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grif091
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| Posted: April 09 2011 at 18:25 | IP Logged
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A Zone linked as a Responder in a Scene (Group) will turn On/Off in response to standard Insteon On/Off commands. For example, if Zone 1 is linked to a RemoteLinc button 1, turning On/Off RemoteLinc button 1 will turn Zone 1 On/Off using standard Insteon On/Off commands.
You can also write a Macro that issues the EZFlora commands to a given Zone.
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Lee G
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kemporama
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| Posted: April 09 2011 at 20:09 | IP Logged
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Lee-
I've tried linking the zone groups to responders on the PLC but it doesn't seem to work. I'd paste screen shots of what I have but I copied exactly from the images that RichardL posted a few posts up from here with the groups and links. I try to control it from both the groups tab and device stat and the EXFlora doesn't even blink like it's getting a signal. I also tried to link it to a spare KPL button but no luck. Is there another step I'm missing maybe?
Thanks.
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grif091
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| Posted: April 09 2011 at 20:58 | IP Logged
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Sorry, I should have included this information before. The EZFlora devices have large memory PLMs. The Mem Top column of the Types entry for the EZFlora device should be 16384 so PH2 writes the EZFlora link records at the correct location. If this column is changed I think a Reinit is required to have the new value take effect.
The responder link records in the EZFlora must have a specific content for LD1(D Level)/LD2 (D Ramp)/LD3 (Button) fields. LD1=0, LD2=0, LD3=0 for Zone 1, LD3=1 for Zone 2, LD3=2 for Zone 3, etc.
The changes to Mem Top and LD1/2/3 must be written to the EZFlora and verified before a given Zone can be activated by a Controller (PH2 PLM in this case).
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Lee G
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kemporama
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| Posted: April 09 2011 at 22:38 | IP Logged
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Lee-
I changed the Mem Top column setting and also the other things you mentioned, but no luck. I still can't get the valve to flip when I try to control it by the group. I've reinitialized after making the changes also.
Here's what my groups, links, and type screens look like:
One odd thing is that when I switched the DLevel and DRamp to 0 I could turn on the group, but I couldn't turn it off in device status. It would stay stuck in the ON position despite chaning it to off, and wouldn't flip back until I changed the DLevel and DRamp back to the original settings of 255 and 31.
Thanks.
 
Edited by kemporama - April 09 2011 at 22:47
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grif091
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| Posted: April 09 2011 at 22:54 | IP Logged
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You did Reinit after setting the Mem Top?
The D Level etc changes were made after the Reinit?
What does the Insteon Raw Log show when one of the PLM/PLC Groups is turned On?
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Lee G
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grif091
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| Posted: April 09 2011 at 23:12 | IP Logged
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Sorry, I missed another required option. Assuming these are new EZFlora devices the "Use Ext For ALDB" column has to be checked in the EZFlora Device entry.
After setting this option, Reinit and make a change in the EZFlora responder link records to force PH2 to write the link records using the Extended ALDB command. The new EZFlora devices do not support the old I1 Peek/Poke commands used by PH2 (and most other apps) to read/write link records.
EDIT: looks like the Device Rebuild option will cause PH2 to rewrite the link database in the EZFlora without having to make a change in each record definition.
Edited by grif091 - April 09 2011 at 23:19
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Lee G
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grif091
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| Posted: April 10 2011 at 12:56 | IP Logged
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I did what I should have done in the beginning and actually created a new set of PLC/PLM Group links to a new EZFlora. Things worked as expected here because I had already turned On the new Use Ext for ALDB so PH2 would use I2 to write the link records in the EZFlora. Also the Mem Top value noted before is also required. Unless I have overlooked some other option the PLC/PLM Group Control On/Off should cycle the EZFlora Zone as it does here. Let me know it there are still problems.
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Lee G
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kemporama
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| Posted: April 10 2011 at 18:08 | IP Logged
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Lee-
It still doesn't appear to be working. When I try to turn the group on and off from the groups tab the valve doesn't do anything.
Here's what I've done:
-Checkmarked the ALDB option on the device.
-Changed the top mem column for the device on the types tab to 16384.
-Deleted and recreated the groups on the groups tab.
-Deleted, saved, and then readded, saved the groups on my PLC.
-Reinitailzed PH after making the ALDB and mem column updates.
-Ran Rebuild on the EzFlora device.
Here is the raw log file from when from the group I try to do an ON, FASTON, and then an OFF.
2011-04-10 18:00:16.959 TX &nbs p; !sendinsteonraw=00 00 00 00 00 8D CF 11 00
2011-04-10 18:00:17.069 RX &nbs p; SENTINSTEON=00 00 00 00 00 8D CF 11 00
2011-04-10 18:00:17.428 RX &nbs p; SENDINSTEONRAW=TRUE
2011-04-10 18:00:17.647 RX &nbs p; EVENTRAW=03
2011-04-10 18:00:17.756 RX &nbs p; EVENTRAW=03
2011-04-10 18:00:19.991 TX &nbs p; !sendinsteonraw=00 00 00 00 00 8D CF 12 00
2011-04-10 18:00:20.053 RX &nbs p; SENTINSTEON=00 00 00 00 00 8D CF 12 00
2011-04-10 18:00:20.475 RX &nbs p; SENDINSTEONRAW=TRUE
2011-04-10 18:00:20.694 RX &nbs p; EVENTRAW=03
2011-04-10 18:00:20.694 RX &nbs p; EVENTRAW=03
2011-04-10 18:00:20.803 RX &nbs p; EVENTRAW=03
2011-04-10 18:00:25.022 TX &nbs p; !sendinsteonraw=00 00 00 00 00 8D CF 13 00
2011-04-10 18:00:25.069 RX &nbs p; SENTINSTEON=00 00 00 00 00 8D CF 13 00
2011-04-10 18:00:25.506 RX &nbs p; SENDINSTEONRAW=TRUE
2011-04-10 18:00:25.725 RX &nbs p; EVENTRAW=03
2011-04-10 18:00:25.834 RX &nbs p; EVENTRAW=03
2011-04-10 18:00:25.834 RX &nbs p; EVENTRAW=03
Here's a screen shot of what the group entrieds look like under the responders section for my PLC.
Group 141 is zone 1, group 142 is zone 2.
I've tested my main macro again that runs through all the zones on the EzFlora and it does click the valve on and off when it hits the commands for zone 1, so it's not a hardware problem.
Thanks so much for your help with this.
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grif091
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| Posted: April 10 2011 at 19:12 | IP Logged
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Turns out the link records cannot be written in the EZFlora with your configuration. I think you indicated in an earlier post the PH2 controller is a PLC but that point did not register until looking at the Insteon Raw Log messages. A PLC does not support Extended commands. The extended ALDB command is the only command that can be used to read/write link records in an EZFlora. This has been true since EZFlora firmware level v26. The latest EZFlora firmware is v28.
Sorry it has taken me so long to put all the pieces together. I switched to a PLM so long ago that PLC limitations do not come to mind anymore.
You can control the zones manually using the same commands in the Macro gotten from the forum. The commands used by that Macro are SD (standard) messages so they will work with the PLC and they do not require or use link records in either the PLC or EZFlora. The PLC/PLM Group definitions will work if you ever update to a PLM so I would not deleted them. More and more Insteon functions/features are being configured with Extended commands. Motion Sensors and TriggerLincs are the same way. Only the Extended ALDB command can be used to read/write link records in these devices. This may also be true for the new SynchroLinc but not absolutely sure about that until mine arrives. Eventually so many things will be blocked by a PLC they will become history.
Again, sorry it has taken so long to realize that it will not work.
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kemporama
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| Posted: April 10 2011 at 19:40 | IP Logged
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Thanks, Lee, for all your help with this. It's a shame that I won't be able to get it to work this way with my existing hardware, but it is what it is. Eventually I'm sure I'll upgrade to a PLM I'm sure and then be able to take advantage of these features. Making up a separate macro isn't the end of the world, it's not the cleanest way in the world but if that's the only way then I'll have to do it.
I guess one way to make it a little simpler to be able to turn zones on and off at random is to make up a control center screen with buttons to activate the on and off macros? I haven't played at all with control center screens yet because it looks pretty time consuming to make a screen, but maybe now is the time to try.
What I'm picturing is that I make up a macro for each zone that keeps the zone running for say 10 minutes and then shuts off. But I want the ability to bail out of the macro if I want to shut it off early. I know about "killmacrowait" but is there a way to use that command (or some other command I don't know about) with a wildcard so that it kills say any macro waiting or maybe any macro that say begins with the string "irrigation" since I'll want to name them like "irrigation_zone1"?
Thanks again!
EDIT: I guess I could just make up one macro that has shut down commands for each of the zones to avoice having to make up 8 shutdown macros per controller.
Edited by kemporama - April 10 2011 at 23:21
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judetf
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| Posted: April 26 2011 at 22:14 | IP Logged
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Apologies in advance if this is non responsive - I didn't read the whole thread, but am seeing the last post and will offer what I came up with last year when I implemented my ezRain.
I created a number of different macros, figuring that it doesn't hurt to have several. For each zone I have a single-line macro that will turn the zone on, and then I have another single-line macro that will shut off any/all open zones. So with this simple combination I can manually turn any zone on at will (usually using my iPhone, which is great particularly when testing the irrigation system).
I then have a more complicated macro which runs my watering routine, cycling through each zone for specific amount of time. I use a timed event to run this macro every other day (or every third day if it's not too dry).
Not sure if that helps, but I can elaborate on any of it if it does.
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kemporama
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| Posted: April 26 2011 at 23:27 | IP Logged
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Thanks. That sounds similar to what I ended up coming up with also to be able to get a specific zone to be able to be called on the fly. In my "zone on" macros I also added a wait time of 600 seconds and then a shut off command for that zone so it can't just be left on indefinitely. Then I have a single macro that has shut off commands for all zones on that controller one after another so that I didn't need to have 8 more macros in my list. It takes a couple seconds longer for this to run through all the commands in it, but I don't plan to use this very often. I'll probably just have it as timed event to run after the main watering sequence should be over so that if for some reason it didn't shut it off the first time it will catch it then.
I too have a big macro that runs through all the zones during normal watering like you mentioned.
Haven't done watering for real yet because it's been raining a lot lately, but I've done some test runs with the macros with short runtimes in them and everything seems to be working great!
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judetf
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| Posted: April 29 2011 at 10:03 | IP Logged
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I'm not sure that I can translate it for you, and I'm not 100% certain this is correct, but I believe the following line of code is all that's needed to shut off all zones in a single command (where "EZFLORA" is the device name):
ph_insteon("EZFLORA",65,ph_and(ph_insteonwithret("EZFLORA",6 8,2),7))
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grif091
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| Posted: April 29 2011 at 12:17 | IP Logged
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The imbedded ph_insteonwithret() retrieves a byte of information from the EZFlora which contains the last controlled zone number. The byte of information is ANDed with 7 to reset all but the zone number. The ph_insteon() issues a zone off for that zone number.
The effect is to turn off the last controlled zone number. Since only one zone can be running at a time this insures all zones are off. For the situation where the last zone is already off the ph_insteon() has no effect.
EDIT:note the forum likely added a blank "6 8". This is a command number and should be 68.
Edited by grif091 - April 29 2011 at 12:18
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kemporama
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| Posted: April 29 2011 at 19:51 | IP Logged
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I tested your formula earlier today and it looks to work correctly. Thanks!
Is there a way to kill all pending/waiting macros that are sitting out in queue? I have a 600 second wait time set up in each of the macros that open up a zone, so if I run this new formula it does shut off the valve, but obviously leaves the macro hanging out there. I know the macro will still time out after the wait period is ended, but ideally I'd like to get that out of there also. I've looked in the past but haven't seen anything that seems to be able to kill a macro without specifying a particular name, or to be able to do a wildcard command like kill any macro that begins with "irrigation."
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BeachBum
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| Posted: April 29 2011 at 21:39 | IP Logged
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You got it ph_killmacrowait. Also I use ph_modifytimedevent ( id, active, reftime, flags ) which can alter or make a wait inactive.
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syonker
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| Posted: June 01 2012 at 20:24 | IP Logged
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Loving this one combined with Skip's (McGibbage) Android app. I can repoint a few strategic sprinkler heads and sit on the porch with a margarita in one hand, my cell phone in the other, and await unsuspecting door-to-door solicitors. Ha ha ha! 
Seriously though - I *swear* I saw someone post a bunch of scripts that were designed to produce a "needs-based watering" scenario for their lawn, taking into account weather, last rain, last water, etc. Has anyone seen that, and if so can you post a link? Searches are yielding the plain old stuff that's been around for a while.
-S
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syonker
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| Posted: June 04 2012 at 12:13 | IP Logged
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Alright, based on the lack of response, I'm going to go with, "Noone has gone further than basic irrigation on/off" here....so I'm workong on a comprehensive "need-based" sprinkler algorithm which will suffice. It might not be clean, but it will work. If it turns out great, perhaps Dave, Skip or some other genius out here can help figure out how to make it more deployable.
COOLEST AUTOMATION YET: Add a zone to the sprinkler system with heads pointed at the front door, down the sidewalk, and at the driveway. Hook into phone, Insteon remote, or a switch by the door. Hit it, and "Joe Solicitor" who can't read the "No Hand Bills/No Soliciting" sign gets the message REAL fast. Ok...I'm a grumpy old man that's technology-enabled (as my wife says). Ha ha ha - fun for a laugh though.
-S
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Topic: EZRain Irrigation Controller
