Generator and device status

[EricK]

We lost power at about 830 last night and our generac generator kicked in. I don't have the entire house on, but pretty much all of tMy insteon gear is and functioned flawlessly. Programs triggered as expected. Isy is on a ups, plm is not.

When power was restored the chandelier for the stair which is not on back up came on at 90%, the prior state. I have 3 scenes for this light with different on levels that are triggered by programs throughout the day. I do not have this set up with adjust scene. When power was restored at 330am I would have wanted the on level to be 30%, not 90%.

Is there a way to set something up with is/ is not responding to get the isy to know that we are on back up. Then when we go back to utility power I can have a program run to make sure devices that are run on timers are in their correct state.

There have been posts in the past about monitoring power status. I know someone had installed an insteon device to run off the generator only in their transfer panel. I have outlets in my utility room on and off backup and have considered using an io linc and a relay to determine power state.

Thanks

Eric

[apostolakisl]

I can think of 2 ways.

 

1) Reboot isy with catchup schedules checked.

 

The trick is how to reboot isy when power is restored.  You would need an external relay to power cycle the isy since I don't believe there is any programatic way to do it.  Now the trick is how to get the relay to just kill power for 10 seconds to ISY when city power is restored.  All I can think of here is some other logic device.  I could get a webcontrol board to do it.

 

2) Another option might be to have a "run if" program that triggers all the programs that involve things on schedules.  You would need to set ISY to continuously query a device that is not on the generator to detect when power is gone (like once per minute).  When the device fails to respond set a state variable to say 2.  Then when it does respond again, set it back to say 1.  Then this can trigger your "run if" program "if state variable x is 1, then run if . . . ".

[larryllix]

ISY has initialisation programs that trigger automatically. Take ISY off the UPS it has nothing to do and people always tell us to boot up the PLM first and then boot the ISY. Mine boot together and the Initialisation program cleans up most of the stuff just fine including notification how long the power was off. That takes my WC8 board so far.

[EricK]

I like the ISY on the UPS because sometimes we get very brief outages for just a few seconds.

I think if I set up a 12v relay powered non-backed up outlet and connected it to an io linc it will work.  If the power goes out the relay would open and the sensor would turn off.  I would probably need to pull the ISY off the back up so it would reboot.  The sensor would turn back on when power is restored.

I could do something like apostolakisi suggested and when the isy boots up if two devices are not responding to set a variable.  

Thanks,

Eric

[larryllix]

I like the ISY on the UPS because sometimes we get very brief outages for just a few seconds.

I think if I set up a 12v relay powered non-backed up outlet and connected it to an io linc it will work.  If the power goes out the relay would open and the sensor would turn off.  I would probably need to pull the ISY off the back up so it would reboot.  The sensor would turn back on when power is restored.

I could do something like apostolakisi suggested and when the isy boots up if two devices are not responding to set a variable.  

Thanks,

Eric

Maybe for the $50-80 you may want to get a WC8 board (with case and PS) and hook a $1.99 temperature sensor into it too. May be the cheapest route and you could get a few temps and real time stuffed into your ISY too.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/WebControl-timer-temperature-humidity-I-O-controller-network-relay-ctrl-chassis-/270809014985?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f0d79a2c9

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/5PCS-DS18B20-Waterproof-Digital-Thermal-Temp-Probe-Sensor-Thermometer-1m-New-/251928029681?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3aa814a9f1

 

You will also need a 7-9vdc adapter.

[apostolakisl]

Maybe you can get UD to add a programatic way to push the "reoboot" button.  I wouldn't think it would be that hard of an addition since you can already do a reboot from the GUI.

 

 

The idea 2 I posted above has the advantage of being 100% programs.  No need to buy anything or physically change anything.  The only downside I see to it is that you have to regularly query a device which adds a bit of system traffic.  Also, it may miss a short power outage and will have a bit of delay (depending on your chosen interval of query) before recognizing that power is back on.

[bipto]

This is an easy task for (integrated) ELK owners as the panel is typically on its own battery and fires "Power Lost" and "Power Restored" events.  Not sure if you could rig something up with other panels...  

[apostolakisl]

This is an easy task for (integrated) ELK owners as the panel is typically on its own battery and fires "Power Lost" and "Power Restored" events.  Not sure if you could rig something up with other panels...  

 

Ahh yes, good thought.  Don't know if the OP has an Elk, but I do.  You could so easily use an Elk relay to power cycle ISY with a power restore.  But I don't have a generator, so no need here.  My electricity so rarely goes out that a generator just seems pointless.

[EricK]

No elk. I had joke that our power would not go out since we had put a generator in. Started getting my money's worth the other night.

[apostolakisl]

No elk. I had joke that our power would not go out since we had put a generator in. Started getting my money's worth the other night.

 

With 5.0 firmware out, there may be some other options not yet known.