Water flow detection.

[integlikewhoa]

It should with HS3 too. Contact their support (they are pretty responsive) if you want to confirm. Alternately you could use a Fortrezz Mimolite or Mimo to connect to water meter that has a pulse output such as these: http://www.jerman.com/dljcmeters.html. I use the latter approach and it works well. I have one on my main water line and one on the line for the sprinklers.

Cheers
Al

What do you do with the pulse output? How do you log it for say an hour or day? I have several mimolites already but never tried them for pulse inputs and when reading they didn't seem to work so reliable.

[integlikewhoa]

It should with HS3 too. Contact their support (they are pretty responsive) if you want to confirm.

I called and talked to Fortrezz this morning (very nice to talk to and helpful) and I confirmed that although it pairs it will only show up as what he remembers as a watt reading and maybe water temp.

For smartthings fortrezz built a plugin that uses their cloud to store all the data and do the math and conversions. gives you hourly, weekly or monthly usage data and can overly current weekly or daily over the top of previous days or weeks to compare.

He said when they contacted homeseer there wasn't much interest or demand for a plugin to be created to get actual functional data displayed in homeseer. He was hesitant to recommend the valve for me since he felt like the basic data wasn't worth it for me unless there was a plugin.

My question is how hard is it to make a plugin? And will homeseer come out with their own meter or plugin now that they have their own water valves?


EDIT: Talked to Homeseer Support over the phone now. They acted as if they never seen heard or even seen this device. They requested that they would need an engineering sample of one to test it. They also seem to think it would show up in homeseer but not really sure how it would end up looking like or what child devices would be created. They also seem to agree that they don't have anything defaulted to flow rate so more then likely it would be a pulse or watt label on the actual number the device gives out. They said they didn't have anything in the works for their own and would be happy to take a look at or help out if I had the device installed in HS3 or if they got a engineering sample.

My worry is the demand is probley not high for this meter and support or help on this probley is also not very high compared to other more troubling issues or devices. Even if they did get a sample there is no promise of anything or in any timeline I would assume.

[sparkman]

What do you do with the pulse output? How do you log it for say an hour or day? I have several mimolites already but never tried them for pulse inputs and when reading they didn't seem to work so reliable.

I calculate the daily usage based on the pulse output changing. I have virtual devices where I store the start pulse value for the day and then compare against it. You could just reset the pulse value daily as well. I also keep weekly and monthly values in and jon00's database/graphing utility to store and graph that data.

For flow issues (flow when there should be none and vice-versa), I have events based on the pulse value changing or not changing. No need to convert to gallons or liters for that.

Cheers
Al

[mrhappy]

I called and talked to Fortrezz this morning (very nice to talk to and helpful) and I confirmed that although it pairs it will only show up as what he remembers as a watt reading and maybe water temp.

For smartthings fortrezz built a plugin that uses their cloud to store all the data and do the math and conversions. gives you hourly, weekly or monthly usage data and can overly current weekly or daily over the top of previous days or weeks to compare.

He said when they contacted homeseer there wasn't much interest or demand for a plugin to be created to get actual functional data displayed in homeseer. He was hesitant to recommend the valve for me since he felt like the basic data wasn't worth it for me unless there was a plugin.

My question is how hard is it to make a plugin? And will homeseer come out with their own meter or plugin now that they have their own water valves?


EDIT: Talked to Homeseer Support over the phone now. They acted as if they never seen heard or even seen this device. They requested that they would need an engineering sample of one to test it. They also seem to think it would show up in homeseer but not really sure how it would end up looking like or what child devices would be created. They also seem to agree that they don't have anything defaulted to flow rate so more then likely it would be a pulse or watt label on the actual number the device gives out. They said they didn't have anything in the works for their own and would be happy to take a look at or help out if I had the device installed in HS3 or if they got a engineering sample.

My worry is the demand is probley not high for this meter and support or help on this probley is also not very high compared to other more troubling issues or devices. Even if they did get a sample there is no promise of anything or in any timeline I would assume.

Making plugins is not trivial, making them when you don't need to use them (which I have and probably will do again) can be lunacy.

If you can get the command classes (from any documentation) for the device I can potentially emulate it with my Z-Uno and let you know how HS handles it, it wouldn't be a guarantee that it would work but could be an indicator.

[integlikewhoa]

I calculate the daily usage based on the pulse output changing. I have virtual devices where I store the start pulse value for the day and then compare against it. You could just reset the pulse value daily as well. I also keep weekly and monthly values in and jon00's database/graphing utility to store and graph that data.

For flow issues (flow when there should be none and vice-versa), I have events based on the pulse value changing or not changing. No need to convert to gallons or liters for that.

Cheers
Al

Well I ordered the Meter from Amazon with free shipping says like 2 weeks. I'll play with it more then. I know I could have built a similer setup (as you pointed out) for maybe 100 to 150 cheaper with a mimo and a generic 1" water valve with pulse output. But trying to keep it simple and hoping that maybe a plugin could or will be created for this actual device is my goal.

Hope you don't mind me asking you more questions due to my lack of experience.

I have some basic knowledge on using a script to get the daily start number copied over to a virtual device.

How is the math done in a script for taking the end of day minus the beginning of day.

Do you have any screen shots you could share or scripts you could copy and paste to give me some more ideas on how your moving the data around and doing the behind the scenes calculation? I'm assuming that's all done in events and scripts?

Never used "jon00's database/graphing utility" but I'll look into that soon per your info.

Also I know your very active in the Imperihome forum and next question would be how much of this info have you been able to get plugged into that App? If its much do you have a screen shot of that?

Thanks
JIM

[integlikewhoa]

If you can get the command classes (from any documentation) for the device I can potentially emulate it with my Z-Uno and let you know how HS handles it, it wouldn't be a guarantee that it would work but could be an indicator.

I have already ordered the valve, but if you would like to take a look at it I have attached the technical document which has all that info on page 5 and also quoted below for those that don't want to download the PDF.

Z-Wave INFORMATION:

Node Information Frame (NIF): Always listening flag set, Optional functionality flag set
Manufacturer ID 0x0084
Product Type ID 0x0473 (US) 0x0471 (EU)
Product ID varies

Device Type / Supported Command Classes
Generic Device Type: GENERIC_TYPE_SENSOR_MULTILEVEL
Specific Device Type: SPECIFIC_TYPE_ROUTING_SENSOR_MULTILEVEL

COMMAND_CLASS_ZWAVEPLUS_INFO_V2
COMMAND_CLASS_VERSION_V2
COMMAND_CLASS_MANUFACTURER_SPECIFIC_V2
COMMAND_CLASS_DEVICE_RESET_LOCALLY_V1
COMMAND_CLASS_ASSOCIATION_GRP_INFO_V1 (Info about Root Associations)
COMMAND_CLASS_NOTIFICATION_V7 (Power Management, Water Flow, and Heat alarm handling)
COMMAND_CLASS_ASSOCIATION_V2 (Refer to Association Section)
COMMAND_CLASS_POWERLEVEL_V1
COMMAND_CLASS_BASIC_V1 (for controlling associated nodes during/Heat alarms; received Basic Set commands are ignored)
COMMAND_CLASS_METER_V2 (Default scale: Gallons with precision 1 = tenths of gallons)
COMMAND_CLASS_SENSOR_MULTILEVEL_V8 (Temperature sensor and General Purpose sensor types)
COMMAND_CLASS_CONFIGURATION_V1
COMMAND_CLASS_FIRMWARE_UPDATE_MD_V2
COMMAND_CLASS_BATTERY_V1

[sparkman]

Hope you don't mind me asking you more questions due to my lack of experience.

I have some basic knowledge on using a script to get the daily start number copied over to a virtual device.

How is the math done in a script for taking the end of day minus the beginning of day.

Do you have any screen shots you could share or scripts you could copy and paste to give me some more ideas on how your moving the data around and doing the behind the scenes calculation? I'm assuming that's all done in events and scripts?

Never used "jon00's database/graphing utility" but I'll look into that soon per your info.

Also I know your very active in the Imperihome forum and next question would be how much of this info have you been able to get plugged into that App? If its much do you have a screen shot of that?

Thanks
JIM

Hi Jim,

Here are some screenshots:

This is the event that updates the total water usage virtual device when the Mimolite pulse count updates. I convert to liters, which is why I have the multiplier. Device 1539 is the Mimolite pulse count and device 6037 is the total water usage virtual device.


This is the event that does the math to take the current value and subtracts the start value to get daily usage. Device 6040 is the virtual device for the daily starting value and 6039 is the virtual device for the daily water usage.


And this is the event that runs just before midnight to set the daily start value (virtual device 6040).


Hope that helps. I currently don't do much to display in IH, except for the daily usage.

Cheers
Al

[integlikewhoa]

Thanks Al, thats perfect. It will help me with a good base or idea on my scripts and I can modify them to fit my needs.

I dont think ill need much in imperihome either but i might make and test a few options to try and mimic what they have in smartthings.

Update: after amazon saying like two week free delivery and not being prime, I received a tracking number yesterday morning of shipment and yesterday afternoon it was picked up and in route and it show delivery of Monday. So I should be testing soon.
Thanks again.

[integlikewhoa]

I received the Fortrezz Water Flow meter in record time. I have included it in HS3 but have not installed it yet on the main line of the house. I now have a usb extension cable on order to allow for more distance I needed after scoping out the install.

Anyways I thought I would share what devices show up in Homeseer after the inclusion process (which seemed to go just fine).

[integlikewhoa]

Gentlemen,

Do you know how to round too two decimal points during the formula in an event script? Here is my problem

The script in the event does math that sometimes results in very long number. The virtual device in HS can be rounded no problem, but when I use that device in Imperihome I get the long number again.

I'm looking for a solution in Imperihome or the HS script to get my numbers to X.XX format.

Thanks,

[thewizardofoz]

I am also interested in the flow meter from FortrezZ. Let me know how you make out with it. The idea of it seems very nice and convenient.

[sparkman]

Gentlemen,

Do you know how to round too two decimal points during the formula in an event script? Here is my problem

The script in the event does math that sometimes results in very long number. The virtual device in HS can be rounded no problem, but when I use that device in Imperihome I get the long number again.

I'm looking for a solution in Imperihome or the HS script to get my numbers to X.XX format.

Thanks,

If it's vbscript, then here's a guide: https://www.w3schools.com/asp/func_round.asp. For vb.net, see here: https://www.dotnetperls.com/math-round-vbnet.

Cheers
Al

[integlikewhoa]

Sorry for not posting back here. I got it with help in the scripting section of the forum. Was simple aftee using the round function in a script.

[thewizardofoz]

Would you mind sharing your script?

[integlikewhoa]

Would you mind sharing your script?

Ofcourse not and ill add that link to the thread where i got help.

https://forums.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=189008

This script currently rounds to 1 decimal point.