Insteon Leak detectors lose communication on power outage

[blake19]

Hello, I have (3) Insteon leak detectors (2852-222) that all work fine EXCEPT whenever there is a power outage. When this occurs I lose communication with them. Before the power outage, each has (2) signals -dry and wet (one on and the other off). After an outage I lose both. I have to manually retrieve each (of course they are not easily accessible ) and then use the restore device command on each one. All then is well until the next power outage. I am using an ISY-99 with the most update (and last verision) software.

 

Best regards, Ken

[LeeG]

All battery devices are unaware of a power outage. The Leak Sensor sends a change to Dry and Wet nodes only when a state change occurs. The blank Current Status does not hurt anything. The heartbeat node will be refreshed on its normal 24 hour cycle.

 

You can tap the Set button on the Leak Sensor to have it send a message but that should not be necessary.

 

The same situation applies to all the battery devices.

[larryllix]

All battery devices are unaware of a power outage. The Leak Sensor sends a change to Dry and Wet nodes only when a state change occurs. The blank Current Status does not hurt anything. The heartbeat node will be refreshed on its normal 24 hour cycle.

 

You can tap the Set button on the Leak Sensor to have it send a message but that should not be necessary.

 

The same situation applies to all the battery devices.

So would it be safe to say upon power resumption the battery devices are still connected, as they were before, but the ISY doesn't know it until a heartbeat confirmation or a wet signal?

[LeeG]

Exactly right. Battery devices sleep (turn Off RF circuitry) to extend battery life. This makes it impossible for the ISY to Query a battery device to verify its existence. When the condition being monitored changes that state change will be sent to the ISY. For a Leak Sensor the most likely change will be a Heartbeat message.

[ISYhbsh01]

LeeG,

 

If there is a leak during the power outage, the ISY would never get the message & wouldn't know about it even after power is restored. Am I correct?

 

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk

[LeeG]

That could happen. If the Leak Sensor remains solid Wet the Heartbeat message will indicate the Leak Sensor is Wet and the ISY will mark the Dry and Wet nodes appropriately. That could take anywhere from a few minutes to nearly 24 hours which is a long time when something is continuing to leak. For those Leak Sensors that tend to cycle wet to dry to wet to dry the condition would be noted quickly once power came back and all the equipment came on line.

 

I would put sensors like that on my security system which would not be affected by power outage.

[ISYhbsh01]

I thought so. That's why I am very hesitant to change from an iolinc with a leak sensor to the battery operated leak sensor. With the iolinc I would get notified once power is restored if there is a leak. The same thing is true with the open/close sensor vs. Iolinc with magnetic sensor. And actually its not just a power outage that I am concerned about, it's also if for whatever reason the single message being sent by the battery operated device is missed, lets say because of communication problems, you will never get notified, while with the wired iolinc the ISY always knows its current status & its not just a single message that can be missed. Am I correct?

 

 

 

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk

[LeeG]

Correct on all points.

[ISYhbsh01]

I wish the heartbeat interval would have been customizable.

[KHouse]

From what I can tell, same thing applies to the smoke bridge and First Alert detector.

 

I've turned off the breakers a few times to replace some switches and install others, and each time, the smoke bridge shows nothing for Smoke / CO / Clear. It does however show OFF for Low Battery, Malfunction, Test, and Unknown Message. The Smoke / CO / Clear show no status until you test the Fire Alarm or press the button on the smoke bridge. Then all is good, except Clear doesn't show anything, but I don't believe it ever does. (I could be wrong though, I'll have to keep an eye out on it).

[larryllix]

From what I can tell, same thing applies to the smoke bridge and First Alert detector.

 

I've turned off the breakers a few times to replace some switches and install others, and each time, the smoke bridge shows nothing for Smoke / CO / Clear. It does however show OFF for Low Battery, Malfunction, Test, and Unknown Message. The Smoke / CO / Clear show no status until you test the Fire Alarm or press the button on the smoke bridge. Then all is good, except Clear doesn't show anything, but I don't believe it ever does. (I could be wrong though, I'll have to keep an eye out on it).

Will an ISY Query update those points or does it require human intervention at the smoke detector?

[LeeG]

Those are Controller Only nodes. They carry no Status to Query. The node being blank after a power outage means the node has not sent anything since power has been restored. Same situation with the Motion Sensor for example. The nodes sit empty until the device sends a message from the node. Actually the Motion Sensor is a bad example as it is a battery device. The ControLinc nodes are Controller Only. Nothing to Query as the device carries no Status for which button was last pressed.

 

There should be no reason for manual intervention with the detector.

[larryllix]

OK, I would have thought that the " Smoke / CO / Clear. It does however show OFF for Low Battery, Malfunction, Test, and Unknown Message" points KHouse mentioned would be considered status points. My terminology in this field is not up to par and it sometimes conflicts with my other fields of involvement.

 

Either way they are not responsive to ISY end polls/queries, if I read you correctly.

[LeeG]

Issue a Query against your device.

[larryllix]

Issue a Query against your device.

Mine is still in the package yet. It will be making an entrance soon.