Vera Motion Sensor devices and attributes?

Questions
#1

Hi

Just looking at all my motion sensor devices in Home Remote and I noticed one of them has an Attribute and none of the other have this, I am wondering why?

Also I am still figuring out what Attributes and Capabilities means fully and in which context.

The motion sensor device that has this “lasttrip” attribute was the last device I paired to Vera recently.

image

None of the other seven motion sensor devices I have show this attribute, they don’t have any attributes at all showing in the Attributes field in the designer GUI.

I am looking at your help page here about Capabilities.

image
image717×233 8.92 KB

I assume “Attributes” mentioned on this help document is not the same thing as the “Attributes” field on the device in the designer ?

I was expecting to see on the help document titled “Capabilities” what types of Capabilities each device type can have?

However it doesn’t, it instead tells me the device states a device can have e.g. ON or OFF or in the case of a motion sensor Active / Inactive.

Regarding Capabilities in the designer GUI, I see these Capabilities on Motion Sensor devices. All motion sensor devices have MotionSensor, only some have PowerMeter etc.

Battery
MotionSensor
PowerMeter

image

Thanks

#2

The only thing Sync does with existing is update their Capabilities. Attributes are not overwritten. lasttrip was something that was added to the sync probably a month or 2 ago. It was not always part of the Sync. To have Sync overwrite all of the properties would be dangerous because it has to assume you could have made changes.

#3

So if I manually add this attribute to the other motion sensors I’m good.

Thanks.

#4

There isn’t a fixed set of Capabilities for each Device Type. This is intentional. This gives us the flexibility to have virtually any Capability be assigned to any DeviceType. A thermostat, camera, etc, can all have the MotionSensor capability. Not all motion sensors are alike either. Some motion sensors have temperature & humidity capabilities, some don’t.

#5

Yes, that is correct.

1 Like
#6

Learning what Attributes do !

I now have last tripped data for all my Motion and Contact sensors.

image

Got me thinking what else can it do ?

This is a Neo CoolCam Z-Wave motion sensor.

{ "name": "Lounge Motion", "altid": "75", "id": 331, "category": 4, "subcategory": 3, "room": 1, "parent": 1, "armedtripped": "0", "armed": "0", "configured": "1", "batterylevel": "83", "light": "0.0", "watts": "", "pulse": "50988332", "lasttrip": "1605035930", "tripped": "0", "commFailure": "1" }

Knowing if the motion sensor is Armed or not might be handy. Vera has values of 0 for Not Armed and 1 for Armed

So I just added “armed” to a motion sensors attributes in the designer.

image

So added a new Label with a binding off @Device.armed

image

I then added two Data Triggers on the label to change it to friendly text, rather than 0 or 1.

image

image

This is great for read only data in the SDATA stream coming from Vera, I can now add much more information on to my tiles in Home Remote.

However what if I want to actually change this motion sensor device in Home Remote to actually be Armed / Not Armed ?

@bill How would you do it ?

Can I actually create a button with the binding of @Device.armed and send a 0 or 1 back to Vera and have it control that aspect of the motion sensor device?

Only way I know is to sent a http command to Vera to set that devices Armed variable to a 1 or 0.

Armed = 1

http://VERA-IP/port_3480/data_request?id=lu_variableset&DeviceNum=331&serviceId=urn:micasaverde-com:serviceId:SecuritySensor1&Variable=Armed&Value=1

Armed = 0

http://VERA-IP/port_3480/data_request?id=lu_variableset&DeviceNum=331&serviceId=urn:micasaverde-com:serviceId:SecuritySensor1&Variable=Armed&Value=0

I then added a Toggle button with two Event Triggers and two Data Triggers.

image

The Data Triggers work and keep the toggle button in HR in sync with the same Armed / Disarmed button in Vera etc.

The Event Triggers as I suspected don’t work.

image

image

SDATA is only one way read only data and HR can’t control these “attributes” or variables in reverse.

Looks like I will have to fire off those Vera HTTP API commands instead, but that would mean having a different MotionSensorDetails.xaml page for each motion sensor device I have on Vera.

Any better way to do this ?

Thanks.

#7

The next release will allow you to set the “armed” mode. In the current version it is read-only. The command it sends will be a little bit different than the ones you’ve shown. I usually use the actions defined in the LUUP files.

Here’s the command as defined in S_SecuritySensor1.xml

Armed = 1

http://VERA-IP:3480/data_request?id=action&output_format=json&DeviceNum=331&serviceId=urn:micasaverde-com:serviceId:SecuritySensor1&action=SetArmed&newArmedValue=1

Armed = 0

http://VERA-IP:3480/data_request?id=action&output_format=json&DeviceNum=331&serviceId=urn:micasaverde-com:serviceId:SecuritySensor1&action=SetArmed&newArmedValue=0

You may want to test these to make sure they work but I’m pretty sure they will.

1 Like
#8

I’ve just tested them and they do work fine and Arm / Disarm that particular motion sensor device.

Also note, other Vera security sensors like Door / Window contacts and Smoke Dectectors etc also have an Armed / Disarmed function.

Thanks.

1 Like
#9

I can confirm this is working now.

Using the Binding of @Device.armed and values of 0 or 1 I can now Arm or Disarm my motion sensor devices and Door Contacts via a button in Home Remote.

image

Note Attributes appear to be case sensitive so if you added an attribute of “armed”

image

Then you need to use @Device.armed not @Device.Armed which doesn’t work.