Question for those with the Elk module

[MWareman]

I want to receive an email from my ISY when certain Elk zones change state (windows opened / closed etc).  I've also been on a mission to remove spurious notifications when the ISY reboots (other than a single 'ISY has rebooted' notification).

 

I'm down to my very last one now...  and I cannot figure out a way to suppress the spurious notification at boot.

 

Here is the program:

 

Alarm Zone notify - [ID 010C][Parent 00B9]

If
        Elk Zone 'Family Wndw Left' is Normal
     Or Elk Zone 'Family Wndw Left' is Trouble
     Or Elk Zone 'Family Wndw Left' is Violated
     Or Elk Zone 'Family Wndw Left' is Bypassed
     Or Elk Zone 'Family Wndw Cenr' is Normal
     Or Elk Zone 'Family Wndw Cenr' is Trouble
     Or Elk Zone 'Family Wndw Cenr' is Violated
     Or Elk Zone 'Family Wndw Cenr' is Bypassed
     Or Elk Zone 'Family Wndw Rigt' is Normal
     Or Elk Zone 'Family Wndw Rigt' is Trouble
     Or Elk Zone 'Family Wndw Rigt' is Violated
     Or Elk Zone 'Family Wndw Rigt' is Bypassed
     Or Elk Zone 'Family Wndw Side' is Normal
     Or Elk Zone 'Family Wndw Side' is Trouble
     Or Elk Zone 'Family Wndw Side' is Violated
     Or Elk Zone 'Family Wndw Side' is Bypassed
     Or Elk Zone 'Dining Room' is Normal
     Or Elk Zone 'Dining Room' is Trouble
     Or Elk Zone 'Dining Room' is Violated
     Or Elk Zone 'Dining Room' is Bypassed
     Or Elk Zone 'Office Window' is Normal
     Or Elk Zone 'Office Window' is Trouble
     Or Elk Zone 'Office Window' is Violated
     Or Elk Zone 'Office Window' is Bypassed
     Or Elk Zone 'Smoke' is Normal
     Or Elk Zone 'Smoke' is Trouble
     Or Elk Zone 'Smoke' is Violated
     Or Elk Zone 'Smoke' is Bypassed
     Or Elk Zone 'Sump Alarm' is Normal
     Or Elk Zone 'Sump Alarm' is Trouble
     Or Elk Zone 'Sump Alarm' is Violated
     Or Elk Zone 'Sump Alarm' is Bypassed
 
Then
        Send Notification to 'Michael - EMail' content 'Zone Triggered'
 
Else
   - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action')
 

The notification has the following details:

Subject: ${elk.zone.#.name} Triggered at ${alert.date} ${alert.time24}
Body: ${elk.zone.#.name} is ${elk.zone.#.status}

All zones referenced in the 'If' show correct status in ISY - and they change to 'Violated' immediately when the zone is opened - and back to 'Normal' when the zone is closed again. Each time, I get the correct email.

 

However - on reboot (during today's upgrade to 4.3.18) I got the following email (and only this one email):

Subject: Office Window Triggered at 2015/09/07 09:27:01
Body: Office Window is Normal

I performed a manual reboot (from the admin UI) and got the same exact message again (with a later and correct time). There is no other program referencing this notification customization - and I have confirmed that 'Run on startup' is *not* selected for this program.

 

Any ideas?

 

It looks to me like the program event system is initializing before the Elk module has established it's communication - then the initial retrieval of zone status is in fact triggering program evaluation.   I'm expecting the program to trigger and evaluate 'True' when a zone actually changes - not during boot.

 

Bug?

 

Michael.

 

[jerlands]

One method might be to incorporate an "Up Time" counter..

 

change the program to seconds.. if i.uptime > 60

 

Jon...

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi MWareman,

 

One method would be to have a program that with no conditions and have it run at boot up and set a variable. Have a program that waits 2 minutes when this variable is set and then set it back to 0. 

 

Use this variable as a condition in your program.

 

The main reason for what you are seeing is that when ISY boots up, it queries ELK and thus that program will run.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[MWareman]

 

 

The main reason for what you are seeing is that when ISY boots up, it queries ELK and thus that program will run.

That's what I thought was going on. It's just a different behaviour that Insteon (and zwave) devices. They (obviously) get polled on boot for current status (except most battery devices), but programs triggering on 'status' don't get triggered during this initial after boot poll. I was making an assumption that the behaviour would be the same for Elk zones.

 

I'll create a boot timer as you suggest.

 

Thanks!

 

Michael.

[MWareman]

 

 

One method would be to have a program that with no conditions and have it run at boot up and set a variable. Have a program that waits 2 minutes when this variable is set and then set it back to 0.

 

Use this variable as a condition in your program.

 

Perfect - works flawlessly. Squished that final annoyance in my system! Thank you.

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi MWareman,

 

Excellent. Just a word of caution: you will need to make sure the 2 minutes is indeed a good value. i.e. what happens if indeed something happens within those two minutes?

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[MWareman]

Good point. I may break this out to two programs, the first for the normal zone status (with the trigger suppressed for the first 2 minutes) and the second not suppressed to cover the abnormal zone states. That way I'll get the notice is any zone is abnormal on boot.

 

Thanks again for the tip!

 

Michael.

[shannong]

I use the timer method as Michel suggested but with a 30 second timer to control a "just booted" variable. That variable is used to suppresses some alerts like that, notify of a reboot, and controls a few other things.