Verify action happened? - Closed garage door

[bcrawfo2]

I'm automating my garage door (closing after 5 mins).   It's working well so far.

Something like this:

If garage door is open

then

wait 5 minutes

call close garage door program

 

I don't have 100% reliability on the closing.   I was thinking of modifying the close garage door program...to close the door.   Then wait a minute...then call another program to check the garage door again...with the THEN action being a notify that the close failed.

 

 

Any better ideas?

 

 

 

[oberkc]

If this were me, I would be working to solve the reliability issue. Still, it is impossible to guarantee 100% reliability with any system. It is possible that one source of error is that the ISY is not receiving the notification that the door is open. If so, no amount of programming, short of scheduled and frequent queries, will help.

 

If you are trying to maximize confidence that the door closes once the ISY becomes aware that it is opened, you might consider a notification when the door is opened, a notification that the door was closed, and a notification if the ISY cannot confirm that the door is closed when it should be.

[bcrawfo2]

I'm sure the garage door got the signal.   I've gone to close after a failed auto-close and found that a button push opened the door.  So...it's like the opener got a "close" and a "stop".    When I went to close it manually....this was viewed as an "open".

I had the relay set for .5 sec.   I lowered it down to .2 sec and will see how that behaves.

 

I have the relay set as Momentary A - triggered by either on or off.   I have a program that watches the relay turning on and turns it off a few seconds later.   I don't think this will cause a second relay hit...right?

Edited December 29, 2014 by bcrawfo2

[Jimbo.Automates]

The relay just signals the opener to move, it doesn't indicate if the door is actually open or closed. The sensor node indicates open/closed status if it is connected to a sensor.

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[MikeD]

a notification when the door is opened, a notification that the door was closed

This is what I currently have in place. In addition I added a notification that the door was left open for more than 10 minutes. I also have a camera in the garage to visually verify the door is closed.

 

~Mike

Edited December 29, 2014 by MikeD

[oberkc]

"I have the relay set as Momentary A - triggered by either on or off.   I have a program that watches the relay turning on and turns it off a few seconds later.   I don't think this will cause a second relay hit...right?"

 

There may be a couple issues with this logic.  First, the relay does not broadcast its status.  There is no way for the ISY to be notified of the relay status.

 

Second, if you are sending commands directly to the relay, outside of a scene, then I dont believe momentary mode matters.  If you tell the relay directly to turn on, it will do so, and stay on until you tell it differently.  8nly if the relay is responding to a scene command will the momentary mode be in force.

 

Perhaps part of your reliability problems are the result of program issues?  If you post all relevant programs (actual programs - best to avoid approximations in this case), I am sure somebody would be happy to take a look and advise.

[LeeG]

As an FYI, a Direct Relay On always turns the Relay On.   If in any of the Momentary modes, the Momentary timeout will turn the Relay Off.   The various Momentary rules about which command will operate the Relay do not apply to a Direct command but the Momentary mode timeout does apply.

[Jimbo.Automates]

And be careful with long timeouts or no timeout, I burned out one of my openers while learning how to to this and had to replace a part!

[bcrawfo2]

I think I have this fixed.   Short button presses were sometimes just turning on the light on the GDO.

I wrote my close garage door program to repeat the following 5 times....close the relay and then wait 30 seconds.

I have another program that runs when the garage door is actually closed.   The action on this is to send a notification...and also to stop the close garage door program.   This way...I get positive feedback that the garage door closed...and I also get a few tries, just in case it doesn't work for some reason.

 

This seems to be working so far.

[Xathros]

I'm automating my garage door (closing after 5 mins).   It's working well so far.

Something like this:

If garage door is open

then

wait 5 minutes

call close garage door program

 

I don't have 100% reliability on the closing.   I was thinking of modifying the close garage door program...to close the door.   Then wait a minute...then call another program to check the garage door again...with the THEN action being a notify that the close failed.

 

 

Any better ideas?

 

Sorry to be late to the party.  To answer the original question, I have a program in place to monitor for close failures (usually caused by something left in the sensor beam).  I have different programs for opening and closing the doors.  I call the following from my CloseIfOpen program:

GarageFailNotify - [Not Enabled]

If
        Status  'Garage / Garage Door IOLinks / GD- Dad Garage Door Sensor' is On
 
Then
        Enable Program 'GarageFailNotify'
        Wait  20 seconds
        Repeat Every  10 minutes 
           Send Notification to 'Xathros Cell' content 'Dad Garage Door Close Failure'
 
Else
        Disable Program 'GarageFailNotify'

If the door closes within the 20 second wait, the program just disables itself, otherwise, it repeatedly sends notifications.

 

Hope this helps.

 

-Xathros

[elvisimprsntr]

I'm not going to waste my time trying to explain why it is a bad idea to auto close a garage door. I have already covered it in other threads.

Edited December 31, 2014 by elvisimprsntr

[oberkc]

good call