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[HA Dave]

I want a garage door monitor, (with a voice announcement) reminder.

We use our (attached) garage door as our primary entrance. Sometimes..... with the wife unloading the car, or me doing yard work with tools form the garage...... the door gets left open. I had considered an auto-closer... but decided against that, (low WAF on that one).

I recently installed the standard "BIG GAP" garage door magnetic switch and PowerFlash module. The place where I bought the magnet switch was out-of-stock of the three wire (N.O./N.C. switchable) ones so they sent me a N.C. switch for free. When the the door opens ... the connection (magnet switch) OPENS, and the PowerFlash sends an OFF signal, when the door closes it sends an ON. That signal is used to trigger macros in AHP to turn ON a light (a small night light) and a chime. All pretty simple and straight foreward.

BVC listens for the light ON and OFF signals and [Kate] says: "the garage door is open"..... [or closed].

What I want now.... is a voice reminder every few minutes (10 sounds right). But my macros have all been failures... although I am not sure why.

Has anyone ever done some sort of a timed-conditional-reminder-macro.... thingy?

[steven r]

....they sent me a N.C. switch for free. When the the door opens ... the connection (magnet switch) OPENS, and the PowerFlash sends an OFF signal, when the door closes it sends an ON. That signal is used to trigger macros in AHP to turn ON a light (a small night light) and a chime....

Hmm... I always thought the normal condition of a read switch was defined by its state when it wasn't energized by a magnet. i.e. It would be N.O. if was open without a magnet nearby. e.g. http://www.directron.com/reed1.html and http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/prodinfo.asp?number=G1347&variation=.
You supplier seems to define it the opposite way. Do I have my labeling convention wrong or is that supplier redefining the norm?

It shouldn't be hard to create a macro that loops (calls itself) every 10 minutes. You'll need to set a flag or monitor the door status as a condition for the macro. I do something like that for my looping signal test macro. What do you have so far?

[-Bill- (of wgjohns.com)]

Hmm... I always thought the normal condition of a read switch was defined by its state when it wasn't energized by a magnet. i.e. It would be N.O. if was open without a magnet nearby. e.g. http://www.directron.com/reed1.html and http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/prodinfo.asp?number=G1347&variation=.
You supplier seems to define it the opposite way. Do I have my labeling convention wrong or is that supplier redefining the norm?

I was just telling Dave_x10_L the other day that this caused me some confusion when I first started in the alarm industry.   

The situation seems to be that when buying a switch as a "raw" electronic component, NO and NC refer to the switch's contact status as-is with no external influence (no one pushing on a push-button switch, no magnet near a reed switch, etc.).

However, when buying it as a component designed for use with an alarm system, NO and NC refer to the switch's contact status as it will normally be once installed.  So, a reed switch will be listed as NC if its contacts are closed when a magnet is nearby (wich the alarm industry considers the "normal" condition as the magnet is normally nearby when the door or window is closed).   

Confused the crap out of me until it finally sunk in that the two industries have a different definition of "normal"!   

[steven r]

...Confused the crap out of me until it finally sunk in that the two industries have a different definition of "normal"!

Figured as much. Thanks for the clarification, Bill

[HA Dave]

(You say Normally Open, I say Normally closed...... let's call the whole thing off..... )

I should have been clearer.... or more vague. Ether way... I have found success! I now have a voice reminder when the garage door is left open.

I created four separate macros

Macro one and two "door open" and "door closed", simply turn the light (a small night light) and a chime ON and OFF (in reverse of the powerflash ON/OFF). These two macros I saved to the interface. They need to work even if the PC is down. The "door closed" also turns OFF a ghost module, to be mentioned below.

The other two macros are the "timer" and the "reminder". They run only on the PC, because without the PC and BVC.... there is no voice reminder.

"Timer" is triggered when the light is turned ON. The "timer" delays for ten minutes, the turns on a ghost module.

The "reminder" macro is triggered by the ghost module (turned ON by "timer"), a condition requires: If the powerflash unit is still OFF (door open) then turn ON (another) ghost module (on a non-monitored code). This ON is heard by BVC[/color]'s listener and reminds me (via a voice announcement) through speakers up and downstairs in my home.

The "reminder" macro also turns the night light OFF, delays a couples sec's then turns in back ON, resetting the "timer".  

[dahur]

Dave,
I ordered a Powerflash module and magnet switch from the site you had a link to. I am trying to set up a" reminder" macro similar to the one you came up with, so I'll be good to go when they arrive, and I install them.

This will be the first macro I've set up, and I am stumped on the conditions part.
I am using the Housecode "G".
When the garage door opens, the Powerflash sends "on" to G1.  Which BVC listens for and tells me the garage door is open. Okay.
This turns on module G1 in the macro.
I then put in  in a delay of 20 minutes.
Then it turns on ghost module G2. I then started another macro with  ghost module G3 to turn on when it hears the trigger  G2. How do I set up the "conditions" for ghost module G3 to turn on only when the condition of the Powerflash G1 is still on?
 I click on conditions, and then click on "only when a certain module is on".
Clicking Next, I have a list to choose from. I think I need G1 to be in the list, however only my talking clock modules are listed.
I know it's something simple I'm missing. Please keep in mind I'm new to this.

I'm not having a light or chime come on.  BVC will tell me when the garage door opens or is closed. That part is easy. The "reminder" part is what I'm struggling with.

 

[HA Dave]

Dave,
I ordered a Powerflash module and magnet switch from the site you had a link to. I am trying to set up a" reminder" macro similar to the one you came up with, so I'll be good to go when they arrive, and I install them.

This will be the first macro I've set up, and I am stumped on the conditions part.
I am using the Housecode "G".
When the garage door opens, the Powerflash sends "on" to G1.  Which BVC listens for and tells me the garage door is open. Okay.
This turns on module G1 in the macro.
I then put in  in a delay of 20 minutes.......................

Resist the temptation to make the macros do much. The macros "by themselves" are NOT very smart. Limit the actions contained in the macro... and use more macros.

I assume "G' is your "monitored" house code... because you will want to use the "monitored house code" because that's the one AHP "remembers" which units are On & Off.

I have a similar macro posted here

[HA Dave]

The actual reminder macro(S) as it appears on my PC. There may be easier ways to do this... I am NOT an AHP expert. The only way I could get this to work is with 4 macros.

Garage Door Open (triggered by powerflash module BVC says: the garage door is OPENING)
(Delay 1sec)
turn D8 ON

Garage Door Closed (triggered by powerflash module BVC says: the garage door is Closed)
Turn D8 OFF
(delay 2 sec)
Turn ghost mudule mod (D6) OFF


Garage Door Timer
Trigger D8
delay 10 minutes
turn D6 ON (BVC says: the garage door is still OPEN)


Garage Door REMINDER
trigger conditions: D6 (ghost module) ON and D8 ON
turn D8 OFF
(delay 1 sec)
turn D6 OFF
delay 1 sec)
Turn D8 ON

[dahur]

Garage Door REMINDER
trigger conditions: D6 (ghost module) ON and D8 ON
turn D8 OFF
(delay 1 sec)
turn D6 OFF
delay 1 sec)
Turn D8 ON


Dave,
On the Garage Door REMINDER macro, doesn't BVC respond when it hears D8 off, and then D8 on, with "Garage Door closed", and "Garage Door opening"?

[HA Dave]

Dave,
On the Garage Door REMINDER macro, doesn't BVC respond when it hears D8 off, and then D8 on, with "Garage Door closed", and "Garage Door opening"?

Oops! Sorry.... posted this morning before I went to work.... I edited my post to reflect that the BVC listener actually listens to the "trigger" (the powerflash unit is on a diffent house code.... long story).