New guy...questions

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Tue Aug 27, 2013 5:32 pm
matt (support) offline
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Re: New guy...questions

Seeker wrote:
With the DSC plugin, the DSC devices do not show up in device groups devices. Also, they the box to 'show remotely' is greyed out and they do not show up in ios. Is this a limitation of the plugin or the way it was written?

I believe so. Plugins that define custom devices do not show in the main device list of Indigo Touch currently (we have plans to address this in the future), but if a plugin creates devices of one of the built-in types (relay, dimmer, sensor, thermostat) then it will show up in the Indigo Touch UI. In this case I believe the individual DSC zones could use the sensor type device, so you should post on Travis's DSC subforum to see if that might be a possible change he could implement. It might be difficult though depending on how he is using the custom devices.

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Posted on
Tue Aug 27, 2013 6:40 pm
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Re: New guy...questions

I guess a workaround would be to create v_door1 and change it via an on trigger and an off trigger? Then a device group for all the v_doors?

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Tue Aug 27, 2013 7:52 pm
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Re: New guy...questions

That should probably work.

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Tue Aug 27, 2013 8:03 pm
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Re: New guy...questions

Device groups can only have devices that support an on/off state. As Matt points out, it would probably be possible for Travis to upgrade the zone device so that they support an on/off state.

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Posted on
Wed Aug 28, 2013 11:18 am
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Re: New guy...questions

@Seeker

I am in the process of evaluating alternatives to Vera myself. I recently had the Z-Wave chip fail on my Vera 2, and am trying to decide whether to go Indigo or a new Vera unit. So far, my experiences have been extremely positive with Indigo and am leaning heavily that way (the numbers below are mine and aren't referencing your OP).

1. Indigo runs way faster than UI5 on a Vera 2. I suppose that some (most?) of this could be chalked up to the fact that I have Indigo running on a Mini with considerably more horsepower than my Vera 2. And I don't mean just the UI. My schedules in Indigo are lightning compared to scenes in Vera.

2. I'm using a Z-Stick S2 and found the inclusion process to be exceptionally simple, but did have some struggles with the first few devices being included into Indigo--seeming with Indigo communicating with the devices (the first device was less than 6 feet away and the second less than 8 feet). However, as I continued to add devices to my network, inclusion became much more stable and quicker.

3. For things that Vera can do that Indigo presently can't (for me, one very important issue was pulling values from my 1-wire network) I am using the Vera plugin. I physically pulled the Z-Wave chip from Vera and it still seems to work well--just reports that the dongle is not present. I get periodic "can't communicate with Vera" errors in my Indigo logs, but the data exchange restarts on its own.

4. With Indigo, I miss the ability to set device parameters the way you can in UI5--but I understand that this is being considered for Indigo in the future. I would very much like to see that.

5. Lastly, I haven't looked into reporting mechanisms with Indigo yet, but am very interested to learn whether there is anything comparable to DataMine available for Indigo.

6. I'm struggling with Control Pages, but I'm sure that I will get there. Seeing what others have devised makes me think it's my thick skull that is the barrier here.

At this point, my only real hang-up is the lack of a native Android app. Indigo Touch works flawlessly on my iPhone (locally and via Prism) but the wife's Moto is relegated to Control Pages which (at least until I can figure out how to construct them properly) really dents the WAF.

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Posted on
Wed Aug 28, 2013 3:42 pm
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Re: New guy...questions

DaveL17 wrote:
one very important issue was pulling values from my 1-wire network


Are you aware of the plugin made by Travis for 1-wire temp sensors? viewforum.php?f=57 in case it helps.

Computer says no.

Posted on
Wed Aug 28, 2013 4:10 pm
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Re: New guy...questions

DaveL17 wrote:
@Seeker

I am in the process of evaluating alternatives to Vera myself. I recently had the Z-Wave chip fail on my Vera 2, and am trying to decide whether to go Indigo or a new Vera unit. So far, my experiences have been extremely positive with Indigo and am leaning heavily that way (the numbers below are mine and aren't referencing your OP).


Vera served me well for almost two years and it is a good, simple device once configured. It was a good move for me at the time when I picked up about 50 z-wave devices during the Radio Shack clearance a couple of years ago. The mobile ios access was new to me as I never did pay for HS touch. My reason for changing was mainly flexibility and expansion. Vera has limits, and making changes is a somewhat slow, cumbersome trial-and-error process.

1. Indigo runs way faster than UI5 on a Vera 2. I suppose that some (most?) of this could be chalked up to the fact that I have Indigo running on a Mini with considerably more horsepower than my Vera 2. And I don't mean just the UI. My schedules in Indigo are lightning compared to scenes in Vera.


Yes, it is almost instant. I, too, purchased a dedicated mini. It is extremely fast.

2. I'm using a Z-Stick S2 and found the inclusion process to be exceptionally simple, but did have some struggles with the first few devices being included into Indigo--seeming with Indigo communicating with the devices (the first device was less than 6 feet away and the second less than 8 feet). However, as I continued to add devices to my network, inclusion became much more stable and quicker.


Honestly, I was planning to go HS3, so I purchased the z-troller. I'm not sure what advantages it has over the z-stick (if any), but it is a pleasure to use. I have not noticed any network errors, whereas my vera would lose devices periodically after the nightly heals. Time will tell on the z-troller, and I'm not sure if indigo has any optimization tools available. Honestly, I don't want to fool with any of that unless it becomes an issue.

4. With Indigo, I miss the ability to set device parameters the way you can in UI5--but I understand that this is being considered for Indigo in the future. I would very much like to see that.


You mean like GE dimmers to instant on/off? Yes, that was nice in vera. I had all my dimmers instant on/off.

6. I'm struggling with Control Pages, but I'm sure that I will get there. Seeing what others have devised makes me think it's my thick skull that is the barrier here.


I have a couple of simple ones set up, mainly for DSC statuses. My favorite vera ios app was homewave. It is an amazing app. I'd love to see something like that for indigo. However, the native iOS app and the basic web pages are simple and efficient.

So far I'm extremely pleased with the overall experience. I don't need hundreds of plugins. Just the few important ones. And the scripting possibilities seem very powerful.

Posted on
Wed Aug 28, 2013 6:33 pm
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Re: New guy...questions

durosity wrote:
Are you aware of the plugin made by Travis for 1-wire temp sensors? viewforum.php?f=57 in case it helps.

I saw that. My network is based on the EDS OW-Server which I presumed this plugin wouldn't cover. Maybe I'm wrong there?
Last edited by DaveL17 on Wed Aug 28, 2013 7:00 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Wed Aug 28, 2013 6:56 pm
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Re: New guy...questions

Seeker wrote:
You mean like GE dimmers to instant on/off? Yes, that was nice in vera. I had all my dimmers instant on/off.

For me, the big one is the Everspring Illumination Sensor - ST815

I have a couple of simple ones set up, mainly for DSC statuses. My favorite vera ios app was homewave. It is an amazing app. I'd love to see something like that for indigo. However, the native iOS app and the basic web pages are simple and efficient.

Homewave is really great. It's my favorite control app for Vera too.

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Posted on
Wed Aug 28, 2013 8:51 pm
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Re: New guy...questions

DaveL17 wrote:
Seeker wrote:
You mean like GE dimmers to instant on/off? Yes, that was nice in vera. I had all my dimmers instant on/off.

For me, the big one is the Everspring Illumination Sensor - ST815

Dave: We have an internal version of the Z-Wave library you can try which supports settings some of the ST815 parameters. Email us (indigo-support AT perceptiveautomation.com) if you want to give it a try.

Seeker: We can also look into configuration parameters for GE dimmers. It'll help us to know exactly which version you have and what parameters you want to see. Lots of the modules have some very esoteric parameters which I think very few, if any, will find useful and in some cases they can cause significant problems (traffic / battery drain) if set incorrectly. We might add a general purpose UI for setting arbitrary parameters for cases where the user has the param specs, but for the main device UI we include I'm mainly interested in adding the parameters that are truly useful and usable.

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Thu Aug 29, 2013 9:37 am
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Re: New guy...questions

DaveL17 wrote:
durosity wrote:
Are you aware of the plugin made by Travis for 1-wire temp sensors? viewforum.php?f=57 in case it helps.

I saw that. My network is based on the EDS OW-Server which I presumed this plugin wouldn't cover. Maybe I'm wrong there?


I wonder if you could just move from your current ethernet-based version to the USB interface supported in Travis's plugin. I really know nothing about 1-wire so it may not be practical. The other option is to see if you can negotiate with Travis to add support for your interface... ;)

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Posted on
Thu Aug 29, 2013 6:41 pm
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Re: New guy...questions

jay (support) wrote:
I wonder if you could just move from your current ethernet-based version to the USB interface supported in Travis's plugin. I really know nothing about 1-wire so it may not be practical. The other option is to see if you can negotiate with Travis to add support for your interface... ;)


Thanks for the thought Jay. I don't know whether the pinouts for the EDS would be based on an industry standard or if it would require me to rewire my sensor network. If Travis were willing to add the EDS to his plugin, that would be great. But who knows, maybe that could be my first plugin! :)

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Posted on
Sat Aug 31, 2013 3:33 pm
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Re: New guy...questions

Edit: never mind.

Posted on
Sat Aug 31, 2013 6:16 pm
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Re: New guy...questions

Regarding creation of a new virtual device: Is it possible to simply have a device that I can turn on or off without having to associate it with action groups? Is the idea that normally you would want the virtual device to be switch by actions? What if I'd like a simple manual virtual device such as 'sleep late', against which actions could be compared? Does this exist?

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Sun Sep 01, 2013 9:53 am
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Re: New guy...questions

Well, at the very least, the virtual on/off device must explicitly set it's state to on/off when you command it to turn on/off (Device Actions->Virtual Device Controls->Set Virtual On/Off Device State) so just create an action group that sets it's state on and another that sets it's state off - then turning it on will simply set the state to be on (which will then get reflected in the UI and cause triggers to fire, etc.). The Virtual On/Off device's state won't change just by clicking the Turn On/Off buttons - the reason for this is that this device type is really meant to make it easy to control a real on/off device. You wouldn't necessarily want to assume that just hitting the ON button would work. It's more likely that the ON button would fire the action(s) that would instruct whatever you're controlling to turn ON. This brings with it the possibility that it might not turn on for some reason so you'd want the chance to make sure it worked. Or not - but that's why we separated out the actual device state change action from the act of requesting that the virtual device to go on.

For something even simpler just use a variable instead and set the variable to "on" and "off" - you can even use the Variable Actions->Toggle Variable to toggle the value if you need to. Based on your example, a variable is probably all that you need (though you don't specify what happens when sleep late is "on" or "true") and it's much more light-weight. And, unlike other systems, Indigo variables persist across reboots so once you've created a variable its there until you explicitly delete. I could never understand why some other systems make variables transient.

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