Release 3.2.6 Is Now Official

[ISYhbsh01]

Xathros,

 

I really think you will be happy with MobiLinc. I love it.

I had tested the light version in the past & it looked excellent. It's just a bummer that after paying $10 for the Conductor app I should have to pay now $20 for Mobilelinc...

 

Lets eliminate DHCP issues. Can you assign a static address inside the ISY that is outside of your routers DHCP address range? This will simplify the startup a bit and will eliminate DHCP errors from the log. You will need to edit your port forwards (if you have any for the ISY) to match the new address.

It’s hard for me to believe that this is the problem. Right after rebooting, which is the time when the ISY is requesting the IP address from the router and is being assigned a static IP by the router, its working fine. It’s only after a while that it get’s locked up. So why would I think it’s the DHCP the problem? Besides, I never had this problem before upgrading the firmware. But if you say I should still try it I will do it.

 

What was the state of the LEDs after it locked up this time ? How old is this ISY ?

Both the power and MEM LEDs were on constant.

 

My ISY is about 2 years old.

 

Thank you

[Xathros]

I don't really think the initial DHCP process is whats locking it up but possibly at IP lease renew. Really just trying to eliminate things to narrow down the problem.

 

Also I see -50010 errors in your log related to smtp.gmail.com. I believe this is a DNS lookup failure. I was having some issues with my ISY not resolving both SMTP and NTP servers a month or so ago. I resolved it by statically setting 8.8.8.8 and 4.2.2.2 as my DNS for the ISY. I suspicion is that the ISY is not waiting long enough for a response from the DNS servers and my ISP's servers in conjunction with my router were not responding fast enough resulting in a timeout. (Thats all just my "feeling" as I haven't been able to prove any of it yet) In any case, setting the DNS as stated above solved the problem for me.

 

I am concerned that the MEM led is on steady when it's locked up. This may be a clue since as far as I can tell that LED should only be lit during SD card access and not be in a steady on state ever. It's possible you have a corrupted or failing SD card. I'd like Michel's thoughts on this as well.

 

In any event, here is the Wiki data on reformatting or replacing the SD card: http://www.universal-devices.com/mwiki/ ... an_SD_Card

 

If you are up for it, I would try the reformat first. MAKE SURE you have a good backup of the ISY before you begin.

 

-Xathros

[ISYhbsh01]

Michel, Xathros,

 

Ok here is an update: I just finished changing the settings. I assigned a static IP from within the ISY which is not in the router’s DHCP range, and I setup the proper port forwarding. It still locked up a few minutes afterwards, I rebooted and it locked up again after a few minutes.

 

By the way, before I changed to the static IP it was locked up, and this time the LED were as follows: Power, RX, and TX were constant on, MEM was off, and error was blinking red. After the changes when it locked up again it was the Power & MEM LED’s that were constant on as was the case most of the times before.

 

I started to think as well that it might be the SD card the problem. Though I don’t understand why it would act up only after upgrading the firmware.

 

Do I need to follow the exact procedure in the Wiki to change the SD card? Just copying & pasting the files from the SD card to a new one won’t do it? If copying & pasting is not good enough, what would be considered a “good backup� Can I make a backup now, should I use the backup made right after upgrading the firmware, or should I use the backup done right before upgrading?

 

Thank you

[Xathros]

I believe the blinking ERR led indicates a problem with the file system. Yet another indication of an SD card issue.

 

If you believe the backup after the upgrade was successful, then that is the one to use. If not, then I would attempt to make another now. If you are unable to due to lockups, then you can use the older one but I think you would want to flash the new/formatted card with the version of the firmware that was in use at the time of that backup, restore that backup, then upgrade to 3.2.6 after that. Of course your TriggerLinc will not be there and your notification program for the Triggerlinc won't be there since they were added since the upgrade.

 

I would follow the Wiki procedure as there was something specific to the card being formatted by the ISY. I suspect it wants to be FAT16 not NTFS or HFS+ etc. and there may even be more to it than that.

 

I have read that older ISY hardware has a 512Mb card size limit. I'm not sure at what point they started supporting the larger cards or how we can tell if yours does or not. Hopefully Michel can chime in on that.

 

Lets hope you have/can get a good backup and that a reformat is all thats needed.

 

-Xathros

 

EDIT: Also, if you are using the Network Resources Module and have stuff in the webserver, you need to copy that out first as it is not in the backups and will be lost on the reformat.

 

EDIT #2: Lets start simple. Power down the ISY, then remove and re-seat the SD card first. Test.

[ISYhbsh01]

The backup after the upgrade had completed successfully, and after doing a reboot now I can probably manage to complete a backup real fast before it will lock up again. The question I have is if using a current backup wouldn’t bring along some problems and corrupted files with it, or if the backup completes currently it means that the files are fine for use to restore on the new card.

 

According to the Wiki, from version 2.7.15 & up it supports up to 16 GB. My current card has 512 MB.

 

If I get a new card, does anyone know if there is a benefit in buying a more expensive/high class/high read & write speed card? For example, SanDisk has various models: Standard/Ultra/Ultra II/Extreme, which have different read & write speeds with noticeable differences in performance when used in cameras & phones. Would it make a difference in the ISY’s performance?

 

Thank you

[ISYhbsh01]

Xathros,

 

Thanks for edit #1, I wasn't aware of that.

 

EDIT #2: Lets start simple. Power down the ISY, then remove and re-seat the SD card first. Test.

 

I tried this already.

 

Thanks.

[LeeG]

This is a Michel post earlier this year regarding SD card.

 

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=7768&p=59471&hilit=sd+card+speed#p59471

 

"My preference is SanDisk ... we do not use SDIO; we use SPI interface which means that the maximum speed (regardless of what SD Card speed you get) is 10Mbps."

[Michel Kohanim]

Hello everyone,

 

Sincere apologies for tardy reply as I was not in the office today.

 

You can use any SD Card up to 16GB; this said, since we still do not know the root cause (yes, it does look like SD issue but we are not certain), I would stick with anything you can find at the moment.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[ISYhbsh01]

Hi everyone,

 

Ok here is an update after working on this for another day…

 

I will try to describe everything that I encountered maybe it will give you a clue of what could be wrong here.

 

I started last evening trying just to do a reformat of the old SD Card. First I made a backup. Then I followed the Wiki instructions & did a telnet to the ISY and issued the FS command and hit Y. According to the Wiki I am supposed to see a “Goodbye prompt†when it’s done, however in all the formattings I was doing in the last day I never got any prompt. It was just the “Y†that I entered there, and after a while when I saw nothing happening I hit enter. At first nothing happened, then after hitting enter a couple of times I got a message saying connection to host lost.

 

After that I logged in to the admin console thru Universal’s website. Interestingly the firmware stayed the latest version 3.2.6., and even more interestingly the IP address stayed the same static IP address that I assigned earlier thru the ISY outside of the router’s DHCP range in accordance with Xathros’ instructions. I then restored the backup that I had just made. All my Insteon devices showed up, but I had a couple of issues:

 

1. The SMTP settings were lost & the default box was checked (Afterwards I did a restore again, and this time it restored the Gmail SMTP settings that I had before).

2. The user name & password were not restored (Maybe that’s normal)

3. The main window showed all the devices but not their status even when doing a query.

4. I could not for the life of me login into the ISY. I tried everything, http, https, from the local network & thru the internet, changed port numbers to the default & back, changed from static IP to IP being assigned by router & back, nothing worked. The only way I could login was logging in to the admin console thru the Universal website.

 

Today I went out & bought an 8 GB SD card. I did the format. When I did the restore from yesterday’s backup I first got a message “UPGRADE FAILED: FAILED UPLOADING FILE (REPORTED WRITTEN SIZE IS INVALID)â€. I tried to restore again & this time it finished without an error message. However I got the same exact problems as yesterday with everything.

 

So this time however I tried a couple of more things. After restoring the backup that I made yesterday & getting the same problems as yesterday, I tried to restore the backup that I made right after upgrading the firmware last week Wednesday (Yes it’s a week already that it’s down!). I got the same popup “UPGRADE FAILED: FAILED UPLOADING FILE (REPORTED WRITTEN SIZE IS INVALID)â€. I then tried to restore the backup that I made BEFORE I did the firmware upgrade & when all problems began, this time I got a different error message: “Upgrade Failed: Java.Lang.NullPointerExceptionâ€. I retried a few times and got the same message again.

 

So to do a quick recap, after spending countless hours in the past week here is where I am now:

 

1. The main window shows all the devices but not their status, even when doing a query.

 

2. I cannot login into the ISY in any way except into the admin console thru the Universal website.

 

I did a few more tests now: I turned one device (The IO Linc relay that I added after the firmware upgrade) that was next to me on & off thru the main window in the admin console & it did actually turn on & off, so it seems to work to some extent, but the console did not show the status whatsoever in the main window, it did not send me email notifications as it’s supposed to, and checking in the program summary tab the programs did not turn true/false the way it should.

 

Please help!

 

Thank you all very much.

[Xathros]

Lets try a "File / Restore PLM" and see if we can get your statuses working.

 

-Xathros

[Michel Kohanim]

Hello hbsh01,

 

I am so very sorry to hear about all these problems. It's really not fair for you to have to spend more time debugging the issues. Please do be kind enough to submit a ticket and we'll schedule a call/remote session and get this resolved.

 

By the way, I think the problem with status not showing up is in all likelihood your firewall blocking ISY from publishing events to the admin console.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[ISYhbsh01]

Xathros,

 

I did the restore PLM. Am I supposed to get a confirmation or something when it’s done? I didn’t get any.

 

All issues are still there except one change: Now when I turned a device on/off thru the console it did send me an email notification. The associated programs though still did not update its true/false status in the program summary tab.

 

Michel,

 

I submitted a ticket, thanks.

 

I disabled the firewall on my computer before I started the process yesterday & it’s still disabled, so it’s not that.

 

Thank you.

[Xathros]

Do you have Kaspersky or Avast Antivirus ? If so, disable and test.

 

Please let us know what turns up during your support call. I am really curious to know whats going on here.

 

-Xathros

[ISYhbsh01]

Xathros,

 

I do not have Kaspersky & Avast.

 

Michel logged into my system & worked hard to resolve the issues. The problems were a combination of a bad SD card, a corrupted 3.2.6 firmware file download that I used to upgrade, and some firewall issues. Everything seems to be working fine now. I can login to the ISY locally & remotely, I get the devices’ status on the main tab, the devices are being turned on/off correctly, and I am getting the proper email notifications. As far as the lockups are concerned, which was my original problem, it’s been about an hour since Michel had finished & it’s still up & running. It used to lockup after a few minutes.

 

Michel wants me to do a Restore PLM locally when I get home & monitor further, and then see if I can get the Conductor app to work again as well.

 

Thank a million again Michel! Thank you Xathros and everyone!

[Xathros]

Excellent! Glad I could be of some assistance at least. This was a tough case but it sounds like its fixed. Thanks for the update.

 

-Xathros

[Candide]

I am trying to write some programs that trigger on "Irrigation Requirement" and/or "Yesterdays Water Deficit".

We had a lot of rain a couple times recently, my water deficit is currently -1.1069 and I have seen negative Irrigation Requirement.

 

When setting an IF statement condition and selecting either one of those as a variable I see only positive numbers.

Is there a way to trigger a program on a negative value?

 

Specifically I would want to be able to trigger within negative range - like:

If Irrigation Requirement < -0.1 and

Irrigation Requirement > -0.2 then ...

 

Thanks...

[Michel Kohanim]

Candide,

 

It's best to reset your variables:

http://www.universal-devices.com/mwiki/ ... the_Module

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[Candide]

Thanks, I did that and I still can only choose positive values.

The combo-box only starts at zero and increases with positive values.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/candide/71 ... /lightbox/

 

 

Candide,

 

It's best to reset your variables:

http://www.universal-devices.com/mwiki/ ... the_Module

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi Candide,

 

I am so very sorry as I didn't understand your question properly. Irrigation requirement CANNOT be less than 0. Actually, in the code, if it's less than 0, we change it back to 0.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[Candide]

Thanks for the reply, but it can show as negative on the climate tab as can "Yesterday's water deficit."

 

I am working on some irrigation programming - and would like to be able to test and check for negative values.

A negative Irrigation requirement or a negative Water Deficit simply means that it rained a lot.

 

Would it be possible to allow for negative values?

I think there are legitimate uses for that and it is limiting not to have them.

 

Thank you,

 

 

Hi Candide,

 

I am so very sorry as I didn't understand your question properly. Irrigation requirement CANNOT be less than 0. Actually, in the code, if it's less than 0, we change it back to 0.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi Candide,

 

Irrigation requirement and water deficit do NOT mean that it rained a lot. They mean: water necessary based on water applied (sprinkler), rain, and a plethora of other conditions which contribute to the evaporation of water from soil.

 

I think what you really need is a counter for rain today value.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[ds10]

Came home tonight, no lights on. Connected to the ISY-99 over the LAN and it's reporting having trouble accessing every device. We've had this happen from time to time, and it's getting old. Usually the way I clear this is to power cycle the ISY. I guess I'll do that yet again. It's possible the issue is the Insteon PLM, but hard to know. The event viewer shows very little.

 

When every device you try to control with the ISY comes back with "communications error," you start thinking it's the ISY and not the modules. We've upgraded the ISY, we've updated the PLM, we've replaced modules we were told were versions that had issues. Everything works great for weeks to months, then we come home on a nice evening, no bad weather or anything, and the ISY/PLM setup can't talk to anything.

 

Any thoughts besides finding another controller setup?

[Michel Kohanim]

Hello ds10,

 

I am so very sorry to hear. One thing that I need to clarify is whether or not rebooting ISY fixes the problem (i.e. not rebooting the PLM)? If so, the problem could be the unit itself and not the PLM (though quite unlikely).

 

Another question is whether or not you have any old INSTEON thermostats.

 

And, finally - and when this happens - do you see INST-ACK in the Event Viewer? If so, then the problem is neither ISY nor the PLM but something is causing a major disturbance in INSTEON network.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[snownh2o2]

Hi,

 

I have been trying to upgrade for the last few days with no luck. I have tried multiple computers, accessed the admin console various ways (local, remote, wired, wireless, my lighting, & UD jnlp), and have updated and cleared java. I have recieved a few different errors.

 

The following is the current one and also the most common.

 

I have never had a problem in the past. Am I overlooking something this time?

 

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Thanks,

Matt

[snownh2o2]

I did see some talk concerning firewalls. The only thing that I am running is Microsoft Security Essentials. I just disabled real time protection.

 

The following is the error that I recieved.

 

Note that this error also was recieved during the other attempts, however it was hidden behide the last error.

 

Thanks again,

Matt