A bit OffTopic... make wall plug "read only"?

Plugins & Plugin Development Alternate UI
1

Not related directly to Alternate UI, but people in this part of the forum seem to have great experience with Vera and give good answers. :slight_smile:
(Delete if you don’t want this here)

I would like to use two wall plugs to monitor power consumption on my fridge and freezer (and also alert me if they brake down), but would like to disable the control so that I don’t turn them off by mistake.
Have anyone tried to do that and can tell if it is possible to lock out the control of the device?
Maybe its possible to change category from wall plug to energy monitor or something like that.

2

I did some testing…

I changed the files to D_PowerMeter1.xml & D_PowerMeter1.json and set category number 21 (Power meter)
source: http://wiki.micasaverde.com/index.php/Luup_Device_Categories

The problem was the device got invisible in Vera original GUI.
In AltUI it shows as a power meter, current Watt and shows energy used since last reset. Very nice!
The bad part is that it is invisible in ImperiHome and I cannot use the device in a scene.

EDIT:

This works in Vera GUI, AltUI, Vera Android App but invisible in Imperihome for some reason:

(use the Netatmo app, so I borrowed the settings for the generic pressure gauge)
device_file = D_NetatmoMetric.xml
device_json = D_NetatmoMetric.json
category = 12
device_type = urn:akbooer-com:device:NetatmoMetric:1

Still have to find out why it can’t be seen in ImperiHome, the Netatmo device with the same settings works just fine.

EDIT 2:

The Netatmo device shown in Imperihome was the “real” Netatmo device, not the Vera app. Many of the sensors for Netatmo that shows in Vera is invisible in ImperiHome. I have made a support request to add those.
Ill stick to this solution for now as I can make a scene to alert me if power consumption fall below what the fridge/freezer usually uses.

3

You can make a scene that just turns it back on if you turn it off.

4

With a notification to let you know you turned it off, so you can kick yourself (or look for the family member that did it).

5

I do this too for mine

6

More simply with a fibaro wall plug (with power meter), it is possible in the configuration of the module to block the on / off command

Brice

7

Can you tell me how? :slight_smile:
EDIT: I found the manual… set parameter 1 [1 byte] to 1 to activate “always on”.

Btw, I made a Workflow to make sure they are always on. During testing i noticed that my transition timers run too fast. Instead of starting at 5, they start at 2 seconds for some reason.
Then I tried a 10 second timer, it started at 5. (Can anyone else confirm this?)

8

Can you tell me how? :slight_smile:

Btw, I made a Workflow to make sure they are always on. During testing i noticed that my transition timers run too fast. Instead of starting at 5, they start at 2 seconds for some reason.
Then I tried a 10 second timer, it started at 5. (Can anyone else confirm this?)[/quote]

be careful to measure this with the log in DEBUG mode. do not trust the user interface which has some latency lags due to the fact we have to POLL vera for updates to show timers & transitions. the valid metric is the log where we see when the timer is set and when the timer expires

9

Just an update…

I made the Wall Plugs “always on” and tested that they could not be turned off.
Then the next day just before I got home I got an alert from the temp sensor that it was too hot.
The WP for the fridge had turned off for no reason. This repeated twice at random times.
Now I have a scene that make sure it is on and also send me an alert if it runs.
This scene has run once today, so it was the third time the WP turned itself off.
Im gonna check the device options again tonight to see what differs the fridge and freezer WP.

EDIT:
I had accidentally set the “overload protection” value to 2500 instead of 25000 (=2500W), so every time the fridge started its moisture vaporization cycle and used more than 250W it shut itself off.