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Turn ON Something and Leave It ON? How?


Wingsy

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Posted

OK, I've had this discussion before and I'm at it again. Here's the scenario:

 

Have a NO relay contact from a driveway sensor. It closes for 1-5 seconds when a car passes.

 

I want this to trigger a 2475DA1 InLineLinc Dimmer (or any dimmer) to come on, AND STAY ON.

 

Is this even possible with any Insteon devices?

Posted

OK, I've had this discussion before and I'm at it again. Here's the scenario:

 

Have a NO relay contact from a driveway sensor. It closes for 1-5 seconds when a car passes.

 

I want this to trigger a 2475DA1 InLineLinc Dimmer (or any dimmer) to come on, AND STAY ON.

 

Is this even possible with any Insteon devices?

 

Use an IOLinc.  Couple the NO contacts from your relay to the Sensor input on the IOLinc.

 

Then write a simple program

 

If

 

Control sensor input is ON

 

Then

 

Turn on whatever

Posted

Ahhh, forgot to add... I don't want to do this with a program because it is too slow.

 

Just saw your 2nd post. Programs execute immediately. It's scenes that have a bit of a lag.

Posted

With all due respect I believe you have that backwards. I've tried doing this before with a photo sensor device (relay output) to light my stairway. A program appeared to work but many times there would be a 3-5 second delay before the lights would light. I wound up using an open/close to trigger an IOLinc (in a scene) with the IOLinc set for a very long delay (for its on time). My program would turn it off after about a minute. This worked because my stairway lights required the relay in the IOLinc for its on/off control. In what I'm doing now I need several dimmers to come on instantly and I can turn them off later via a program, as before. But dimmers would turn off as soon as the driveway sensor contacts open, and I need them to come on immediately and go off after 5 minutes or so.

Posted

Just saw your 2nd post. Programs execute immediately. It's scenes that have a bit of a lag.

 

Nope, Scenes are immediate, programs have a delay.

Posted

If it's a simple program with only one then statement it should be almost instantaneous.

 

If you use a scene you'll still need a program to turn it on.

Posted

A goal appears to be immediate notification. A second goal is duration of the notification. A dilemma is that neither Insteon devices nor scenes can respond to On without also responding to Off.

 

A possible solution: Use one or more Mini Strobes controlled by an I/O Linc (plus device) and also a program that responds to On only to control other devices.

 

I have several. They're quite an attention getter. Sometimes eBay has a better price.

Posted

If it's a simple program with only one then statement it should be almost instantaneous.

 

If you use a scene you'll still need a program to turn it on.

 

You would think it would be instantaneous but it's not. Not all the time. I don't know what's going on with the ISY processor firmware but the guys who wrote it evidently didn't have response time as an important criteria.

 

And in my scene, the scene turns it on and the program turns it off.

Posted (edited)

You would think it would be instantaneous but it's not. Not all the time. I don't know what's going on with the ISY processor firmware but the guys who wrote it evidently didn't have response time as an important criteria.

 

And in my scene, the scene turns it on and the program turns it off.

 

I wonder if you have something else going on, i.e. poor communications or programs that are using a high amount of resources.

 

There should not be a several second delay to turn on a light when you run a program. Try running a diagnostics in level 3. If the hop count is high then that would indicate a comm issue.

Edited by Techman
Posted

I wonder if you have something else going on, i.e. poor communications or programs that are using a high amount of resources.

 

There should not be a several second delay to turn on a light when you run a program. Try running a diagnostics in level 3. If the hop count is high then that would indicate a comm issue.

 

If I had a comm issue would not the scene that turns it on also experience a delay at times?

Posted

I have several dark locations where the delay of a program controlled by a motion sensor, however brief, is too long. A scene turns the light on, a program turns it off.

 

Wingsy, the inherit delay of executing a program statement is mostly dependent on the speed of the processor. A significantly faster processor equates to both a significantly higher cost and, often, somewhat more heat.

Posted

I have several dark locations where the delay of a program controlled by a motion sensor, however brief, is too long. A scene turns the light on, a program turns it off.

 

Wingsy, the inherit delay of executing a program statement is mostly dependent on the speed of the processor. A significantly faster processor equates to both a significantly higher cost and, often, somewhat more heat.

 

I've got that too -- motion sensor for on and code for off. The good thing about a motion sensor is that you can set it to issue ON commands but no OFF commands. In fact, that's what I WAS using for my driveway lights until my motion sensor failed. So now I thought I would revisit the problem using open/close device or an IOLinc. In order to get a relay contact closure to trigger the motion sensor I modified the motion sensor IR circuit to accept a contact closure for its trigger. That's a really sensitive circuit and I believe that a transient from a recent storm killed it.

 

I'm going to try something ... I haven't yet looked into it and I expect to hit a wall but if not, it may work. I'll trigger a scene with the open/close and also trigger a program. Hopefully I can disable the scene via code and once the light is turned off, reenable the scene.

Posted

OK, I've had this discussion before and I'm at it again. Here's the scenario:

 

Have a NO relay contact from a driveway sensor. It closes for 1-5 seconds when a car passes.

 

I want this to trigger a 2475DA1 InLineLinc Dimmer (or any dimmer) to come on, AND STAY ON.

 

Is this even possible with any Insteon devices?

 

Set the NO contact to trip a TriggerLinc (Open/Close sensor); set the TriggerLinc to send On and Off commands on separate group.

 

Al

Posted

Set the NO contact to trip a TriggerLinc (Open/Close sensor); set the TriggerLinc to send On and Off commands on separate group.

 

Al

 

You can't do separate OFF commands with the Open/Close anymore. They took away the jumper in the recent devices.

Posted

You can't do separate OFF commands with the Open/Close anymore. They took away the jumper in the recent devices.

 

This has been a long time feature support issue that UDI must provide. I would suggest you submit a service request to ask this basic feature be offered.

 

The Trigger Linc / Open-Close sensor has been hobbled like this for more than a year. Not sure why its taking so long to include this feature.

 

Perhaps Smartlabs is still dragging their feet in providing the API?

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