Power monitor status

#1

Hi all,

I’m trying to figure out a way to write a short piston that will let me know if my power monitor goes off-line. Since I’m using a device handler, it is sort of a virtual device in a way, and I don’t believe I can monitor it directly through ST…But I have these options:

23 PM

Any suggestions on something I can write to give me a notification? I’m thinking maybe if it continues to report zero watts for a certain time, let me know? Not sure exactly how I would program that…If you guys/gals have some pointers, I can give a try by unplugging it to see if the piston catches the zero wattage…

Thanks

#2

check $status. the value should be OFFLINE if the device goes offline.

also, as you have already pointed out power should never be zero watts unless its monitoring a device that only runs intermittently.

#3

I don’t think ST is seeing that because I’m passing the data from one cloud to another cloud…and then representing that data. To get around the lack of offline status, I’d like to try monitoring the wattage. If I disconnect the unit it doesn’t appear to update the wattage for a while…so I was thinking about a statement if the wattage remains the same for a while, let me know…not sure that will work…

#4

what is this mystery device? :slight_smile:

is it monitoring power to a home or a device thats intermittently on?

#5

It’s a bit convoluted. It’s a HAN device. It connects directly to the power meter via zigbee. From there, the HAN device communicates to a 3rd party. From there, the 3rd party pass information on to Wattsvision which I can see on ST as a device. From there, I have a Device Handler that parses the data from Wattsvision. It happens instantly and is seamless, but because of the set-up, it’s a little weird when it comes to on-line/off-line. I tried to write a piston that watched for no change of Wattage, but I couldn’t get it to fire…

#6

i also use the wattvision DH thru the rain forest cloud. i monitor for wattvision power going down below a certain level and that works fine.

can you share a green snapshot of the piston that is not working?

#7

I just got rid of it…may i see what you’re using?
I watched it go to zero and nothing happened because ST wasn’t updated…so, I don’t think there was a way for WebCoRE to know of any “new” activity.

#8

try this

image
image.png1178×393 42 KB

#9

the updates are not instant it takes a few seconds before ST sees any power change. sometimes like 10 seconds.

#10

But there won’t be a power change, it just stops reporting.

#11

that was just an example to show the power change portion.

for monitoring online/offline wrap that same condition in a timer that runs every X minutes.

#12

So how are you getting online/offline readings?

Is your set-up 1)Rainforest Eagle 2)internet connection to Rainforest Cloud 3)Rainforest cloud connected to Wattsvision via the internet 4)Wattvision device handler on ST?

#13

normally my house power usage never goes below 100 watts. if the power reading is below 100 watts then its offline.

yes.

#14

Ok…So I can run this above piston, unplug the Rainforest, and I should get a notification? I tried it (waited like 15 minutes) and didn’t see anything

#15

no. you need to do it like this:

every 5 minutes
   if power meter 1's power is less than 100W
      send notification
   end if
end every
#16

Sorry, would you mind giving an example, please? I was looking at your piston, but I don’t see the 5 minute part…

#17

Cancel that, I found every :slight_smile: let me try

#18

Ok…So I tested this…the piston works in the sense that it is clearly watching the wattage. try unplugging your unit…ST will stop reporting a new value…I don’t see how WebCoRE would be able to compare any new values, as they cease…You can unplug your unit and get notification within 5 minutes?

#19

Figured it out…

Just monitor the change not happening over a period of time and it will trigger it :slight_smile:

When the unit gets unplugged, it stops reporting and to WebCoRE, it appears to be the same value (even though it is actually zero.) But this works (maybe not)

Update:

So I don’t need to have it check every certain amount of minutes, if just program it to look for an unchanged value, that seems to work…but here’s what doesn’t work…even the value changes (and it reports this in the log as changed) it is still executing the then command.

As an example:

If the power device stays unchanged for xxx amount of time, then xxx

It is stating the evaluation is true (state changed) even though I told it to look for an unchanged status…

#20

green snapshot?