UPBSpud works great but how do I synch device & link status?

[rayvino]

I removed my zwave light switches & replaced them with about 20 UPB switches, keypads UMI32s etc. all seems to work well and talks to my DSC Envisalink plugin.

I need some help understanding the relationship of the upb devices & links in Homeseer.

It appears the device status gets updated in homeseer but the links don't get updated from deactivate to activate unless the link is activated.

Do I need to have every device transmit a link even to itself to maintain status? (I was told this was needed to update the 8 button keypads leds).

What are others doing? From events do you select the device or the link?

[rayvino]

Spud? Anyone have thoughts on this? Thanks

[spud]

not sure I understand the problem

a UPB link is similar to a scene in that it "groups" a number of UPB devices to be controlled with a single command. So, the status of a link device in HomeSeer is only updated if the link is activated or deactivated.

[rayvino]

Not so much of a problem but I'm trying to understand how this works and what is best practice using Events.

1) Are you saying if a link/scene is activated or deactivated I should see the current status of the link/scene reflected in the homeseer Device List page as well as all of the individual Devices that are used in the scene?

2) Should the Device Status of the actual device reflect the last command whether it is from physically turning on the light or being called from an Event in homeseer or a keypad button activating a Scene/Link?

3) Lets say I have a link/scene set up in Upstart which gets activated by Homeseer when the overhead garage door opens & the Alarm is Armed, it turns on 3 different lights for 5 minutes.

Since links/scenes show up in the plugin similar to devices and are available from the Events pull down actions, is it better practice to just call the scene from the event in Homeseer or better practice to turn on each of the 3 lights individually from the Event in Homeseer?

Any comments are much appreciated, thanks.

[spud]

1) Are you saying if a link/scene is activated or deactivated I should see the current status of the link/scene reflected in the homeseer Device List page as well as all of the individual Devices that are used in the scene?

yes

2) Should the Device Status of the actual device reflect the last command whether it is from physically turning on the light or being called from an Event in homeseer or a keypad button activating a Scene/Link?

yes

3) Lets say I have a link/scene set up in Upstart which gets activated by Homeseer when the overhead garage door opens & the Alarm is Armed, it turns on 3 different lights for 5 minutes.

Since links/scenes show up in the plugin similar to devices and are available from the Events pull down actions, is it better practice to just call the scene from the event in Homeseer or better practice to turn on each of the 3 lights individually from the Event in Homeseer?

it's a little better to use links because it generate less messages on your UPB network and better synchronization.

[Pete]

BTW there is a sale going on for the PCS UPB repeater.

I paid much more for my HAI UPB repeater. The sale price is $124.95 with 10% off for your first purchase. Read about it here.

[rayvino]

Spud, Thanks for the info.

What I am finding is if I have scenes/links programed in Upstart to say turn on several lights when the phone rings & the UMI-32 transmits the scene and the devices have a timeout set in their respective receive components table, the status reflected in Homeseer is inconsistent.

The lights turn off after their set time but when viewed in Homeseer Device List home page, some UPB lights will show as On when they are really off and the Link for the Device (in Homeseer) will also not properly reflect the current status. (still show activated)

At this point I need to play around some more but it appears that the SA switches don't send a Deactivate signal after the timer turns the lights off, so there is not a proper cleanup of the Activate/Deactivate process.

It appears that if an event sends a Deactivate command afterwards then the plugin & Homeseer keeps everything in proper sync with device & link status.