I am new to the ISY, so sorry if this has been answered somewhere else!

I am looking for a way to have a program detect a loss of connection to a ZWave device. I am setting up a watchdog on a chest freezer and am using the Zooz Zen 15 appliance switch. I have a program set up where I can look for a loss of power draw, but I also need to know if it is still connected to make a robust system.

On way I thought of doing it was to update a variable every time it gets a power report, then have something that triggers if that time delta has become to large. I am not sure what the best path to doing something like that would be.

Any suggestions from those more familiar with the ISY994?

Thanks,

John Vickers

You could have a program to query the device at certain intervals. Then have another program that checks for the device not responding and if not responding send a notification or set a state variable. 

I'm sure there are many other ways this could be accomplished as well.

How do you check for a response to a query in the programming language of ISY? 

If the device doesn't not respond you get a message saying it did not respond. To check it out, disconnect a Z-Wave device from power and manually query it from the admin console. You will see the notification pop-up. That notification can execute a notification or variable in a program.

Edited February 1, 20214 yr by dbuss

I know if I query the device when it is not powered I will get a popup saying that the request failed. I am not seeing any way to tie that into a program to send an email if it fails to many times. Can you give some instruction on how to tie this into a program, or point me to a link that has some info?

Thanks,

John Vickers

Here's a sample of the query program.

 

If
        From    Sunrise
        To      Sunrise (next day)
 
Then
        Repeat Every  15 minutes 
           Set 'ZW 025 On-Off Power Switch' Query
 
Else
   - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action')

Here's a sample of the notification program.

If
        'ZW 025 On-Off Power Switch' Responding is False
 
Then
        Send Notification to 'Email' content 'At Office'
 
Else
   - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action')
 

The first program will query the device. When the "popup saying that the request failed" happens, the second program will send the notification.

Thanks dbuss, that did the trick. For others coming across this thread, the piece I was missing is not all devices have the "responding" option. It is a condition under status for a device. In my case the meter device is a sub item under the switch. The switch had the "responding" option, but the meter didn't. 

The other piece I am still tweaking is the run time alerts. I have one program that keeps track of how long the freezer has been off:

Pantry Freezer Last Run Time - [ID 0006][Parent 0010]

If
        'Pantry / Freezer Switch / Freezer Power Meter' Status <= 5.000 Watts
 
Then
        $FreezerMinutesSinceLastRun  = 0
        $FreezerHoursSinceLastRun  = 0
        Repeat Every  1 minute 
           $FreezerMinutesSinceLastRun += 1
           $FreezerHoursSinceLastRun  = $FreezerMinutesSinceLastRun
           $FreezerHoursSinceLastRun /= 60
 
Else
        $FreezerMinutesSinceLastRun  = 0
        $FreezerHoursSinceLastRun  = 0
 

Then I have an alert program that would fire every morning if the freezer has not been on for more than 6 hours (normally it has about a 30-45 minute cycle so it would have had to be off for quite a few cycles at that point):

Pantry Freezer Alert - [ID 0007][Parent 0010]

If
        Time is  7:30:00AM
    And $FreezerHoursSinceLastRun >= 6
 
Then
        Send Notification to 'John Only' content 'Freezer Down Time Alert'
 
Else
   - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action')
 

Hopefully this helps someone else as well!

Thanks again,

John Vickers