Elk and UPB

[noshali]

Hi,

I was hoping if all of you using ELK and UPB would share your thoughts on how you are dealing with the links status issues. What are you doing to get the status of the lights when activiating links.

Please share your thoughts.

Thanks

 

[noshali]

Wow...so no one???

 

[acheslow]

I'm using Homeseer and whenever I activate a UPB link it shows the correct dim level on the status page. So far I haven't done any direct integration between my Elk and UPB. What issues are you having?

 

[noshali]

Not any issues. It is a known prblem that ELK does not show the status of devices when activated using links (scenes) I was hoping to find out what everyone was doing to bypass that deificiency.

regards,

 

[ano]

I've never used ELK but I do use HAI, which has the same limitations. The question I would ask would be, why does it matter? Why does the ELK even need to know the status of a light in 99% of the cases? In the 1% where it does need to know, can't you issue a status request to the light before acting upon its status?

 

[noshali]

I've never used ELK but I do use HAI, which has the same limitations. The question I would ask would be, why does it matter? Why does the ELK even need to know the status of a light in 99% of the cases? In the 1% where it does need to know, can't you issue a status request to the light before acting upon its status?

The only reason it matters is my ELK is connected to CQC which shows the status of the lights etc. If someone activates the link that status of the lights displaed in CQC will be incorrect.

regards,

 

[acheslow]

Is there a reason why you wouldn't have CQC talk directly to the UPB PIM instead of going through the Elk? Wouldn't it then display the correct status?

 

[noshali]

Is there a reason why you wouldn't have CQC talk directly to the UPB PIM instead of going through the Elk? Wouldn't it then display the correct status?

No Driver for CQC!!!

 

[frankdr]

One option is to create a UPB link without any UPB switches assigned to it. Have the Elk set the light levels itself when it recieves the link message. That way Elk / CQC knows the light level because it was the one that set them.


You can also have the Elk set the lights to the same level that the link switches are being set to with the UPB link setting

 

[bfisher]

Sorry - been busy lately and I missed this...

I use HVPro, but have the same issue. There are a couple ways to resolve it:
1) Program your controller so when links are issued, they update the light values to the new states. The downside to this is that when you program or change a link (in upstart), you need to go to your controller and update the new link values there as well (or they won't match).

2) Issue a update status command out of your controller (a standard UPB command). It will issue a request to the switch and return the current value of the switch. I've created a macro that goes through all my switches/modules and gets their current value. The downside to this method is it takes time to get all the values (I think I set it to use .5 seconds between switches so it takes some time to go "around the house"). So far, the time delay has not been an issue - my touchscreen displays "updating" when it's occuring so a user would know it's occuring.

 

[DavidL]

Alan, good to meet you at EHX. I didn't realize you were using Homeseer. Of course you realize that MainLobby can be used with Homeseer via the MLHSPlugin.
And, our UPB plugin is now available. Most of our customers use our plugin direct to the PIM and not through the ELK as it is more real time, and takes advantage of our MLLighting Device Family Manager for configuration ease.

 

[ano]

You could also use a variation of what bfisher suggests. Instead of creating a macro to test the status of ALL devices when Any Link is received/issued, you could fine-tune that and create a macro for each link and just check those switches involved when the link changes. This would be a bit faster but a bit more work because you need to create a macro for every link.

 

[acheslow]

Is there a way to issue a UPB status request directly from the Elk? I don't see anything in ElkRP unless there is a text command that can be sent directly to the serial port?

 

[Dean Roddey]

Even if there was a CQC driver (which there will be before too much longer), since he has the Elk he'd probably want to allow the Elk to have access to lighting for various reasons (and if he doesn't then others often will.) The only way to allow both of them access is to have the Elk be the one connected and CQC to work through the Elk.

 

[acheslow]

Dean, I agree, and I am finding myself heading in that same direction. That's why I was wondering if the Elk can send a serial command directly to the UPB PIM to force a status update.

bfisher suggests this is possible with HomeVision but I don't know about the Elk. If this is a standard UPB command is there some text string that can be sent out the serial port?