sensor mat?

Wed Jul 19 11:44:40 EDT 2017

I’m currently using pressure mats to try to control the lights on my stairwell, with a pressure mat under a carpet at the top and bottom of the stairs connected to Z-Wave dry contact sensors.  There are several of these.  Fibaro makes the FGK-10X door/window sensor, and Aotec  makes the ZW097.  The Fibaro comes with a magnet, but also has inputs for a dry switch, while the the Aotec is a dry sensor only.

Here’s the problem.  Neither one works properly with Vera.  They will install and work, but only if you use them in their most basic mode, and the reason is improper/incorrect implementation in Vera.  You cannot set associations with them.  If you do, they never to wake up after they start "waiting for wakeup to configure device.”  In fact, they never wake up, with the result that associations and scenes simply don’t work, and neither do they.  (Without associations to get Z-Wave devices to talk directly to each other, communication lag puts you halfway up the stairs before the lights go on.

Vera seems to be an ongoing problem.  I currently have ten Z-Wave LED bulbs, four Fibaro door/window sensors, and two Aotec dry contact sensors and two Liinear  on/off dimmer remotes that don’t work to manufacturers specifications, even though the Fibaro and Aotec devices are on the Vera compatibility installation lists, and Nortek, who makes the bulbs, owns 25% of Vera.  You’d think they’d be able to handle device interoperability, at least.  The Aotec Gen 5 Dry Contact Sensor was installed by Vera as an Aotec Flood Sensor (and doesn’t work at all), Vera turns on all ten LED bulbs at 30 second intervals at 1 AM or so, and the Linear WT00z-1 On-Off Dimmer Paddle installs as scene controller.  It’s not.  The Fibaros and Aztecs blink their LEDs but take no action, because they either can’t exchenag security keys properly, or if they do, they never wake up to configure themselves.

I’m seriously thinking about HomeSeer.

> On Jul 18, 2017, at 5:25 AM, James Sentman <james at sentman.com> wrote:
> 
> This kind of thing is so much fun to figure out :) Less fun though when you need something to be working as soon as possible and actually be reliable though..
> 
> Can’t you just give the priest an X10 remote and put a W800 on the machine in those places and ask them to push the button to stop the recording when they are finished? If you wanted to go very cheap you could even DIY an ESP based arduino to connect to some wifi and talk back to Xtension via the JSON server. (you don’t need to DIY interface for receiving JSON thats already built into XTension) you can just create a JSON server. Very simple, and very easy to program an arduino to sleep until it sees a button push and then make a request to the XTension JSON port. You can probably even just combine 2 of the example sketches to make it work with hardly any thought at all… I know you’re not afraid of those sorts of DIY projects because we’ve done stuff with that before.
> 
> If you really wanted to go over the top you could RFID chip the Chalice ;) But thats probably over the top. There are potentially other things you could bug too. A current sensor on the PA system so that when they turn off the microphones it stops the recording. Does the sacristy have a door on it? You could put a ZWave door sensor on that and not bother with a mat or other sensor. A ZWave door sensor on the organ console lid? Or the Piano lid? If you were going to give someone a button it might actually be more reliable to give it to the organist than the priest ;) Any ZWave contact closure can fairly easily be converted to work with a button rather than the meg sensor (I would be happy to make such an alteration for you and forward on the device if thats something you want to do and yet don’t feel like soldering directly to the boards on such devices) Heck, with a little but of logic you could probably do it with a ZWave motion sensor under the pulpit. I know the priest leaves the pulpit or wherever they stand there for extended periods of time during the service, but after the official end time you could start a countdown from the last motion hit there and probably make a fairly reliable timeout for when there is nobody up there anymore. I’m sure there are many more ways we could figure it out with us all brainstorming here, but the door sensor on something they definitely close when they are done like the cover of the sacristy or the organ would be the most reliable. Of course there might not always be an organist there depending on the service or if they were sick or something so you’d have to have your original timers as backup. Even a motion sensor in the sacristy might be enough depending on it’s setup and layout. You might be able to get a reliable motion hit when they return it to the box if it doesn’t have doors. In most places I’ve seen it’s basically a cabinet though sometimes a very fancy one. You could use nice safe 3M removable adhesive strips to hold on the door sensor and they can be quite small and unobtrusive so to assure them that it wasn’t going to be damaged.
> 
> You still need some timer logic in addition though as one of the choir boys might be rummaging through there to find the extra sacramental wine, or for some other completely legitimate reason ;) and so you don’t want to stop the recording based on that only 15 minutes into the service, but only when you know the service has a reasonable chance of truly being over.
> 
> There are ZWave contact closure devices I think, though they tend to be much more expensive than just the door sensors, so one could be connected to a pressure mat. The alarm system mats are quite good but I’ve not seen any small enough to fit into a small sized cabinet, and I don’t think you can cut one to size…
> 
> Also about your UPS, in my experience with X10 powerline devices every modern UPS is a HUGE signal sucker for the powerline. They have filters in them that destroy powerline signals completely. Insteon is a different frequency and a higher voltage level to get around such things but it will still likely be affected. You might be able to make even the insteon more reliable with just a regular X10 powerline filter on the UPS. I always make sure that every such device here is on a filter for just that reason. They aren’t expensive and might get you some more reliability while you make the transition to ZWave. Of course, if you’re using wireless insteon devices that won’t help any.
> 
> 
>> On Jul 17, 2017, at 10:32 PM, Dee Dee Sommers <deesquared at mac.com <mailto:deesquared at mac.com>> wrote:
>> 
>> Anyway, bottom line: I have been seeking SOMEthing that happens in the sacristy regularly at the conclusion of each Mass that I can somehow detect and shoot a signal to XTension.
>> 
>> Today one of the priests suggested having a small mat with a sensor where the Chalice is placed when it is returned to the sacristy after Mass. That is perfect!  So the mat needs to be exceptionally low-profile and not large. Ideally the sensor can communicate wirelessly, but I would consider some type of wired application as well if we need to.  
>> Only one of our locations actually has any hardware controllers.  Those are to control insteon devices but I’m starting to have some problems there and I do not know if it is a communications problem generated by possibly a weakened UPS in the room or some other piece of equipment that is fixin’ to fail, or if it is one or more of the units or even the modem that are the problem. (Right now I just have everything powered on until I have the time to investigate the appliance units that turn on the power for the equipment.)  Anyway, at that particular location, I am leaning toward using a Vera/Vera Lite to communicate with XTension. (we are currently using a different HA software with the Insteon equipment), but now that Vera does Insteon I see no reason to be running two different HA apps.  XTension is the app we MUST have running at all times on each of our systems.   So for the sensor, would we be able to use z-wave, insteon, or maybe JSON with a DIY interface?
>> 
> 
> Thanks,
>  James
> 
> 
> James Sentman                       http://www.PlanetaryGear.org <http://www.planetarygear.org/>		http://MacHomeAutomation.com <http://machomeautomation.com/>
> 
> 
> 
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