Need ideas to make Indigo more reliable on Emergency Power

Posted on
Mon Jun 27, 2011 4:39 pm
hwitten offline
Posts: 627
Joined: Dec 26, 2007
Location: British Columbia

Need ideas to make Indigo more reliable on Emergency Power

When running on GenSet my Indigo HA becomes somewhat unreliable.

Not Indigo's fault. I assume power is not as clean as Hydro and possibly signal transmission isn't happening to both sides of the power leg.

I haven't figured out the cause or pinned down what does and doesn't work as sometimes all is ok and next time not.

I have multiple access points and have tried moving them around while running on GenSet but still no definite results.

Looking for ideas.
Two interfaces would be great to try, I.e. one on each power leg, but I guess that's just wishful thinking.

Open to any/all suggestions :-)

TIA

Posted on
Fri Jul 22, 2011 8:05 pm
tintivilus offline
Posts: 31
Joined: Feb 18, 2009

Re: Need ideas to make Indigo more reliable on Emergency Pow

How's your transfer switch set up? Maybe you're cutting off some of your transcievers when you switch...

Posted on
Fri Jul 22, 2011 10:27 pm
hwitten offline
Posts: 627
Joined: Dec 26, 2007
Location: British Columbia

Re: Need ideas to make Indigo more reliable on Emergency Pow

The Transfer Switch acts as a sub panel. It feeds the garage where computers, etc. are so no real difference whether hydro or genset. Have access points in the garage.

I keep thinking noise may be a factor as I would guess it's not quite as 'clean' as hydro. Several UPS's are happy with the genet power but they are set to low sensitivity.

Maybe the dual devices will improve things. I keep looking for a Z-wave bridge as it's 'supposed' be be more reliable than Insteon, but I think Insteon keeps getting better too so maybe I just have to 'hang on'.

Posted on
Fri Jul 22, 2011 10:50 pm
tintivilus offline
Posts: 31
Joined: Feb 18, 2009

Re: Need ideas to make Indigo more reliable on Emergency Pow

Z-wave is totally RF, isn't it? Your power quality wouldn't matter at all for that.

What sort of generator are you using? If it's a typical ("old fashioned") magnetic AC generator, you should be getting a very clean sine wave out of it. I'd only expect noise problems if you're using a little inverter generator.

You could rule it out completely by just scoping an outlet when the generator's running. Dollars to donuts you'll see near-perfect power :)

You're not trying to run insteon between grid-powered and generator-powered stuff at the same time, are you? You only use the generator when grid power is down, right?

Posted on
Fri Jul 22, 2011 11:26 pm
hwitten offline
Posts: 627
Joined: Dec 26, 2007
Location: British Columbia

Re: Need ideas to make Indigo more reliable on Emergency Pow

tintivilus wrote:
Z-wave is totally RF, isn't it? Your power quality wouldn't matter at all for that.


That's why I'm hoping the dual devices might help.

tintivilus wrote:
What sort of generator are you using? If it's a typical ("old fashioned") magnetic AC generator, you should be getting a very clean sine wave out of it. I'd only expect noise problems if you're using a little inverter generator.


16kw Generac. Only runs when no hydro. It's nearly perfect but not right on. Does a nice job though.

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