posted 02-23-2000 08:43 PM            

Everything was fine until I dropped the reed switch onto the table and the mini controller LED flashed and then the mini controller no longer worked.

I opened the mini controller to examine it and found one wire had come loose on the very Unit Number (A5) I was using to test the modification. I reconnected it and tried the unit again. The LED flashes when a contact is opened or closed but, the mini controller still does not work. I'm not sure if it was the my dropping the reed switch which may have caused both sides of the switch to short together from the impact or if it was the loose wire that shorted out the unit's Vcc to ground, if I figure it out, I'll post it.

In the mean time Use Caution, don't drop the reed switch, and make sure your connections are good and solid, it was suggested to hot glue the wires in place to keep them from moving, I should have done that! I would also suggest you test the SPDT switch you intend to use to insure that it breaks the NC contact before making with the NO contact and vice versa. If you intend to use two SPST reed switches instead of a SPDT switch you may not be able to ensure this sequence and may cause a mini contoller failure.

Remember the modification worked before I dropped the reed switch and the loose wire may have broken away when I opened the unit to examine it. Good luck!

posted 02-23-2000 11:14 PM            

I connected a single strand of lamp cord to temporarily substitute for the blown fuse wire and tried the first unit agian. The only thing that did not work was ON for all Unit Numbers (A1-A8), OFF worked for all Unit Numbers (A1-A8). All Units OFF works. ALL Lights ON does not. Looks like the ON bus got fried and maybe the IC is shot. But I'm not sure yet.

I tested the SPDT switch with 2 low voltage lamps and tried to make it short it's contacts together by dropping and banging it and nothing happen, This made me feel more comfortable that the switch being dropped had nothing to do with the unit failure and was just a coincidence. (except that it helped to pass the line voltage through it's contacts to the ON bus).

I opened the new unit and this time I placed electrical tape across the AC Line area of the circuit board and tacked the corners down with hot glue. I then soldered the wires in place and put a large dot of hot glue right over the solder connection and some along the length of the wire, to secure it firmly to the PC board. I reassembled the unit and connected the SPDT magnetic reed switch to activate A5 ON/OFF and it worked.
I cycled it 40 times ON/OFF.

A Note On Safety.......

Even though I took precautions to make this experimental modification as safe as I knew how, something went seriously wrong on the first attempt. This could have been a DEADLY situation because line voltage was presented by the loose broken wire onto the reed switch and connecting wires. I was holding the reed switch in my hand! I've now tried to made sure in the second experiment, that there is no way that the wires could break loose and come in contact with the AC line. I've been especially careful with the wires near the A1-A5 Unit switch which is really close, too close, to the AC LINE, but there are no guarantees. I will keep this unit under observation, while further experimentation on the unit goes on.

************WARNING************************

The above is presented as a written result of an experiment only, and IS NOT presented as a recommendation to attempt a modification of the mini controller, implied or otherwise.

If you make the decision to try this modification you are completely responsible for any consequnces resulting from your actions, and you do so at your own risk.

posted 02-23-2000 11:26 PM               

SO glad to hear that you were not injured !!!

So the Mod was a success??

Have you tried using multiple switches?

Is there anything that you could share with us that would make the mod easier to understand? Ido's version can be a tad bit confusing!

Thanks for the tips and suggestions. You are an asset to this community!

Scott

posted 02-24-2000 07:44 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by Scott Funk:
Carol & Rick:

I contacted Ido about the error and here's his response:

"You are right. It doesn't make sense and this info is wrong. The mod works only with 'pulse' signals such as the ON-OFF from a PIR motion sensor. A reed switch (continuous ON, or continuous OFF) will not work here."

He said that he would review the mod and post the correct instructions to the web site. I'll re-post here as soon as he e-mails back the correction to me.

Sc tt

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posted 02-25-2000 09:51 PM               

It seems that the way it works is that on is connecting to another pin on the chip, and off connects to ground.

I would imagine that he meant tying the pin and ground together and making/breaking that common center connection would work.

That actually sounds feasable. As the controller is, each switch has three states, connect to the other pin, connect to ground, or open. Maybe it's more complex than that though.

But if a spdt works, that's the simpler solution I would imagine. I don't have the reed switches yet though.

I'm going to figure out all the logic etc, haven't gotten to doing that. I'll make a (crude) drawing once I figure something out and y'all can shoot holes in it!

posted 02-26-2000 07:52 PM            

Unit Sw 1-5 to pin 18 if High=ON if Low=OFF
Unit Sw 2-6 to pin 19 if High=ON if Low=OFF
Unit Sw 3-7 to pin 20 if High=ON if Low=OFF
Unit Sw 4-8 to pin 21 if High=ON if Low=OFF
Brite/Dim to pin 24 if H=BRIGHT if Low=DIM
All Lights On
All Units OFF
to pin 22 if H=All Lights ON
L=All Units OFF

It then looks like the pins of the IC are polled starting with pin 18 then 19,20, 21, etc. The commands seem to be buffered and executed in the same order.

posted 02-27-2000 05:11 PM               

I tied a1 and a3 to ON, and a2 and a4 to OFF. Then through a relay (via the universal module) I quickly broke/remade the on and off connections (a double pole double throw with them hooked to the normally closed position).

HomeSeer returned in the log:
A2+A4 A OFF
A1+A3 A ON

Yeha! What does this mean? It means my diagram will work.

You many wonder why it's a big deal. Well if you have two garage doors as I do, you can do it all with one mini controller! Two units per door, and the polling returns the state for both, cool!

So total major components so far looks like for each door: one universal controller, one mini controller. Adding another garage door only requires one more universal controller.

This assumes using my mod (and that it is correct) to get two momentary dry contacts from one universal module.