HAI RC2000 Thermostat & using outputs in PCAccess in OmniPro11 System

[gregnlee]

I am trying to control my air exchange unit and dehumidifier using the HAI RC2000 thermostat.  I have my dehumidifier and air exchange units set up using relays in the HAI OmniPro 11 panel.  I can manually turn the units in in PC Access by turning the relays on, so that part works.
 
The problem I have is trying to take the outputs for heating system On and humidity on the thermostat and getting the OmniPro system to do something with it.
 
I have tried to have a flag set when the thermostat turns on the heating system and another flag when the humidity goes above the set limit on the thermostat.  The system sees the change but what ever I set up in programming using PCAccess will not set a flag.
 
I have HaikuHelper but I am not able to write software using it.  I am only able to use the basic interphase that it has.
 
Any ideas? 

 

[Desert_AIP]

Post your code and we can help you debug it.
This should be fairly straightforward in PCAccess.

 

[picta]

I am trying to control my air exchange unit and dehumidifier using the HAI RC2000 thermostat.  I have my dehumidifier and air exchange units set up using relays in the HAI OmniPro 11 panel.  I can manually turn the units in in PC Access by turning the relays on, so that part works.

RC2000 can control dehumidifier, why do you have to use relays for it?

 

[gregnlee]

Here is some additional back ground and my coding using PCAccess:
 
My home is in Northern Canada so we see up to 110 degrees F in the summer and minus 45 in the dead of winter.  Summer is July and August with often nice falls tip mid Oct.  You will see this reflected in my coding.  I travel often and again that is in my coding.
 
The relay I use to control the power whole house air exchange system is "Power Vent"  It is building code to have a whole house air exchange unit as homes are shut up so much.  
 
The whole house air exchange also dehumidifies when it runs and the system runs on high when the forced air furnace is running if there is dehumidifying going on.  The whole house unit has a central de-humidistat that runs the system but it runs it on low all the time and if I am away for 6 weeks, I do not need it running unless it is dehumidifying.
 
Here is my last codes which do not work.
 
When arm main home away
When arm main home Vacation
And if main home thermostat humidity is greater than main home thermostat humidity set point by more than 1
And if date is less than 6/1
And if date is greater than 10/15
Then Power Vent On
 
This code was to handle things while I was away and disable the Power Vent during the summer when doors and windows where open.
 
When main home Off
When main home Night Delay
And if main home thermostat system status is Heating
Then Power Vent On
 
This code was to run things when I was home - note that the system would not be heating in the summer when doors and windows are open.
 
I also tried enabling the dehumidify part of the RC2000 thermostat and looked to use the output from there in PCAccess.  I did not use the output direct to the whole house exchange system as I was thinking that the wiring would send out 24V and the installer of the whole house exchange system was only able to show me which wire from his control system when connected to ground powered up his whole system, so we used that.  Additionally we do not currently have any wiring close that we can use to connect the thermostat to this low voltage ground lead from the vent system.
 
Here is that coding.
 
When main home Off
And if main home thermostat system status is Dehumidifying
Then Power Vent On
 
To test all the coding, I substituted out the "Power Vent and had the coding set a flag called "vent"
 
Nothing worked.  

 

[Desert_AIP]

All of your triggers are based on changes to arming status.
Those code blocks only run when the arming sequence happens.
If the conditions aren't met at that moment, i.e. The humidity level check in the first block, the block won't execute.

Unless there is another arming sequence, the humidity level isn't checked and the block will never execute.


If you want to monitor the status of something and detect changes, try an "every" trigger.

i.e.

WHEN EVERY 20 MINUTES
AND IF AWAY
AND IF main home thermostat humidity is greater than main home thermostat humidity set point by more than 1
AND IF date is less than 6/1
AND IF date is greater than 10/15
THEN Power Vent On

 

[gregnlee]

Hi Desert_AIP,
 
Ok, what I think I understand from your post is that in my code, it only runs if the arming status changes.  For example if in my 2nd code, the heating system status was heating, and I set the arm status to night delay, then the code would run once only and not again get looked at till the arm status changes, have I understood?
 
I would like to use "When main home thermostat system status is heating" then Power Vent On.  But I can not find that in PCAccess.  
 
I see how the "every" would work.  Would that load down the system?  As in my 2nd coding, would if at the 20 minute check, if the system status was heating, it would energize the Power Vent, how long would it stay on for?  Would it stay on as long as the System status was heating, and go off as soon as the heating stopped?

 

[Desert_AIP]

Hi Desert_AIP,
 
Ok, what I think I understand from your post is that in my code, it only runs if the arming status changes.  For example if in my 2nd code, the heating system status was heating, and I set the arm status to night delay, then the code would run once only and not again get looked at till the arm status changes, have I understood?
 
I would like to use "When main home thermostat system status is heating" then Power Vent On.  But I can not find that in PCAccess.  
 
I see how the "every" would work.  Would that load down the system?  As in my 2nd coding, would if at the 20 minute check, if the system status was heating, it would energize the Power Vent, how long would it stay on for?  Would it stay on as long as the System status was heating, and go off as soon as the heating stopped?

You understand correctly.
The WHEN triggers only detect changes and only run when that status changes.
So those blocks only get checked when you SET or CHANGE the arming status.
They don't run continuously while IN the particular mode.

The WHEN EVERY triggers should not bog down the system.
The system continuously loops through the code checking for changes.
It merely sets an internal timer that checks at the periodicity given. 

You would need a block of code to turn off the vent.
Either use a flag as a timer and shut off the vent after a preset time, or check for the humidity to go to a value and turn it off then.

 

[Desert_AIP]

(I switched computers to make typing easier.)
 
For the second block try:
 
This checks status every 10 minutes.
If the home is in Off OR Night Delay mode AND the T-stat is heating, then the Power Vent turns ON

WHEN EVERY 10 MINUTES
    AND IF OFF
    AND IF Thermostat SYSTEM MODE IS HEAT
    OR
    AND IF ARMING NIGHT DELAY
    AND IF Thermostat SYSTEM MODE IS HEAT
        THEN Power Vent ON

 
For the third block try:
 
This checks status every 10 minutes.
If the home is Off AND the T-stat is dehumidifying, then the Power Vent turns ON
This will run at the same time as the above block (if the system is both heating and dehumidifying while the home is off), but there will be no noticeable effect since both blocks turn the vent on.

WHEN EVERY 10 MINUTES
   AND IF OFF
   AND IF Thermostat SYSTEM STATUS IS DEHUMIDIFYING
        THEN Power Vent ON
 
This will turn it off after the heating or dehumidifying cycle (in any arming mode)

WHEN EVERY 10 MINUTES
    AND IF Thermostat MODE IS OFF
        THEN Power Vent OFF

 

[Desert_AIP]

The first block is tricky because you have many stacked AND conditions and only one OR condition.
If you program it using an OR conditional, then you have to repeat all of the AND conditionals in each OR block.
Since there is only one trigger and one action, it reads much more straightforward to code it as two completely separate blocks
 
This:
 

WHEN EVERY 10 MINUTES
AND IF ARMING AWAY
AND IF main home thermostat humidity is greater than main home thermostat humidity set point by more than 1
AND IF date is less than 6/1
AND IF date is greater than 10/15
THEN Power Vent On

And this:
 

WHEN EVERY 10 MINUTES
AND IF ARMING VACATION
AND IF main home thermostat humidity is greater than main home thermostat humidity set point by more than 1
AND IF date is less than 6/1
AND IF date is greater than 10/15
THEN Power Vent On

 
Instead of this:
 

WHEN EVERY 10 MINUTES
AND IF ARMING AWAY
AND IF main home thermostat humidity is greater than main home thermostat humidity set point by more than 1
AND IF date is less than 6/1
AND IF date is greater than 10/15
OR
AND IF ARMING VACATION
AND IF main home thermostat humidity is greater than main home thermostat humidity set point by more than 1
AND IF date is less than 6/1
AND IF date is greater than 10/15
THEN Power Vent On

 

[gregnlee]

Great!  Thanks you very much.  I am currently away in the southern USA and have time to deal with this, but I can load the code from here but can not check to see if it is running correctly.  I will load it and will get back to you just before Xmas with how it works.  Sorry for the delay.  I will load it today so it is running.
 
Thanks again, I appreciate the help.
 
Greg

 

[Desert_AIP]

As an alternative to the off block above, you could set the vent to automatically turn itself off if the condition no longer exists.
For this to work properly, all of the WHEN EVERY times above would have to be the same.
i.e. 10 minutes.
 
 

WHEN EVERY 10 MINUTES
    AND IF OFF
    AND IF Thermostat SYSTEM MODE IS HEAT
    OR
    AND IF ARMING NIGHT DELAY
    AND IF Thermostat SYSTEM MODE IS HEAT
        THEN Power Vent ON FOR 11 MINUTES

 
(make that change to all of the blocks)
 
The power vent will automatically go off in 11 minutes.
If the condition (or any of the conditions still exist, the timer will reset to 11 minutes and start counting down again.
To avoid short cycling (immediate off followed by an on command) I set the auto-off to 11 minutes.

 

[gregnlee]

Thanks I really appreciate all you help.  I will upload this to my system and let it run.  I will report back the results to you when I get home.  I am sure this will work well.
 
Again, thank you for al you help.
 
PS.  Yes I understand about the same "when every" times.