Yah it is Travis - you have to be signed up to get updates..

travisc wrote:

jasondoiron wrote:Firmware Version: 01.04.40

Ya that's old. Latest is 1.07.72. It's supposed to update itself automatically from their servers. Maybe give it some more time or try setting up an account on their site. I'm not sure if the account is a requirement for the updates or not.

I'm considering getting a DSC alarm (difficult to get in the UK, but not impossible).. i was wondering though, how does the zone states work? does it change from 0 to 1 when there's activity, or is that just if the alarm is enabled in that zone? I was hoping it's the former so i could use it also for activity monitoring in all rooms rather than have to have stand alone PIRs for the job.

durosity wrote:I'm considering getting a DSC alarm (difficult to get in the UK, but not impossible).. i was wondering though, how does the zone states work? does it change from 0 to 1 when there's activity, or is that just if the alarm is enabled in that zone? I was hoping it's the former so i could use it also for activity monitoring in all rooms rather than have to have stand alone PIRs for the job.

You can certainly do that. I use my alarm zones as triggers for all kinds of events, they work whether the alarm is armed or not.

I use it that way in my house as well. No sense putting a motion detector in a room that already has one for the alarm system. I use them to show a last-occupancy-timestamp in the room.

Great.. that means i now need to go source, install and program an alarm system i have practically no knowledge of... thats the next few weeks of my life wasted

@dstrickler, how do you get the last-occupancy-timestamp? When looking at the plugin it just has a state= option, no fields for last updated?

durosity wrote:@dstrickler, how do you get the last-occupancy-timestamp? When looking at the plugin it just has a state= option, no fields for last updated?

Use a Trigger of "Device State Changed", choose your DSC motion detector for that room, then "Zone State Change to Open" and then choose "Becomes True". Then how you set your Actions is up to you, but I have code that sets a variable with the timestamp. I also have code that is set up on a Schedule each minute that does the math and figures out how long in minutes it's been since a room's occupancy timestamp, and saves theses integers to variables.

Now other code can say "if living room motion is over 12 minutes old, then do xyz". Makes the rest of the coding for this very easy.

dstrickler wrote:
Use a Trigger of "Device State Changed", choose your DSC motion detector for that room, then "Zone State Change to Open" and then choose "Becomes True". Then how you set your Actions is up to you, but I have code that sets a variable with the timestamp. I also have code that is set up on a Schedule each minute that does the math and figures out how long in minutes it's been since a room's occupancy timestamp, and saves theses integers to variables.

Now other code can say "if living room motion is over 12 minutes old, then do xyz". Makes the rest of the coding for this very easy.

I like it.. might have to hit you up for some help with code after i've got the alarm panel... it'll be nice to have PIRs in ever room and be able to finally ditch the wireless ones i've been having so much difficulty with. Will probably take months for me to get it working properly though :/

hi all. i'm about to take the long procrastinated leap to lion (or mountain lion even..) server from snow leopard server. i run on an xserve 1,1... it's been very very stable for several years now... to do this obviously i need to let go of serial bridge, which has been phenomenally reliable.

so, my question is, how is travis' plugin working for everyone? rock solid, fast, reliable as heck, or what? seems that way, but the alarm component is not something i want to fiddle with and risk bugs and errors.. it will take me a lot of work to update all the triggers to the plugin architecture and if it's not going to be as good as or better than sb for me i don't want to spend the time.

thanks in advance for any thoughts...


dt

I've been using the 2DS with the current version of the plugin since April. I've noticed no problems. That's on an Intel Mac Mini running Snow Leopard, only rebooting to update Indigo. Connected to a DSC PowerSeries 832 Panel.

hi travis, thanks! i am running an 832 with the 5401 board. how will that fare with the plugin?

dtich wrote:hi travis, thanks! i am running an 832 with the 5401 board. how will that fare with the plugin?

Couldn't tell you to be honest. I don't think anyone has tested the 5401 board. Only the IT-100 and 2DS are confirmed to work.

hm. ok. well, it's the same exact protocol i think...(??) so maybe i'll try with a couple triggers and see what happens. no reason i can't run sb and the plugin simultaneously i think... we'll see.

thanks!

dtich wrote:so, my question is, how is travis' plugin working for everyone?
dt

It's been very reliable for me. About once a quarter I need to reload the plugin as it stops communicating with the system, but I am pretty convinced it's my setup as my entire WiFi setup (Apple router and 3 Apple extenders) need to be rebooted with about the same regularity.

Even when this reload is needed, the alarm still functions as normal, it's just that Indigo can't talk to it. A simple "reload" of the plugin-via the menu fixes things. Unfortunately I can't test a hard-wire (non-WiFi) due to where the alarm is located.

Well i’ve finally ordered a basic controller package (with IT-100 serial controller) so hopefully it’ll all turn up by next weekend.. doesn’t look too hard to program, so hopefully soon i’ll be able to control both my lighting and heating system based on active zones. Wish me luck….

I'm on the fence with this myself so I'm very interested to hear your experience. Do you happen to have existing wired zones?