ISY crashes frequently when connected to ELK

[telljcl]

I've given up getting scenes status to be reflected within ELK - it just doesn' t work despite some good suggestions from Don Lamb and others (see related thread).

 

But, the biggest issue for me has been that my ISY99i Pro/ir freezes / crashes frequently when it is "connected" to the ELK.

 

It seems that accessing the ELK via RP or via ELKdroid app causes the ISY to crash. Can't provide specifics, but usually no more than 24 hours or so will go by before ISY goes out if you do anything to ELK via either one of these remote tools.

 

I think its safe to say that ELK and ISY will work together OK if you DO NOT access the ELK with anything (except a wired keypad).

 

This is obviously through the M1XEP.

 

Just erasing the ELKs ip address within the ISY setup page effectively disconnects it, and then it seems to run without risk of crashing.

 

I'm using version xxxx14 of the ISY firmware, and 5.2.2 for the ELK. The later beta FW for the ISY does not seem to address any issues I'm having with it, but if somebody knows differently I'd love to hear about it.

 

Elkdroid itself is pretty flakey, but it seems that either this or ELK RP somehow accessing the ELK off and on will eventually (or maybe very quickly) cause the ISY to lock.

[mbski]

This is a known issue as posted here.

 

 

 

I have confirmed exactly that. All works fine until EXP reboots then isy crashes. So I have an alternative, unplug power to isy anytime you need to send or reboot your EXP. Wait a couple of minutes and all is well. Not a big deal here, seems like it might have to do with the EXP and not the isy? But Im just a novice.

 

Hope this helps

Mike Bell

[Quixote]

What do you mean by flaky?

I doubt very much that ElkDroid is flaky on it own. If you're having trouble with it, I'd consider looking at your network and other factors.

I've used ElkDroid for months without a problem until I made some changes to my network and tried to connect my Elk to a wireless bridge along with my ISY and a NAS drive. I hadn't thought of it, but I started noticing problems around the same time that I had entered Elk's LAN address, etc. into the ISY config page.

 

I think there may be a few too many variables in this equation.

 

I've been experiencing quite a few problems related to the XEP as of late, even with the latest bleeding-edge beta firmware.

[telljcl]

Flakey in that:

 

1) Elkdroid does not actually "shut down" when shut down. If I specify alerts in elkdroid, I keep getting them on my phone even after it is "shut down". This has been relayed to the writer of the App. and he has acknowledged that he has reproduced it as well.

 

I suspect that Elkdroid attempting to keep a connection open through wifi - cell - wifi - no signal - cell etc... situations results in further "flakyness" in the system as a whole (XEP / ELK / Elkdroid).

 

2) Elkdroid is not capable of removing an ELK RP connection and switching to its own connection cleanly. I have to make sure RP is disconnected before trying to access with Elkdroid.

 

My network has no unusual components (wireless bridges etc...)

All hardwired connections. Issues I have are consistent regardless of access being via WAN or LAN. I control other "stuff" via network and don't have issues - even the ISY has proven quite reliable on its own.

 

I think the problem is fairly simple: 3 different hardware items (XEP, M1, ISY) made by 2 different companies, controlled by at least 2 SW apps made by as many different people.

 

Maybe Apple, as much as I'm not a fan of their business model, has something with the integrated hardware/software approach.

 

The solution is less simple I'm sure, but mine has been to reset the XEP / ISY frequently. In fact, I have a dedicated Insteon "Smartlinc" that I decided to keep (instead of eBay) solely as a mechanism for remote power-cycling of these 2 problem devices.

 

Power cycling and limited "messing around" with the XEP and keeping the ISY in the dark about the ELK's being there has kept my system working reasonably well, but keeps me from doing a number of things I thought I'd be able to do with this hodge-podge 'o stuff.

[Quixote]

1) Elkdroid does not actually "shut down" when shut down. If I specify alerts in elkdroid, I keep getting them on my phone even after it is "shut down". This has been relayed to the writer of the App. and he has acknowledged that he has reproduced it as well.

When was the last time you updated and when did you contact the developer? Last I checked a recent update fixed the issue of not being able to shut down the service. I can shut down mine no problem with the shutdown option accessed by hitting the settings button.

 

2) Elkdroid is not capable of removing an ELK RP connection and switching to its own connection cleanly. I have to make sure RP is disconnected before trying to access with Elkdroid.

 

Isn't that by design (of the XEP)? Is there anything that exists that can accomplish what you are talking about? I thought that in order to connect with anything to the XEP, you must first shut down ElkRP in all cases.

 

My network has no unusual components (wireless bridges etc...)

All hardwired connections. Issues I have are consistent regardless of access being via WAN or LAN. I control other "stuff" via network and don't have issues - even the ISY has proven quite reliable on its own.

 

I've had similar experiences, and I've been using a wireless bridge. My ISY and NAS drive attached to the bridge seem to work flawlessly, but the Elk has been giving me problems. I think we may be focusing on the wrong culprit here. I think that the XEP is the main problem in this equation. Hopefully Elk can eventually build some proper firmware for the thing and we won't have this wrench in the gears anymore.

[telljcl]

Well I've got the latest build, but supposedly there is a freshly coded beta that I may receive in the next few days that addresses the issue.

 

I can shutdown elkdroid (so it says) but if I have a zone set to alert me, I keep getting the alerts even after I've 1) disconnected from the account, and 2) shut down the app.

 

Kent has said they have reproduced this in testing.

 

Elkdroid will say "waiting for ELK RP to close" if its open when you connect, and sometimes it will work, but almost never. Usually ELK RP will eventually close, but elkdroid has issues connecting in this state.

 

This isn't a big deal for me, as I usually never leave RP running anyway, but it is something that isn't working right.

[Quixote]

I know that Kent had this misfortune of losing the mainboard of his main computer that he was doing all of his programming on, so development has been delayed until later this week.

I'm sure he'll be trying to kill those bugs as soon as he's back up and running. The last time I chatted with him he said he was having withdrawl symptoms.

[Quixote]

By the way, I believe that I have the latest Beta since I am one of Kent's testers and have been pretty much since ElkDroid's inception.

He likes to make sure the builds are good before unleashing them, and his last instructions were to test the shutdown option thoroughly.

I thought that he had already released the latest build, but I guess he hadn't had the chance before his computer went down.

I can tell you right now though that the disconnect option works 100% on my Droid now. I have tested your exact bug by setting my TTS notifications on violated zones and tested the zone while connected and then after shutting down and I did not receive any notifications.

 

Also, ElkRP closes it's connection when ElkDroid attempts to connect, but the problem that I see is that you need to close a popup that shows in ElkRP that says that the connection has been closed. It is only then that ElkDroid is able to connect to the system. I will mention this to Kent and perhaps he can talk to someone at Elk about fixing that, since I'm sure that there is nothing that can be done from our side to close messages generated by applications on the computer.