Detecting Power Failures (and power returns)

Posted on
Fri Jan 17, 2020 2:19 am
rustyhodge offline
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Joined: Nov 11, 2016

Detecting Power Failures (and power returns)

Is there any best practices to detect power failures? My Indigo machine is on a UPS with a long run time, and I'd like to run some events after a power failure.

I imagine I could so something with an EasyDAQ and running a wall wart into one of it's inputs to validate when power was on.

There may be some other devices I could ping to determine if they're no longer powered.

I'm intrigued by integrating something like the Powertronics Probe 100+ - USB Power Line Monitor, https://www.amazon.com//dp/B00AYRLH24/

Just wondering if anyone else had come up with a solution here? I don't want to re-invent the wheel.

Posted on
Fri Jan 17, 2020 7:52 am
FlyingDiver offline
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Re: Detecting Power Failures (and power returns)

Are you using a UPS with a USB connection to the Indigo server? If so, try http://www.indigodomo.com/pluginstore/108/

joe (aka FlyingDiver)
my plugins: http://forums.indigodomo.com/viewforum.php?f=177

Posted on
Fri Jan 17, 2020 12:57 pm
roquej offline
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Re: Detecting Power Failures (and power returns)

I got one of these devices when they were available. It works great with indigo.

https://www.amazon.com/seven7express-S7 ... op?ie=UTF8 https://www.amazon.com/seven7express-S7 ... op?ie=UTF8

Not sure if discontinued or what.

JP

Posted on
Sat Jan 18, 2020 2:25 pm
rtripa offline
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Joined: Dec 04, 2015

Re: Detecting Power Failures (and power returns)

Hi,

This is something I would be really interested too. The plug-in doesn't work (throws some error) and the "power failure" trigger isn't working either. I use an APC Smart-UPS 1000 and OS X does know when power fails, so I'm a little confused here...

Best,

Rui

Posted on
Sat Jan 18, 2020 2:40 pm
FlyingDiver offline
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Re: Detecting Power Failures (and power returns)

I think the plugin just needs to be updated for the responses provided by current OS versions.

I forked the original GitHub repository and incorporated the changes I made to my install. Grab the updated version here: https://github.com/FlyingDiver/Indigo-U ... /tag/1.0.5

If that works for everyone, I'll submit a pull request to the original project.

joe (aka FlyingDiver)
my plugins: http://forums.indigodomo.com/viewforum.php?f=177

Posted on
Sat Jan 18, 2020 3:10 pm
rtripa offline
Posts: 13
Joined: Dec 04, 2015

Re: Detecting Power Failures (and power returns)

Hi,

Just installed 1.05, but still no email sent. No more error though, so that part seems fixed. I've tried to trigger "AC Power is available -> False", but no luck. "Any change" also not working. For information I'm using latest Indigo on macOS Sierra.

Best,

Rui

Posted on
Sat Jan 18, 2020 3:13 pm
rtripa offline
Posts: 13
Joined: Dec 04, 2015

Re: Detecting Power Failures (and power returns)

Hummmm... Just unchecked all email options on the plugin, restated it and immediately the email was sent (UPS on battery). I need to do some more testing.

Best,

Rui

Posted on
Sat Jan 18, 2020 3:24 pm
FlyingDiver offline
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Re: Detecting Power Failures (and power returns)

The plugin itself knows nothing about emails. So you need to check if your triggers are firing, then go from there.

joe (aka FlyingDiver)
my plugins: http://forums.indigodomo.com/viewforum.php?f=177

Posted on
Sat Jan 18, 2020 3:39 pm
rtripa offline
Posts: 13
Joined: Dec 04, 2015

Re: Detecting Power Failures (and power returns)

Hi again,

Trigger is working fine as I tested beforehand.

Good news, it's working fine! I believe what was causing some confusion was the time it takes to react after power loss. It does seem to me that the trigger is only activated when the time interval of "Check Battery Level every:" finishes. So, if the default of 5 minutes is selected, it may take up to 5 minutes for the power loss to be detected. Changing this to 2 minutes made the detection much faster.
If this is the case, my suggestion would be to add a note to the readme file explaining this detail.

Anyway, many thanks, works great now! :-)

Best,

Rui

Posted on
Thu Aug 19, 2021 10:47 am
berkinet offline
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Joined: Nov 18, 2008
Location: Berkeley, CA, USA & Mougins, France

Re: Detecting Power Failures (and power returns)

A little late. But, this post shows something that may do the trick... and at a good price

Posted on
Tue Aug 24, 2021 10:29 am
jltnol offline
Posts: 989
Joined: Oct 15, 2013

Re: Detecting Power Failures (and power returns)

So I've been trying to work this out as well. Even with the UPS plugin set to poll every minute, it could be as long as 1:01 before Indigo registers a power failure. Depending on on how long an outage might be (short... 30 seconds or so), Indigo may not know the power went out at all. In the mean time, lights and modules that turn "ON" after a power outage are on, even if it's daylight and they should be off. In my case, a living room full of Hue Lights.

For me, I've found 2 different ways in addition to the UPS plugin to monitor power outages. First, I have a DSC alarm and plugin which can report to Indigo power losses, and I'm also running a Synology Server which can also report power failures. Both can communicate that info back to Indigo and act as Triggers, and in my case, turn off lights that should be off, and reset stuff that I normally have to re-set manually after a power outage.

So I guess my point here is look for other devices in your system that monitor for power failures, and see if you can use those as Trigger Events, or if you have other devices at home that can send Indigo an email or text message... anything that could be used as a trigger in addition to the UPS Plugin.
Last edited by jltnol on Wed Aug 25, 2021 10:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Posted on
Tue Aug 24, 2021 11:05 am
berkinet offline
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Re: Detecting Power Failures (and power returns)

jltnol wrote:
...So I guess my point here is look for other devices in your system that monitor for power failures, and see if you can use those as Trigger Events, or if you have other devices at home that can send Indigo an email or text message... anything that could be used as a trigger in addition to the UPS Plugin.
Did you read my post?

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