Detecting if water leak detectors or motion sensors are working

[prairiecode]

Hi folks,

 

I am considering adding some water leak detectors to my ISY-994i system, using either Insteon or Z-Wave.  I notice on the Insteon page for their leak detectors, it mentions that they send an update every 24 hours so an automation controller can detect if they're still working.

 

Made me wonder: hmm, how would I detect this on the 994i?

 

I notice there is a "is responding" or "is not responding" condition that is undocumented in the User Guide.  However, http://forum.universal-devices.com/topic/7869-responding/page-2 suggests that this test is not useful for this sort of purpose.  Not only that, but it seems to have no "timeout" so I don't know what to make of it.

 

How exactly would one go about detecting that a leak detector is or is not working on the 994i?

 

I have a similar problem with motion detectors.  I had one on Z-Wave that had a marginal RF link, apparently.  Sometimes it would drop off the system when the last state it had indicated was "on" (motion), and thus the ISY thought there was motion for hours.  In this case, the ISY did somehow recognize that it wasn't responding (how?  Does it have some timeout where it expects to hear from it every x minutes?) based on the icons/alerts in the admin console.  But based on the other thread, that "responding" test may not have helped there either.

 

Ideas?

 

Thanks!

[LeeG]

A Leak Sensor Heartbeat Program.   It displays X10 traffic and is no longer marked Running 'Then' if Heartbeat message stops.  Note that Motion Sensors have no Heartbeat message.

 

HeartBeat - [iD 0044][Parent 0001]

 

If

        Control 'Leak Sensor-Dry / Leak Sensor-Heartbeat' is switched On

     Or Control 'Leak Sensor-Dry / Leak Sensor-Heartbeat' is switched Off

 

Then

        Wait  25 hours 

        Send X10 'A10/All Lights On (5)'

 

Else

   - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action')

Edited January 25, 2015 by LeeG

[stusviews]

http://forum.universal-devices.com/topic/11566-leak-sensors-a-suggested-complete-program-package/

[prairiecode]

Thanks to both of you for your tips.

 

@LeeG, this makes sense; the bit I missed was that the "is switched" would trigger the If clause each time.  I suppose, though, that we must also have a second program, set to run at startup, that jumps into this program's Then clause at each startup?  (To guard against the program never being triggered if the leak detector is broken with the ISY boots?)

[LeeG]

Good point.  I watch my ISYs so closely every day the need to do that did not come up but it is right thing to do. 

Edited January 25, 2015 by LeeG

[kevkmartin]

For my motion sensors, I have programs set up that increment a counter each hour. The counter is reset every time motion is triggered. I notify myself if that counter exceeds xx (depends on location) to indicate that the motion detector may not be working.