Vera Alert message repeats when Vista alarm sensor open

Plugins & Plugin Development Unmaintained
#1

I am trying to have a verbal announcement each time one of the alarm sensors is tripped in my house. For example, when the front door is opened, there would be an announcement stating “Front door open”. I have my Honeywell Ademco Vista alarm panel connected to my Vera Lite via an AD2USB with the Honeywell Ademco Vista Alarm Panels Plugin on the Vera. The senors all work well in the Vera. Now, I am trying to use Vera Alerts to send an announcement to an Android tablet that will be permanently mounted in the house. I have installed the Vera Alerts Plugin on the Vera and the Android app on the tablet. The plan is to have one scene with triggers for each sensor that will send a notification when the sensor is tripped. The notification is sent using the Luup event in the trigger with the following code:

luup.call_action("urn:richardgreen:serviceId:VeraAlert1", "SendAlert", {Message = "Door open {tone:1}", Recipients = ""}, 6)

I have created the sensor and some test triggers. The notification gets sent, but the issue is that it repeats approximately every 4 seconds until the sensor is closed. The Message Repeat Count in the Android app is set to 0, so I do not think it is the cause. Plus, I have tried making a test trigger with an Z-wave appliance module as the trigger (instead of an alarm sensor) and it makes the announcement only once. So my thoughts are that the sensor/panel is repeatedly sending an open signal until it is closed, which is repeatedly triggering; the announcements stop within seconds of the sensor being closed.

Any suggestions on how to fix this? I would like Vera Alerts to make only one announcement when an alarm sensor is tripped.

Thank you.

#2

I was experiencing something similar, but it would repeat every 15 minutes or so. Since then, I bought a VeraAlerts license, and the problem seems to have gone away. I’m not sure if and how they can be related, but it may work for you. A license is not very expensive.

#3

Licensing would only restrict the number of messages if not licensed … it would not cause any additional alerts.

#4

Thank you, but I purchased a license for Vera Alerts and it does not make a difference.

I have posted a similar question in the AD2USB thread. My current thought is that the repeating is caused by an error in the AD2USB plugin.

#5

We’ll you can use the PLEG plugin to de-bounce this event.

with an input called “Trigger” bound to the noisy input trigger.

You can have a condition called “Debounced”

With the following condition:

Debounced Trigger @ 2 > 10:00

Then put your alert on the condition “Debounced” being satisfied.

This will generate an event at most every 10 minutes.

#6

I got it working by using PLEG. I made an input for each sensor, then a condition for that input, and put the code from my earlier post into the Luup tab in the Action screen. Now it just makes one announcement! I still need to input all the sensors (I have 20+ sensors), but at least it is working for the couple trial ones.

Richard, do I need to create a separate input, condition, and action for each sensor or can you suggest a trick/short cut in PLEG?

#7

Sorry … not shortcut.

#8

I have been experiencing the same issue for over a year. What is the source of this problem?

It started out of nowhere one day. It comes and goes. It seems random and restarting the Vera helps (10% chance of fixing).

#9

Bump. Have been having the issue 100% of the time since my last post. Any ideas, anyone?

#10

Wayne,

I just upgraded to the VeraPlus, and I’m a huge fan of VeraAlerts. Ever since I added an alert when a door is opened, etc, I sometimes get multiple alerts sent to my devices. This doesn’t always happen. I’d say it happens once every 3 times or so. It just started after I upgraded. My VeraLite was working fine. I’m using the Ecolink door/windows sensors, and this is happening on more than one of them.

#11

Vera Alerts sends an ALERT every time the device is triggered … If the device bounces the tigger
(i.e. tripped, untripped, tripped, untripped, …) in rapid succession you will get an alert for EACH trip.

You can use PLEG to debounce the trigger.

In PLEG
Input:
NoisyTrigger1 when some noisy Trigger trips

Condition:
DebouncedTrigger1 NoisyTrigger1 @ 2 > 30

The above will only send the a trigger at most once every 30 seconds.

You put the notification alert on the PLEG device when it satisfies condition DebouncedTrigger1

#12

Alright, I believe I have this set up correctly.

What does the logic behind “@ 2 > 30” do/mean?

#13

It is evaluated when the noisy trigger1 is fired.

It is TRUE ONLY if there has been at least 30 seconds between the last two events (i.e. the current one and the previous one).

In a burst, the first one will always be true, and the rest will be false until it is quiet again for 30 seconds.

[hr]
NOTE: This is also useful in the opposite sense if you have a switch with instant status and you want to detect when the user has turned the switch on and off and on to potentially trigger a different behavior:

DoubleClick LightSwitch @ 2 < 30

Here, you must get two events in LESS than 30 seconds, otherwise they are considered unrelated events.