Variable Times in Alerts

[chris932]

I see for the variables there is a "Last Changed" and it would be nice to use that value in alerts.

[Michel Kohanim]

Hello Chris932,

 

I have captured this requirement.

 

Thanks so very much and with kind regards,

Michel

[johnnyt]

I see for the variables there is a "Last Changed" and it would be nice to use that value in alerts.

... and program conditions

 

 

Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk

[chris932]

I came back to say that. But I think you could write your programs to work around the current situation.

[johnnyt]

I think you could write your programs to work around the current situation.

Do you mean by setting a different variable with the date and time every time I change a variable for which I want to track the last change date/time? Do-able, I guess, but not very elegant and lots of extra programs. I realize I can also use programs as variables and leverage the last run time (which I do) but that's only good for true/false situations (unless I'm missing something).

 

I'm already at 500 programs with some pent up demand for more of them. Judging from responses to this thread viewtopic.php?f=27&t=9997 I'm only one of maybe a few people to have that many programs and am actually planning to sit down soon to look hard at making cuts, including moving about 50 programs-as-variables I have from the pre-variable days to variables. This would not help.

 

If there's some other way I'm not picking up on, I'd like to hear about it.

[LeeG]

johnnyt

 

Not sure the post from chris932 was meant to be helpful. There was a series of posts from that ID and another early this morning that was clearly an advertisement. The chris932 posts did not carry links to other sites but the text in the posts did not seem valid.

[Vyrolan]

The chris932 posts did not carry links to other sites but the text in the posts did not seem valid.

I've seen some of them do scouting...an account like chris932 puts jibberish or nonsense and they see if it's deleted/banned/etc. If it's not, then they start an influx of actual spam. There was just another spam account. I assume the U-D guys will clean it up the next time they're on here.

[johnnyt]

Well his first comment is certainly valid. Count me in for being able to use Last Changed timestamp of variables in alerts and programs. And add to that having and being able to use Last Changed timestamp for devices/nodes too.

[Xathros]

And add to that having and being able to use Last Changed timestamp for devices/nodes too.

 

I was wishing for this last night myself...

 

-Xathros

[apostolakisl]

The chris932 posts did not carry links to other sites but the text in the posts did not seem valid.

I've seen some of them do scouting...an account like chris932 puts jibberish or nonsense and they see if it's deleted/banned/etc. If it's not, then they start an influx of actual spam. There was just another spam account. I assume the U-D guys will clean it up the next time they're on here.

 

 

I suspect that the comment was copied from another post made sometime in the past. Clearly a good comment (regardless of where it came from) and I wouldn't mind seeing the feature.

[chris932]

I'm a human, no spam, actual ISY owner. If I put Chris it's probably taken, if I put chis2 it's probably taken. If I put chris and mash a bunch of numbers it's probably not taken.

 

And yes what I meant was creating a program to count after a variable changes. Obviously not as elegant as being able to use it directly but it should be workable. I'm just getting started with the ISY so I have not built up to that many programs yet.

[arw01]

 

I'm already at 500 programs with some pent up demand for more of them. Judging from responses to this thread viewtopic.php?f=27&t=9997 I'm only one of maybe a few people to have that many programs and am actually planning to sit down soon to look hard at making cuts, including moving about 50 programs-as-variables I have from the pre-variable days to variables. This would not help.

 

If there's some other way I'm not picking up on, I'd like to hear about it.

 

Johhny, do share. What do your programs do that a newbie might want to think about?

 

Alan

[johnnyt]

 

Johhny, do share. What do your programs do that a newbie might want to think about?

 

Alan

about 50 are used as true/false variables - the only way to have variables when I got ISY two years ago (before version 3.x). At some point I'll try to move them to variables.

 

about 25 are used by the calendar app http://www.universal-devices.com/mwiki/ ... _Variables (get this one in early if you want it because it counts on the use of very specific variable ID's)

 

about 230 are used for non lighting applications:

• IO Lincs (9 of them) control:
  
  • HRV (off, low and high speed),
    House humidifier, when humidity is low (more on my temp/humidity solution below),
    Basement duct dampers (closed when AC is on and cooling is not needed in basement),
    Furnace fan (off, low, high), including high when upstairs temp is 2 deg warmer than main floor
    Office duct damper (off when heat on because room is always warm thanks in part to two always on computers)
    Electric blanket
    "LAN" closet fan, based on temperature
    The sensor in 3 of my IOLincs detect furnace heat call, AC call and Fan call respectively using a low voltage probe (which I can no longer find at Smarthome so I hope they don't break)
    

 

• If I redid this today I'd probably get a muti relay EZIO, but when I started out I didn't know I'd end up getting to 9 relays and 3 sensors.

 

• Other non-lighting controlled by in-wall switches include:
  
  • - bathroom fans, when humidity is high in bathroom compared to main floor
    - inline fan connected to duct I added from second floor to basement to make up for an improperly ducted system that means upstairs was always quite a bit warmer than downstairs (my ISY controlled venting mods have helped greatly)
    - roof cable
    - heated mat (outdoor step)
    - car block heater
    

I capture temperature and humidity from a Midon Design Temp08 1-wire solution through an Autelis RS232-to-ISY bridge. See here for more info viewtopic.php?f=78&t=9840

 

Because HVAC applications vary by season and temperature outside (I live in Ottawa, Canada where temp varies from -25 C to +40C, or about -15F to 100F, and the indoor humidity can vary from 15% in winter to 65% in summer if I let it) I have to have several programs to control them appropriately for the season.

 

My DSC alarm panel communicates with ISY through DSCLink so I can arm/disarm and react to the status of door and motion sensors connected to it.

 

A number of my programs control lights, and in some cases HVAC, according to daytime/nighttime, room occupancy, keypad buttons for away, sleep, vacation, alarm clock, kids alarm clock, "dinner time" (blink lights), alarm status, and gives garage door open warning (blink lights and "beep" an X10 universal module), etc. A few are also needed to turn off keypad buttons because before the latest (v40+) versions one keypadlinc button could not turn off a button on another one.

 

In the medium term I may add another Autelis RS232-to-ISY bridge to control a wired HVAC thermostat that I currently control with HomeSeer and that could require an estimated 50-100 programs based on what I have in HomeSeer and the fact that one HomeSeer program often requires many ISY programs to accomplish the same thing.

 

Finally, many programs are used to turn off lights after a while because my wife and kids don't seem to realize these things have to be turned off - of course my HA hobby has kind of enabled that.

 

Hope this helps.

[johnnyt]

Thought I would add something about controlling HVAC stuff since without it I would probably have well under 300 programs (including programs-as-variables):

 

Controlling my HRV, for example, accounts for about 40 programs. In the summer I want it to run it at night when it's cooler while in the winter I want to run it during the day when it's warmer. Below is the schedule I have. The "season" is based on current temp and forecasted temp (the latter being data I get from HomeSeer because there isn't an ISY solution):

 

• Spring/Fall,
  
  • low speed from 10AM to 6PM
    high speed from 1:30PM to 4PM
    off rest of the time

Summer

• low speed from from 5:30AM to10AM
  high speed from 3AM to 5:30 AM
  off rest of the time

Winter

• low speed from 11AM to 4PM
  high speed from 2PM to 2:30PM
  off rest of the time

 

Similar things apply with other HVAC applications. Another example is accounting for different "furnace fan high" scenarios both with and without HRV, including when I manually call for venting the house through a keypadlinc button. When I manually call for venting I have to override all the regular programming and reset it later. There are almost 2 dozen programs to manage the possibilities I accounted for there. Also, I don't want to run my inline fan when the master bathroom fan is on because it competes with it for air flow since the duct I added draws air from the master bedroom. - about a dozen programs to control that.

 

I could have kept things simple (i.e. one schedule year round) but I had the capability to make the system "smart" and maximize energy efficiency so I used it.

[johnnyt]

I thought I would copy the HVAC part of this to "How do you use ISY" since that seems to be a more appropriate place for it than this thread. I did make a few edits and added some info about my use of DSC alarm panel to affect my HVAC so you might get something out of reading the other thread.

 

See viewtopic.php?f=48&t=10174

[arw01]

Thank you Johnny, that helps quite a bit actually. Duct dampers have occured to me to try to balance things out a bit more with the basement vs. the upstairs, but we just put up with it always cooler in the basement.

 

For HVAC, I am waiting on the NEST thermostat to get a little better reviews with estimating runtime to be at temp before I invest in that. I understand their are api's for that too.