Add Engine Startup Delay Timer Activated to GENMON, MQTT & LOGS

[VHKRMOTL]

===== REQUEST =====
Please consider adding Status : Engine : Engine State : "Startup Delay Timer Activated" to Genmon as "Startup Delay Timer Activated" a binary sensor that would also show in the Genmon logs.

===== REASON =====
Genmon can monitor for short duration state changes where MQTT monitoring (presently set to 2 seconds) is not fast enough to catch extremely short duration state changes. The information would help with Home Assistant Automatons to broadcast power warnings. The extremely short duration power issues often occur as winds increase as a result of approaching hurricanes. It also helps in that I can create an automation that will take the generator out of auto and place it in run mode to avoid a string of power hits. When hurricanes arrive, I often give up on the generator starting and stopping automatically several times an hour and simply place it in a manual run mode until the winds and gusts decrease to a reasonable level or the power has been stable for a few hours. All of this logic can be programmed into Home Assistant.

===== OPTION =====
Another option would to have a "Startup Delay Timer Last Activated" that reports the time of the last state change.

===== HISTORY =====

• GENMON TWO EMAILS
  Here are a couple of emails messages I received from Genmon Version V1.19.06 Sat 04-Oct-2025
  Time: 06:13:29 AM: Status : Engine : Engine State : Startup Delay Timer Activated
  Time: 06:13:44 AM: Status : Engine : Engine State : Off - Ready

• APC HOME ASSISTANT DEVICE "APC UPS Daemon"
  My APC UPS Simultaneously reported: Warning - UPS: On battery power in response to distorted input. It is also reported through sensor.ups_last_transfer in Home Assistant where I can report power problems missed by any MQTT reporting from Genmon.

[jgyates]

Hi @VHKRMOTL

I think I understand what you want.

Genmon already shows the "Startup Delay Timer Activated" but the web UI has the same fault as MQTT in that if it does not poll genmon fast enough you could miss the state since it does not last that long. The emails show every status change that genmon detects via modbus.

Let me think on the best way to implement (a binary type display, a log of controller states or the last time of the startup timer) and I will post to this thread before I start any changes.

[jgyates]

I have a question about how you envision the binary type display working. Assuming there was functionality that looked like this:

The "Engine State" entry already exists in genmon although it does not last very long. The "Startup Delay Timer: Active" entry can be added but does this not duplicate the functionality of the "Engine State"? If the "Startup Delay Timer" status entry changes to "Inactive" or goes away if the startup time is not active then I am not seeing how this is different than "Engine State". If I am missing something here let me know, as this is very easy to add, but I can't see it helping, unless I am missing something.

If your goal is trying to detect a state where the utility power goes out and returns before the timeout occurs I can possibly add a parameter that shows when the last time this occurred or how many times it occurred in a 24 hour period? or possibly add a log showing the last 50 engine states with the time of each entry. That will require a little more work, but it is doable.

[VHKRMOTL]

Since the "Startup Delay Timer Activated" would probably never appear in an active state because it is too short, possibly having it appear as Log Entries would be more of an appropriate solution. I was thinking maybe like this on the Status page and MQTT data: Last Log Entries : Logs : Run Log : 10/05/25 01:57:45 Stopped - Auto Startup Delay Timer Log: 10/05/2025 01:46:05 Activated MQTT Topic: generator/Status/Last_Log_Entries/Logs To be added as Startup_Delay_Timer_Log in addition to the existing Alarm_Log and Run_Log and on the Logs page: Run Log : 10/05/25 01:57:45 Stopped - Auto 10/05/25 01:46:13 Running - Remote Start Startup Delay Timer Log: 10/05/25 01:46:05 Startup Delay Timer Activated Consider adding to the down-loadable log files: alarm.log service.log run.log startupdelaytimer.log Thank you, Mark ------ Original Message ------ From "jgyates" ***@***.***> To "jgyates/genmon" ***@***.***> Cc "Mark Clemes" ***@***.***>; "Mention" ***@***.***> Date 10/4/2025 4:48:09 PM Subject Re: [jgyates/genmon] Add Engine Startup Delay Timer Activated to GENMON, MQTT & LOGS (Discussion #1329)

…

I have a question about how you envision the binary type display working. Assuming there was functionality that looked like this: Screenshot.2025-10-04.at.4.34.19.PM.png (view on web) <https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/eaf6eddb-1549-4864-ad0e-a90382893b13> The "Engine State" entry already exists in genmon although it does not last very long. The "Startup Delay Timer: Active" entry can be added but does this not duplicate the functionality of the "Engine State"? If the "Startup Delay Timer" status entry changes to "Inactive" or goes away if the startup time is not active then I am not seeing how this is different than "Engine State". If I am missing something here let me know, as this is very easy to add, but I can't see it helping, unless I am missing something. If your goal is trying to detect a state where the utility power goes out and returns before the timeout occurs I can possibly add a parameter that shows when the last time this occurred or how many times it occurred in a 24 hour period? or possibly add a log showing the last 50 engine states with the time of each entry. That will require a little more work, but it is doable. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#1329 (reply in thread)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/APVEGVNF4Q5RHUMFUWCR6A33WAXATAVCNFSM6AAAAACII4ZEHCVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTINJZGM2TGMI>. You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[jgyates]

Hi Mark,

I was trying to determine the best place to display this data as your use case is small and if this was very prominent it may cause more questions than it provides a solution. What I landed on (for now) is this:

There used to be a setting named "Display Unknown Sensors". I renamed this to "Display Experimental Data". If enabled this will display some additional data on the Status page (and export via MQTT). One of the values there is a parameter named "Last Startup Delay Timer Active" that will show the last time and data the startup timer was activated. If no start up timer has been active since genmon started it will read "None"

Also, you can download the log, status, etc info in JSON format via the curl command, for example:

 curl http://192.168.1.10:8000/cmd/logs_json
 curl http://192.168.1.10:8000/cmd/status_json

From there you can parse it into a text file.

Let me know if you have any questions or if you have any issues.

[VHKRMOTL]

Thank you for entertaining my inputs. I am much appreciative. Mark

…

------ Original Message ------ From "jgyates" ***@***.***> To "jgyates/genmon" ***@***.***> Cc "Mark Clemes" ***@***.***>; "Mention" ***@***.***> Date 10/5/2025 8:20:22 PM Subject Re: [jgyates/genmon] Add Engine Startup Delay Timer Activated to GENMON, MQTT & LOGS (Discussion #1329)

Hi Mark, I was trying to determine the best place to display this data as your use case is small and if this was very prominent it may cause more questions than it provides a solution. What I landed on (for now) is this: There used to be a setting named "Display Unknown Sensors". I renamed this to "Display Experimental Data". If enabled this will display some additional data on the Status page (and export via MQTT). One of the values there is a parameter named "Last Startup Delay Timer Active" that will show the last time and data the startup timer was activated. If no start up timer has been active since genmon started it will read "None" Also, you can download the log, status, etc info in JSON format via the curl command, for example: curl http://192.168.1.10:8000/cmd/logs_json curl http://192.168.1.10:8000/cmd/status_json From there you can parse it into a text file. Let me know if you have any questions or if you have any issues. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#1329 (reply in thread)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/APVEGVMR6MTKAJ3LLFBLTBT3WGYUNAVCNFSM6AAAAACII4ZEHCVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTINJZHE3TCMY>. You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>