Not today, but recently I added two outlets in the living room. One to control a lamp, the other for the Christmas tree lights (a little late, I know…). I also re-baked my Raspberry Pi Squeezebox because the wireless card decided to stop working. The new Squeezebox plugin is awesome and works really well. I also managed to get the Google Calendar plugin working with a multiswitch. With the kids being home from school tomorrow, I wanted the thermostat to not turn down while they were here.
You’d really be surprised how many times you can solve your own problems just by searching the forums. It’s saved me from embarrassment quite a few times.
You'd really be surprised how many times you can solve your own problems just by searching the forums.
Good point, @sugarbear. There is a huge amount of information on this forum just waiting for a little diligent google-ing with site: micasaverde.com along with the keywords.
Normally-closed 240V contactor and a universal module? I have that hardware now that I was going to use for a water heater, never installed it & ended up moving.
My two new Monoprice door/window sensors arrived today. The first went on the sliding glass door to the deck, the other will be mounted to my exterior basement door tomorrow while I’m packing my hockey gear.
I also changed the dining room fan/light out with one that matches the color my wife picked for the kitchen when we paint it this summer. I took the time to convert it to a single pole (two-way, whatever you call it) switch for the light and the fan. I installed two GE12722 switches when I replaced the fan. The traveler switch that is no longer used is now ready for a scene controller that I’ll install later. I’m undecided if I’ll go with a Leviton VRCS4-M0Z or the Enerwave ZWN-SC7. I have a VRCS4-M0Z waiting to be installed at the bottom of the stairs (another 3-way switch converted to a single pole setup), but that’s for another weekend. That’ll be the deciding factor me.
[quote=“RexBeckett, post:782, topic:172785”]
You’d really be surprised how many times you can solve your own problems just by searching the forums.
Good point, @sugarbear. There is a huge amount of information on this forum just waiting for a little diligent google-ing with site: micasaverde.com along with the keywords.[/quote]
Thanks @RexBeckett, I think the user community for Mi Casa Verde is what separates them from the rest. The regulars here are awesome, and are really passionate about what they do. Reading some of the questions that I know have already been answered almost makes me want to write a desktop field manual for every device I have. The write-ups that @Vodden and @S-F have done, documenting their foray into the HA world is inspiring. I’ve been slowly adding “things” for over a year now, but I’ve never thought about writing about it until recently, hence my posts in this thread.
I migrated one of my plugins ([tt]DataCache[/tt]) onto a BeagleBone Black, by emulating a few Luup calls ([tt]register_handler, call_delay, variable_set, variable_get[/tt]) and am now wondering how many more plugins can run stand-alone in that environment (which seems SO much more robust than Vera.)
I completely rewired my hallway lights and went from a janky 3-way set up (not sure what the electrician was thinking!!) to a 5-way using a Leviton VRMX1 dimmer and 3 remotes. I also took my Fibaro motion sensor (cat eye) and put it in the hallway to detect motion. I want to use it for turning on the lights when someone exits their bedroom. Eventually I would like to put in an alarm panel and put in door sensors and those motion sensors (cheaper) and use a combination of where motion was and the door sensor statuses to determine when to turn on the hallway lights.
For now, I’m happy though. Those were my LAST lights that were not automated and now my daughter can actually turn off the lights when she enters her bedroom instead of having to:
Turn on hallway lights
Walk to her room
Turn on bedroom lights
Walk back to hallway switch and turn it off
Walk to bed.
She’s a teenager, so most the time it went like:
Turn on hallways lights
Go to room
Close door and go to sleep…LOL
I also am prepared to put a 3-way setup for my dining room lights. The hallway side didn’t have a switch for the dining room, so I cut for a 2 gang box and when I do my kitchen re-wire, I will run a 3-way leg over there. Unfortunately, the bathroom on the otherside of the switch had an outlet blocking the 2 gang, so I put a 2 gang in, got a 2gang face plate and 1 blank, and when the hallways switch was installed, I screwed in teh 2 gang plate. It just looks like there is blank and you can’t tell there is only 1 gang box behind it (and a giant hole…LOL)
[quote=“SirMeili, post:787, topic:172785”]She’s a teenager, so most the time[/quote] -CuT-
i do alot of Wife Sitting too …
since the house runns light power and some other things on its own … she basically not switching anything at all anymore.
i need to manage the hallways and the bathrooms too as next … but iam too stingy use 2 Zwave elements for the Stairs (one ground one first floor) … and the bath . well i use to connect the water heater to the light circuit … so the relais must be “SOLID” switching it …
still thinking of a solution for this …
but thats just all excuses because iam too lazy to pull neutral wires
This is my biggest issue…no neutrals!!! and the worst part is that most of the ceiling lights have the power run to the light and then funky 3 ways set up to the switches. I am slowly fixing this, but it is a huge pain for me. It’s starting to get hot in FL, so I fear it will not be until next year until I can do the kitchen properly (3-way works, but the remote’s leds aren’t in sync with the main switch).
usally i “convince” myself by just get me something Shiny …
like the MCO Switches or somethings … i add a tiny fuse on the neutral end of the switch itself … (500mA or somethings) and pull then a Solid Telephone wire to use a neutral connecti it to the neutral grid at closest point …
they easy to push trough the existing pipes (less headaches . .and it can be done in a one-man-operation)
the fuse is important because in case of a failure the cable will not support 16Amps or even 25 in the US …
its a nice compromise … easy enough to do as well …
I’m unfortunately not a certified electrician but I have the same issue. Building codes in Fl in the 70’s must have been funky as there is no rhyme or reason as to what is on which breaker in the panel…
How does one run a neutral from the light to the box in the wall without having to rip open the drywall? I can fish it down the wall I think. Or perhaps better up the wall but getting it into the box without cutting open drywall to find the fished cable and then feeding it into the box is my problem. Is there a trick I am missing? I would love to fix my kitchen and dinette so I can replace the GU10 halogen with GU10 led. Since no neutral is present, I have to use a 2 wire zwave dimmer and none I tried want to play with the LED’s. even though they are listed to be dimmable.
[quote=“nullx8, post:790, topic:172785”]usally i “convince” myself by just get me something Shiny …
like the MCO Switches or somethings … i add a tiny fuse on the neutral end of the switch itself … (500mA or somethings) and pull then a Solid Telephone wire to use a neutral connecti it to the neutral grid at closest point …
they easy to push trough the existing pipes (less headaches . .and it can be done in a one-man-operation)
the fuse is important because in case of a failure the cable will not support 16Amps or even 25 in the US …
its a nice compromise … easy enough to do as well …[/quote]
Disclaimer: I’m not a licensed electrician, but my education is electrical engineering and I am familiar with the NEC.
What you’ve described is more than likely not up to code, and if there is a fire and an insurance adjuster finds that, you could more than likely be out of luck.
When my house was recently gutted, I had all new electrical put in on the first floor. The contractor forgot a circuit I had asked for, which I pointed out after the kitchen was done. He came up with a kludge (the old 2-wire method) that didn’t bring the neutral into the fixture, which in turn caused my Cooper dimmer to trip the GFIC outlet where he stole the switch neutral from (since there was an imbalance in the source and return current flows).
I made him open the walls from the outside and run a proper circuit, at his expense. You don’t want to cut corners with stuff like this.
I’m unfortunately not a certified electrician but I have the same issue. Building codes in Fl in the 70’s must have been funky as there is no rhyme or reason as to what is on which breaker in the panel…
How does one run a neutral from the light to the box in the wall without having to rip open the drywall? I can fish it down the wall I think. Or perhaps better up the wall but getting it into the box without cutting open drywall to find the fished cable and then feeding it into the box is my problem. Is there a trick I am missing? I would love to fix my kitchen and dinette so I can replace the GU10 halogen with GU10 led. Since no neutral is present, I have to use a 2 wire zwave dimmer and none I tried want to play with the LED’s. even though they are listed to be dimmable.[/quote]
I have handled it different ways (getting a neutral in the box). Though normally, I do HAVE a neutral, it is used for the traveler for the 3 way. So, for me the easiest way is to cut out the electrical box (I use a reciprocating saw to cut whatever is holding it in). This is also a good time to add another switch and/or scene controller. Just get a 2 or more old work gang box and extend the hole appropriately (I use a drywall saw for this NOT the reciprocating saw). I can then remove the box and push the wires out. This gives me a hole to reach for the new wires.
I then go in the attic and I feed a new line down to the opening. Once you have the new lines run, it’s just a bit funky to get the old work box back in with the wires in, but they are made to angle and slide in. I’ve been able to get a box in with wires coming in from the top and bottom.
For my hallway, it was a bit weird though. They had power going to the first switch (2-wire) and a 3-wire coming out. The 3-wire went to the first light. Then there was a second 3-wire run to the second light. Then a final 3-wire run from the second light to the second switch. They also had a 2-wire running between the two lights, but only the common was used in it.
I left the first switch in place since it was technically wired correctly (2-wire in, 3-wire out). I bought some metal junction boxes and in the attic I pulled the 3-wire out of the first light (from that first switch) and put it in the junction box. I also removed the 3-wire between the 2 lights. I kept the 2-wire between them as this was correct. I then cut 2 more switch openings next to the other doors and pulled 3-wire from the new junction box in the attic to the next switch. Then ran 3-wire from that switch to the next switch. Since the last switch already had 3-wire. I removed it from the light box it went to and put it in another junction box in the attic. I then pulled new 3-wire from there to the 3rd switch. I also had to pull 2-wire from the last switch to the first light in the series.
Once that is all done, I just installed the wires in the junction boxes, installed the junction boxes in the walls and wired the switches and lights up. No extra holes. Originally I thought I would need to because I thought I would have to remove the old wire, but I was able to keep it in place and just re-use it (nothing wrong with it, it’s just copper). I will make a few notes:
I researched a lot before doing any of this. Junction boxes in the attic are acceptable in most (if not all) places as long as they are “accessible” from in the attic (not walled in or covered by flooring)
I was lucky to have a grandfather who instilled a “can-do” attitude when it comes to DIY. I’m fearless and I’m willing to do/try most things with my house.
With electricity and funky wired house (as we have in FL)…sometimes it’s better to shut off power to the whole house. My circuits are labelled but there are outlets in rooms that are part of another circuit (My hallway outlet is apparently NOT on the hallway circuit as I Found out yesterday… it has a nightlight, I didn’t shock myself).
If you find that you need to completely replace the cable, I have read that in many places it is to code to just leave the abandoned/unused wire in the wall. Just make sure it is either marked as not used or you cut it down and don’t install it in the boxes (also cut it up in the attic). You’ll REALLY want to make sure that any cable you cut out like that does not have a live end anywhere. And of course, as always, check local codes before doing this.
As I’ve learned with many things…sometimes it’s just easier, and faster to call a professional. I don’t do it with electrical, but for instance I did with our new fencing. I could have done it, but it was just worth the cost for me to have someone else do it. It also got done A LOT faster LOL
I researched this HEAVILY when I started doing a lot of the electrical in my house. I do my very very best to do it to code, but you just never know and I didn’t want the insurance company denying an unrelated claim because they found work that was not up to code. What I found was that most, if not all things, done by a home owner that are NOT intentionally negligent, are still covered under homeowners insurance. The reasoning is that when doing DIY, it is not your intention to cause an issue. If the work is done by a professional, however, the insurance can refuse to cover it if it was the cause of the problem.
I think it’s called a good will clause or something like that. It basically protects homeowners from their own good intentions that go wrong. Of course as anything, I would check your homeowners policy to make sure that it includes such a clause.
@SirMeili: Thanks for the detail explanation. I never thought about ripping out the box but that’s actually a good idea as I can then replace it with a deeper box. Unfortunately, too late for this season, it’ll have to wait fro next winter to go up in the attic and start tracking wires. Based on the no neutral in the switch box, I am pretty sure those are just 2 wire runs directly from the light/fan to the switch box. But you never know until you track it.
As for your point 3, tell me about it. One circuit handles a hallway light, the guest bathroom and half (one wall of outlets and the ceiling light) the kitchen. The other half is on a circuit that also feeds an outlet in the dinette. The other outlet there is on the same circuit as my master bathroom. Someone told me back then they used a ‘points’ system for circuit load that resulted in these funky runs. As in adding the rest of the kitchen would exceed the max points but adding 1 outlet in the dinette would bring it just below that max point level.
I researched this HEAVILY when I started doing a lot of the electrical in my house. I do my very very best to do it to code, but you just never know and I didn’t want the insurance company denying an unrelated claim because they found work that was not up to code. What I found was that most, if not all things, done by a home owner that are NOT intentionally negligent, are still covered under homeowners insurance. The reasoning is that when doing DIY, it is not your intention to cause an issue. If the work is done by a professional, however, the insurance can refuse to cover it if it was the cause of the problem.
I think it’s called a good will clause or something like that. It basically protects homeowners from their own good intentions that go wrong. Of course as anything, I would check your homeowners policy to make sure that it includes such a clause.[/quote]
“The road to hell is paved with good intentions…” ;D
The previous owner of my house was a DIY nightmare. I’ve opened up junction boxes where the wires were held together with electrical tape instead of wire nuts. :
The point about checking your policy is well taken, that should also include checking your local building codes. Our town recently changed some laws (more than likely due to the flood destruction) that even homeowners can’t do certain things themselves, has to be a licensed professional in order to maintain the CO.
“The road to hell is paved with good intentions…” ;D[/quote]
Haha … yeah … a ROCK Solid Pavement …
well not for me … i’m more about getting things done …
of course its not a code-thing … its more about not to start a fire in the first place.
the fuse costs 0.25$ … the house costs 150.000$ …
thats my calcualtion on that.
having had 2 Fibaro Dimmers almost cause a fire in the house (installed 100% after code) made me more worry about this things …
and this dimmers are “after code, and have all certifications”
i prefer to trust myself in things like this and be safe.
well okay its easy to say for me … as i live in Thailand … where “official” installations look like attached pic
my non-code-house looks more like a showroom of European Clean-ness in comparison … haha
but yes i get the idea … and the concerns are valid about insurances. i just porposed a safe way of bypassing the neutral-problem …
but the insurance and Local Laws is somethings to consider as well … absolutly agree on that.
I consolidated a couple of PLEG devices today. For the 5-6 conditions I had on the “away” PLEG, I figured I was better off just rolling those into my primary PLEG.
I continue to be plagued with a Vera Restart problem for which no one at Vera seems to have an answer.
I have two UI5 Veras; Vera-1 runs all the Zwave stuff and Vera-2 interfaces the DSC alarm and the Blue Iris camera system. Both exhibit very high memory utilization, Vera-1 85-95% and Vera-2 110-115%. Vera-1 also exhibits periodic high CPU utilization topping 90% about once per minute which I suspect may be PLEG serving timers but i can’t prove it.
Anyway the current problem is that Vera-1 may restart several times a day (others days not at all). About once a week it restarts but LuaUPnP does NOT start at all — the problem for which Vera Tech Support seems not to have an answer. I can access it via SSH and see that LuaUPnP is not running at all but it answers PINGs so there does not appear to be a nice clean method to use as a means of detecting startup failure and forcing a restart or power cycle.
So I’m thinking about a different approach. Two ZWave power outlets in a box, one controlled by Vera-1 and the other by Vera-2. Vera-1 is plugged into the Vera-2 controlled outlet and vice. Each Vera would have a VirtualSwitch/MultiSwitch, a PLEG function with a 1 minute short timer and a 5 minute long timer.
Each Vera would then use HTTP to set a VirtualSwitch/MultiSwitch on the other Vera. When each Vera sees the switch set it would reset the internal timer and set the switch on the other Vera and so one once every minute or so throughout the day.
Because LuaUPnP is not running commands received would be ignored on that Vera. If Vera-1-or-2 fails to see its control switch set by the other then the long timer will eventually expire and the Vera would trip the other-Vera-outlet OFF and then turn it back ON after 30 seconds. Thus each Vera would be monitored and power cycled by the other if it fails to function properly.
A convoluted solution to be sure but its what I’ve been able to devise to solve for a problem “that can’t happen” when it happens.
about once per minute which I suspect may be PLEG serving timers but i can't prove it.
PLEG would ONLY running every minute for two reasons:
1) You created an interval timer to run every minute.
2) You use the NOW keyword.
There are other alternatives to using NOW … and can be used to reduce excessive work.
But NOW would only be significant if you have a LOT of conditions.
