Omni Pro II lighting status incorrect

[chasers03]

It seems that my OP 2 is often not reporting the true current status of my HAI Lighting Control [HLC] lights as read on Haiku or PC Access.  For instance my lights may be on but Haiku reports they are not on.  I haven't been able to ID the activity which presents this difference.
 
My UPB Status Time is set to 5 and my UPB Transmit Count is set to 4 in PC Access Setup.  I have a repeater.


We use motion sensors to turn lights on & off and we very seldom use light switches.
 
Is there a way to get my OP 2 to update the light unit status more frequently perhaps thru UPB?
 

 

[ano]

So if your motion detectors are connected to Omni zones, and upon activation, the Omni turns on the lights, then the Omni should correctly have the light state.  If the lights are being turned on or off by something that doesn't report its status, there is a solution to that as well. If your lights are controlled by HLC switches, and installed correctly in "rooms" then you can "ask" the Omni to poll the states of all the lights in a room. That is how HLC works. Your lights are changed with links, then the Omni polls all the switches in a room to get their status. This isn't super fast, but it does work. After a link is activated, the Omni waits a few seconds, then polls all the switches. The whole process happens in under a minute. 
 
So is that fast enough?  It is not instant, but it works. Every "room" has a link that when activated tells the Omni to poll all the lights in a room.  But as it says above, if your lights are controlled by the Omni when it detects motion, it should already have their correct state. 

 

[chasers03]

Ano can you tell me how to get the Omni to activate a room link?  Is that something I set up in PC Access automation or in the UPB app??

 

[ano]

HLC is all about correctly numbering rooms, and it depends upon that. You said you use HLC, so hopefully its setup correctly. 
If you haven't already, download and print this reference:
http://www.asihome.com/ASIshop/manuals/test/Worthington%20HLC%20Training.pdf
Luckily Worthington still has it on their site.
 
Now, if you check your switches they have a transmit link 242 for the top and a 241 for the bottom. When the Omni receives either of these (I think they both work) the Omni will ask every switch in that room for its status. There can be up to 7 switches. The trick is, the link 242 or 241 MUST originate from one of the switches in that room, which means it's hard to duplicate. But every room also has a room controller, with 4 scenes, and all off and all on. The scenes are A, B, C, and D. These trigger scenes for switches in that room. I BELIEVE when you activate one of those scenes, the Omni, after a delay, will poll all the switches in the room for status. A few seconds after that, the Omni should have all the correct statuses for the lights in that room, assuming the switches report them. I THINK this is true, but it's been a while since I've played with it. 

 

[kurtmccaslin]

I have played with HLC quite a bit and have a different approach.   I found that using the Omni to track the switch status was creating a lot of traffic on my system, and that was actually reducing it's reliability due to clashes.   So I turned HLC off.   At first it bothered me that my app was not synchronized.   However, after some time, I realized that the only time that I really need to know what was going on, was when I was away from the house.   
 
So I created a button that checks the status of every switch in the house (and I have over 100).   It takes several minutes to run this macro, so my system is programmed to run the button once a day if I am home, and twice if I am out.   Otherwise, I can run the button from my app, and get everything updated.  That way I can see if everything is working right when I am out.
 
If you use motion sensors exclusively to turn lights on and off, then you have another option to keep your system in sync.   Dont use UPB links.   Program your Omni to turn each light on and off individually and it will keep track.   Unfortunately, you also cannot use the timed shutoff feature, as the Omni will not know when your switch shut itself off.   

 

[ano]

I have played with HLC quite a bit and have a different approach.   I found that using the Omni to track the switch status was creating a lot of traffic on my system, and that was actually reducing it's reliability due to clashes.   So I turned HLC off.   At first it bothered me that my app was not synchronized.   However, after some time, I realized that the only time that I really need to know what was going on, was when I was away from the house.   
 
So I created a button that checks the status of every switch in the house (and I have over 100).   It takes several minutes to run this macro, so my system is programmed to run the button once a day if I am home, and twice if I am out.   Otherwise, I can run the button from my app, and get everything updated.  That way I can see if everything is working right when I am out.
 
If you use motion sensors exclusively to turn lights on and off, then you have another option to keep your system in sync.   Dont use UPB links.   Program your Omni to turn each light on and off individually and it will keep track.   Unfortunately, you also cannot use the timed shutoff feature, as the Omni will not know when your switch shut itself off.   

There is nothing wrong with that approach. Yes HLC can create lots of traffic for a bit, but its not bad. UPB switch are pretty good in this respect.
 
I use HLC, not so much to know the switch status in the panel, but more so to know the switch status on the room and house controllers. If you are not using these, HLC is not a big benefit, but if you have them, the indicators are pretty cool. For example, I can tell which room my wife is in by looking at the house controller, because lights on in the room show up on each house controller. I know this isn't really state-of-the-art in 2020, but its a neat feature. 
 
I also agree, its rarely important to know the state of a light. If you want it off, just turn it off. If it wasn't on, who cares.