Indigo Domotics

I've used the power failure notification feature happily for several years, having Indigo e-mail me at home and work if there's a power failure.

What I've been trying to figure out is how to have Indigo determine the length of the power failure, and I can't see how to do so?

Any suggestions?

Jim

I am guessing Mac OS X has a log file, that tracks crashes and start ups, somewhere that you can email to yourself when the computer starts back up.

I believe that the Indigo power failure notification only works if Indigo remains live but the PowerLinc loses power, which is what happens in my case for a power outage.

My Mac and Indigo are on a UPS. If the power on the Mac with Indigo goes off then upon restart Indigo restarts, but it does not generate a power failure notification because it can't differentiate restart from power out.

Jim

You need to set up a trigger for the "connection established" event. (something like that, I'm at work so can't check the exact wording).

When the power comes back your powerlinc will turn back on, re-establish a connection with the mac and you can do whatever you want at that point. I have an email go out when the power dies, and then another email go out when the power returns.

The trick to not getting a 'power returned' email every time you start indigo server though is to not have the 'connection established' trigger active at all times. Have the 'power failure' trigger enable the connection established' trigger, and have the 'connection established' trigger disable itself when it fires.

I have the MacMini on a UPS and a trigger defined to send email on "power failure". Works well. Unfortunately no trigger available for power back on. (Unless I missed a recent addition of such).

In my case the power comes back 30 seconds later as Emergency Power kicks in. I'm going to add an I/O relay plugged in to an outlet that does not get emergency power. That will be my "hydro back" trigger.

I'm also going to be using the power off trigger to kill power to an A/C unit until Hydro is back or temp gets too warm so as to save some load on the GenSet.

The power off trigger has been very reliable. A power on trigger would be very nice as for me, it would be confirmation that Emergency Power has kicked in. As it is I'll probably end up using another I/O device to give me that initial power back. Bit of an overkill perhaps, but like anything mechanical, emergency power does not 'always' kick in.

You must have missed my message above yours

Look for the 'communication established' event, that triggers every time the powerlink regains power and is basically equivalent to 'power is back' if you follow the other step I mentioned too.

Yes, I missed that

Not perfect as I suspect each restart will generate the trigger, but that's ok as If I caused the restart I'll know and ignore the email but it will/should give me confirmation that the GenSet is online.

Thanks for the extra 2x4 whack.

Heinz

Edit:
I think I might have an even better solution for my scenario.
On the Power Fail trigger I'll set a variable and then only send emails on interface connect if variable is set. Should work better than what I have now

Only enabling the reconnect trigger when a power failure has occured / disabling the reconnect trigger when the power has returned is what I mentioned and has worked perfectly for me. The only false alarm I've received was due to my mini crashing before it turned that trigger back off, so I got 1 false 'power returned mail' when the reboot completed, then it set itself back to normal.

Sorry Don, but what is your trigger for power restoration?

DPattee wrote:

You need to set up a trigger for the "connection established" event. (something like that, I'm at work so can't check the exact wording).

When the power comes back your powerlinc will turn back on, re-establish a connection with the mac and you can do whatever you want at that point. I have an email go out when the power dies, and then another email go out when the power returns.

The trick to not getting a 'power returned' email every time you start indigo server though is to not have the 'connection established' trigger active at all times. Have the 'power failure' trigger enable the connection established' trigger, and have the 'connection established' trigger disable itself when it fires.

I tried using Trigger on "Interface Connection Initialized," as the log does say "Connected to SmartHome PowerLinc USB E" upon power returning, but that trigger doesn't seem to work??

Jim

Hi Jim,

That should work. Can you troubleshoot it some more? Make sure the trigger is enabled and that you don't have a conditional on it.

If you don't have any luck, then please copy/paste what you see in the Event Log and explain exactly what you did (as far as disconnecting and reconnecting the PowerLinc) so we can try to figure it out.

Works fine today? Maybe I needed a server restart for some reason ...

or maybe it's because I finally ponied up the money for the upgrade, even though it's still in beta!

Are there any type of devices that can be used externally to determine when there is no voltage potential inside an outlet and then use that to update a variable inside indigo?

Just for a single outlet? So the house has power (Mac with Indigo and INSTEON modules?) but you want to monitor if one outlet or circuit loses power?

Isn't the PowerLinc 2413U powered by the outlet?
Because I was thinking that if I can keep it on a UPS I can still send out commands, while the power is out, to other Insteon devices on running on a different UPS. Thus I would need another method of determining a power outage.

That might work, but if you have the 2413U plugged into a UPS then it isn't going to be able to send power line commands out on to other circuits (even when the power is ON) since it will be isolated. So it will be only using RF.