Garage door frustration

[MarkJames]

I've searched and searched and I'm sure I'm doing something just silly but I can't figure out where I'm going wrong.

 

I hooked up an iolinc as per the smarthome instructions and it works as it should - tap set and it opens - tap it again and it closes.

 

I can't make it work properly from ISY though. I have it set for LED on TX and momentary:both. The time out is set for 2 seconds and this seems to be OK with my garage door opener

 

I've confirmed that:

When the door is closed the sensor reads off

When the door is open the sensor reads on

 

If the door is open and I send an ON it will close

Once it's closed an off will NOT open it. In order to open it I have to send the off and then a subsequent on. In other words it only works in response to an ON command and not to the off regardless of the sensor input.

 

 

 

Am I missing something obvious?

[TS99]

I had the same issue, the relay would not switch back to off after sending the on command. I created a program to basically get the relay status back to normal:

 

If
       Status  'GDO-Relay' is On

Then
       Wait  10 seconds
       Set 'GDO-Relay' Query

Else
  - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action')

 

There are some other threads in the forum with much more elaborate GDO programs, but this quick and dirty program gets the status back to normal.

[MarkJames]

Ahh....

 

Thanks for that. I read a lot of the code snippets people were using but didn't get why so much elaboration for what should be a simple task. My 2450's are brand new.... one would think they would work as advertised.

 

Thanks again,

 

Mark

[jasonl99]

one would think they would work as advertised

 

It's probably not the product - it could be a simple case of noise generated by the garage door opener's motor (which is pretty large) simply doesn't allow the signal to pass through. TS99's idea works by waiting for the motor to stop running and requerying it.

[Sub-Routine]

It is not the noise. When the relay switches Off because it is set to Momentary it does not send an Insteon signal that it changed to Off.

 

Sending an On will send an On no matter what the relay status is. You should not have to send an Off first.

 

Momentary: Both should activate the relay with an Off or an On command. Which firmware is in your ISY?

[MarkJames]

Sending an On will send an On no matter what the relay status is. You should not have to send an Off first.

 

Momentary: Both should activate the relay with an Off or an On command. Which firmware is in your ISY?

 

I thought the same - that sending an ON should be an ON whether an off was sent first or not. But I do, indeed, have to send an off first. I've tried this both from direct control of the iolinc or with it in as a responder in a scene.

 

As for my firmware - in an effort to make this work properly I upgraded from 2.7 which was the version I got it with to 2.7.6 which is what it's currently at.

 

The smarthome manual states that the iolinc can be set up so that an on will cause it to open the door while an off will cause it to close. http://www.smarthome.com/manuals/74551qs.pdf near the bottom says this.

 

Very confoozalating

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi MarkJames,

 

1. Please try 2.7.7 and above

2. Please note the following:

a. IOLincs versions 31 and below return the status of their sensor for the status of the relay regardless of the status of the relay. So, if you have any programs that depend on the status of the relay, then that would explain why you have to turn it off then on

b. As Rand mentioned, in momentary mode, IOLinc does NOT resend the status of the relay when it's been turned off

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[MarkJames]

Thanks, Michael....

 

Only problem is that I can't find 2.7.7 anymore. It seems to be something one needs to sign up for. Could you please point me at it?

 

Thanks!

 

mark

 

 

Oh.. and by the way - while I remember - I was sitting at my computer today for quite some time plodding away with the ISY software and after an hour or two I realized that I had been backing up and saving my changes every few minutes. I do that automatically as I'm so accustomed to things crashing on me. The thing is - the ISY software never crashed - not even a hiccup..... That's quite remarkable! Thanks for that!

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi MarkJames,

 

Thanks so very much for the update (and words of encouragement!). Please send an email to support@universal-devices.com and we'll have the instructions emailed to you.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[MarkJames]

Hi, Michael,

 

Sorry for the late reply. It's been deluging here for the last few days and I've not been inclined to do things that involve standing in the rain. Over 320mm of rain has fallen in the last 3 days - that's over 12 1/2"! Fortunately today the rain has stopped and the sky is clear. Things here aren't looking so great for the winter Olympics that start in less than 4 weeks. Much of the local snow has washed away and the mild, rainy weather is here for a bit.

 

Anyways - I've downloaded 2.7.7 and upgraded my ISY. That all went smoothly. There has been no change to the method with which it interacts with the door, though.

 

The iolinc is configured as momentary both - that's the only option ticked other than the LED. The contacts I'm using are NO.

 

When the door is closed the sensor node reads OFF

When the door is open the sensor node reads ON

 

When I send an ON command it will set the door in motion - whether that motion is up or down it makes no difference. Sending an OFF has no effect at all.

 

While the door is stationary - whether it's open or closed - if the relay is ON then sending an additional ON has no effect - the door will not move. In order to make the door move an OFF must be sent followed by an ON.

 

I'm seeing many other ISY users garage programs that all reset the relay to OFF a few seconds after it is turned on. I'm assuming this is why they do it? I don't mind programming it this way - it's not really a big deal - I'm just trying to understand why it doesn't behave the way I expect it to.

 

Thanks!

 

mark

[brad77]

For what it's worth, my IOLinc is in Momentary B mode, and I do not set the relay to off at any time. I do however have a program that queries the relay 30 seconds after it is turned on so that the ISY knows the correct relay status. I wait 30 seconds to prevent colliding with any signals sent by the IO Linc's sensor as my door takes about 10 seconds to close. 30 is probably overly long, but it works.

[MarkJames]

For what it's worth, my IOLinc is in Momentary B mode, and I do not set the relay to off at any time. I do however have a program that queries the relay 30 seconds after it is turned on so that the ISY knows the correct relay status. I wait 30 seconds to prevent colliding with any signals sent by the IO Linc's sensor as my door takes about 10 seconds to close. 30 is probably overly long, but it works.

 

How are your door contacts configured? NO or NC? I don't know that this matters but every little detail might be it.

 

Oh.. and more significantly... are you calling momentary both momentary b or are you calling momentary: look at sensor - b? I have mine on momentary: both (which I believe is the smarthome equivalent of momentary c)

 

 

Thanks,

 

Mark

[Drosen]

Hi Mark,

 

Check out this link from the Wiki:

http://www.universal-devices.com/mwiki/ ... e_Door_Kit

 

I've done this install a number of times with success. Mine varies as follows:

 

I use red and black of the sensor to connect to IOlinc. and so don't enable trigger off. Also, change in kp button status triggers a query of relay after a 15 second wait in a program.

 

Struggled with this as you are now. Hope this helps.

[MarkJames]

Thanks for the link - that looks like just what I need. I'll try my hand at that tomorrow.

 

I installed a photo-beam today so that as guests enter the yard the path lighting and front door lighting turn on. Insteon is so quick and reliable it works like magic. The photobeam turned out to be quite a bit of work to install. The wiring and all was easy but I had to make a custom bracket to hold it because of the relationship of my garage to my gate. The angle was really acute and the stock bracket that came with it wouldn't work. I'm trying to figure out a way to use a combination of the garage door opening and the beam being broken to decide if I'm coming or going. The whole coming or going thing is hard if you don't want to be burdened with pressing a button to actually TELL the system what you're doing.

 

Thanks again - I'll post back how it goes.

[brad77]

How are your door contacts configured? NO or NC? I don't know that this matters but every little detail might be it.

I have used both. Either way works the same in my configuration. They just toggle the sensor status when the door is open versus closed. I am set up so that the light is ON when the door is open. I felt it was more consistent with the way the ISY displays the status, showing ON in red.

 

Oh.. and more significantly... are you calling momentary both momentary b or are you calling momentary: look at sensor - b? I have mine on momentary: both (which I believe is the smarthome equivalent of momentary c)

I'm not sure, as Smarthome's manual doesn't jive exactly with the ISY's description of the options, so here's a screen shot of my setup on firmware 2.7.9a:

 

 

Hope that helps!

[MarkJames]

Hi Mark,

 

Check out this link from the Wiki:

http://www.universal-devices.com/mwiki/ ... e_Door_Kit

 

 

Thanks - that actually made perfect sense. I did two things to make it work.

 

First I downloaded the 2.7.9 firmware as the iolinc options are better there and I could set it up as brad77 indicated (mine was wrong, it turns out - it was set for latch).

 

Second I wrote the following code snippet so that the light for the door flashes to get your attention if the door is open

 

 

It flashes the lights a few times, waits 10 seconds and then runs itself again. I wanted to use the repeat command for the flashing but I couldn't figure out how to stop a repeat - it seems once you hit repeat then the rest of your then statement is all repeat.

 

Anyways - thanks all for your help. This works nicely now.

 

Mark

[/img]

[Sub-Routine]

I wanted to use the repeat command for the flashing but I couldn't figure out how to stop a repeat - it seems once you hit repeat then the rest of your then statement is all repeat.

 

A Repeat is delimited with another Repeat, so Repeat 1 time...

[AnthemAVM]

I am noticing that after a Factory Reset on the 2450 the program I wrote to send the off command is not working. The Relay is stayin in the on position and not moving back to the off command in the display.

 

If I querry the device it comes back with the off.

 

Any idea what might be wrong?

 

I am using 2.7.9A

[Michel Kohanim]

AnthemAVM,

 

What does ISY report for the firmware version on your IOLinc?

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[AnthemAVM]

AnthemAVM,

 

What does ISY report for the firmware version on your IOLinc?

 

With kind regards,

Michel

 

Michael,

 

I am not sure I checked correctly but in the header it says v.00

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi AnthemAVM,

 

It's very important to figure out the version number. We have two choices:

1. Remove the IOLinc from ISY and this time add it using Link Management | Start Linking

2. Check the back of the unit to see if it has a label with the firmware version

 

In versions 31 and below, IOLinc always returned the status of the relay for the status of the sensor. This is the root cause of all issues.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

 

AnthemAVM,

 

What does ISY report for the firmware version on your IOLinc?

 

With kind regards,

Michel

 

Michael,

 

I am not sure I checked correctly but in the header it says v.00