New Insteon Motion Sensor II...beta support available in the Updater

[mnsandler]

I'm an idiot. It's days.hours:minutes, not hours:minutes:seconds. Heart beat seems to be working as expected and updating at regular intervals, but the 'Last Change' timestamp for temp, battery, and light level does not always update when heart beat does.

I vaguely remember reading somewhere that your plugin does not update 'Last Change' if the value does not change, regardless of the "Do not update device last change time
if device value does not change" setting, is that correct? If so, any chance of changing that behavior or adding a setting in the plugin to change that behavior? Sometimes, even if value doesn't change, it's nice to know communication is working and the value isn't stale. Perhaps a discussion for another thread...

Mike,
HS controls the Last Change field. However the plugin does control when an update value is sent to HS. If the value doesn't change, the plugin does not send an update request.

i don't think i can change anything related to this functionality otherwise it might affect existing triggers

[mrceolla]

I realize it could effect people's existing events which is why I thought it could be an option. I added a post to your feature request thread.

Back to the motion sensor, ultimately the reset and reprogram a few posts back solved my initial problem. The rest was my confusion. Thanks for your help!

[mnsandler]

Mike, since this is considered beta support for the MS II i went ahead and added the change without an option setting

i posted 3.0.6.43 to beta section of the updater. please give it a try and report back here.

the 3 devices should show an updated date if you have the hs device option set accordingly ("Do not update device last change time
if device value does not change")

[mrceolla]

Hi Mark,

Thank you for the prompt work on that. Unfortunately, to me at least, that kind of makes matters even worse. If going forward, some Insteon devices always update the timestamp, and some don't, that could be even more confusing.

Are you opposed to an Insteon configuration setting that enables this globally across all devices, or is it that the scope of such a change is much greater?

Again, this isn't a huge deal since I am now aware of the situation, and the Insteon trigger workarounds. I just think it'd be nice, and consistent with other devices, if we could let HS and the option ("Do not update device last change time if device value does not change") decide if the timestamp should change, for all devices.

Another example... I used to be able to have events with 'Set to Off' as the trigger fire even if the Insteon light switch was already off. I don't recall if I did this with HS's old Insteon plugin, or an earlier version of yours. Now I must use the special Insteon trigger to achieve the same thing. Note that there is also a 'Changed to Off' trigger. It would seem the 'Set to Off' option is unreliable if not useless for Insteon devices. I believe this trigger does not fire because the timestamp does not update, or you are not sending the value to HS, in the cases where there is no actual change. I think the proposed change would solve this issue as well as provide confirmation values are current for sensor devices.

Again, I personally don't really need this. I'm more thinking about other/future users.

Have a great day!

[mnsandler]

Hi Mark,

Thank you for the prompt work on that. Unfortunately, to me at least, that kind of makes matters even worse. If going forward, some Insteon devices always update the timestamp, and some don't, that could be even more confusing.

Are you opposed to an Insteon configuration setting that enables this globally across all devices, or is it that the scope of such a change is much greater?

Again, this isn't a huge deal since I am now aware of the situation, and the Insteon trigger workarounds. I just think it'd be nice, and consistent with other devices, if we could let HS and the option ("Do not update device last change time if device value does not change") decide if the timestamp should change, for all devices.

Another example... I used to be able to have events with 'Set to Off' as the trigger fire even if the Insteon light switch was already off. I don't recall if I did this with HS's old Insteon plugin, or an earlier version of yours. Now I must use the special Insteon trigger to achieve the same thing. Note that there is also a 'Changed to Off' trigger. It would seem the 'Set to Off' option is unreliable if not useless for Insteon devices. I believe this trigger does not fire because the timestamp does not update, or you are not sending the value to HS, in the cases where there is no actual change. I think the proposed change would solve this issue as well as provide confirmation values are current for sensor devices.

Again, I personally don't really need this. I'm more thinking about other/future users.

Have a great day!

Mike,

thanks for the feedback. i can undo the motion sensor change. I'll have to look into the global option you mentioned. you are correct that the plugin does not send HS an update command if the value did not change. its been like this since HS2. I'm not sure of the value of this global option at this point.

that said, what would be the value of having a trigger 'set to off' fire if the device was already off. There is a hs trigger "device changes and becomes..." which i know works. It would fire if the device was On then changed to Off or vice versa.

if you really are trying to capture the sequence of a device that is currently Off and then gets set to Off again; i would be interested in that use case.

Edit: I confirmed with HST that setting a device value that is currently Off to a value of Off will fire the 'is set to' trigger

[mrceolla]

Hi Mark,

Here is at least one use case that I have used in two different homes. A bedroom with a walk-in closet that has a light. You're leaving the bedroom in the daytime. Room light is off, but dang! You left the closet light on. Instead of walking over to the closet, just tap 'Off' at the switch by the bedroom door. I am doing this now with Insteon special triggers.

'Set to ___', to me, is there to make sure an event fires whenever HS sees that value come in (or in this case whenever a particular button is pressed), and not require a change, which can be handy, in admittedly limited situations.

Again, not a huge deal to me since I am aware and your special triggers solve the above example. Probably more important is sensor-type data like w/ this motion sensor, and other/futures users who may get confused as to why 'Set to' isn't firing when they think it should (which was me at one point).

Thank you for the consideration!

Mike

[mnsandler]

Hi Mark,

Here is at least one use case that I have used in two different homes. A bedroom with a walk-in closet that has a light. You're leaving the bedroom in the daytime. Room light is off, but dang! You left the closet light on. Instead of walking over to the closet, just tap 'Off' at the switch by the bedroom door. I am doing this now with Insteon special triggers.

'Set to ___', to me, is there to make sure an event fires whenever HS sees that value come in (or in this case whenever a particular button is pressed), and not require a change, which can be handy, in admittedly limited situations.

Again, not a huge deal to me since I am aware and your special triggers solve the above example. Probably more important is sensor-type data like w/ this motion sensor, and other/futures users who may get confused as to why 'Set to' isn't firing when they think it should (which was me at one point).

Thank you for the consideration!

Mike

Mike thanks for the use case. I will put this request on the list. I'm trying to get to a new Release now before the holidays so we can revisit this at the next Beta cycle.

[terrydeadwyler]

Any word on when the next release will be? I am trying to get a motion detector II working but from what I have read in this thread is that is only in a beta release at this time. I would like to wait for the full release to upgrade the plugin.

Thanks,
Terry

[mnsandler]

i'm working on a new release now (3.0.7.0). should have it posted later this week

[terrydeadwyler]

Great! Thanks for the info.

[jonjonbear]

Can anyone tell me how to link these sensors to the PLM? I have the latest version of the plugin, 3.0.7.1 I've tried to tap add it and nothing happens. I push the set button on the sensor until the green light blinks. Is that correct? I am guessing there is no insteon address numbers on these to add manually? Thanks!

[mnsandler]

Can anyone tell me how to link these sensors to the PLM? I have the latest version of the plugin, 3.0.7.1 I've tried to tap add it and nothing happens. I push the set button on the sensor until the green light blinks. Is that correct? I am guessing there is no insteon address numbers on these to add manually? Thanks!

There is an insteon address; its inside behind the battery. Not sure the tap-add is reliable with these devices. Try the manual add.

[jonjonbear]

There is an insteon address; its inside behind the battery. Not sure the tap-add is reliable with these devices. Try the manual add.

Awesome. Found it. Thanks for the help!

[JeroenvV]

I tried to connect the Motion II sensor but get the message: "The Device Type is not supported. Check the HS Log for additional information." No additional information shown in the Log.
I use Plugin v3.0.7.1.

[Rupp]

I tried to connect the Motion II sensor but get the message: "The Device Type is not supported. Check the HS Log for additional information." No additional information shown in the Log.
I use Plugin v3.0.7.1.

Did you try the beta version that is in beta forum which is BETA 3.0.7.16