Wiring a leak sensor to an IOLinc

[JimSpy]

Hi there,

I'd appreciate it if someone could please look at the attached wiring instructions for a water leak shutoff valve and tell me what wire goes to what terminal on the IOLinc? I am ONLY using the sensor part, not the relay part, so that should make it a bit simpler.

And yes, I'm an idiot, I've done this twice before and forgotten to notate the wiring. I promise to do it this time.

Thanks!

[mnsandler]

Hi there,

I'd appreciate it if someone could please look at the attached wiring instructions for a water leak shutoff valve and tell me what wire goes to what terminal on the IOLinc? I am ONLY using the sensor part, not the relay part, so that should make it a bit simpler.

And yes, I'm an idiot, I've done this twice before and forgotten to notate the wiring. I promise to do it this time.

Thanks!

Jim
Do you want to know when the valve is open or closed? Should the iolinc read ON when open

[mnsandler]

i think you just need to connect #3 COM from the watercop to the GND on the iolinc
and connect either #2 or #4 from the watercop to the S (Sense) on the iolinc

looks like you could use the iolinc relay to control the valve but maybe you already have that figured out.

[Burrington]

Your best way to use this is to make connections as follows:

1) IOLinc Gnd to WaterCop 3 (Com)
2) IOLinc S (Sense) to WaterCop 2 (N.C.)
3) IOLinc Com (Relay Common) to WaterCop 7 (+5VDC)
4) IOLinc N/O (Normally Open Relay contact) to WaterCop 5 (Close)

This will give you the following capabilities:

1) The IOLinc will give you a positive indication that the water valve has fully closed. In the absence of this signal, you can assume that it is open or at least partly open. In the case of a water leak, knowing that the valve is closed is more important than knowing it is open.

2) Since you are not using the IOLinc's relay contact, you might as well connect it to the WaterCop as shown above. That gives you the capability of closing the water valve if you get an indication from a different water sensor such as the Insteon Leak Detector. Since there is only one contact on the IOLinc, you will still have to manually open the valve after there is a leak, but that's not a big deal. To close the valve, turn the IOLinc relay "ON" for a few seconds, just long enough to close the valve, and then turn it off again. Otherwise the manual buttons will be over-ridden by the IOLinc. In Mark's plug-in, set:
- set "IOLinc Mode" to "Momentary A",
- set the "Closure time" to just a couple seconds longer than it takes to close the valve.

3) Note that the IOLinc will by default show "ON" when the valve is closed. However, you can use Mark's plug-in to reverse the logic. Under "Operating Flags", change "Send On Cmd" to "When Opened". That way the device will show "ON" when the water is "On" (valve is open), and "OFF" when the water is off.

4) I know this sounds kind of backwards - why not just use the "Open" contact instead. The way I've laid it out for you is more fail-safe because you are detecting that the valve is closed since that's what's important in a water leak situation.

5) Some may be tempted to connect the IOLinc NC contact to the WaterCop pin 6 "Open" thinking that will allow you to open the valve remotely too. Potential problems with that include:
- This will probably over-ride the WaterCop's ability to turn the valve off since the IOLinc is permanently forcing it on.
- This will over-ride the manual buttons so you can't turn the valve on or off manually.
- If the relay drops for any reason, such as the power going off, the valve will open, which may not be desired.
- I am not sure if the WaterCop has circuitry built in to shut off power to the motor once the valve is fully open or fully closed. If not, this connection will apply power permanently and may burn out the motor.

[JimSpy]

Wow, thanks for the in-depthitude, I'll try to implement these suggestions today!

[JimSpy]

Well, I finally got around to this today (holidays and all, you know) and sad to say, the wiring you suggested didn't work.

First off, I only have a 3-wire bundle to work with, so for now, I'm not going to do the relay/control thing. I'm just interested in sensing. I wired it following your first three instructions above, and do not get a change of state indication either on the IOLinc or on my HomeSeer device display. Now that I look at your instructions, should I have ignored the third instruction as well, or wired something else to something else, since I'm not using the relay?

Or...could it be that I simply need to change the IOLinc mode? Currently it is set to Momentary "B". (I've never been able to wrap my head around the different modes).

Please advise. Thanks.

[Burrington]

Well, I finally got around to this today (holidays and all, you know) and sad to say, the wiring you suggested didn't work.

First off, I only have a 3-wire bundle to work with, so for now, I'm not going to do the relay/control thing. I'm just interested in sensing. I wired it following your first three instructions above, and do not get a change of state indication either on the IOLinc or on my HomeSeer device display. Now that I look at your instructions, should I have ignored the third instruction as well, or wired something else to something else, since I'm not using the relay?

Or...could it be that I simply need to change the IOLinc mode? Currently it is set to Momentary "B". (I've never been able to wrap my head around the different modes).

Please advise. Thanks.

In that case it should work using the first 3 instructions. The relay mode Momentary B doesn't matter if you're not using the relay.

To trouble-shoot it: Disconnect one the two wires from the IOLinc and use a short piece of wire (jumper) to connect "sense" to "Gnd". You should see the led on the IOLinc go on and off with the jumper. If not, there's a problem with the IOLinc. If the light goes on and off, check if you get a change of state on HS3. If so, there's a problem with the wiring between the IOLinc and the Watercop, or a fault in the watercop. If the LED goes on and off, but no change in HS3, you have an Insteon Powerline communication problem between IOLinc and the PLM. Test communications to the IOLinc using Mark's plugin button. Note that IOLinc is powerline-only, not dual-band, so it has to havbe good powerline comm to work. There are other threads on this board that will help you chase that down. Search "Powerline" to find them.

Let us know what you find.

[JimSpy]

In that case it should work using the first 3 instructions. The relay mode Momentary B doesn't matter if you're not using the relay.

To trouble-shoot it: Disconnect one the two wires from the IOLinc and use a short piece of wire (jumper) to connect "sense" to "Gnd". You should see the led on the IOLinc go on and off with the jumper. If not, there's a problem with the IOLinc. If the light goes on and off, check if you get a change of state on HS3. If so, there's a problem with the wiring between the IOLinc and the Watercop, or a fault in the watercop. If the LED goes on and off, but no change in HS3, you have an Insteon Powerline communication problem between IOLinc and the PLM. Test communications to the IOLinc using Mark's plugin button. Note that IOLinc is powerline-only, not dual-band, so it has to havbe good powerline comm to work. There are other threads on this board that will help you chase that down. Search "Powerline" to find them.

Let us know what you find.

Well, you're not going to believe this, but...I just now, today, got around to implementing your suggestions. It's a long story (as you can imagine)...anyway, my problem wasn't the wiring, it turned out that I had a bad IOLinc, Finally got that replaced, wired it the way you said above, worked on the first try! Thank you!