Configuring a wireless sensor via Portal access

[JacktheRipper]

I manage an ISY in another state, via an ISY Portal connection. I have a Motion Sensor II in a little-used room, and I wrote a program to send me a text alert if motion is detected in that room. Unfortunately I hit the "Calibrate Temperature" button on the MS II device screen, and the ISY could not connect to the sensor. It now displays the big red exclamation point, and says it cannot communicate with the sensor. I presume that means my program no longer works. I can't push the button on the sensor because it's 1,000 miles away. Any way around this?

[mwester]

The ISY can't connect to it because it's asleep -- it's battery-powered, I presume.

Never-the-less, the device will awake and report in to the ISY just as before -- so the red exclamation point won't go away, but the device will do as it did before.

You can change/fix this with a program -- basically, the program should trigger on the device's heartbeat or motion detected or other event that you know will occur, and the action should be to update the device (I wait 1 second before doing so, so that whatever the ISY needs to do to respond to the reason the device woke up gets a chance to happen).  Don't forget to disable that program once it writes the update -- otherwise it will run each time the device awakes, doing nothing other than wasting its battery.  (I don't have that device, so I don't have a sample program for you, alas... perhaps someone else does, though...)

[kclenden]

6 hours ago, JacktheRipper said:

Any way around this?

6 hours ago, mwester said:

You can change/fix this with a program

Even easier...  you don't have to do anything.  I just tested this on my battery operated MS II.  The next time the MS II wakes up (heartbeat or motion), the ISY will complete the calibration on its own and the red exclamation will disappear.

[JacktheRipper]

Quote

Even easier...  you don't have to do anything.

kclenden...Yes, it did seem to repair itself over time, but I have to tell you that I'm really confused about how these wireless devices operate. The MS II shows three entries (Nodes?) in the Network>>ISY view, labeled xxx.Motion, xxx.Tamper and xxx.Enabled. There is no heartbeat mentioned anywhere that I can find. The xxx.Motion always shows a status of "ON", even after hours of operation with an empty room. The xxx.Tamper shows a status of OFF and never changes. The xxx.Enabled shows a status of ON and never changes. So, how often does the heart beat, and what, exactly does it do to the ISY? Note that the Wiki Help has no mention of the MS II, and the Insteon User Manual assumes you have a Hub. My Hub failed dead after only 10 months of use, and I don't plan on replacing it.

Adding to my confusion about wireless devices, I have four identical Triggerlincs on doors, but they operate differently: each Triggerlinc has three entries (Open, Closed and Heartbeat). Heartbeat is always ON for all four, Close shows no status for all four, and three of them show an Open status of ON if the door is opened, and OFF if the door is shut. However, the fourth one always shows ON, no matter what the door position is. Having said that, they all seem to be working correctly. Why are they different?

[kclenden]

16 hours ago, JacktheRipper said:

There is no heartbeat mentioned anywhere that I can find.

I don't think the MS II has a heartbeat.  I'm assuming this is because you can query it for "Battery Level".

16 hours ago, JacktheRipper said:

The xxx.Motion always shows a status of "ON", even after hours of operation with an empty room.

I'm guessing you have the MS II set to "Report: On Only".  Since the sensor never reports OFF, the ISY doesn't know when the sensor internally switches to OFF, and thus the ISY always reports the state as ON.

16 hours ago, JacktheRipper said:

The xxx.Tamper shows a status of OFF and never changes.

Interesting.  My MS II doesn't show any status for "Tamper".  It's not ON or OFF, just blank.

16 hours ago, JacktheRipper said:

Adding to my confusion about wireless devices, I have four identical Triggerlincs on doors, but they operate differently

 

16 hours ago, JacktheRipper said:

Heartbeat is always ON for all four

This is for the same reason the MS II always shows a status of ON.  The TriggerLinc sends an ON every ~24 hours on the "Heartbeat" node.  It never sends an OFF.  So the ISY always reports the "Heartbeat" as ON.  The only way to know if you're receiving heartbeats from the TriggerLincs is to setup a program that looks for the "Heartbeat" node to be "switched on".  I have a program that looks for the heartbeat to be switched on and then starts a 25 hour WAIT.  If another switched on is received with that 25 hours, the count starts again.  If one isn't received, the line after the WAIT sends me a text message saying that a heartbeat has been missed.

16 hours ago, JacktheRipper said:

Close shows no status for all four,

That's what my TriggerLinc shows as well.  This would indicate that the ISY has never received any kind of signal on the node from the TriggerLinc so I'm not sure what it's used for.

Edit: I take that back.  I think the TriggerLinc is basically the same thing as the current Open/Closed Sensor.  Given that, I think the "Closed" node is supposed to work in what is called a "Multi-Scene" mode.  In the "Multi-Scene" mode what is supposed to happen is that when the door is opened, an ON is reported on the "Open" node and when the door is closed an ON is reported on the "Closed" node.  This gives you more advanced control over what happens when the door is closed.  In the "Default" mode, since the "Open" node changes immediately when the door is opened and closed, if you have a light linked to the sensor it will come ON and go OFF immediately with the door state.  A lot of people want the light to come on immediately when the door is opened, but not go off immediately when the door is closed.  The "Multi-Scene" mode allows this because you can link the light to the "Open" node, but not link it to the "Closed" node.  In this case the light comes when the door is opened, but does not go off when the door is closed unless a controller, like the ISY, turns it off.  The problem is that the "Multi-Scene" mode cannot be programmed by the ISY.  There are questions about whether the mode is even still supported by the sensor.

16 hours ago, JacktheRipper said:

three of them show an Open status of ON if the door is opened, and OFF if the door is shut. However, the fourth one always shows ON, no matter what the door position is.

My TriggerLinc acts like your three.  Your fourth one is interesting.  I'd be interested in seeing the program the fourth is used in because I don't know how it can be reacting to an OFF if your ISY never sees an OFF.

[JacktheRipper]

Quote

I'm guessing you have the MS II set to "Report: On Only".

Exactly correct. At the time I noticed this, I had set the sensor to Report: On Only. Since then I have it set to Report: On/Off, and the status now toggles appropriately.

Quote

I'd be interested in seeing the program the fourth is used in because I don't know how it can be reacting to an OFF if your ISY never sees an OFF.

For the three Triggerlincs that show both on and off statuses, I have programs like this:

PM Front Door Alert - [ID 0013][Parent 0014]
If
        'PM Insteon / PM Front Door Opened' Status is On
Then
        Send Notification to 'Jacks iPhoneCC' content 'PM Fr Dr Open'
Else
        Send Notification to 'Jacks iPhoneCC' content 'PM Fr Dr Closed'

For the one that is showing only an ON status, I only check for an ON control event in a program (not a status). Perhaps that explains the difference.

Here's the full story...

I have a scene for garage lights that contains an Insteon wall switch (controller/responder), and the MS II (controller/responder with Report: ON/OFF). I have a Program#1 that turns the scene on if the Triggerlinc sends an ON command from the garage door opening (and it does not send any OFF commands when the door closes). The MS II sensor goes to ON status and turns the scene on if it detects motion, or if the scene is turned on by the program or the wall switch. It turns the scene off after a timeout of no motion detected. In case the battery in the MS II is depleted, I have a second Program#2, normally disabled, with a Then clause that turns the scene off after a delay, then disables itself. Program#1 enables Program#2 and runs the Then clause. I did this back-up scene-off program because this garage is in a vacation house, and I'm not always there to change out a battery if needed.

Hey, thanks so much for helping me understand this sensor. Since my original post above, I think I have finally got to what I wanted

[JacktheRipper]

Quote

Interesting.  My MS II doesn't show any status for "Tamper".  It's not ON or OFF, just blank.

kclenden... I've determined that removing the battery cover turns the Tamper node to ON status with a long beep in protest. Replacing the cover turns it to OFF silently. Perhaps you never have removed the cover after linking to ISY. I had done so, so I was showing a NO status.

I posted some additional learning in my other thread on the MS II here

[kclenden]

14 hours ago, JacktheRipper said:

I've determined that removing the battery cover turns the Tamper node to ON status with a long beep in protest.

Interesting.  I would have sworn that I had opened the battery cover since linking my MS's.  One of them is powered by USB, so I likely would have unplugged it before opening the battery cover, but the other one is battery powered.  Maybe I haven't opened that one since linking it.  I'll have to open it up and see what happens. ?

[JacktheRipper]

See next corrected post

[JacktheRipper]

Quote

You can change/fix this with a program -- basically, the program should trigger on the device's heartbeat or motion detected or other event that you know will occur, and the action should be to update the device (I wait 1 second before doing so, so that whatever the ISY needs to do to respond to the reason the device woke up gets a chance to happen).  Don't forget to disable that program once it writes the update -- otherwise it will run each time the device awakes, doing nothing other than wasting its battery.  (I don't have that device, so I don't have a sample program for you, alas... perhaps someone else does, though...) 

mwester... I did write such a program, and the temp and luminance values do seem to be updated with each motion detected. Battery level did not change, but that might be correct, given the short time span of my testing. Is there a way to get these variables available to a program? I don't have a need to do this, but others might. For instance, a freeze alert message might be of use. I'm an Arduino guy, so I already have notifications of freeze alerts from the garage at my second home in Oregon (where my MS II is located) issued by an Arduino derivative that has a temp and humidity sensor connected to the internet.

[kclenden]

9 hours ago, JacktheRipper said:

Is there a way to get these variables available to a program?

If you're running v5 of the firmware, yes.  Here's the program I use:

Record UH-MS Data - [ID 003F][Parent 0066]

If
        'UH-Motion Sensor.1 Motion' is switched On
 
Then
        Set 'UH-Motion Sensor.1 Motion' Query
        Wait  5 seconds
        $iUH_Temp  = 'UH-Motion Sensor.1 Motion' Temperature °F
        $iUH_Luminance  = 'UH-Motion Sensor.1 Motion' Luminance %
 
Else
   - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action')
 

In the Admin Console, while editing the program, you have to set "Action" to "Variable" then click the arrow to the right of the assignment operator (e.g. "=") until you get a list of devices then choose the device and the parameter.