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Author Topic: eagle eye - turns on then a minute later it turns off  (Read 3630 times)

Mike_B

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eagle eye - turns on then a minute later it turns off
« on: August 22, 2011, 03:02:34 PM »

OK, I have a strange problem.

Before I go into details. I didn't do a boat load of searching on this. So if resolution posting is out there - point me in the direction please.

OK I hooked up my eagle eye on my front porch. during the day I have hit trigger a chime if the sensor is triggered. That worked fine. In the evening, I have the senor shut the chime off (we all need sleep). I have it focus on a macro to turn random lights in the house on and turn my front driveway light on also. This part starts off good. The macro has it so these lights all turn on one by one. They are programmed to stay on for 15 minutes then start shutting off. I made sure the eagle eye was set for 255 minutes. I know the sensor works both day and night as the chime goes off during the day and the lights do come on and go off after 9:30 PM (any hour of the night). The problem is the lights only stay on for a minute then they go off. This now is driving me crazy.

I have checked the macro and the sensor. I have wiped out all the programming and recreated it all from scratch. I have reset the sensor. I have redone the entire home automation system. I have also changed out the Active Home Pro box. None of which have resolved the problem.

Anyone have any thoughts? Maybe a different sensor?

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dave w

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Re: eagle eye - turns on then a minute later it turns off
« Reply #1 on: August 22, 2011, 05:19:45 PM »

From your description, the lights are all on different house codes-unit codes, and you turn the lights off by a macro timer. It appears your sensor "OFF" signal is not used. So that would indicate the problem is in the macro.

One point, if the motion sensor loses battery voltage even for a second, it defaults to "A1" with a one minute "no movement" time before it sends the OFF command.
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Mike_B

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Re: eagle eye - turns on then a minute later it turns off
« Reply #2 on: August 23, 2011, 10:00:01 AM »

Well I know it's not a voltage problem. As I said, It does work - but only for a minutes at most. Besides - The chime (k4) it is set during day - goes off several times throughout the day. I have the chime programmed to shut off at 9:30 pm and then it triggers the macro for the light(s).

As far as using different house codes, The unit (eagle eye) it set to K4 - The Macro is set to same. The units I am triggering are set on house code J, unit number, 1 (lamp),6 (lamp), and 15 (driveway). Again the macro is set to trigger the lights several seconds apart. After 15 minutes it is set to shut the lights of in the opposite order, again 5-10 seconds apart.

What I have noticed a few months back was, if I left it simple (one unit). It seemed to work better. The time the light would trigger would very. Anywheres from a minute to several minutes. But still didn't work through the time on the macro (15 minutes).

I also tried this same concept for my dogs. When I am working, I leave them in the basement. Knowing in the winter, it gets dark by 4:30, I set up an eagle eye to trigger their movements, and come on and stay on for 30 minutes. I was lucky to have that one single light to stay on for 1 minute at most - again setting the default time on the macro for something like 48 minutes (if memory seres me correctly). I also verified the settings on the eagle eye (by the number of flashes).

I am wondering if the eagle eye would trigger the light (based on movement) to come on, and then say a minute (or even 5 minutes later) it see movement and then shut down the macro (shutting off the lights). I have always thought it was the way I set up either the eagle eye or macro. But I have never been able to find the problem.

This is frustrating to say the least.





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dave w

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Re: eagle eye - turns on then a minute later it turns off
« Reply #3 on: August 23, 2011, 10:13:54 AM »


I am wondering if the eagle eye would trigger the light (based on movement) to come on, and then say a minute (or even 5 minutes later) it see movement and then shut down the macro (shutting off the lights). I have always thought it was the way I set up either the eagle eye or macro. But I have never been able to find the problem.

The Eagle will repeatedly send a "K4 ON" command everytime it sees movement. It will not send the "OFF" until it sees no movement for the duration you have it programmed for. How are you dealing with that in your macro? Is the macro being constantly re-triggered from repeated "ON" commands?

Also are you doing anything with the "K4 OFF" coming from the Eagle after it times out, or is timing in the macro solely responsible for turning lights back off.

What is your Activity Monitor showing? Where is the command that is turning your lights off prematurely, originating? From AHP? From external source? etc.
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Mike_B

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Re: eagle eye - turns on then a minute later it turns off
« Reply #4 on: August 23, 2011, 11:04:25 AM »

As for the 'on' command - I felt that each time it was triggered it should last say 15 minutes. I do understand that this may cause overlap and cause the light to stay on longer then 15 minutes. This is what I was hoping for.

The 'off' command coming from the eagle eye - knowing that it is set for 255 minutes. I figured it would run from the macro. I also understand that it may cause the light to shut off at an odd time. But this shouldn't be consistant. I was OK with this as this would only happen every 4 or so hours.

Maybe my logic is off for the above 'on' and 'off' commands. If so, please enlighten me.

What I do have running at the same time is the light in the driveway to come on at dusk. I have the K4 macro looking at the driveway light and state if it is on - do nothing. If it is off run the macro. I hope that makes sense. Now I will say the driveway light goes off at 11:30. My problems don't start until this point. I believe that is when that macro stops. From 11:30pm to 8:30 am I am on a different k4 macro that is running the lights.

I am wondering if I should redefine my macros so it looks at the light to verify that it is on - so it doesn't send a new command. I didn't think that should matter and shouldn't shut the lights off after a minute or so.

When I had a light come on in the basement. No matter what I did, that single light would come on and go off with in a minute. I would test it by walking by the senor (up the stairs and around the corner) and stand in my kitchen (where the sensor could not see me) and I would watch the light go out after a minute. In this case I wonder if it would have been better to set the timer on the eagle eye and not use a macro?

As far as Activity monitor - I will be honest. I don't recall. I had stopped fighting with the 3 or so lights that would come 'on' and shut 'off' after a minute a few months back (April, or May).  I had set it just for my driveway light, which still from time to time goes off after a minute or so. But I have had better luck with using just one light and not 3.
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