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Connect Twine to a simple switch (N.O. Dry Contact)

Andrew BoutinAndrew Boutin
edited January 2013 in At home Vote Up0Vote Down
Can I simply plug in a 2.5mm headset jack and monitor a Normally Open dry contact for closure, or do I need to purchase the breakout board to monitor ANY external sensor?

Best Answers

  • 11 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • Bill SpencerBill Spencer
    Answer ✓ Vote Up0Vote Down
    You will need either the breakout board or the moisture sensor. Either one of these can monitor an open/closed pair of contacts. One reason you can't do it with a direct connection to the twine is that the twine won't enable a rule to be created until it recognizes the particular type of sensor connected to it.
  • Gene JaleskiGene Jaleski
    Answer ✓ Vote Up0Vote Down
    Aginova offers a better deal by far. I dislike being nickled & dimed in a proprietary environment.
  • Graham CruickshankGraham Cruickshank
    Answer ✓ Vote Up0Vote Down
    Aginova's sensors are very expensive and a little more industrial in nature. The "starter kit" is more expensive (in terms of $10s and $20s, rather than nickels & dimes) and appears more proprietary. They are marketing a monitoring service also, which I saw mentioned in another post.
  • hash halimhash halim
    Answer ✓ Vote Up0Vote Down
    you will find an inconsistency in notification be very careful. caveat emptor

Answers

  • Andrew BoutinAndrew Boutin
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    Gene: I can't see how. If all I need to do is add the breakout board to my Twine and get the functionality I'm still over $100 below the cost of one of their sensors that does the same. Am I missing something?
  • Andrew BoutinAndrew Boutin
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    UPDATE:

    Well, I ordered two breakout boards, one for each of the Twines I have.  Connection was no problem, setup was easy with a few glitches (described below).

    I'm using the Twine to monitor the Pellergy wood pellet burner systems we manufacture.  The burner controller has a Normally Open contact that closes if there is a problem with the system.  This alarm mode means no heat, so it is very advantageous to know when it happens!  To date, we have been using inexpensive auto dial units that provided both temperature and alarm call-out options.  Very nice for home monitoring here in the cold Northeast! 

    The breakout board is a good solution for monitoring the state of our system, and the temperature monitoring offers the ability to "check in" on the house whenever you wish.  Here are some limitations:

    Battery life has been discussed at great length here.  It is true, batteries only last two weeks.  A micro USB charger off an old Blackberry solved that issue.

    The breakout board has no enclosure.  It is a bare board.  In addition, the quick connector is a through-mounted component with solder points extending off the bottom of the board.  This is easy to short out by setting it on a conductive surface.  I am looking for a simple snap on enclosure for the breakout board that will protect it from dust, inadvertent shorting and fingers!  Any ideas out there?

    I'd love the ability to be able to name the breakout board sensor rather than have it say "Breakout" on my Twine.  It would be great if I could rename this to "Pellergy Status" or the like.  Maybe in the forthcoming App?

    Adding multiple cell phone numbers was glitchy.  I'm using Google Chrome and had to add one cell phone number at a time, send it to the twine, refresh browser screen and add another....one at a time.  It works, but took a while to figure that workaround out.

    All in all I'm satisfied and have a few local customers of our Pellergy systems linking up using the Twine.  If all goes well over the next few months we will pull together an instructional video on how to link the Pellergy using Twine, what options to purchase to do it (breakout board, enclosure, etc.) and some instructions as how to program it so the homeowner's heating contractor gets an alert.  Also going to play with the ability for us to log errors on all installed systems using the HTTP alerts.

    All in all, the units are working very well to date.   
  • Andrew BoutinAndrew Boutin
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    Hash Halim:

    No kidding!!! I think this is the single biggest issue thus far: notification failure.

    I have had two instances where the contact on the breakout board closes and no notifications are sent. I can see from my homepage that the contact is closed and that there is external power and the unit is communicating; however, no email nor text message per my saved rules.

    Not comforting.

  • hash halimhash halim
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    glad I'm not the only one experiencing this.
  • Andreas KoppAndreas Kopp
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    my rules are suddenly gone. I am running the twine with a usb calbe connected to power. Do you know if all rules are delete when you disconnect the twine from power?
  • Andrew BoutinAndrew Boutin
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    The Rules should not be deleted when power is lost.  I have not experienced this.  Try saving one rule at a time, then refresh the screen to make sure they all took in the first place.  I've had that happen: Thought I sent them to the Twine, but in fact had not.
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