Motion Sensor Communication

[rlebel]

It seems that with Houselinc2 whenever the 2420 is "active", for example due to motion, Houselinc can communicate with it for any needed settings. However, with ISY you can only communicate when the white button has been held down. Of course this is a real PIA if you have the sensor mounted up on the wall and you want to change its links or timeout or LED brightness. Am I missing something or is this a real negative between Houselinc2/ISY?

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi rlebel,

 

I am not sure how HouseLinc is capable of doing such a feat since - to conserve battery - motion sensors are deaf to INSTEON while not activated. You might want to try activating the motion sensor (by moving in front of it) and then test and see if it responds to ISY settings.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

 

It seems that with Houselinc2 whenever the 2420 is "active", for example due to motion, Houselinc can communicate with it for any needed settings. However, with ISY you can only communicate when the white button has been held down. Of course this is a real PIA if you have the sensor mounted up on the wall and you want to change its links or timeout or LED brightness. Am I missing something or is this a real negative between Houselinc2/ISY?

[rlebel]

Hi rlebel,

 

I am not sure how HouseLinc is capable of doing such a feat since - to conserve battery - motion sensors are deaf to INSTEON while not activated. You might want to try activating the motion sensor (by moving in front of it) and then test and see if it responds to ISY settings.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

 

It seems that with Houselinc2 whenever the 2420 is "active", for example due to motion, Houselinc can communicate with it for any needed settings. However, with ISY you can only communicate when the white button has been held down. Of course this is a real PIA if you have the sensor mounted up on the wall and you want to change its links or timeout or LED brightness. Am I missing something or is this a real negative between Houselinc2/ISY?

 

Note that I said "..whenever the 2420 is active, for example due to motion..". I understand that it cannot communicate if it is asleep, but I have tried to set the setting when it is active due to motion and it fails - but I can set it if and only if I use the white button to put it into linking mode. By the way, this is consistent with the warning you give "click and hold the set button for five seconds".

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi rlebel,

 

Then I am not sure how HL can do this unless they have a secret way of putting Motion Sensors into programming mode remotely.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[rlebel]

Hi rlebel,

 

Then I am not sure how HL can do this unless they have a secret way of putting Motion Sensors into programming mode remotely.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

 

From the Houslin2 online manual:

Once HouseLinc 2 is done synchronizing with your network, you will want to prompt HouseLinc 2 to synchronize with your battery-operated INSTEON devices, which may each be displayed on your devices list as an "Unknown Device". As a battery-saving feature, battery-operated INSTEON devices "go to sleep," so all you will need to do is activate them one at a time. For RemoteLinc (#2440, 2440BK), tap one of its buttons. For Motion Sensor (#2420M), activate it by walking in front it or tapping its Set button.

 

Presumably you can try this and run a trace on the packets used. It sure is a lot easier than having to take down the unit to press the button! Also, note that Houselinc can auto-find wireless devices, not requiring that you type in the device address as ISY does.

 

Thanks!

[nstein]

Hi rlebel,

 

Then I am not sure how HL can do this unless they have a secret way of putting Motion Sensors into programming mode remotely.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

 

I don't think they are doing anything secret.

 

You just have a very limited time window, as soon as HL2 receives an on command it sends a command to the motion sensor retrying if needed.

 

Everytime the motion sensor sends or recieves a command it will stay awake for a second or two.

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi Nick,

 

Are you certain that this is what they do? If so, what command do they send to the MS? There are only certain commands that the MS understands. Your input is greatly appreciated.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

Hi rlebel,

 

Then I am not sure how HL can do this unless they have a secret way of putting Motion Sensors into programming mode remotely.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

 

I don't think they are doing anything secret.

 

You just have a very limited time window, as soon as HL2 receives an on command it sends a command to the motion sensor retrying if needed.

 

Everytime the motion sensor sends or recieves a command it will stay awake for a second or two.

[nstein]

Hi Michel,

 

No I am not certain but, it looks like what they are doing.

 

With the current released version I don't think HL2 uses any commands/features ISY doesn't. What feature is missing from ISY and revision 1.x motion sensors that HL2 supports other than needing to enter linking mode?

 

The only thing ISY would have to do is query/delay a request or change to happen the next time motion is detected, or a command is received from the motion sensor.

 

I just done a quick test; I told ISY to read the settings, clicked OK but didn't put the motion sensor into linking mode, instead I just triggered motion and ISY was able to read the settings. But this only worked once of a couple tries, I might have got lucky, plus it was with a beta version I had handy.

 

-Nick

[Michel Kohanim]

Thanks Nick.

 

Will look into it. I am just afraid we are going to drain the battery for those 5% of the times that we want to do programming.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

 

 

Hi Michel,

 

No I am not certain but, it looks like what they are doing.

 

With the current released version I don't think HL2 uses any commands/features ISY doesn't. What feature is missing from ISY and revision 1.x motion sensors that HL2 supports other than needing to enter linking mode?

 

The only thing ISY would have to do is query/delay a request or change to happen the next time motion is detected, or a command is received from the motion sensor.

 

I just done a quick test; I told ISY to read the settings, clicked OK but didn't put the motion sensor into linking mode, instead I just triggered motion and ISY was able to read the settings. But this only worked once of a couple tries, I might have got lucky, plus it was with a beta version I had handy.

 

-Nick

[nstein]

Hi Michel,

 

I wasn't suggesting to read/write to the motion sensor every time it sends a command. Just after a user requests status or a change, and if you want to check it, just to make sure limit it to once every x hours/weeks or times tripped.

 

The settings we have now shouldn't be changing by themselves so checking them every time the motion sensor turns on would be wasteful and needlessly add to traffic. This could change if/when Smarthome creates an updated motion sensor with new features.

 

On way of implementing; A user request settings/link update or change, instead of doing the programing now ISY puts it in a query and checks the query every time it receives a command from the motion sensor; So the next time motion is sensed it makes the changes and removes it from the query, if the query is empty it does nothing.

 

On the down side it is going to be more work to program, sorry .

 

Thanks,

Nick

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi Nick,

 

Thanks so very much. That makes sense ... although a lot of programming but it might be worth it.

 

Thanks again and with kind regards,

Michel