Wireless voltage sensor that ISY can monitor?

[telljcl]

Wondering if there is a simple and  cheap device that has a battery (or can be powered by one) and can transmit periodic DC voltage readings either to the ISY or something else that the ISY can communicate with (ELK for example)?

I wouldn't need real time data, maybe hourly or even 2-4 x daily would suffice.

Thanks for any help.

 

[larryllix]

22 minutes ago, telljcl said:

Wondering if there is a simple and  cheap device that has a battery (or can be powered by one) and can transmit periodic DC voltage readings either to the ISY or something else that the ISY can communicate with (ELK for example)?

I wouldn't need real time data, maybe hourly or even 2-4 x daily would suffice.

Thanks for any help.

 

Some people have hacked the Insteon thermostats to indicate external temperature and other analogue parameters.
The CAO Tags may be a good and hackable source but I have not heard anybody digging through any of those yet. Some have external sensors that may be an easy input for use.

The CAI WC8 board has 8? analogue inputs with better resolution and has a Rest interface to support ISY with direct deposits into variables and easy PLC type language. You would need a power supply and a small box to house it, Ethernet cable. I use one for wind speed and interior/exterior temperatures. Humidity sensors are available and the temp sensors are accurate and cheap ($0.99) on eBay etc..

[telljcl]

20 hours ago, larryllix said:

Some people have hacked the Insteon thermostats to indicate external temperature and other analogue parameters.
The CAO Tags may be a good and hackable source but I have not heard anybody digging through any of those yet. Some have external sensors that may be an easy input for use.

The CAI WC8 board has 8? analogue inputs with better resolution and has a Rest interface to support ISY with direct deposits into variables and easy PLC type language. You would need a power supply and a small box to house it, Ethernet cable. I use one for wind speed and interior/exterior temperatures. Humidity sensors are available and the temp sensors are accurate and cheap ($0.99) on eBay etc..

Thanks for the info. 

I actually have a CAI WC8 board I bought for temperature input some 3-4 years ago probably, but it's in my parts bin. 

I initially hooked it up and found it fairly easy to configure and use, but don't remember anything about it now.

If my little memory of it serves, I probably don't want to get that complicated. Also, in the mobile location I need to monitor voltage in, I need a super low current draw monitor or one that uses its own battery I can change or recharge a few times / year.

I really just need to have some type of notification, event, trigger etc. when voltage drops below a certain point.  I don't even really need an actual value, just a trigger when it is "not OK".

I was wondering if there was a gizmo out there that would convert / report DC voltage level as resistance on a 10K thermistor scale, so you could read voltage with a temp. sensor that has a 10K thermistor input.

Thanks again.

Edit: Something like this thing might work, triggering a wireless Insteon on Elk module of one kind or another. Looks like current draw is fairly minimal, but probably more than I'd like.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YTVK1JK/ref=sspa_dk_detail_0?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B07YTVK1JK&pd_rd_w=DHhVH&pf_rd_p=45a72588-80f7-4414-9851-786f6c16d42b&pd_rd_wg=QaVQ7&pf_rd_r=9NTHF80CW6P063XAY8VD&pd_rd_r=ee0e6d11-80b7-460e-a828-2f302fa112e5&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEzNlkzV0MxNTQzTjhOJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMDk1NzkwS0pWS0w0V0EyUTQzJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTA2MTEwMjA3MjBJWERRTktTQUcmd2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9kZXRhaWwmYWN0aW9uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl

 

Edited January 28, 2020 by telljcl

[larryllix]

4 hours ago, telljcl said:

Thanks for the info. 

I actually have a CAI WC8 board I bought for temperature input some 3-4 years ago probably, but it's in my parts bin. 

I initially hooked it up and found it fairly easy to configure and use, but don't remember anything about it now.

If my little memory of it serves, I probably don't want to get that complicated. Also, in the mobile location I need to monitor voltage in, I need a super low current draw monitor or one that uses its own battery I can change or recharge a few times / year.

I really just need to have some type of notification, event, trigger etc. when voltage drops below a certain point.  I don't even really need an actual value, just a trigger when it is "not OK".

I was wondering if there was a gizmo out there that would convert / report DC voltage level as resistance on a 10K thermistor scale, so you could read voltage with a temp. sensor that has a 10K thermistor input.

Thanks again.

Edit: Something like this thing might work, triggering a wireless Insteon on Elk module of one kind or another. Looks like current draw is fairly minimal, but probably more than I'd like.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YTVK1JK/ref=sspa_dk_detail_0?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B07YTVK1JK&pd_rd_w=DHhVH&pf_rd_p=45a72588-80f7-4414-9851-786f6c16d42b&pd_rd_wg=QaVQ7&pf_rd_r=9NTHF80CW6P063XAY8VD&pd_rd_r=ee0e6d11-80b7-460e-a828-2f302fa112e5&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEzNlkzV0MxNTQzTjhOJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMDk1NzkwS0pWS0w0V0EyUTQzJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTA2MTEwMjA3MjBJWERRTktTQUcmd2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9kZXRhaWwmYWN0aW9uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl

 

If that is the case it opens a whole new world of possibilities.

Just get an Insteon I/OLinc and protect the 5Vdc input with a few clamping diodes and a resistor, from the raw DC voltage you want to detect. Be careful of grounding combinations. IIRC the I/OLinc's input is isolated from the power supply line.

[Brian H]

One thing to consider. The I/OLinc  Sensor input is for a dry contact Sensor Input to Ground. It has an internal 5V sensing voltage on it. Supplied by a pull up 10K resistor to +5V and a  2.2K in series with the Sensor indicator LED also pulled up to +5V.

Edited January 28, 2020 by Brian H

[telljcl]

3 hours ago, larryllix said:

If that is the case it opens a whole new world of possibilities.

Just get an Insteon I/OLinc and protect the 5Vdc input with a few clamping diodes and a resistor, from the raw DC voltage you want to detect. Be careful of grounding combinations. IIRC the I/OLinc's input is isolated from the power supply line.

Thanks - do you happen to have a link to a similar circuit or diagram that shows what you're saying? The resistor would have to be a value such that whatever voltage makes it through is the trigger point you are looking for?

Thanks!

 

[ELA]

Interesting request as I had thought about wanting the same remote DVM capability for a short term data collection.   But never got serious about it. One possibility might be hacking the MSII. Connect into the circuit where the photocell measures luminance levels.  Limited resolution of <=255 but may be good enough?

    Depending upon how much time you want to invest?    A lot of low power battery devices need a trigger to wake them up so they can sleep and conserve the  battery.

  You can query an MSII that is powered via the USB cable input any time you want.   The downside is that you are not battery powered.   You could consider powering with a larger external battery into the USB input via a custom cable.  You would have to look at how long the battery might last if this is a long term need.

Then you can poll the MSII at intervals of your choosing via a program in the ISY and load the Luminance value ( your hacked analog value) into a variable that you can operate on.

Here is some info I collected on the MSII... if it might interest you to look into that idea.

https://forum.universal-devices.com/topic/26579-the-mysterious-motion-sensor-ii/

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 30, 2020 by ELA
bye JPG

[larryllix]

2 hours ago, telljcl said:

Thanks - do you happen to have a link to a similar circuit or diagram that shows what you're saying? The resistor would have to be a value such that whatever voltage makes it through is the trigger point you are looking for?

Thanks!

 

You would have to design a resistive voltage divider, with a possible Zener across the I/OLinc ipout to protect against spiking but probably the best and safest method would be an appropriate rating coil of a real and use the isolated contact into the I/OLinc input with it's 5Vdc aux output supply.

[telljcl]

Thanks for the input. I need pretty simple, some of this is probably going to be more time than I want to put into it.

I ordered the $15 gizmo from Amazon - it may be workable for my needs.