My GEM, ISY, Dash Box, Insteon Home Automation Install

Working on a home project? Post it here.
Locked
Teken
Posts: 2700
Joined: Wed Dec 15, 2010 4:09 pm
Location: The Bad Lands

Re: My GEM, ISY, Dash Box, Insteon Home Automation Install

Post by Teken » Mon Feb 27, 2017 3:28 pm

PROJECT TITAN - COLD WEATHER TESTING:
Last year in another thread entry I said there would be lots of cold weather arctic testing of various appliances and infrastructure zones. One of the major areas in the home which have been affected by the outside elements is the homes super structure.

After eight long years the endless freezing, thawing, and heaving has negatively impacted the doors in my home. :| I've fought with this issue for what seems like eternity and nothing seems to work. :cry: Trying to compensate for the lift and drop via the telepost adjustment has proven to be a stop gap which doesn't always remedy the current situation. As it takes about 1-14 days for the effects to be seen and later that same adjustment needs to be reversed when temperatures change again.

Having spoken to a few good folks who can relate to extreme cold climates like myself. They have suggested I simply offer a wider gap in the door jamb. I've been reluctant in doing this for many reasons but having fought this battle for eight years using a modified technique won't harm the frame and the secure plates.

Essentially all I am doing is extending the hole where the dead bolt enters. By using my trusty metal file as seen below here I am shaving off about 1-2 mm of metal & wood. Going this route would allow that extra play (wiggle room) for the door frame to move up and down with out binding the throw bolt.

As of this writing I've shaved off about 0.5 mm's from the one door bolt hole. I did this to see what the effects were and how much it resolved the issue at hand. A cursory check showed much improvement in the dead bolt free play movement. In about two weeks I will shave off the other 0.5 mm's to see how that works.

Image

As seen in this image capture when the mercury drops into the sub forties if something is going to break - it will. All of this is before the windchill when present is -55'C and things will go pop when present.

Image

This image capture is the 1/2" ice build up on the window pane. :? In the middle of the night sometimes its like listening to a soda can pop and being squeezed and flexed.

Image

As the home tries to expand and contract to the temperature differential of the inside vs
outside.

Image

I am always holding my breath in thinking one day one of several windows will simply blow out and explode under the force. :shock:

Image

As noted in this thread:

My goal was to test several brands of LED bulbs which I purchased in late 2016. As of this writing I can state with high confidence these bulbs are truly GWN Arctic weather rated! :mrgreen: :lol: In that thread entry my fear was the Phillips bulbs which are only rated for -25'C would pop and explode when activated.

Image

I am happy to say they have performed flawlessly with the Luminus branded bulbs which reside in the same housing and elements.

Image

As stated in that same thread my WAG (Wild Ass Guess) was that the housing would offer some relief in terms acting as a heat sink / enclosed barrier to keep the bulbs some what safe. Given the entire enclosure is metal it acts more like a freezer than heater for these bulbs in the winter months. :roll:

A seven year test of the Insteon I/O Linc, Open-Close, On-Off relay modules have continued to operate with out falter.

In other news the Water Hero System is fast approaching public release and Alpha / Beta trials continue on my end along with others in the team. Having the ability to automatically, remotely, and programatically turn off the main water line based on time of use, away, temperature, leak detection etc.

Will prove to be a much added value to my security alarm system. :|

Details of the latest news can be seen here: http://www.brultech.com/community/viewt ... 7442#p7442
Teken . . .

My ongoing projects thread: http://www.brultech.com/community/viewt ... ?f=2&t=929
Buy me a cup of coffee: https://www.paypal.me/Teken https://gfinotify.com/ Discount Code: PC10
Teken
Posts: 2700
Joined: Wed Dec 15, 2010 4:09 pm
Location: The Bad Lands

Re: My GEM, ISY, Dash Box, Insteon Home Automation Install

Post by Teken » Fri Mar 17, 2017 5:48 pm

PROJECT TITAN - ISY 994 SERIES CONTROLLER Z-WAVE ENABLED:
This New Year another new ISY 994 ZW IR Pro home automation controller was added to the Teken household.

Image

Image

As noted in this thread entry there are three similar ISY Series Controllers deployed now:

Since my primary home automation system uses Insteon technology having the ability to test, sample, and provide feedback on Alpha / Beta projects that pertain to Z-Wave was the next logical step.

Image

A few months ago I was asked by several Z-Wave developers to assist them in the testing, development, and validation portion of their hardware. :P The primary goal and objective like many of the other Beta tests is to help the entire team bring to market the best in class hardware possible for all. :mrgreen:

What has been missing from Insteon has been 2017 seamless integration of the following areas: Locks, Window, Energy, Multi Sensors

Since this new Z-Wave enabled controller is more for development than production. My plans are to migrate a few secondary systems from the ZigBee enabled controller now in place. The hope is doing will restore better response and reliability to the controller. As it appears I have maxed out this controller in processing and I/O throughput. :|

Image

The following are the initial setup and processes it will now support in hopes of off loading high load services from the primary ZigBee controller now in place. I've identified that some of the latest voice announcement features I incorporated into the ZigBee controller can be re-tasked to the Z-Wave controller.

Since there are two sets of Dash Box's & GEM's in place many of the energy monitoring can be relayed to the newest Z-Wave controller via state variables for Alexa voice interaction. Other aspects like the Autelis 1-Wire temperature monitor will still have to remain on the primary DB since the system can only relay its data to one destination IP address. :cry:

The most important part of this new controller is having the ability to get a head start in the testing stage of the 5.XX Beta release.

It's hoped all of the dog food testing will result in a positive outcome for the soon to be released node server(s) for the various projects under way now. Other aspects is having the ability to test out the integration of the Aquanta Monitor, Water Hero, and Weather Flow products with out affecting my production unit now in place. :ugeek:

2017 will be a very hectic time for Alpha / Beta testing as there will be no less than 28 new projects under way. :roll: :? My hopes are to document and track as many parts of these new pieces of hardware to offer insight for those interested in the very same.

Sadly, a large portion of the hardware projects are covered by a NDA . . . :x

Regardless of that fact, I will share what I can when I can with the forum members in hopes of fostering more brand awareness, product capability, and home automation integration. :mrgreen:

Because there was going to be so much overlap from the production ISY 994 IZ IR Pro controller the same firmware upgrades which encompass: Weather, Irrigation, Networking, were incorporated.
WEATHER - ALL HAZARD FAIL OVER ALERTS:
Presently both controllers are linked to Aries Weather which is tied to the local airport for weather data. This controller will be the first proof of concept to integrate a fail over weather system which is hyper local to my home. The long term goal is to have four PWS (Personal Weather Stations) linked and cascaded for real time weather.

Two of the four stations will offer *All Hazard* alerts which are identical to the portable weather radio's I rely upon in my home and while traveling. All of this will be tied to the node server(s) which I will discuss below to allow all four stations to be compared when required.

The primary goal is to be able to obtain real time: Advisory, Watch, Warnings, for extreme inclement weather from Blizzard, Fog, Hail, Tornado, Flood, Lightning, Wild Fire, High Winds, Extreme hot vs cold temperatures.

NODE SERVER:
VOICE INTEGRATION - ALERT STATUS:
Having my current two way voice integration field tested and proven during the last several months. The next step was to deploy en-mass this powerful feature through out the home in a way that offered the most direct benefit to all.

As noted in another thread entry my long term goal was to have a multi zone sound and PA system which could broadcast unique, custom, and zoned announcements. The first area was for the garage overhead door to ensure anyone knew the door was opening or closing.

This is the sample proactive voice announcement that Julie U.S. will state while the GDO is in operation:

To offer more awareness and protection these Insteon alert modules will be incorporated to sound out while the door is opening vs closing. The system will be programmed to delay the initial door movement and will speak first then the alert module will pulse to confirm this action is in progress.

For quiet times the interior garage voice and siren announcement will be muted or set to a reduced volume. All of this is simply auxiliary services to existing hardware and safeties in place now.
GARAGE DOOR SAFETY - MAINTENANCE:
With the advent of home automation many new users have opted to integrate remote control of their GDO remotely with out much care or concern for life and safety. :| :twisted: :roll: The sad reality is a large percentage of the human population are simply too fucken stupid to use common sense or to take any meaningful steps to ensure all is well.

Its safe to say every year there is at least one new thread where some joker says he want to remotely close his garage door with out any consideration or thought about personal safety. The first step is to ensure the GDO is properly installed and calibrated per the makers full users manual.

Monthly to season inspections which include the following must be done on a consistent basis to ensure life and safety are present at all times.

Torsion Springs: Confirm the unsprung free weight of the door while the motor is disengaged. A properly wound torsion spring will allow the door to be moved up and down with one hand with moderate effort. The door should hold any position when manually placed and it should never shoot straight to the top or come crashing down to the floor when unloaded.

If the door does not mimic what has been stated here the torsion spring needs to be adjusted and calibrated to reflect the above. Failure to adhere to this most basic principle will shorten the life of the GDO motor and blow main boards while under load.

Max Height: The door should be set and defined to the proper max height to ensure any vehicle can clear the entrance of the garage. This also tells the GDO when to stop and not exceed the maximum travel distance of the open (home position).

Failure to define the max height (open position) will over extend and exceed the motor travel and thus blow a main board or snap a part inside of the GDO motor assembly.

Crush Depth: Every GDO must be properly set, defined, and calibrated for the crush depth of the door gasket. Ideally the bottom of the door should be 1/2 ~ 5/8" hovering from the ground. The rubber *Crush* depth gasket is intended to seal the door to the ground and not to be bottomed out.

Failure to adhere to this simple process will cause early failure, deformation, and replacement of said crush depth gasket.

Impact Sensing: The impact sensing threshold is one of several safety features that must be adjusted, tested, and validated on a regular basis. This defined force detection is what determines if a child's head ends up being a crushed water Mellon or just a rub mark on the noggin. When properly adjusted if the defined impact sensing is met the door will automatically reverse to the up position.

Safety Beam Sensing: Every GDO on he market has one set of safety beams that are supposed to detect the presence of a moving object. Upon detecting any object in the beam the GDO will reverse its direction to the top position. Always ensure the beam is fully operational and aligned to one another.

Cable Tension Monitor: Many newer GDO like mine offer a cable tension monitor which tracks the cable which pulls the door from top to bottom. Should the tension of this cable every become too slack or break off. This will close a N.O. contact and thus cause the GDO to declare a fault and prevent the unit from operating any further.

Tracks & Rollers: The two side rails that guide and hold the door should be inspected for even wear, alignment, and clear passage. Dirt and debris should be cleared on a season basis while confirming all station bolts are properly tightened.

Emergency Release: The emergency release cable should be inspected for proper operations in disconnecting the main GDO motor from the slide track. In the case of direct drive unit it should decouple the GDO from the side wheel.
WHAT I HAVE DONE:
In my home the ability to remote control and confirm its safe to close the garage door is determined by many safety systems in place. At a high level the following safety measures are deployed to ensure reliability, security, and personal safety for all.

- Multi Point Sensors detect and measure the door position.
- Video Analytics monitor the defined area to ensure its clear prior to closing.
- Audio & Video IP cameras monitor, validate, and confirm GDO status and movement.
- Security Alarm panel monitors every state, position, and time of movement events.
- Laser Break Multi Point detection monitors not only the garage interior but eight points of the door entrance.

All of the above are safety measures to ensure when I remotely close the door its safe to do so. The system is wired and programmed in such a way to follow the ideology *Fail Safe*. Meaning life and safety is placed at the highest level over security given specific instances of use.

Some of you may have noted from time to time the off reference of the *Guardian* watch monitor. The Guardian system is a single point system which over sees many facets of my homes superstructure, environmental, security, and fire safety.

Its primary roll is to ensure the health and safety of the home and its occupants.
Teken . . .

My ongoing projects thread: http://www.brultech.com/community/viewt ... ?f=2&t=929
Buy me a cup of coffee: https://www.paypal.me/Teken https://gfinotify.com/ Discount Code: PC10
Teken
Posts: 2700
Joined: Wed Dec 15, 2010 4:09 pm
Location: The Bad Lands

Re: My GEM, ISY, Dash Box, Insteon Home Automation Install

Post by Teken » Tue Apr 11, 2017 4:18 pm

PROJECT TITAN - ISY 994 SERIES CONTROLLER Z-WAVE ENABLED:
Teken . . .

My ongoing projects thread: http://www.brultech.com/community/viewt ... ?f=2&t=929
Buy me a cup of coffee: https://www.paypal.me/Teken https://gfinotify.com/ Discount Code: PC10
Teken
Posts: 2700
Joined: Wed Dec 15, 2010 4:09 pm
Location: The Bad Lands

Re: My GEM, ISY, Dash Box, Insteon Home Automation Install

Post by Teken » Tue Apr 11, 2017 4:18 pm

PROJECT TITAN - ISY 994 SERIES CONTROLLER Z-WAVE ENABLED:
Teken . . .

My ongoing projects thread: http://www.brultech.com/community/viewt ... ?f=2&t=929
Buy me a cup of coffee: https://www.paypal.me/Teken https://gfinotify.com/ Discount Code: PC10
Teken
Posts: 2700
Joined: Wed Dec 15, 2010 4:09 pm
Location: The Bad Lands

Re: My GEM, ISY, Dash Box, Insteon Home Automation Install

Post by Teken » Tue Apr 11, 2017 4:43 pm

PROJECT TITAN - WEATHER FLOW BETA TEST SAMPLE:
On April 11, 2017 Fed Ex arrived to drop off my Weather Flow Beta Air & Hub test sample. :mrgreen: Its safe to say the wait has been pretty tough considering I wanted to have this test sample during the extreme winter season which just past. :cry: Regardless, the product is in hand now so wanted to offer some quick feedback about what I have seen thus far while balancing NDA's that I have signed.

As a quick aside, the parcel was held in Canada Customs for inspection and thus was delayed a day because of this! :evil:

Here is the unsealed box which Canada border service clearly inspected for what ever reason?!?

Image

Opening the carton show cased a paper hand out which details all the steps and web based resources to get the beta unit up and running.

Image

As noted this initial sample includes the Air which can monitor temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, and lightning. The Hub is the bridge which connects all of the hardware together like the Air, Sky, Breathe, etc.

Image

The parcel included the Air, Hub, USB Micro adapter cord, USB 120 VAC PSU, and four high quality Energizer lithium AA battery cells.

Image

A closer look at the rear of the Weather Flow Air housing offers a single port which I gather measures the various metrics from temperature, humidity, and pressure. In this photo you can see on either side of the case a curved line this area has a tactile feel where as the rest of the case is completely smooth.

Image

The front of the unit simply has the elegant Weather Flow symbol.

Image

The bottom of the Air has two mounting points one is a screw in key way and the other is a slide on opening. Flanking either side is the embossed symbols for lock / unlock which I will discuss in more detail below.

Image

The Weather Flow Hub is a odd shaped case but is a beautiful concave solid piece of industrial plastic. Like the Air the side of the case has a textured finish and the remaining portion has a completely silky smooth finish.

Image

The Hub has only two exterior items which are the micro USB power port and what appears to be a white button which I gather is intended for placing the unit into various modes. What isn't apparent is just above the white button is a hidden diagnostic LED which indicates when the device is first powered up and various other modes etc.

Once fully powered the LED turns off and there are no signs of any operations.

The bottom of the case has two rubber feet and the center of the case indicates the devices serial number for enrollment.

Image

The entire package laid out on my kitchen floor to offer a better perspective of the size of these units. My first impressions of this so called early release (Beta) sample is just wow! :o The fit and finish of this sample I received was very much Apple like. The tolerances and craftsmanship of the casing of both the Air & Hub was truly unexpected.

I've probably Alpha / Beta tested four hundreds products in the last eight years and often times just expect to see a pretty rough hardware come my way. To receive what I consider a finished retail product is something very uncommon! 8-) :ugeek:

Image

As noted up above the bottom of the Air has a lock & unlock symbol. Upon trying to open this device to insert the four AA batteries I was awe struck how hard it was to turn? :| Before I moved forward to use my Hulk strength and force the bottom plate to open I sent in a query with the engineers.

No sooner than I had pressed send a instant reply came from my Weather Flow point of contact. Which I have to say he and every other person I have dealt with has been incredible! Anyways he indicated that the base is held by four rectangular pins and also includes two rubber gaskets.

He noted there was no worries about breaking off anything in the frame. :lol: So with out further ado I pressed forward and turned the base and it open up just fine. The team having received this feedback noted they will consider making the tolerances not as tight. :lol:

I told them just to leave it alone and just include a note saying opening the bottom requires a fair amount of force and the base won't break / snap off in doing so.

Image

Once the bottom was open there appeared to be another trap door which has a spring loaded mechanism to ensure the battery compartment stays closed. Opposite of the hinged door is another LED display which offers more diagnostics of the unit when in various modes like BLE pairing, WiFi setup etc.

The LED is the odd shaped triangle semi clear plastic above the embedded triangle arrow.

Image

A closer look inside of the battery compartment indicates the use of spring loaded contacts and labels indicating battery orientation / polarity. I am personally not a fan of the spring loaded contacts vs the flat metal strips. As 30 plus years has proven that anytime there is a battery leak the acid will quickly eat and damage the spring type vs the flat metal strip which can be cleaned off if required.

Anyone who has ever tried to clean a wound spring of battery acid knows its a painful process that often times ends in more broken windings and frustrations! :evil: :| Moving forward I have placed some dielectric compound to the spring contacts to ensure if there is ever a battery leak the wound springs will have some measure of protection.

Image

At this moment I won't go through the whole process about enrolling the system to the various hardware or services. But will say all of the above was dead easy and very much a point and shoot affair that most anyone could accomplish.

You don't need to be a high tech genius to be able to set up and enroll this fantastic piece of weather monitoring hardware.

Below are just a few quick snap shots of the web portal and what it can offer. Keeping in mind this is very much a work in progress and I expect many more incredible elements to be introduced in the near future.

The web based portal can offers a basic vs advanced view - At the top header indicates the daily forcast. This area can be scrolled along to see more data and has a direct link to the persons Weather Underground (WU) PWS station. The other three elements which note the temperature, pressure, and lightning count can be pressed and offer a drilled in fine grain detail which I will offer below.

Image

But before I do so pressing on top right of the console which looks to be a envelope? Offers the advanced fine grain details which any weather enthusiasts could appreciate and enjoy! Since my netbook is so small (10" screen) I had to split the image here.

Image

This is the second portion of the web page that was cut off. At the very bottom the Weather Flow team has included a hyper link which a person can send to share with anyone without giving them portal access to view the various weather metrics.

Its these small details which the Weather Flow team has thought about that has made working with this fine company so easy. There are countless more examples I could offer as to why I love this product and company so much.

But I digress, as it will come off as a sales Ad very soon! :mrgreen:

Image

As noted up above pressing any of the ribbons will bring you to the detail view of the metrics of interest. The system will by default show the 5 minute intervals which can be expanded simply by pressing the +/- button at the top right.

Image

One minute granular intervals for a different period I had captured early on.

Image

The smart application offers a very similar view as the web based portal. As noted this product allows local vs cloud first access which was one of the major factors that made me back this project.

Image

Image capture of the Weather Underground link to the persons PWS.

Image

Not having to rely on the happy cloud to see my environmental's was mandatory! :|

Image

Here is another example of a team with so much common sense and for thought about offering the end user flexibility to the Nth degree. It may not be obvious to a lay person upon first viewing this image but the engineering team has allowed every option to be selected to use metric vs imperial values.

Meaning if you want to see rain in inches vs mm, cm you can. If you want to see wind speed in MPH vs KMS you can. Every option or combination of metric vs imperial can be used if so desired.

This may sound at first blush to be idiotic thing to even think about but I will challenge anyone here reading this forum post to find a piece of hardware that will allow you to selectively choose and enable metric & imperial at the same time.

You wont . . .

Right now I enjoy seeing wind speed in MPH (Imperial) and rain in mm (Metric) instead of inches along with other environmental's.

Image

Another key thing that made me back and support this project was the fact the team was going to bring weather monitoring into the future. Gone are the days where a piece of hardware costing upwards of $1000 ~ 3500.00 could not offer any sort of 3rd party integration with home automation and other cloud hosted services.

As seen below the team has taken the first steps in offering Amazon Echo & IFTTT support.

Image

Amazon Echo integration with Alexa. I have made a short video of the system up and running and reporting my hyper local weather at the Teken household.

Image]

[video][/video]

IFTTT integration to help manage the automated sprinklers, close the blinds, and countless other home automation tasks you need only dream up.

Image

Image

Image

In the future each of the sensors and hub will have the ability to store and buffer the environmental data. This along with back filling missing gaps in time should there ever be a cloud, network related issue or power outage.

I've been told the Air & Sky will be able to store a few hours of historic data while the systems are down. The hub will be able to store many days of the very same before sending it off to the various cloud hosted weather services.
Teken . . .

My ongoing projects thread: http://www.brultech.com/community/viewt ... ?f=2&t=929
Buy me a cup of coffee: https://www.paypal.me/Teken https://gfinotify.com/ Discount Code: PC10
Teken
Posts: 2700
Joined: Wed Dec 15, 2010 4:09 pm
Location: The Bad Lands

Re: My GEM, ISY, Dash Box, Insteon Home Automation Install

Post by Teken » Wed Apr 12, 2017 11:06 am

PROJECT TITAN - WEATHER FLOW: IFTTT INTEGRATION
Here are some of the many IFTTT recipes that are now available to integrate with the Weather Flow monitoring device.

Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image

As noted up above having an advanced 2017 piece of weather hardware that can take advantage of the current technologies in the market place. Helps me have a measure of fail over and data integrity.

One of the first things I did was set up the IFTTT service to send the same environmental's to Google Spread Sheets. It should be clearly noted the use of cloud hosted services is something I am really not a fan of. Given the lack of privacy, security, and ability to manage the service.

Image

Regardless of that fact, so long as the end users know and understand the inherent risks and limitations using these services are perfectly fine.

Image

Since the long term goal is to have the same hyper local data relayed to the Brultech Dash Box. Once the Weather Flow team has caught its breath in this massive deployment. All future environmental data will stream directly to my DB where I don't need to worry about any type of cloud dependency. :ugeek:

Image

The IFTTT service creating a new Google spread sheet to track the daily observations.

Image

Data streams into the Google Spread Sheet at 1 minute intervals which offers incredible weather details.

Image

The next IFTTT recipe I set up was to monitor high and low thresholds. This was done more for testing purposes of the portal services vs actually relying on IFTTT. Anyone who has ever used this cloud hosted service already knows actions and responses can take anywhere from mere seconds to hours to operate.

One has to keep in mind this IFTTT service is free to the end user and thus there is no SLA. Even though companies pay to have their own channel they too have a limited SLA to which their product will be supported.

Because of this fact none of what I am doing here is being relied upon for mission critical notifications, actions, or monitoring. My goal is to simply use these products and services as a measure of fail over, testing, and product development.

Regardless, it should be noted the Weather Flow system offers its very own native alert messaging which can be relied upon for mission critical alerts etc. :mrgreen:

Image

This image capture is me setting up the high limit threshold before it was changed to Celsius. I can't imagine if the high limit ever reached 80'C! :shock: That would be so freaking hot being completely naked wouldn't even help! :lol:

Image

Image capture of the high limit temperature being met. Of note the system only sent out one single SMS message exactly as I hoped for. Some systems like my ISY Series Controller by default will send out alerts on any change in condition. Meaning, if your defined threshold is 10'C anything above that such as 10.1, 10.2, 10.3 will continue to fire off notices.

There are of course many ways to limit and filter these nuisance alerts but its not the default behavior and requires some programming logic. I wanted to call out how this IFTTT / Weather Flow system operated. There are use cases for both types but in my situation I really only wanted a single fire and forget SMS message that wouldn't spam my systems.

Image

Since the Teken household is now pretty much out of the winter season. I won't know if the low limit will operate until next season. :roll: :cry:

Image

The goal was to set this IFTTT applet to monitor a specific temperature I was interested in. For now its set to -10'C but in the future it will be defined to -38'C as a hazard alert which will be linked to a smart colored bulb.

The idea is to have several applets defined and when its reached it will turn the smart bulb to different colors representing how hot or cold the outdoor weather is.

Image

I suppose a Phillips Hue smart bulb is in my future! :roll:

Image

Part of my trials has been to validate the reliability and consistency of the SMS Text Notifications from the IFTTT Portal Service. After more than 65 days of continuous testing this portion has been a resounding success.

This test was defined to send me a SMS Text to my iPhone when the local temperatures reached 20'C. As seen below the system has been rock solid in this aspect and feel I can move forward in the next steps of fine tuning the alert system to offer more meaningful thresholds for the future.

I haven't decided on the alert threshold as of yet but have a few ideas stirring around in my head. :lol:

Image
Teken . . .

My ongoing projects thread: http://www.brultech.com/community/viewt ... ?f=2&t=929
Buy me a cup of coffee: https://www.paypal.me/Teken https://gfinotify.com/ Discount Code: PC10
Teken
Posts: 2700
Joined: Wed Dec 15, 2010 4:09 pm
Location: The Bad Lands

Re: My GEM, ISY, Dash Box, Insteon Home Automation Install

Post by Teken » Wed Apr 12, 2017 3:40 pm

PROJECT TITAN - WEATHER FLOW: WEATHER UNDERGROUND
As noted up above the Weather Flow system allows multiple ways to capture and aggregate the data as you saw in the Google Spread Sheet example. The company has also teamed up with one of the largest cloud hosted weather services, Weather Underground (WU).

One thing that is hard to accept in the world of instant gratification is being able to see all the data right away. This is just one of many primary reason(s) having a Brultech Dash Box (DB) means so much to me.

There is no waiting there is only *Instant Gratification* in seeing the results of changes and the data that accompanies it. :lol: Anyways, with a cloud hosted service you need to wait for the service to accept, ingest, process, then render that information for viewing.

The image below took about 24 hours for the initial data to show up . . .

Image

This is a line chart from the WU services indicating the daily trend at my location as of this writing.

Image

Since the Sky hasn't been delivered yet the rain, wind, light and solar UV plots are not available for use. :| :cry: But hey good things comes to those who wait! :mrgreen:

Image

This table view indicates the raw data that is streaming from the Weather Flow *Air* into the WU portal service. The send interval is approx every five minutes in duration which is defined and limited by the WU service but does offer a nice granularity in the site data.

Image
Teken . . .

My ongoing projects thread: http://www.brultech.com/community/viewt ... ?f=2&t=929
Buy me a cup of coffee: https://www.paypal.me/Teken https://gfinotify.com/ Discount Code: PC10
Teken
Posts: 2700
Joined: Wed Dec 15, 2010 4:09 pm
Location: The Bad Lands

Re: My GEM, ISY, Dash Box, Insteon Home Automation Install

Post by Teken » Fri Apr 14, 2017 10:03 am

PROJECT TITAN - WEATHER FLOW: LIGHTNING STRIKES!
On April 14, 2017 of the early morning, I was awaken by a earth shattering (booming) lightning storm that was headed my way. :| I quickly grabbed my iPhone to see what the Weather Flow Air had captured in its logs via the smart application.

To my surprise the level of accuracy, detail, and metrics that could be seen and obtained while lightning was present was simply awe inspiring to say the least. :oops: Below are some of the image captures from my phone and from the web hosted portal.

The first lightning strike was seen and captured at 3:15 AM CST. I obviously wasn't awake for that event so couldn't see what the smart app indicated as the distance. But will offer more about that portion later down below.

Image

At 5:25 AM CST there were 36 lightning strikes within the geo location of the Weather Flow Air!

You can clearly see starting at 3:15 AM and moving forward the direction and strength of the massive storm front that entered my area. To be able to see visually and track these events for historic recall is simply amazing to me to say the least.

Being able to have time stamps to correlate the very same with other surge counters I have in the home is just another useful tool that will prove invaluable to me and family. :P

Image

a zoomed in view of the individual lightning strikes as they happen. :ugeek:

Image

This is the basic view from the web hosted portal and as of this writing the last lightning event of 8 KMS of the Weather Flow Air was 43 minutes and a total strike count of 97 with in the three hour window. :shock: :o

Image

This is the detail view of the very same metrics but offering more data points etc.

Image

Reviewing the data captured by my iPhone and comparing it to the early warning systems in place. The one application had alerted me well in advance of the pending rain fall. At 12:34 AM the system notes rain fall with in the next 24 hours.

Image

The early warning lightning system confirms what the Weather Flow had seen also.

Image

Here are some of the image captures from my iPhone during the lightning events. Below is the first push notification I saw after hearing the massive boom over my home. As you can see the push notification indicates the distance from the site when captured.

Image

This image shows how far one of the strikes were from my location. Which was over 34 KMS away and quickly headed my way! :o

Image

As noted up above the smart application offers some pretty unique and cool features. High lighted in yellow is a lightning symbol which flashes every time lightning is detected. In red is a rolling counter to indicate how much time has elapsed between the next strike. In green is the given distance of that strike from the location when detected by the Weather Flow Air.

Lastly, in orange is a accumulated counter for a 3 hour window of strikes captured. In that window of time and geo location boundary of the meter it captured 449 freaking lightning strikes! :shock: :o

Image

When the storm had past the final lightning count was something crazy stupid of 462 strikes.

Impressed?

I sure am . . . :ugeek:

Image

The early warning system confirms lightning has past our area. Time to clean my freaking shorts . . . :oops: :cry:

Image
Teken . . .

My ongoing projects thread: http://www.brultech.com/community/viewt ... ?f=2&t=929
Buy me a cup of coffee: https://www.paypal.me/Teken https://gfinotify.com/ Discount Code: PC10
Teken
Posts: 2700
Joined: Wed Dec 15, 2010 4:09 pm
Location: The Bad Lands

Re: My GEM, ISY, Dash Box, Insteon Home Automation Install

Post by Teken » Thu Apr 20, 2017 3:44 pm

PROJECT TITAN - WEATHER FLOW: ACCURACY
I've had the Weather Flow Air sensor array deployed for 10 days now. Quite a few members had inquired with me as to the level of accuracy seen by the Air.

Having tested and compared the readings from cheap to extremely expansive NIST certified tools the Weather Flow Air is very accurate given the price point this item is being sold for. Below is a image capture of a moment in time today (April 20, 2017).

At that moment the air temperature was 12.5'C

Image

When compared to my Autelis Bridge 1 Wire sensor array the reading was off by 0.1'C. It should be noted the 1 wire sensor is embedded into a plastic housing and thus could be at fault given its not measuring the direct air temperature but the casing itself.

Regardless, this 1 wire sensor has been validated against my NIST certified thermometer. I've submitted many *Feature Enhancement* requests for the product. One of which is to enable the user to apply a compensation factor to the *Displayed* value. Doing so would allow the end user to alter the displayed visual readings while still offering a reference point.

I'm not sure how many of my feature requests will make it to the initial launch but if it does this will surely offer that Nth degree of accuracy & reliability we all seek. :mrgreen:

Image

Humidity has been a tough area to validate and certify for me. :| Given every piece of hardware even the NIST certified tools have a tolerance rating that range from +/- 2 ~ +/- 5%.
Thus, this makes it extremely hard to say if the *Air* is accurate vs in specifications. If we simply assume the variance is going to be the standard fair of (consumer grade) readings an expected variance of +/- of 5% should be the marked target. :?

Below are some of the low tech to high tech readings I obtained for the various tools.
PROGRESS AND UPDATES - JUNE 11, 2017:
Since my last entry tracking this fantastic Weather Flow product. The team has resolved many bugs I have been able to capture and reproduce over the course of several months. As such the team has implemented a few key feature requests I had submitted.

Using the iOS smart application the user can move and arrange the tabs to be displayed to their needs and desires. In this screen capture the for cast was moved to the center page just for illustration purposes.

Image
METRICS & DIAGNOSTICS:
The next big feature request I had asked for was more diagnostics and metrics to help trouble shoot and determine key variables. While on the main page a very simple green LED is presented at the bottom of the page.

If everything is good to go the system will indicate a green LED and a online message. Pressing the green LED will open a new page to the diagnostic page which offers a plethora of statistics and metrics which I pushed to have. :mrgreen:

Image

Some of the key metrics I wanted to see were the up time, RSSI, firmware, last observation, and last status / last state. All of these and many more metrics will soon be released into the final product for better diagnostics and trouble shooting for the team and end user.

Image
Image

New in the latest firmware build is having the ability to zoom out and seeing the daily average temperature and the range. In red is the zoom in and out option to enable this feature. Once the (-) negative value is maxed out the bar graph will appear for the period.

In green are the metrics for the bar selected.

Image

One of the key issues I had found during my Alpha / Beta trials was there was an issue with the system having the ability to reach out to the NTP time server. Because of this the team has taken on my suggestion to prop up their own NTP time server and also ensure that the system is capable of staging / failing over to another back up NTP server.

Doing so will ensure all the weather data received will be 100% accurate and will correlate with the different cloud hosted servers etc. :P

Image
IFTTT GOOGLE LIGHTNING TRACKING:
One of the best features I like about this whole smart weather system is having the ability to track and recall historic data of interest to me. In this case being able to see when, how many, and how far a lightning strike has occurred from my home is simply fantastic! :ugeek:

Image

My system has been up and running for 65 days, 1 hour, 30 minutes, and 11 seconds as of this log entry. One of the areas under test was alert notification from the various services for the Weather Flow.

As noted early on the system natively supports push notifications. The team and I have tried to balance meaningful alerts vs endless spam. :? By default the WF Push Notification will only send push alerts that are either closer / further than the last lightning strike or if 30 minutes has lapsed.

For those who don't care and want to be alerted every time a lightning strike occurs regardless of the gate time / near & far distance limitations. The WF system allows the IFTTT service to send push alerts on each lightning strike.

Image
APPLICATION & SOFTWARE UPDATES:
Since deployment the team has been hard at work in developing the web hosted portal and the various smart applications. Below is just a small sample of iterations the iOS application has undergone in such a short period of time.

Image

In previous iterations of the web based portal and the smart applications. I had identified the lightning bolt icon would either not flash at all or flash too quickly. In the latest iteration of the software the system will offer a longer display time and the icon will actually move and flicker. :lol: To the right you will notice they have also included phrases of *Just Now* when a strike happens.

The team and I continue to test and validate the next revisions in hopes of obtaining the most accurate lightning alert system on the open market.

Image

The iOS smart application now incorporates three different ways to communicate the battery level which offers more insight to those like me wanting to know more. Having gone back and forth with the development team as to how best to reflect that battery state. I believe these three methods are a good compromise:

Battery Level: On the left hand side the image will fluctuate to display the virtual level of the battery state.

Voltage Level: In the center the system will always display the current battery voltage.

Battery State: To the far right is the stated condition / health.

Image

During the testing stages I was able to force the system to state a *Replace* battery message. :lol:

Image

Another great update to the software package has been giving the user the ability to select different methods to share or send the weather data to other users. In the future the team will enable the user to download the stored data and diagnostics in the most common formats.

Initially I pushed for the system to push the diagnostic metrics to Google Sheets. But was told it was too much for the system in its current form. So a compromise will be having the ability to download the same statistics of interest at a future date. :P

Image

The team has informed the entire testing group that the *Sky* will be ready for official testing in the next two week! :mrgreen: Upon receipt of this new piece of hardware I shall put it through its paces and update this journal entry.
Teken . . .

My ongoing projects thread: http://www.brultech.com/community/viewt ... ?f=2&t=929
Buy me a cup of coffee: https://www.paypal.me/Teken https://gfinotify.com/ Discount Code: PC10
Teken
Posts: 2700
Joined: Wed Dec 15, 2010 4:09 pm
Location: The Bad Lands

Re: My GEM, ISY, Dash Box, Insteon Home Automation Install

Post by Teken » Sat Apr 22, 2017 9:24 am

PROJECT TITAN - WEATHER FLOW:
Teken . . .

My ongoing projects thread: http://www.brultech.com/community/viewt ... ?f=2&t=929
Buy me a cup of coffee: https://www.paypal.me/Teken https://gfinotify.com/ Discount Code: PC10
Locked