Elk & ISY - Programming

[hmatos]

I'm running 4.0.2 and I seem to be having one heck of a time getting my 994 and my Elk M1 cooperating. I'm having several issues, but I'd like to start with the following simple programs to see if anyone sees anything that I do not.

 

I have an EZX10RF in the garage to receive an X10 RF signal from the home link system in my car. I also have an I/O Linc connected to my garage door opener. All of these components work pretty well on their own, I can press a home link button in my car, the EZX10RF receives it and sends it through to ISY and turns on the I/O link relay to open the garage door.

 

I have two ISY Programs

 

Welcome Home - open the garage door, turn on arrive home scene and disarm Elk. This seems to work fine most of the time. There are odd issues where if I monitor the status of the program via the 'status' option, I can see that the program is stuck in the 'Then' - and what's worse, I can't stop it. I end up having to plug/unplug the ISY. I assume it's normal behavior when you're repeatedly testing?

 

If
       Status  'X10 Bridge - 0 / 1E.7B.6B.1' is 100%
Then
       Set Scene 'Garage Door Operations (R)' On
       Set Scene 'Arrive Home' 100%
       Set 'X10 Bridge - 0 / 1E.7B.6B.1' Off
       Set Elk Area 'Area1' Disarm
       Run Program 'Elk: Kitchen Entry - Welcome' (If)
Else
  - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action')

 

Elk: Kitchen Entry - trigger the welcome home message when the kitchen door is opened. This does not work at all.

 

If
       Elk Zone 'Kitchen Entry' is Violated
Then
       Set Elk Speak Word 'Welcome'
       Set Elk Speak Word 'Home'
Else
       Wait  5 minutes 
       Run Program 'Elk: Kitchen Entry - Welcome' (If)

 

I thought that a change to 'Kitchen Entry' would trigger the 'If' to be re-evaluated? Is this not the case?

 

Does anyone know how frequently the ISY and Elk exchange status information? In my environment the Elk doesn't seem be getting device status changes from the ISY (reliably, in real-time).

 

I'd appreciate any help - Thanks!

 

hm

[apostolakisl]

I'm not sure what you mean by "I monitor the program with the 'status' option". In ISY, on the program summary page, you can see the "activity" of a program as running or idle, status tells you if it last ran true or false.

 

There is no reason that your program would be in a loop, at least not from what you've shown here. Unless you have some other program that you are not showing that keeps causing the one shown to keep running.

 

And a violation of a zone is a trigger for a program containing that zone's status in the "if" section. I don't know that ISY checks Elk or if Elk pushes updates to ISY. My guess is it is the latter since there is no appreciable delay between something on Elk happening and ISY responding, at least in my house. Is the second program disabled? I see you calling it from the first program, which would not make a lot of sense since the first program would run while you are still in the driveway pushing the homelink button. I am also pretty sure you don't want the Elk to say "welcome home" every single time you open that door.

 

If I am guessing what you want, when you arrive home and hit your homelink button, you want the alarm to say welcome when you open the door for the first time after disarming the system. Then after that you don't want the message. So what you need to do is.

 

Elk: Kitchen Entry - Welcome

If
       Elk Zone 'Kitchen Entry' is Violated
Then
       Set Elk Speak Word 'Welcome'
       Set Elk Speak Word 'Home'
       *****Disable Program 'Elk: Kithcbe Entry - Welcome'*****
Else  ***** What is this else clause for? *****
       Wait  5 minutes 
       Run Program 'Elk: Kitchen Entry - Welcome' (If)

 

If
       Status  'X10 Bridge - 0 / 1E.7B.6B.1' is 100%
Then
       Set Scene 'Garage Door Operations (R)' On
       Set Scene 'Arrive Home' 100%
       Set 'X10 Bridge - 0 / 1E.7B.6B.1' Off
       Set Elk Area 'Area1' Disarm
       *****Enable Program 'Elk: Kitchen Entry - Welcome' ******
Else
  - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action')

[hmatos]

The second program is 'disabled'. If you click on the program in the admin console and select 'status', there's an activity column. In that column it will say what it is running "if, then, else".

[hmatos]

So I did as you suggested and it does work - I guess I didn't understand how the enable/disable feature works. If a program is 'disabled' and you call it from another program, does it execute?

 

Thanks,

[LeeG]

This statement

 

Set 'X10 Bridge - 0 / 1E.7B.6B.1' Off

 

performs no function. The EZX10RF nodes are Controller Only nodes. They cannot be turned On/Off from a Program. If the Timer has been set for this X10 code the node will return to Off when the timer expires. Otherwise an X10 Off must be received by the EZX10RF to set this node Off.

 

EDIT: yes, a disabled Program runs when invoked from another Program. It will not trigger by the If section if disabled.

[hmatos]

Ok, thanks - I'll go ahead and remove it.

[apostolakisl]

So I did as you suggested and it does work - I guess I didn't understand how the enable/disable feature works. If a program is 'disabled' and you call it from another program, does it execute?

 

Thanks,

 

As Lee said, yes. Enable/Disable only changes the programs ability to self trigger an evaluation of the 'if' clause.

 

And I see where the right click/status is, it is just bringing up that summary screen I was referring to, but it does also highlight the program you were on.