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    Current Sensor / Secu-16 problem

    I am automating my Tv room and have discovered that my TV and the Comcast box do not have discreet IR commands for on/of. So I decided to install current sensors to inform HS as to the current on/off condition of the TV/cable box. I installed CR Magnetics sensors, (which I have used before) http://www.crmagnetics.com/9321.pdf and found that when turned off wjth the remote, both items still consume too much power to trip the current sensor. As a matter of fact, when checking the cable box power line with a clamp on amp meter, I found the it draws 2.1 amps whether on or off! OK, so I guess there is no benefit in ever turning the cable box off, I will simply always leave it on. The Flat screen TV on the other hand, must be turned on/off. The voltage from the current sensor reads .676V with the TV on and .716V with the TV off. I am using an Ocelot with a Secu-16 in "supervised" mode with a 1 Kohm rsister for voltage drop, and the only way to turn on the current switch is to pull the TV plug out of the wall. Has anyone run into this issue? Sorry for the long post. Thanks for your help. Jim

    #2
    regarding the comcast dvr, i'm not surprised at all. they are designed to never really "turn off." They are designed around the assumption that if you have something scheduled to record, but have "turned it off" you still want it to record, so it doesn't really turn off the unit. It basically just turns off the outputs, and maybe a few other incidental innard things.

    regarding the tv, I don't know much about electricity, but I noticed that you measured the comcast dvr in amps, and the tv in volts. why is that? the only reason i ask is because it seems like the power consumption of a tv would be substantially different whether on or off.

    Ian
    Plugins:
    BLLogMonitor, BLGarbage, BLBackup, BLOutGoingCalls, BLUps, BLRfid, JvEss, DooMotion, Applied Digital Ocelot, AC RF Processor, UltraMon, PJC AVR 430, UPB, Rain8net, DSC Panel, JRiver Media center, Windows Media Player, SageMediaCenter, SnevlCID, MCSTemperature.

    Comment


      #3
      I measured the output of the TV current sensor in volts because the voltage change is what triggers the Secu-16. I am not married to the current sensors. If anyone knows another way to let HS know the on/off status of my TV, let me know. Thanks.

      Comment


        #4
        Check out the Bitwise Controls BC4, I haven't used it in this way, but Mark has posted how you can use the video out to send a signal to the BC4 and in turn notify HS if a video signal is present or not. You could then send an IR trigger to toggle the tv
        Over The Hill
        What Hill?
        Where?
        When?
        I Don't Remember Any Hill

        Virtualized Server 2k3 Ent X86 Guest on VMWare ESXi 4.1 with 3 SunRay thin clients as access points - HSPro 2.4.0.48 - ZTroller - ACRF2 (3 WGL 800's) - iAutomate RFID - Ledam - MLHSPlugin - Ultra1wire - RainRelay8 - TI103 - Ultramon - WAF-AB8SS - jvESS (11 zones) - Bitwise Controls BC4 - with 745 Total Devices - 550 Events - 104 scripts - 78 ZWave devices - 42 X10 devices - 76 DS10a's 3 RFXSenors and 32 Motion Sensors

        Comment


          #5
          here yo go

          http://forums.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=132696
          Over The Hill
          What Hill?
          Where?
          When?
          I Don't Remember Any Hill

          Virtualized Server 2k3 Ent X86 Guest on VMWare ESXi 4.1 with 3 SunRay thin clients as access points - HSPro 2.4.0.48 - ZTroller - ACRF2 (3 WGL 800's) - iAutomate RFID - Ledam - MLHSPlugin - Ultra1wire - RainRelay8 - TI103 - Ultramon - WAF-AB8SS - jvESS (11 zones) - Bitwise Controls BC4 - with 745 Total Devices - 550 Events - 104 scripts - 78 ZWave devices - 42 X10 devices - 76 DS10a's 3 RFXSenors and 32 Motion Sensors

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by termite View Post
            I am automating my Tv room and have discovered that my TV and the Comcast box do not have discreet IR commands for on/of. So I decided to install current sensors to inform HS as to the current on/off condition of the TV/cable box. I installed CR Magnetics sensors, (which I have used before) http://www.crmagnetics.com/9321.pdf and found that when turned off wjth the remote, both items still consume too much power to trip the current sensor. As a matter of fact, when checking the cable box power line with a clamp on amp meter, I found the it draws 2.1 amps whether on or off! OK, so I guess there is no benefit in ever turning the cable box off, I will simply always leave it on. The Flat screen TV on the other hand, must be turned on/off. The voltage from the current sensor reads .676V with the TV on and .716V with the TV off. I am using an Ocelot with a Secu-16 in "supervised" mode with a 1 Kohm rsister for voltage drop, and the only way to turn on the current switch is to pull the TV plug out of the wall. Has anyone run into this issue? Sorry for the long post. Thanks for your help. Jim

            Jim, The comcast cable box is really a hot button for me!!! It is absolutely outrageous that it consumes almost as much power when OFF as when ON. So I spent a lot of time trying to work around this issue. I also looked into ways to make sure the TV is off when the cable box is off. I have done a lot of work with current sensors but this approach cannot be used to detect when the cable box is ON or OFF. So I ended up using the "switched outlet" on the back of the cable box. When this feature is turned ON (cable box setup) it can be used to switch a relay ON/OFF. I have a DS10A connected via a relay connected to this outlet. So when the cable box is turned OFF, the DS10 sends a signal to Homeseer and Homeseer then sends on IR signal to the TV to turn it OFF. This works quite well.
            Hope this helps.

            Steve Q
            HomeSeer Version: HS3 Pro Edition 3.0.0.368, Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 - Home, Number of Devices: 373, Number of Events: 666, Enabled Plug-Ins
            2.0.83.0: BLRF, 2.0.10.0: BLUSBUIRT, 3.0.0.75: HSTouch Server, 3.0.0.58: mcsXap, 3.0.0.11: NetCAM, 3.0.0.36: X10, 3.0.1.25: Z-Wave,Alexa,HomeKit

            Comment


              #7
              I had a similair problem using current sensors with an item that had a very small difference between its on and off power consumption.

              The way I solved the problem was by remembering the old analogy about electicity in wires being like water in pipes.

              What I did was spilt the wire that I measured with the current sensor into 2 pieces (I spliced 2 small lenths of wire onto the single lead I monitored at first). One of these leads bypassed the current sensor and the other went through the current sensor. This (I think) made the amount of current going through the sensor 1/2 what it was before. I was then able to detect a difference, fine tuning with a number of wraps around the sensor. I'll see if I can make a sketch and post shortly.

              Oh, and the way I figured out the just right combo was by connecting a battery and LED through the current detector and tryind different combos of leads & wraps until I could get the light to go on/off with the device. Once that worked, I knew my SECU16 would be able to detect the tripping of the sensor as well... using the LED gave me quicker feedback than monitroing the SECU16 through a PC.
              Attached Files
              Last edited by jrfuda; January 12, 2009, 11:47 AM. Reason: Added Picture
              John
              Hardware: i5-6400T w/16GB RAM & SSD w/HS3Pro, Z-Net, Harmony Hub x2, Echo Dot x2, Ocelot
              Plugins: Z-wave, HSTouch, BLBackup, Harmony, GTS CPUXA, UltraMon3, Nest
              HSTouch: Multiple Android Devices; 5 x ToteVision MD-1001 10.1" Win 7 Tablets
              Devices: Cooper RF9501 x4, RF9517 x6, RF9534 x1, RF9540-N x7, RF9542 x1, RF9542-Z x2, RFHDSCG x1, RFWC5 x5; Intermatic HA02 x6; FortrezZ MIMOLite x3; Leviton VRPD3-1LW x4, VRR15-1LZ x6; Nest Tstat & 9x Protects; Dragon PD-100 x3, PA-100 x3

              Comment


                #8
                Thanks for the ideas guys. This is a great forum! Jrfuda, I will try splitting the power cable this evening. That make a lot of sens. Thanks again. Jim

                Comment


                  #9
                  Jim, Did you have a change to try my technique? Any luck?
                  John
                  Hardware: i5-6400T w/16GB RAM & SSD w/HS3Pro, Z-Net, Harmony Hub x2, Echo Dot x2, Ocelot
                  Plugins: Z-wave, HSTouch, BLBackup, Harmony, GTS CPUXA, UltraMon3, Nest
                  HSTouch: Multiple Android Devices; 5 x ToteVision MD-1001 10.1" Win 7 Tablets
                  Devices: Cooper RF9501 x4, RF9517 x6, RF9534 x1, RF9540-N x7, RF9542 x1, RF9542-Z x2, RFHDSCG x1, RFWC5 x5; Intermatic HA02 x6; FortrezZ MIMOLite x3; Leviton VRPD3-1LW x4, VRR15-1LZ x6; Nest Tstat & 9x Protects; Dragon PD-100 x3, PA-100 x3

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Jrfuda, I tried your technique and it worked like a charm. Thank You. I owe you a drink!

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Glad to hear it!
                      John
                      Hardware: i5-6400T w/16GB RAM & SSD w/HS3Pro, Z-Net, Harmony Hub x2, Echo Dot x2, Ocelot
                      Plugins: Z-wave, HSTouch, BLBackup, Harmony, GTS CPUXA, UltraMon3, Nest
                      HSTouch: Multiple Android Devices; 5 x ToteVision MD-1001 10.1" Win 7 Tablets
                      Devices: Cooper RF9501 x4, RF9517 x6, RF9534 x1, RF9540-N x7, RF9542 x1, RF9542-Z x2, RFHDSCG x1, RFWC5 x5; Intermatic HA02 x6; FortrezZ MIMOLite x3; Leviton VRPD3-1LW x4, VRR15-1LZ x6; Nest Tstat & 9x Protects; Dragon PD-100 x3, PA-100 x3

                      Comment

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