Re: My GEM, ISY, Dash Box, Insteon Home Automation Install
Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2017 9:24 am
PROJECT TITAN - WEATHER FLOW:
Brultech Forum
https://brultech.com/community/
PROJECT TITAN - WEATHER FLOW:
Its been a very long time since I provided any kind of update regarding the Brultech Dash Box. The last 16 months has seen endless break fix's, bug fix's, and countless iterations of the DB firmware. Since firmware 4.2.3C7H has finally gone public ready I will offer some of the insight about new features and advancements to the system.DASH BOX - FIRMWARE 4.2.3C7H:
Introduced in very early Alpha builds was changing how the system handled writing data to the Micro SD card. The system now holds a lot of processes in high memory. This has two important advantages which is less wear and tear on the memory card and faster response time of the system.DISK MANAGEMENT & MEMORY USAGE:
The team has been working hard on how the system handles a loss of power or when the system is first booting up. As of this writing the system has several operational safeties to ensure the data base is secured and protected against corruption due to a loss of power or erratic first boot / failed shut down.SHUT DOWN DISK MANAGEMENT:
A new feature implemented by Ben is the ability to hide the entire consumption / NET power header. I'm not sure why anyone would want to hide what has been consumed & generated but this was a feature request by another member.HEADER HIDE:
Moving forward the status LED high lighted in orange has been moved to the main tab section. User feedback given to Brultech found the old method was not intuitive or apparent?!? Regardless of how I feel about that this area will offer more system feedback in the near future. At the moment the system offers similar visual feedback as it did before.STATUS - UP TIME - DISK USAGE:
In this release the system is capable of setting the high limit for *Dash Board* dial gauges. In the past the system would always indicate crazy high limits like 60,000. The user can now define the max value with in the minimum 30 numeric value.LIVE STATUS - DIAL GAUGE:
One of many feature requests I had asked for has finally been implemented which is expanding the ability to add details and descriptions into the pulse, voltage, and temperature channels.DETAILS & DESCRIPTIONS:
This area has been given a visual update as to how the different tool options look like. Besides that there have been improvements and bug fix's to those using Tiered, ToU, rates.BILLING - RATES:
A few years ago when I first came up with the idea of IP blocking for the Dash Box. At the time I didn't know there would be so many people accessing my DB. Along with the endless hackers that seem to be hell bent in seeking any type of Linux server on the net. Another feature request I submitted to the team was to allow a *Friendly Name* to be appended to the IP address.IP BLOCK - IP NAMING:
I don't recall if I published this specific information. But if not here it is - The system is now capable of editing out a value instead of deleting it entirely. The ability to delete a value is still present should it be needed. This was another feature request I had made last year and is in place now for all to use and enjoy.DATA BASE MAINTENANCE - EDIT DATA:
The Brultech company has been growing at a steady pace and the adoption rate by Consumer, Enterprise, and Government has also increased. Those having multiple Dash Box's have asked the company to come up with a method to have a single sign on (SSO) web portal to help manage and access the very same.BRULTECH PORTAL ACCESS SERVICE:
Another long time feature request by me has been IFTTT integration. The company has embarked on the first steps of IFTTT use and wait for it . . .IFTTT INTEGRATION - NOTIFICATION - THE FIRST STEPS:
Starting June 20, 2017 I have started on the journey to test out how best to use the new IFTTT capabilities found in the Dash Box. As of this writing there is no direct method to export the data from the DB into off line formats. Given the new capabilities via IFTTT this has been made much easier using the Google Sheets.IFTTT GOOGLE SHEETS - CLOUD HOSTED DATA TRACKING:
After more than 2 long years of development the Water Hero monitoring system will finally be ready for mass deployment for retail sales. Its been a very long journey for me and those who have backed this incredible project.PROJECT TITAN - WATER HERO: PUBLIC RELEASE
Firmware updates have been coming out at a steady pace. The development team and I have identified many bugs and issues and they have been squished.FIELD TESTING NEARS COMPLETION
100 Units Shipped
We have now shipped over 100 beta units and are excited to be nearing completion of our field testing. Over the last 6 months, our beta testers have been providing excellent feedback on the Flow Only and plumber installed PRO units they have been testing.
This important feedback has led to many bug fixes, some great product improvements, a better user experience and enhanced security. With this progress we are on track to ship commercial release Flow Only and PRO units to our Kickstarter Backers by the end of May!
Gearing up for Larger Production Runs
The electronics and hardware continue to perform quite well in the field. We are now gearing up for larger production runs which will help drive cost efficiencies. Below is a picture with the team at our PCB assembly vendor here in New England. They not only provide great quality, but have also offered valuable advice on design for manufacturability that help us reduce production costs.
Dan Sterling and Dan Fink (in white lab coats) with the team at our PCB assembly vendor.
Firmware Update
Vic, Chris and Eric of our engineering team have been busy releasing 5 firmware revisions since our last update, with field units currently running v1.31 firmware. The v1.27 firmware which released shortly after the last update was loaded with the most improvements ever, including an improved flow detection algorithm and increased magnetic field sampling rate for better accuracy at high flow rates, plus many features designed to make Water Hero one of the easiest to connect IoT devices on the market.
Subsequent releases focused on increasing stability to maintain the network connection, as well as increases in overall system reliability and processing speed by streamlining communication paths through the device.
Security Update
We take security very seriously, and have built and architected Water Hero with this in mind from the start. We are happy to report we just finished adding additional security layers to our web interface and cloud infrastructure this week.
App Update
With the firmware and security enhancements discussed above in place, we are now focusing on mobile apps. We are nearing completion of our first draft of a native iOS app and will then follow that up with our first draft native Android app.
Other Updates
After completion of the mobile apps, we will move to adding some of the cool new product feature suggested by our beta testers.
Housing Update
We now have 1,000 pieces of our beautiful Main Controller Board and PRO unit Sensor Cap housings in our inventory, and are proud to have received several compliments on the look and feel of these housings. We are still 3D printing our FLOW sensor housings, and are evaluating tooling quotes so we can also get this housing plastic injection molded. Both the Pro Sensor Cap and Flow Only sensor housing plug into the same Main Controller Board housing. Here’s a picture of Flow Only unit.
Flow Only unit with Plastic Injection Molded Housing.
Supply Chain Update
Now that we are gearing up for larger production runs, we can take advantage of volume pricing on components. We have over 10 components from Texas Instruments on our two PCBs, so recently met with TI to negotiate annual volume commitments that will give us better pricing.
We also are happy to report that we received an advance shipment of 1,000 pieces of the key component that we reported as out of stock for months in our last update. We have deposited these in our parts bank, and are relived that we now do not have to scramble to find this part (at a hefty markup) from reputable parts brokers. We are now stock-piling the few components on our boards that have no alternatives or could face global shortages.
Flow Only and PRO unit shipping update
We have made some progress with our non-invasive shut-off motor, and are targeting beta testing in June. Please contact us at info@waterheroinc.com if you have a new, easy to work ball valve and would like to be a beta tester.
For the benefit of those of you who have not read the past few updates, the development of our non-invasive Shut Off Motor has been a much bigger challenge than we anticipated because of a wide range of ball valve shapes and sizes we have to clamp over. The other big worry is the condition of the existing ball valve we would try to clamp over; we are finding that in many homes, the ball valve has not been exercised in years and is calcified open. Either our motor will not have enough torque, or worse yet, we could snap off an old, poorly maintained ball valve.
So for those of you who ordered our FULL WATER HERO (basically, our Flow Only Unit plus DIY Shut Off) please accept our apology for this delayed development, and consider some options:
#1: Change your order to our Flow Only unit: (special Kickstarter price of $79), and when we ship your order, we will also send a check for the price difference of what you pledged.
#2: Change your order to our PRO unit: (special price of $199 for a standard unit that fits ¾” pipes, heavily discounted from our expected retail price), and we will charge you the price difference of what you pledged right before we ship. Note that this is invasive and has to be cut into the pipe.
#3: Continue being patient and hang in there: we are still developing the DIY Shut Off Motor that plugs into the Flow Only unit, making a non-invasive FULL WATER HERO. We will ship the FULL WATER HERO to you once they are ready if you can continue to bear with us and be patient.
Please e-mail us at info@waterheroinc.com with your selection and/or any questions or concerns. We really appreciate your understanding, patience and support.
The Round Up
We are nearing the end of our 100 unit beta field testing, and so far are very happy with product performance and tester satisfaction. We have built inventory of our beautiful plastic injection molded housings, and are gearing up production of assembled hardware.
We fully anticipate being able to ship our first commercial units to our backers who ordered the Flow Only and PRO Water Hero units by the end of May! We could not do this without the wonderful support, feedback and encouragement of our backers…THANK YOU!
In 2016 of last year I started on the journey to select, test, and use a few second tier portable radio's for mobile communications. As always with the great help of my partner in crime (BBB) I was able to obtain the first sample for testing.PROJECT TITAN - COMMUNICATIONS: PORTABLE SOLUTIONS
There are many brands of radio's on the open market today. You can literally find radios for $25.00 ~ $XXX.XX to your hearts content. Anyone who has taken the time to review different web sites and You Tube videos know there are endless resources for the same.WOUXUN - THE HIDDEN RF RADIO GEM:
Below is a special edition package of the Wouxun KG-UV9D Plus radio. If you can find this specific bundle it truly offers the best value for those just starting off in the RF industry. If you can find it on sale like I did at the time when my partner in crime (BBB) made the purchase.WOUXUN - KG-UV9D PLUS:
The KG-UV8E radio was purchased as an alternate test unit because it offered the first ever *Tri Band* 220 frequency in one hand held radio. The 220 RF band is less used and common in the field and thus offers me and the team the capability to use this as a secondary frequency when needed for specific use cases.WOUXUN - KG-UV8E:
As noted early on one of the many reasons for purchasing these fantastic RF radios is having the ability to upgrade the firmware, changing options, programming, and expanding the RF frequencies to cover out of band modes.WOUXUN - USB DATA HACKING CABLE:
PROJECT TITAN - COMMUNICATIONS: PORTABLE SOLUTIONS
As some of you may remember a very long time ago I installed many First Alert One Link combination smoke & co talking detectors. These units seamlessly integrated with my Insteon network via the Smoke Bridge.FIRST ALERT ONE LINK - SMOKE & CO DETECTORS:
As noted up above, reading the full users manual noted the units I had on hand were covered by a 10 parts and service warranty. Going through the first eight manuals affirmed the very same. At this point I decided to call in to the service department to get some resolution to the problem at hand.SERVICE AFTER THE SALE - PERHAPS / PERHAPS NOT:
A number of years ago I blogged about a new crowd sourcing product under development which I was part of. Unfortunately that campaign did not succeed in its funding goals. Near the end of the campaign I had offered my services in Alpha / Beta testing this new product. To my surprise and delight I was asked to help the company and team develop this fine product for retail sales.AQUANTA - SMART HOT WATER HEATER MANAGEMENT:
The main Aquanta controller is essentially a small blue square box made out of ABS injected plastic. The main cover is held together by four black Phillips head screws.AQUANTA - THE MAGIC INSIDE:
The *Initial* process to install this smart hot water management system was less than fun. Not so much on the part of the Aquanta product as it was trying to remove the existing blow off valve. I would say the average user will have a 50/50 chance in encountering what I did. That is finding the blow off valve is screwed down so tight that it might literally break off inside of the HWT!!AQUANTA - THE INSTALLATION PROCESS:
1. Turn off the cold water supply at the HWT tankBLOW OFF *PETCOCK* VALVE REMOVAL:
1. Turn off the 240 VAC breakersELECTRICAL INSTALLATION STEPS:
The final portion of the installation step involves filling up the HWT. At this juncture the user will need to decide upon whether to do extra maintenance or simply fill the unit up. I would highly suggest to those who have ignored the annual drain and fill process. To complete this step to ensure the longest service life of the HWT.AQUANTA - FINAL INSTALLATION STEPS:
The Aquanta system comes with a single 1 wire sensor probe that mates to the incoming cold water line. This is done to allow the system to know and compare to an internal sensor probe. What this does is allows the system to calculate how much hot water is in the tank and know the internal hot water temperature.SENSING ELEMENTS:
The Aquanta hardware is a smart interface which ties directly to the homes hot water tank. The intended goal of this device is to manage and control the energy demands of the appliance while offering the end user a method to save money while doing so.AQUANTA - WHAT DOES IT DO?
Cost Savings
- Smart control of thermostat and heat cycling
- Energy savings suggestions
- Weekly & monthly usage data comparison
Convenience, Comfort and Safety
- See how much hot water is available
- Remote turn on/off and scheduling capability
- Maintenance alerts, including leak detection
- Automatic overheating shutoff
Intelligent Controls
- Autonomous learning function matches water heating with usage patterns
- Operation via remote dashboard
The intended goal of the system is to help manage the the hot water system. This encompasses being able to set manual water heater on/off schedules; adjust Aquanta auto-efficiency settings; set Away periods and adjust Alert settings.AQUANTA - WHAT CAN BE DONE?
The current system only offers a cloud hosted service, in the portal you can see the following metrics and statistics. Upon login the main page is split into three panes the first pane indicates the previous day, week, months consumed energy as seen below.AQUANTA - WHAT INFORMATION CAN BE SEEN?:
AQUANTA - HOT WATER CONSUMPTION - BASIC CHARTING:
DAILY:AQUANTA - HOT WATER ENERGY CONSUMPTION - BASIC CHARTING:
The advanced section of the web portal allows the person to select from a few default views. The user can also select a date range of interest so this offers better scaling when required.AQUANTA - ADVANCED CHARTING OPTIONS:
The last pane in the main page allows the user to select one of three operational modes. In the less efficient mode the system indicates the following operations vs performance:PERFORMANCE & EFFICIENCY LEVELS:
The system offers the user the ability to define and set from basic to advanced boost and away (timed) scheduled modes that best fit their needs and lifestyle.BOOST & AWAY SCHEDULING:
It will come as no great surprise that this fine product is being benched marked and validated by the Brultech Green Eye Monitor (GEM) and the Dash Box (DB). Below I will offer some insight and feedback about what I observed from this product and how it compares to the metrics offered by the GEM.PERFORMANCE AND ACCURACY:
The following are my observations and thoughts about the Aquanta product and hope some of this will offer those interested in the same the insight they need. Please keep in mind these are my opinions and those of you who have read this massive install project thread already knows. My global view is from home automation enthusiasts and energy monitoring / energy management perspective. Having spent more than 30 plus years in various fields and played with most of the latest gadgets along with Alpha / Beta testing for no less than 50 of the largest to smallest companies in the world.AQUANTA - THE PROS AND CONS AND HOW TO DO BETTER:
The system has been designed and made in The United States of America using global parts. Nothing pleases me more than to support an American / Canadian product vendor. The system is very easy to setup and install and normally takes about 30~60 minutes form start to finish. The system offers basic to advanced features which I believe most folks can appreciate and enjoy.AQUANTA - THE GOOD - HIGH LEVEL INSIGHT:
The following remarks and observations are based on more than two years of testing and using the current Aquanta system. Having worked with the team for more than two years the first requirement for me was having a open API. Doing so would allow me and other third party vendors to interact and manage the system using a HA Controller like the ISY 994 Series Controller.AQUANTA - THE BAD - HIGH LEVEL INSIGHT:
So the question comes down to whether or not such a device is worth considering and buying. In my humble opinion this assumes a lot of different factors. If we assume a person had absolutely nothing in terms of a smart appliance the Aquanta fits that bill nicely.AQUANTA - SUMMARY OBSERVATIONS:
A few weeks back one of several programs I set up alerted me of a potential sales opportunity. I'm not sure why I decided to ignore the alert message but can reflect back it was a stupid move. Having followed up the next day it came as no great surprise to find those sale items had gone poof and were all bought.INSTEON - HITTING THE JACK POT:
In late 2016 I had started to reevaluate all of the systems in my home for intended use and whether they still continued to meet those goals. On another front I started to assess whether key protection elements could be upgraded to be more reliable or energy efficient.ONSITE PRO - FLOOD STOP SYSTEM - SERVICE AFTER THE SALE:
As noted in this previous thread entry the Alpha / Beta team have been notified by the development team the Weather Flow Sky is getting ready to be shipped out by weeks end. I also noted in this thread: that my annual inspection of various parts of the home was underway. To get ready for the WF Sky I decided to complete the annual roof inspection to ensure no missing tiles had been ripped off during the last few Mach 5 winds seen a few months ago.PROJECT TITAN - WEATHER FLOW SKY - ROOF INSPECTION: