.0.16A. Still running..... Thanks

Here is the latest... I decided to go with the smaller SOLAR decorative light that has a 1.2Volt AAA rechargeable battery. I figured if it can fully charge that AAA battery each day for another night of use, it should have no problem keeping the 1.2Volt AA battery topped off. I went to Dollar General and picked up a NEW $1 decorative SOLAR light. I removed the base and took out the 1.2Volt AAA battery that came with it. I soldered wires to the SOLAR battery leads and connected them to the 2843 Open/Close door sensor. I inserted the rechargeable 1.2Volt AA battery. The only battery in the circuit is the AA. I removed the night-time LED. I was going to use the Arduino to monitor the voltage with my data logger, but the data logger no longer works. So, I am/will be doing the monitoring manually until I get a new data logger. Since December 8th, the morning battery voltage has been a constant 1.269 volts. Through out the day the battery voltage with the SOLAR charging, has been between 1.313 and 1.452. At 9PM the battery voltage has been 1.293 volts. The nice thing about using this inexpensive SOLAR cell is that the IC chip disconnects the SOLAR cell when the panel is no longer producing power, so that the cell does not drain the battery at night. As I see it, the issue with monitoring these batteries is that they will constantly show a voltage around 1.2 volts and when they are ready to die the voltage will drastically drop off. I sealed the sensor with electrical tape and a piece of duct-tape at the top... just in case. This gate is under a very large oak tree, but gets most of the afternoon sun. If this works out I will convert the other gate sensors to solar. I will then look at using the larger SOLAR decorative lights (they use a 3.2 volt battery) for the motion sensors that are outside. According to the battery stats, they are good for 500 FULL recharges.

The 1.5 volt regulator (adjustable), is between the SOLAR panel, its rechargeable battery and the 2843. So the panel and its battery (either the small 2 volt battery version or the larger 3.2 volt version) will only put out 1.2 or 1.5 volts to the 2843's 1.2 volt rechargeable battery. There will be 2 batteries in this circuit. The one in the SOLAR cell unit and one in the 2843. Based on how long the 2843 operates on a regular battery, I believe that there will be plenty of power for it. I need to find my Arduino and data logger to get a better idea as to how the project is doing. To start I will just take voltage measurements.

I take that back.... I just found them on Amazon. Will be here Sunday.

Unfortunately, they do not make a 1.5VDC voltage regulator so there is a need for the voltage divider circuit. The 10k pot would connect to the SOLAR (+) and (-) battery connections (output from SOLAR cells) and the center tap would be the power lead to the 2843. Along with the circuit ground.

I am leaning toward the smaller low voltage version, for the first test, which produces between 1.9 and 2.4 volts. This would be an easier circuit to work with. There are two parts to these devices. The battery charging side and the voltage boosting side, which is not needed for the 1.5 volt 2843 (rechargeable) battery. The IC determines if it should be charging or powering the LED based on the output of the SOLAR cells. On the lower voltage unit I am looking at, if the SOLAR cells are providing power the chip it sets the CE pin low which grounds the SOLAR cells and it starts charging the battery. When the cells are no longer providing power the IC no longer sets the CE pin low which opens the SOLAR cell side of the circuit and activates the LED side of the circuit. I will be removing the LED and seeing if it will still charge the battery or if I need to put a resistor in place of the LED. I believe that just removing the LED will not have an effect on the operation. I have a few extra 2843's so I will see if I can get one wired up this weekend. Best I can figure, the regular 1.5Volt AA battery is about 2500mAh. The batteries that come in the SOLAR lights are 1.2Volts 100mAh (1mm longer than a regular AAA battery). I will see how it works in the 2843 before I wire in the SOLAR. The SOLAR cells will put out enough voltage, but not sure if they will meet the battery current needs. I am thinking if it is a new battery, it should be able to keep it topped off during the spring, summer and fall, but not to confident about winter. This may be better handled by the larger SOLAR cell units. We will see. I have not been able to ID the chips being used in the larger units yet. These units use a 3.2Volt 300 mAh battery.

If you are still interested in a SOLAR solution for your outside 2843, here is what I am doing to keep from replacing the batteries. In the past I used a lot of SOLAR/Battery operated garden lights and as I switched them out for different ones, I saved the SOLAR cells. I probably have at least 6 or 7 or more around here some where. So, there are 2 types of SOLAR garden lights that I have a 3.2 volt version SOLAR cell and a 1.2 volt SOLAR cell. I attached the two types with the "no-load" voltages in the sun at 9AM. The 3.2 volts cell was producing between 3.6 volts and 4.1 volts. The 1.2 volt cell was producing between 1.9 volts and 2.4 volts. As far as charging current, I have not gotten to that test yet, but I believe that using the 3.2 volt cell with a 10k ohm voltage divider circuit should supply enough to keep the battery charged for a sensor that gets a lot of use. I will probably add a blocking diode to the circuit to keep any current from going back into the SOLAR cell when it is dark. I will try to test this in the next few weeks and monitor voltage and current. I may start with the smaller SOLAR cell as the gates do not get much use, and the smaller cell should keep the battery topped off. For me it will be an easy mount as I will put them on top of the 4x6 gate/fence posts. Plenty of sun there. I believe that the inexpensive SOLAR garden lights were between $3 and $5 at Dollar General.

Maybe the next generation of Polisy will have a HDMI port, then just add a wireless keyboard/mouse. I have an extra port on my HDMI switch.

With the issue of not being able to locate the Polisy's IP or MAC address, I was thinking of how I set up my MorningStar MPPT SOLAR charge controller. MorningStart, created an App for the PC/Apple that looked for the Charge controller, found it, and allow you to enter your own IP address. It utilized the Ethernet connection on the computer. First you needed to go to Network Sharing and change the adapter settings from Wi-Fi to Ethernet, deactivate the Wi-Fi, plug the MorningStar into the PC's Ethernet jack and then the App found the MorningStar and allowed me to assign my own IP address, Subnet mask, gateway, Primary DNS and secondary DNS. It also gave me the MAC address of the charge controller. This process might work for the Polisy. I think on the network I could put it https://Morningstarxxxxxxx and it also found it.

Nano please

It worked, but only if I used the IP address of the Polisy without the 3000. Thanks

Here it is

That would be a nice since enhancement add to that an automatic shutdown in case of power outages. Since January 1st, we have had at least 15 or more power outages down here in Florida. Although, when I move the Polisy, Isy, Gem/DataBox, NAS, Pi's Arduino's and router to their new panel, it will have battery backup/SOLAR so that should make it easier on the equipment.

no dice... tried 2x "Server not found" Interestingly enough the 442 is my media center Pi [admin@polisy ~]$ sudo killall daemon Password: [admin@polisy ~]$ sudo service polyglot stop polyglot not running? (check /var/polyglot/polyglot_daemon.pid). [admin@polisy ~]$ sudo service polyglot start net.inet.ip.portrange.reservedhigh: 442 -> 442 Starting polyglot. [admin@polisy ~]$

I am unable to access Polisy using https://polisy:3000 or using 443 I was able to locate the Polisy IP address and I am able to access Polisy using SSH. I assigned the local IP address to Polisy and added port forwarding. Still, the only way to access Polisy is using SSH.

good idea... now you need to have the light in the room where the leak is flash red on/off and the rest just stay red. You can eliminate the text phase. Maybe a USB speaker in each room with water and then when there is leak in that room the red lights flash and the song "Row, Row, Row your boat..." starts playing in the room with the leak.... naaaaa, just have isy shut off the water and release the water pressure in the pipes so no more leaks out.

Yes, I have the 2245 Hub, back in the original box

Here is an email i received at noon today from Insteon. At least they sent something out for 2019. Read what they have to say click on the link Latest Insteon News....

I was watching one of those interviews with the Insteon , forgot his name, Steve??? Well, in response to one of the products question, he mentioned that Insteon has far to many products, and left it at that. So reading between the lines..... Also here is the top of their Press Release page.. not much for 2019, wait nothing for 2019

Since 2.4Ghz Wi-Fi has 14 channels, why can't the modules be programmed to use different Wi-Fi channels instead of all on say channel 3. Maybe, door sensors on channel 6, motion sensors on channel 4, leak sensors on channel 8, media on 5.8Ghz. Granted it would need a dedicated Wi-Fi router (or a HUB) designed for this purpose. Just a thought for future technology. 2.4Ghz for Home Automation/Control/Energy Management... 5.8Ghz for laptops, media centers....

I never did either... until one day I realized, why should I pay higher energy rates for drying my cloths when I can dry them for less $$$ by just switching time I run the dryer. I wish there was an easy way to rewire the cloths dryer to work with ISY, so I could just throw the clothes into the dryer, close the dryer door and ISY would start the dryer/notify me that it started, it already texts me when it stops. Have not seen any products that will remove and fold them. Although, we do have that portion covered... wife yells out from the living room, got a text dryer is done... so I take them out, lay them out and she folds them. On occasion, my small coffee pot gets left on and can stay on all day $$$$. My air compressor, dish washer.... not much you can do for the HVAC here in Florida. What I am working on now is having ISY/GEM monitor the electric for the HVAC. I want to program ISY to let me know when the HVAC is running and it sees that the HVAC is using more power than it normally does (maybe 5 or 10% above the normal load reading), which COULD be an indicator for the start of some problem. I already have 4 DS18B20 temperature sensors mounted on various places in HVAC to monitor the compressor input/output temperatures (on my Arduino at this time). I have used the GEM to balance my loads. When I got the GEM the first thing I noticed was that one of the mains was way out of proportion to the other. It took about a week but they are almost equal. Again, 1950's electricians just wired things in with no thought on loads. As for the coffee pot, it is the only thing on one of the breakers (after kitchen remod), so ISY can look at the GEM output and see that the coffee pot has been on for more than 6 minutes and shut the circuit down. With the X10, I just put scheduled off commands to cover my butt, now I want to get the most out of the GEM/ISY. The GEM and ecobee have already saved me $500, when the HVAC was not heating the house. Called the service guy on a Saturday, said it was the HVAC circuit board and it would cost $500 to get/install on Monday. I pulled the GEM data and the ecobee data, matched the times and noticed that the HVAC heat pump was shutting off at exactly 40 degrees. Checked the ecobee and noticed that heat pump was programmed to shut down at 40 degrees, lowered the temp and we were back in operation. Being retired every penny saved is a penny toward more electronic gadgets..... Sooner or later, California residents may be FORCED into Home Automation/Control and Energy Management... look at SOLAR in CA

Agree with that, but the end result is the same, a happy end user. If the new housing industry ever gets its act together and gets all the compatibility issues resolved, what is the difference then of buying a new house with everything that talks to each other, with little or no interaction and is transparent to the end user or the ability to purchase the individual parts of the bundled new house system that has all the different modules, sensors..... that are designed to work together as one system and is transparent to the end user. You purchase their hub(s), and the individual needed parts. Today, we are trying to get everything to talk to each other by tying them together using what ever means possible and the result is... well just look at the posts for interfacing these other systems.

I believe we are only focusing on the "Retrofit" segment of the vast housing market. We are at a point in time where we need to piece part the home Automation/Home control to come up with a system that we want and maybe works. If you look at the new homes, and there will probably be around 1 million new starts this year, in the future this is the area that the Home Automation/Control and Energy Management product design will more than likely get the most attention. If the builders associations ever get their act together and come up with a set of new home automation guidelines, at a reasonable price, the home automation/control/energy management segment will really take off. But, with all these different Wi-Fi solutions, and each of them saying they are the best solution, I do not see that happening soon. In the new home sector, I think you will see a Home Automation hub(s) of some sort, that will interface with an Energy Management hub and they will work together. I do not believe this is wishful thinking, it is just a matter of time before one of the large national home builders puts this into motion. Who will benefit from this... all of us.

I think Mainstream will purchase a hub, but it needs to be "Transparent" to the end user.

I believe that eventually the company that has the best "Plug and Play" Wi-Fi hub will force the others out of the market. I personally think Wi-Fi is the worst way to go, but it is the most inexpensive, also everyone has it in the house and IOT has everyone's ear. When they get an easy plug and play, you purchase a hub and you want to add a module or a switch sensor or what ever, you just tell the hub to update "NOW", and it will somehow go out and look for the new Wi-Fi thing that it can add. Ask you if this is what you wanted to add, add it, ask you to name it, test it with you and give you a "You have successfully added your "Kitchen Wall Switch", I just turned it on and off. Did you see it go on and off? Say yes or no. Now it's your turn to ask the system to turn the light on and off. Did it work? ...... Would you like to add another item?" Why do I think this? Well, as an example, my neighbor had a new HVAC unit installed with a Honeywell thermostat. A few years ago, while I was checking my media center's Wi-Fi router I saw his thermostat. His house is about 75' away form mine. One would think that the thermostat signal would not be strong enough to go that far. I walked over to his house, asked him how his new Honeywell thermostat was doing and showed him on my phone that it was not really protected. Needless to say he was shocked, the installer never informed him and so I walked him through setting up a new password on his thermostat. It still had the default user/PW. I have an Engenius Wi-Fi signal extender that captures signals for a good mile to mile and a half (LOS). I use it for my RV while dry-camping, and campgrounds that do not have great AP's. It is amazing what you see on there with no protection. I also use it for checking my Wi-Fi things. My wife, well if I pass on before her, I really feel sorry for my son (a techie), his phone will be ringing everyday. When she says she is going to call support, she calls my cell phone from the living room. I am considered "SUPPORT" and does not want anything to do with a Smart Home other than pushing the remote button or asking Alexa to do something. I cannot think of anyone else that wants to get involved with home Automation because of how difficult it is. So as I mentioned, the company with the best "Plug and Play" Wi-Fi hub, will take it all!