bpwwer

There's another thread on this but this might be a better location for it. I just did an upgrade to upgrade my IoX from 5.5.4 to 5.5.5. My PG3x was already running the latest version so it didn't get upgraded. I have 7 node servers installed but not all are enabled. I hadn't really paid much attention to which were running and which weren't but now that I am, I am seeing this issue: After the upgrade/restart YoLink was not connected and I was able to reproduce the problem. Nothing looked wrong in the log. After restarting again, YoLink started fine but my WeatherFlow node server was now in this state, disconnected and already starting when trying to start.

Thanks! I'll take a log a the log. No log showing for the node server or no log available? Unfortunately, with PG3x those are no longer the same thing. With PG3x, it doesn't display the existing entries when you select log, it only shows new entries that happen after you select log. So the node server starting log entries may be in the log file, but not displayed, which is why I requested the log package for it.

I installed and did some testing with the Occupancy node server and I'm not seeing any issues. There is at least on support ticket open that sounds like it might be a similar issue. PG3x shouldn't have any interaction with the Occupancy node server other than to show an Unmanaged dashboard entry for it. I've verified that PG3x isn't attempting to delete or modify it in any way. When you say it disappears, where does it disappear from? From the admin consoles node server list? Or just from the PG3x's dashboard? or both? Is there something that triggers this? I.E. when you restart (IoX, PG3x, the eisy) or is it random?

@dwengrovitz @sjenkins can one (or both) of you reproduce the error and then PM me a log package for the YoLink node server? I just installed it and as far as I can tell, it's working fine. But I can't configure since I don't have anything it would work with.

It looks like it's getting stuck trying to start the node server. We were having problems with people pressing the start button multiple times so it call start while it was already trying to start. So now it aborts any attempt to start the node server if the start process is already running. It appears that something is going wrong while trying to start YoLink where it's not starting but also not failing and is stuck in a limbo state. I'll look into it.

Did you check the node server log? It should provide a bit more details on the error. Are you using the eisy's wireless network for your network connection? If so, the discovery process may not work with it. If you can, switch to a wired connection and see if that works.

Most likely the browser has the version number cached and it's the browser page that needs refreshing.

That likely means that the node server never stopped when PG3x told it to. If it's running, you can't start a duplicate. It also could be confused so the first step would be to do a stop, wait 5-10 seconds and then try starting it. If that doesn't work, you may have to reboot the eisy.

Yeah, I agree that it is strange. They should match. Possibly it's a bug in the library that's being used to do the actual queries. It is a reverse engineered library as the Emporia cloud API is not publicly available.

I fully agree with this. At this point, I don't really feel that's is my place to announce a change of ownership and that it's something the original author should do. Unfortunately, UDI doesn't have the resources to police the node server store so it's really left to the individual developers to be upfront with the level of support they're capable of providing. It's not hard for a developer to update the description or readme for their node server to say they are no longer going to be providing support. But this is where having ratings/reviews could be really useful. Maybe adding a support commitment level would be useful, but that again would require the author to update it if their situation changes. This discussion has been good in that it's given me a lot to think about for the node server details. Thanks @palaymanfor initiating this.

Why does it matter? Are you just curios? I'm reluctant to name the developer (which would be obvious by listing the node servers). If you feel you have a legitimate need to know, it might be better to move this to a PM. My point was that there are ways to properly transfer support of a node server should the developer feel it's something they can no longer support.

I suspect that most node servers are under the MIT license as that's what the template and examples use. So my guess is that most just copy the same licence file over and don't change. However, I can really only speak for my own node servers. Those that I've written and sell are licensed under a proprietary license that prohibits modifying or re-distributing the code.

The monthly total comes directly from the Emporia cloud service. The node server doesn't do anything to change what the cloud service sends.

Most node servers are written in Python. The tools needed to write them are available on both Polisy/eisy. Which is mainly and editor and the Python interpreter. There are also Python IDE's available like pycharm but those would typically need to be run on something other than the Polisy or eisy. It is also possible to write node servers in Node.js and again this can be done directly on the Polisy or eisy using an editor and the node interpreter. The environment can be as simple as ssh'ing to your Polisy/eisy as admin, create a directory and add/write the files needed to for the node server. For Developers, PG3 can then install your node server from that directory for testing and continued development. There are many more advanced ways to set up a development environment. So folks use a Windows environment and mount the Polsy/eisy file system to the Windows box using NFS or Samba and can then run an IDE like pycharm on the Windows box. There are example node servers in the non-production store that can be used as reference and there's also a template node server that can be built and run. PG3 includes some help files on how to build and package up node servers to submit them to the node server store, those help files show up to registered developers. registered developers also get access to a Slack channel for developers. That's where we help each other out.

@bigDvetteI added it to my list of things to do. It sounds like it could be a bug in the node server verification code, but I have't had a chance to look at it yet.

Good point. In most cases, I don't believe it is, but it should be. Another thing to add to me todo list.

If the node server is proprietary and doesn't grant permissions to modify the code, then yes, creating a new one is the obvious answer. But again, this depends on what the node server developer want to do. Recently one of the developers wanted to stop supporting their node servers and passed them on to someone else to continue supporting them. Most of the PG2 node servers that were abandoned, were ported to PG3 by me since the license allowed for that.

No, that would be a bad assumption. Developers can make the source available or not, depending on how they license the node server. Many free node server do have a fairly permissive license and do make the source code available. And no also to the second question. The license the node server is released under is determined by the node server developer. It would be illegal for a third party to release the source if the developer doesn't allow it. The node server ecosystem isn't really large enough at this point to attract corporate developers so today it's people creating and supporting node servers in their spare time. So of course there's a concern that they might stop supporting their node servers.

Ratings and reviews are a good idea. I'll have to think about how that could work. The formal difference between the stores is supposed to be the expectations of the users. The non-production store was set up to provide developers a way to test both the node server and the actual release process with the expectation that not everything may work. Node servers in the production store are expected to work. Support levels are currently defined exclusively by the developers of the node servers. My personal opinion is that the cost should reflect the expected level of support. The higher the cost, the higher the expectation is for support. Nobody should expect that a node server that is free will have the same level of support as one that cost $100, but again, that's my opinion.

Fair enough. I didn't really answer your questions before. Either the existing node server would need to be modified or a new one would have to be written. PG3(x) can only install node servers that exist in the node server store with one exception. Developers can create and run their own node servers outside of the store. If you are a registered developer, then the answer is yes, otherwise no. But chances of you finding a node server for PG3(x) that is public on Github but not in the store is probably unlikely. Of course you can hire someone to create a node server. Any of the folks that have created node servers could do this. You can scroll through the store and see who has authored the existing node servers. I can't speak to the cost of hiring someone to do this, I'd probably want a minimum of $1500 just because of the time involved. Then there's the question of long term support. It's not easy to support a node server if you don't have the equipment needed to test it. Most of the existing node servers were written by someone who wanted the node server for themselves. We haven't had anyone state that they're looking to hire out creating node servers but some developers have responded to requests to have one created. You're right in that this subject isn't really going to get the attention of existing developers. So starting a topic asking about creating a specific node server would be the way to go. The more details you can provide the better. The alternative is to register as a developer and learn how to create node server's yourself. There are some resources to help with that and the existing developer community is normally pretty helpful.

@bradshawkylemake sure everything is up-to-date by using the "upgrade packages" button on the configuration tab of the Admin Console. It should switch automatically when you plug in a ethernet cable. However, it will likely get a new IP address from your router so make sure you account for that when trying to access the Admin Console or PG3x. @auger66I just released version 1.0.8, see if that version fixes your issue.

I get the following for my SolarEdge inverters using the node server: Which looks like it's telling me the amount of energy being produced by the solar array. It doesn't track accumulated power over various time periods if that's what you're looking for. But is that really useful for automation? The node server isn't trying to duplicate or replace a monitoring solution.

If you can switch the eisy to a wired network, do that and see if it works. The way the wireless networking is implemented on the eisy breaks a lot of device discovery methods.

@palaymanYes polyglot.universal-devices.com lists all current node servers and clicking on the node server brings up the details including price(s).

I screwed up the packaging. You'll have to re-install but it should work now. Go to the node server store, select refresh store. Then select the node server, click the install button and use the "Reinstall here?" button to re-install.