Program Behavior when a device error occurs

[seacordean]

I have a program that runs at a certain time and shuts off lights for 3 rooms in the Then clause. It happens that last night, 2 of the switches were inaccessible due to a circuit breaker trip. The 3rd light is on a different circuit and was fine. The program has the commands to turn off the 2 switches that were out as the first 2 lines of code and the 3rd light as the 3rd line. The issue and question is that the 3rd light did not turn off at the program run time (the first 2 lights were already out due to the circuit so did not need to be turned off by the program). The log and email notification set on the program indicated the program ran at the correct time. Could this be because the first 2 commands to turn off somehow errored since the switches were inaccessible? Does a program behave differently when some of the commands are in error?

 

Thanks.

[Michel Kohanim]

Hello seacordean,

 

Programs continue their normal execution regardless of error. As a matter of fact, based on input by porscheguy, we are going to make Device Error a condition which can be used in programs.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[seacordean]

Thank you for the very quick response.

 

Given that the device errors should not have caused any issues for the 3rd command, what else could cause an Insteon switch to fail to shut off from an off command in a program when the program indicates in a Notification that it ran? The Notification is the 4th (and last) command in the program. I have a number of programs that run through the night and commands from these seem to have run normally that night. The only command that did not have the expected result was this one line in this one program. If this is too difficult to narrow in on, I will have a chance to see it in action again at the end of the week to see if it was a one off issue, but prefer to understand root causes and try to be proactive, especially if there is a risk of recurrence.

 

Thanks.

[Michel Kohanim]

Hello seacordean,

 

My pleasure. First, please look at the logs. You should see an activation/deactivation (on/off) for that device, initiated by Program, at that time. If the action was successful, the log would be followed by a Status entry for the same device. If not, on the same entry, you would see a -2 in the last column.

 

If the action was against a scene, then it's quite possible that your devices within the scene are not responding. You might want to consider doing Scene Test on those scene within which devices are not responding. Scene Test: right mouse click on the Scene and then choose Scene Test.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[LeeG]

seacordean

 

What type of device did not turn Off, SwitchLinc, ICON, LampLinc, etc and is it dimmer or relay?

 

What type of load does the device control, incandescent, CFL, LED, etc and what is the total wattage?

 

Lee

[seacordean]

For a switch that was on the open circuit, the entry was:

Evan's Light Off 0 Fri 2011/04/08 11:00:01 PM Program Log

Zach's Room Fri 2011/04/08 11:00:11 PM System -2

 

which is strange since only the second entry where it errored should make sense since the switch had no power.

 

For the switch that should have worked, the log entry was:

Evan's Light Off 0 Fri 2011/04/08 11:00:01 PM Program Log

 

which should mean it was shut off (I think) - and yet it did not shut off and there was the same execution and log an hour later, again with no result.

 

This is a Switchlinc Dimmer with incandescent bulbs and I believe it is controlling 360 watts total.

 

Thanks for the continued interest and support.

[LeeG]

It would be helpful to have an Event Viewer with Device communications events selected running when a light failed to turn Off. I have seen LampLincs say they turned Off in the ACK response but not actually turn the load Off.

[Michel Kohanim]

Hello seacordean,

 

Please note that in the log:

1. The first entry is "what the program tried"

2. The second entry is either failure (-2) or the status change if the status ACTUALLY changed. So, if you do not see a -2, it probably means that the unit was already off

 

I totally agree with LeeG with respect to using the Event Viewer to see what's being transpired.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[seacordean]

I see what you are saying. If I look at the behavior of the program in the log from a prior successful run, I do see that Evan's Light Status returns as 0% after the command to set it to 0. This Status does not appear in the log in the run under discussion where the light did not turn off (the light was definitely not off as was suggested might explain the behavior, as confirmed by visually). The issue is that there was no return at all. I thought one of the benefits of Insteon was validation of commands having the desired effect. Since the command did not have the desired effect, shouldn't the system have done something?

 

The only difference I could see between all the times the program ran successfully and this time was the one circuit breaker being open on the other lights in the program. Since that should not have had an effect per your earlier post, I guess this will be very difficult to debug other than to chalk it up to some signal interference that had it not shut off through the 2 tries the program made (given the consistency I have had with the system until now, this seems an unlikely scenario). I could try the event monitor (I looked at it now, but it only has the most recent items and does not go as far back as needed here). However, the switch seems to work now when triggered from the web, so I am not sure I can recreate. I think I will need to see if the next normal run of the program works, which will chalk it up as an anomaly. The debugger in me just hates leaving something without a properly attributed root cause and, even better, action to resolve for the future.

 

Thanks

[Michel Kohanim]

Hello seacordean,

 

In the case where device did not respond, you do not get a -2 for device communications error?

 

If you do not have a -2, how certain are you that the device was not already off. Would you please scroll up the log and find the last Status event for that switch and make sure it was not 0(off)?

 

ISY does not retry commands that are sent through programs or web. The only commands retried are those impacting the database and configuration of devices.

 

With kind regards,

Michel