One more question please. I am having a tough time figuring this one out and I am open to any ideas and suggestions.

I have motorized shades in my home. I have a dry contact interface (made by the shade manufacturer, Somfy) connected to an EZIO8SA (through a 2412S).

I also placed a triggerlinc at the top of the shade roller and on the bottom lip of the shade. This is so I can tell when the shade is in the “closed position” and in the “open position.” Knowing if the shade is open or closed I can update a keypad button accordingly. This serves an important function. On the dry contact interface made by somfy a relay closure (done by EZIO8SA output #1) will send the UP command and a different relay closure (done by EZIO8SA output #2) sends a down command. This method continues for 5 channels, therefore 10 relays a required. Up and Down (2) times 5 channels is 10.

Now, if I have a keypad button to open or close a shade, lets say the balcony shade, I need the keypad button to reflect on or off so it knows to send open or close (which relay to momentarily close on the EZIO8SA). I hope you are following me so far…

So, the keypad button would be on if the shade is open and thus pressing the button would send an off command and close relay 2 to close the shade

and the opposite

The keypad button would be off if the shade is closed and this pressing the button would send an on command and close relay 1 to open the shade.

I figured out to do this by using a triggerlinc. I placed the body of the receiver up near the shade roller and the magnet on the bottom lip of the shade. So, when the shade is closed, the magnet is not near the sensor, the sensor shows on. When the shade is open, the magnet touching the sensor, and the sensor shows on.

So, sensor off, shade open, sensor on, shade closed. (reversed logic but placing the sensor body on the floor would look like crap. I can probably make the sensor change a variable and then make a trigger for a variable change but it is one more step and I do not think it is needed.


So, i created a trigger to update the keypad button state. When the sensor is off, keypad button is on, when the sensor is on, the keypad button is off.

Here is my issue:

Action Group close balcony shade
Sent INSTEON "single shade controller - output 6" on (ack: 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0)
Received INSTEON "single shade controller" outputs status changed: 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0
Received INSTEON "balcony shade sensor" on (button 1)
Trigger balcony shade is closed
Action Group balcony shade closed
Received INSTEON "balcony shade sensor" off (button 1)
Trigger balcony shade is open
Action Group balcony shade open
Received INSTEON "balcony shade sensor" off (button 1)
Trigger balcony shade is open
Action Group balcony shade open
Received INSTEON "balcony shade sensor" on (button 1)
Trigger balcony shade is closed
Action Group balcony shade closed
Received INSTEON "balcony shade sensor" on (button 1)
Trigger balcony shade is closed
Action Group balcony shade closed
Received INSTEON "single shade controller" outputs status changed: 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0
Sent INSTEON "kitchen" keypad button 3 off
Sent INSTEON "kitchen" keypad button 3 on
Sent INSTEON "kitchen" keypad button 3 on
Sent INSTEON "kitchen" keypad button 3 off
Sent INSTEON "kitchen" keypad button 3 off

Notice the section where the triggers go crazy. Closed, Open, Open, Closed, Closed. How do I create something to fix this issue?


Also:

You can see the open part of things is working perfect:


Action Group open blacony shade
Sent INSTEON "single shade controller - output 5" on (ack: 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0)
Received INSTEON "single shade controller" outputs status changed: 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0
Received INSTEON "single shade controller" outputs status changed: 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0
Received INSTEON "balcony shade sensor" off (button 1)
Trigger balcony shade is open
Action Group balcony shade open
Sent INSTEON "kitchen" keypad button 3 on

Please help!

What appears to be happening is that when the shade bottom starts moving, for a second or two the magnet is right on the edge of the sense range of the TriggerLinc - so it's coming/going from the range so it turns on/off until it gets far enough away.

There are a couple of things that you might be able to do:

1. Reposition the TriggerLinc so that it's a bit farther away from the sensor - so that as soon as the shade starts going down it's far enough away that it doesn't "flap"
2. If you can't find a reliable way to reposition it, then probably what you'll want to do is disable the "Trigger balcony shade is open" and "Trigger balcony shade is closed" triggers when the action group "close balcony shade" is executed - but just for a short amount of time (a couple of seconds - you can use the Auto-enable after X minutes). That would give the magnet time to get well out of range of the TriggerLinc