chrishick Posted March 18, 2015 Posted March 18, 2015 I've got a strange problem. I have a program to turn my landscape lights on at 5am, off at dawn, on at dusk and off again at 11pm. There are two on/off modules in a scene to control the lighting transformers. This all worked just fine but recently I noticed they are not turning off at dawn. They do turn off at 11pm. This is my log from a few months ago. Everything works as it should. This is my log from this week. They are not responding to the scene off command at sunrise. It looks like they started doing this on 2/22. I'm wondering if I may have updated the firmware on this date?I'm on 4.2.21 right now. This is the program that controls the scene. If From 4:45:00AM To Sunrise (same day) Or From Sunset To 11:00:00PM (same day) Then Set Scene 'Landscape Lighting' On Else Set Scene 'Landscape Lighting' Off Any ideas why the scene is not responding to the off command in the mornings?
Techman Posted March 18, 2015 Posted March 18, 2015 The problem could be with the load that's plugged into the module. It's possible the load is creating noise which is interfering with the off signal. What type of load is the module controlling?
Xathros Posted March 18, 2015 Posted March 18, 2015 (edited) Looks to me like comm failure plain and simple. Try unplugging the loads and run a few scene tests. Then reconnect and repeat. Any difference? If so, you may need to place filters on the loads. -Xathros Edited March 18, 2015 by Xathros
chrishick Posted March 18, 2015 Author Posted March 18, 2015 Yeah, but it's strange that I only have comm failure at sunrise and no comm failure at 11pm. It's also strange that both devices have comm failure starting on exactly the same day. I would think sometimes one might respond when the other does not, but in this case it is both devices 100% of the time. I have also cycled the scene manually in the mornings and the on/off modules have responded perfectly, so I don't think it can be a comm failure. I will have to do some more testing this weekend when I get home to be sure.
chrishick Posted March 18, 2015 Author Posted March 18, 2015 The load is a 12v (or 24v?) landscape transformer. I don't think it can be noise because it has worked flawlessly for a few years and also works flawlessly every night at 11pm. I don't think the transformers would produce line noise in the morning but not at night.
LeeG Posted March 18, 2015 Posted March 18, 2015 (edited) Run Tools | Diagnostics | Event Viewer at LEVEL 3. This will show (or not show) the Scene Off at Sunrise. There is an Icon on the bottom of the event viewer popup, next to last on right side that Copy to Clipboard. Paste the event trace at Sunrise. It is likely the loads but it could also be something else that is running at Sunrise. You are on an older ISY image. Suggest moving to 4.2.28 Edited March 18, 2015 by LeeG
LeeG Posted March 18, 2015 Posted March 18, 2015 (edited) Also the initial post says the lights turn On at 5AM but the posted Program shows 4:45AM. Is there any chance there is another Program involved. Also you ask if the firmware was updated. There is no automatic update so if it was updated you would have done it manually. Edited March 18, 2015 by LeeG
chrishick Posted March 18, 2015 Author Posted March 18, 2015 Run Tools | Diagnostics | Event Viewer at LEVEL 3. This will show (or not show) the Scene Off at Sunrise. There is an Icon on the bottom of the event viewer popup, next to last on right side that Copy to Clipboard. Paste the event trace at Sunrise. It is likely the loads but it could also be something else that is running at Sunrise. You are on an older ISY image. Suggest moving to 4.2.28 The event viewer only goes back to about 10:30 this morning. Is there a way to see more? If not I will have to wait until tomorrow morning to review it earlier in the day. I will update firmware also to see if that makes a difference.
chrishick Posted March 18, 2015 Author Posted March 18, 2015 Also the initial post says the lights turn On at 5AM but the posted Program shows 4:45AM. Is there any chance there is another Program involved. Also you ask if the firmware was updated. There is no automatic update so if it was updated you would have done it manually. I initially thought I had a programming error so I was reviewing my programs. My wife leaves for the gym around 4:50am so I adjusted the time yesterday to 4:45am so the lights are on when she leaves. I realize there is no auto update, but I can't remember if I would have done a manual update that day or not. I can barely remember what I did yesterday
chrishick Posted March 18, 2015 Author Posted March 18, 2015 It is likely the loads but it could also be something else that is running at Sunrise. I looked at my programs and I also have some exterior motion lights that I turn off at sunrise (actually I'm setting the on levels in a scene to 0%). Looking at my log it seems that I started turning them off on 2/22 which is the same day I started having this problem. I'm thinking this has to be the problem. I can stagger the programs by a few minutes, but is there no way to have 2 commands issued at the same time? I guess I just assumed that the ISY would do some kind of traffic control.
LeeG Posted March 18, 2015 Posted March 18, 2015 Insteon does not allow multiple Scenes to run at the same time. Insteon will cancel one of them. Discussed briefly in the insteondetails.pdf doc on insteon.com. Insteon has always worked that way. Adding a small adjustment to Sunrise or adding a Wait of a few seconds to one of the Programs should resolve if due to running multiple Scenes.
chrishick Posted March 18, 2015 Author Posted March 18, 2015 I've adjusted my times. I'll check tomorrow to see if that resolves it or not. Thanks for the help. I doubt I would have tracked that down on my own.
Techman Posted March 18, 2015 Posted March 18, 2015 (edited) The load is a 12v (or 24v?) landscape transformer. I don't think it can be noise because it has worked flawlessly for a few years and also works flawlessly every night at 11pm. I don't think the transformers would produce line noise in the morning but not at night. It's possible for the transformer to create noise on the line after it's on. If all else fails try unplugging the transformer(s) and substitute a different load. You can set your program to turn off the load when you're present, thus giving you ability to try different load options, i.e. a light bulb instead of the transformer, or as LeeG suggested it could be that the off signal is clashing with another command . Edited March 19, 2015 by Techman
chrishick Posted March 19, 2015 Author Posted March 19, 2015 I just checked and it appears that adjusting the timing of the commands has solved the problem. Thanks again for the help!!
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