Insurance

[aLf]

I have a program which runs when I'm away. It looks at a KPL button that also is linked to an APL. Both are either On or Off. It has worked flawless until last weeks 2/29 bug. When that bug appeared (and I know it won't again), but it happened and something similar could pop-up agian. When we went through last weeks turmoil, ISY dropped the True Value of my program and went False (also dropped the run at reboot). In doing so, ISY fugured I was home and quit running the associated programs. No big deal, but I'd rather not have them off when I'm not here. I'd like an "insurance" program that would basicly run my AWAY program which for the most part just turns everything off on a regular schedule. I (and my wife) don't like lights turning off when we are here so I hate to revert back to a program that is tied to my KPL button and APL.

 

Any ideas of a backup to my main program without causing me "at home" inconvienience would be appreciated.

 

Thanks,

 

aLf

[Michel Kohanim]

hi aLf,

 

First of all, I'd like to again apologize for this bug; it was something that we should've caught but we didn't.

 

Now, the easiest way for me would be:

1. Have ISY send you a notification whenever Away becomes false

2. Use release 2.7 (when available), use a regular mobile phone, login to your ISY, and then turn the program back on

 

In short, no guarantee is better than aLf intervention!

 

With kind regards,

Michel

 

Now in case of

I have a program which runs when I'm away. It looks at a KPL button that also is linked to an APL. Both are either On or Off. It has worked flawless until last weeks 2/29 bug. When that bug appeared (and I know it won't again), but it happened and something similar could pop-up agian. When we went through last weeks turmoil, ISY dropped the True Value of my program and went False (also dropped the run at reboot). In doing so, ISY fugured I was home and quit running the associated programs. No big deal, but I'd rather not have them off when I'm not here. I'd like an "insurance" program that would basicly run my AWAY program which for the most part just turns everything off on a regular schedule. I (and my wife) don't like lights turning off when we are here so I hate to revert back to a program that is tied to my KPL button and APL.

 

Any ideas of a backup to my main program without causing me "at home" inconvienience would be appreciated.

 

Thanks,

 

aLf

[aLf]

Michel:

 

First of all, there is absolutely NO reason for you to appologize. The whole reason for my post is to help fix problems. Your invention has saved me many a restless night. We all had an extra night last month, but I slept well 2/29 as well. I appreciate the AWAY-FALSE email and will implement it.

 

Did you guys also carch the "run at reboot" elimination as well? That is probably the biggest abnorm of the bug.

 

Thank you for your input and ISY.

 

aLf

[aLf]

Michel:

 

Per the above, can I?

 

IF

 

KPL H is OFF

or APL is OFF

and Program 'AWAY' is FALSE

 

THEN

 

Program run else "AWAY"

 

 

This assumes that the "IF" will show a false, even thogh it should be true. Then ISY would automatically turn the program back to TRUE and therefore rin else?

 

Thanks,

 

aLF

[Michel Kohanim]

aLf,

 

I think your logic would work (especially after reboot) but I must defer the final answer to Chris!

 

With kind regards,

Michel

 

Michel:

 

Per the above, can I?

 

IF

 

KPL H is OFF

or APL is OFF

and Program 'AWAY' is FALSE

 

THEN

 

Program run else "AWAY"

 

 

This assumes that the "IF" will show a false, even thogh it should be true. Then ISY would automatically turn the program back to TRUE and therefore rin else?

 

Thanks,

 

aLF

[Chris Jahn]

When we went through last weeks turmoil, ISY dropped the True Value of my program and went False (also dropped the run at reboot).

Can you elaborate on exactly what happened. I'm not sure what you mean when you say "dropped the run at reboot".

 

 

Instead of using the status of a light, you can do the following based on when you actually press the 'Away Button'. This will ensure that if you are away and the power goes out, the 'Away' program will continue to run when the ISY powers up again (without depending on the status of any lights or switches).

 

If
       (
            Control 'Away Button' is switched On
         Or Control 'Away Button' is switched Fast On
       )
   And Control 'Away Button' is not switched Off
   And Control 'Away Button' is not switched Fast Off

Then
       Set Program 'Away' to Run At Reboot
       Run Program 'Away'

Else
       Set Program 'Away' to Not Run At Reboot
       Stop program 'Away'

[aLf]

Chris:

 

When I manually updated the date for 2/29, the next day I went in and foud ISY again at 2/29, when it was at that time 3/1. I also noted that my Away program was not running else and showed False. In addition to that the KPL button and the APL were still Off. Then I noticed that the "run at reboot" had been taken off.

 

I again manually updated the date to 3/1, then querried the APL (which was off), the program immediately went back to True. I then went into the program list and re-iniated the run at reboot option for that program.

 

It has worked as advertised since.

 

As far as your program fix, I don't think that was really my problem. My program was left with the KPL button off as well as the APL (both are linked together). They both were still off and I assume would be off if the power came back up after an outage (that's the reason I have both the button or the APL as IF statements). Anyway, The program status showed False instead of true until I querried it. My asking for insurance was that I need a backup program that will automatically reset the program to runelse or be true again. Maybe let me know if you can help me write a program that will do that.

 

Thanks,

 

aLf

[DBaldwin]

Alf,

 

Am I off base or do we need some sort of a mechanical device, i.e. an old fashioned switch, that we could use for an input. Home or Away.

 

A mechanical device would be indipendent of power outages but needs the ISY to be able to query it for the current status. I can't think of an Insteon device that can provide that kind of input.

 

I've been trying to address this problem also although it hasn't yet been a very high priority.

[Sub-Routine]

An EZInput should be able to determine the state of a mechanical switch.