Humidity sensor HAI compatible

[avpman2]

But it was stated in a previous thread that the OPII will accept up to 5V on a zone.
Also I was pretty sure the OPII could send +5 V to devices.

Anyway I ordered it, as soon as it gets here and I have time to play with it a little we'll see. Think I'll use a relay in the worst case.

You might want to have a look at this thread, especially post #12  http://cocoontech.com/forums/topic/21565-wiring-an-ezeye-photocell-to-hai-omniproii/
Or to be absolutely sure, email HAI/Leviton support before you potentially blow the zone.  :nono:  They're fairly quick to respond if you use the old support email addy [email protected]

 

[ano]

An OPII does use a rather rudamentary a-to-d converter to read the voltage on zone inputs with 8 bit resolution. (0-255) I don't think there are 5V outputs, but you can take a 12V output and use a 5V regulator to produce 5V. Reading the zone voltage is a bit tricky because I do not think there is a zone type to read it directly, although PC access will display it. If you set it as a regular zone, you will only get secure, not-ready, or fault based on the voltage. What you will need to do is set the zone as either a temperature sensor or humidity sensor, then do some experimenting to see what voltages translate into what "temperature" or what "humidity" and then use that to test your condition.
 
 
Like maybe at 50% humidity your sensor produces 2V but the HAI humidity sensor would produce 2V at 70% humidity, then you are going to need to convert to make it work. Personally, unless you are very short on money, and have lots of time to spare, its probably just easier to buy the HAI temperature/humidity sensor and call it a day.

 

[ano]

You might want to have a look at this thread, especially post #12  http://cocoontech.com/forums/topic/21565-wiring-an-ezeye-photocell-to-hai-omniproii/
Or to be absolutely sure, email HAI/Leviton support before you potentially blow the zone.  :nono:  They're fairly quick to respond if you use the old support email addy [email protected]

 What post #12 says is untrue. Zones only seem to measure "current" because the positive of the zone has a built-in current limiting resistor. This does limit the current that a zone provides, but it does NOT mean the zone measures "current." A zone only measures current to the extent that it is reading a voltage across a known resistance, which by ohms law, is current, if that makes any sense.

 

[avpman2]

But it was stated in a previous thread that the OPII will accept up to 5V on a zone.
Also I was pretty sure the OPII could send +5 V to devices.

Anyway I ordered it, as soon as it gets here and I have time to play with it a little we'll see. Think I'll use a relay in the worst case.

 
I checked with Omni tech support. But I fiddled around with the zone before I got their answer. Curiously enough they described exactly what I had already worked out! :nutz:

1.    The trigger voltage must be between 5-12VDC
2.    Place a 1Kohm resistor across the +/- terminals of the zone you want to use.
3.    Connect the positive output lead of the trigger device to the zone's "+" terminal.
4.    Connect the negative lead of the voltage source of the trigger device to the controller's ground terminal.
5.    In the controller setup, Resistors (EOL) must be set to Yes and EOL resistors then must be used on all Zones. In PCAccess this option is under Setup->Zones->Dealer options. If you don't have a dealer version of PCAccess I suspect you can set this through a control keypad. The factory default setting is "Yes."
 
Keep in mind this scenerio assumes that the power supply to the triggering device is shared with the Omni ground as stated in step 4 above. If the negative OUTPUT of your triggering device is not shared with it's negative INPUT then this won't work. In that case you may have to connect the negative output of your triggering device to the "-" terminal of the zone you're going to use. I haven't looked at the details of the voltage step down board you will need to convert the Omni's 12V to 5V for your triggering device.
 
One thing to note is that when there is NO voltage across the resistor the zone's status is "Secure." When the voltage is applied it reports "Not Ready." Keep this in mind when you plan your automation logic.
 
BTW - a similar hookup is described on page 3-6 of the 2006 HAI Applications directory; which is a GREAT source of info. It can be found here: http://kb.homeauto.com (search for "application directory" and pick Application_Directory_0206.pdf)
 
Hope this helps. Let us hear back how it works out for you.

 

[tigers]

OK, I received the sensor and plugged it in an Arduino to tinker with it a bit.
I must say it is not well suitable for what I am looking for. The main reason is that the sensor is influenced by temperature to make its readings, even in a close range like 19°C to 25°C. Of course using data from a temperature sensor it could be adjusted to the correct reading but this would involve:
1. Having a temperature reading at hand (and the sensor cannot directly communicate with the HAI sensor);
2. having a way to elaborate the data;
 
Both of the issues can be resolved connecting an Arduino between the sensor and the board, but even doing so the first one is quite difficult (it involves communicating between the OP II and the Arduino via serial - I am planning to do that but it won't be easy), so I plan on adding a temperature sensor directly connected to the Arduino (they sell both of them coupled together like this: http://www.dx.com/p/temperature-humidity-sensor-dht11-module-for-arduino-deep-blue-works-with-official-arduino-board-288612#.U15PT_l_t8E). Also the DHT11 outputs the HR directly after calculating it relatively to the temperature. Unfortunately that value can't be used directly with the OP II, so it must all pass through an Arduino and an Arduino Relay board I can do all the maths to get the right HR reading, set the threshold and close a relay connected to one of the OPII zones.
 
Note: the digital out suffers the same problem (all it does is pass the sensor reading to a comparator that takes the threshold value from the trigger) so it clicks at different HR reading depending on the temperature of the room. It is not very useful. For the same reason I don't recommend some other similar sensor I have seen that have a relay on board, they just don't serve the purpose.