Offline notification for devices

#1

I have a pool pump that I need to know if it goes offline.
I have written a little watchdog piston but when I take the power away from the device ST only sees the last state, it never changes to OFFLINE and the power doesn’t go to 0.
I have looked at the other status entries besides $status and the log is just blank for those variables; $status is the only one that has a value.
Is there a way to poll a device to see if it has lost power or is this a catch 22?

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#2

I’m not sure about the solar panel status but I had a similar problem with my door locks.
Webcore is blind anything further than ST APP (if i’m mistaken please correct me PROs)

For some devices sending a PING worked, for some it didn’t…

Can you use STATUS without the dollar sign?
And instead of changes to OFFLINE, can you try just CHANGES?

#3

Perhaps… Programming periodic pings (is perfect?)… :grin:

OK, all puns aside…

I typically try to avoid spam pistons, but you could easily implement something like this:

Every 6 hours
    Set {powerPrev} = {powerNow}
    Set {powerNow} = [Pump:power]
    IF {powerNow} is equal to {powerPrev}
        Then Alert me
    END IF
END EVERY

This is designed with the assumption that your power reading will always be a bit different at any given reading. If they haven’t changed, it means the device may be offline.

To reduce false alarms, you could ‘complexify’ this a bit farther, and make it three readings in a row must match before you get alerted.

#4

Ike is right.

For the most part, webCoRE sees what SmartThings sees.

Some would argue that it’s possible to bypass ST and push data directly into webCoRE thru the External URL etc… and this is also true. Heck, it’s likely possible to bypass ST to get data out of webCoRE, as well…

… but I would expect that data still has to pass thru at least one SmartThings server along it’s journey… (perhaps just not “retrievable” via normal methods)

#5

Thanks for the suggestions. I have considered these kinds of workarounds but the system just isn’t that robust. I.E. my recirc pump draws 92 watts almost perfectly. When it goes offliine it just stays at 92 :frowning: “Changes to” and Change don’t do anything as no event is created because ONLINE never seems to update to OFFLINE.
I haven’t tried to Ping the device so maybe that will wake up a refresh request in ST as to the status.

#6

Yea, my idea above only works on dataPoints that normally change frequently.
(such as temperature)