SwitchDamper with DamperMultiplexer Park position and reverse bit?

[Thayne]

So... This has been bugging me for a few hours.
I can think of a couple of ways to do this with hardware... but I'd like to know if there's an easy way to take care of it from the software side already in DZ3.
Maybe I've just been looking at it too closely for too long... and it'll all be clearer after I sleep on it...

The issue:
I have an in-duct booster fan that I'd like to have run when one of my spring-return, fail-open dampers is open, and only when that zone is calling for heat.
Here is the behavior that I'm looking for:

Unit running, this zone calls for heat: Fan relay closes, damper relay opens
Unit running, this zone does not call for heat: Fan relay opens, damper relay closes
Park: both relays open

Is there a handy way to reverse the bit for SwitchDamper like there is for unit control? That'd be handy. I don't think it'd be too tricky to add this in to SwitchDamper.java...
Also, it seems that DamperMultiplexer's parking assistant is geared more towards parking ServoDamper dampers in the right spot.
It seems to ignore the park position that I set in both of my SwitchDamper beans.

Am I overcomplicating this?

 

[Thayne]

I just solved this with transistor-resistor logic gates. Here's a rough sketch of what I ended up doing. It works well.

[Vadim Tkachenko]

Hello Thayne,

I just solved this with transistor-resistor logic gates. Here's a rough sketch of what I ended up doing. It works well.

I had a hunch that I need to wait a bit before responding :)

Your solution will work. However, I will make it so no extra hardware is required. Just want to ponder a bit about how to make it the simplest and most universal way.

--vt

[Thayne]

2.5 years later... Did you ever cook up a simple way to do this without extra hardware, Vadim?

Also, it looks like Google moved the image of my sketch and broke the link in the previous post. 

Here it is again for historical purposes.

[Vadim Tkachenko]

Hello Thayne,

> 2.5 years later...

Ouch... A lot of things had happened since.

> Did you ever cook up a simple way to do this without extra hardware, Vadim?

I'll be absolutely honest with you - I forgot about your request.

> Also, it looks like Google moved the image of my sketch and broke the link in the previous post.
> Here it is again for historical purposes.

Let's try to formalize it and put it into a place where it will not be
forgotten (namely, https://github.com/home-climate-control/dz/issues,
apply "feature request" label) so I can figure out what exactly needs
to be done. Here you go:
https://github.com/home-climate-control/dz/issues/40

Having re-read your original description, I can say with confidence
that I would very much like to write a test suite for this feature so
you can verify that DZ behaves exactly the way you'd expect it to.

A few notes and clarifying questions - quotes from your original message follow:

> Unit running, this zone calls for heat: Fan relay closes, damper relay opens
> Unit running, this zone does not call for heat: Fan relay opens, damper relay closes
> Park: both relays open

Yes, this can be done in software with SwitchDamper. I think I will
have to port Reverser (pretty trivial class,
https://github.com/climategadgets/servomaster/blob/master/servomaster-common/src/main/java/net/sf/servomaster/device/model/transform/Reverser.java)
to be able to work with a Damper, then a combination of a multiplexer,
reverser, and two dampers should work nicely.

> Is there a handy way to reverse the bit for SwitchDamper like there is for unit control?

Having taken a look at the code, did you mean HvacDriverHeatpump
constructor where reverse bits can be supplied?

> That'd be handy. I don't think it'd be too tricky to add this in to SwitchDamper.java...

I looked through all the related classes and see now that it would've
made more sense to reverse the Switch itself and not the entities that
depend on it, but alas, an opportunity was missed then so at this
point I will probably add such an option (to reverse the Switch) but
old style reversers will have to stay in place, and possibly added in
more places to make things uniform.

> Also, it seems that DamperMultiplexer's parking assistant is geared more towards parking ServoDamper dampers in the right spot.
> It seems to ignore the park position that I set in both of my SwitchDamper beans.

Do you, by chance, have the configuration that you can publish so I
can replicate this? I'd appreciate if you could create an issue (see
the link above).

In any case, I've given your request some thought and now have enough
information to get started - all the changes will be linked to
https://github.com/home-climate-control/dz/issues/40 when committed.
Let me know if what you will see in a few coming days is what you
wanted.

--vt

[Vadim Tkachenko]

Hello again,

I've taken another close look at the code and know what I need to do -
just need a couple of confirmation bits from you.

One is the configuration you're using so I can replicate your set up
and make sure the changed code works the way you'd expect it.

Another is - could you please elaborate on this:

> Also, it seems that DamperMultiplexer's parking assistant is geared more towards parking ServoDamper dampers in the right spot.
> It seems to ignore the park position that I set in both of my SwitchDamper beans.

I looked at the code - DamperMultiplexer is indeed confused. On one
hand, it reads and reports its own parked position - which is totally
wrong because park() disregards it and parks each nested damper where
it's supposed to park. I'll write a test suite for that, however, it
would be really helpful if you could tell me how exactly this stuff is
behaving at your side.

See for more details: https://github.com/home-climate-control/dz/issues/41

--vt

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[Thayne Harrison]

VT,

It's been a while since I've looked at that configuration where I was trying to get DamperMultiplexer set up and working.

Let me see what I can find in the archives, and I'll get back to you in the next few days.

Thanks again for looking at this and major thanks for creating DZ3 in general!

an email to home-climate-control+unsub...@googlegroups.com.

[Thayne]

See attached for an old configuration that shows my dampermultiplexer configuration attempt.

Both dampers listed in the damper_multiplexer_west bean behave identically.

This should demonstrate both  the non-reversed bit for the booster fan (that i originally asked about) and the ignored park position set in the individual damper beans.