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k2zs
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| Posted: December 19 2009 at 08:15 | IP Logged
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There was a system failure the other day on a PH network that I maintain. Unfortunately the event log has since been trimmed and I can't find the actual error.
The home owner reported that none of the timed events had been performed so I remotted in and found a system event that refered to the PLM with either a "DIM" or "DIN" error and that it was not responding. I asked if the light on the PLM was on or not and it wasn't. I had them move it to a working outlet and all was well. As it turned out the previous outlet that the PLM was in wasn't dead so apparently dropping power to the PLM and the re-applying it reset the issue.
I remember that when I remotted in there was about a 4 hour period where there was no activity in the event log. I have tried re-creating the event here and can't seem to come up with a situation that causes any error that resembles what I saw. The PLM is only about 3 months old, could it be failing? Has anyone experianced anything like this? I would like to creat a trigger that emails me on system failures but don't know what to test against.
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Scott, K2ZS
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BeachBum
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| Posted: December 19 2009 at 09:12 | IP Logged
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Scott, I don’t know for sure if what you saw was a power glitch or not but I have seen PH go into what I call endless error recovery when it loses communication with the PLM. The timed events and I/O sequences will stack up in the queues until the apparent looping problem is resolved. Once the communication is reestablished then the queues are flushed and things seem to be back to normal. I have tried to write a macro that would recognize the problem but the actual problem causes any type of notification sequence to also be stacked up in a queue waiting to be processed. Hence you are left in the dark.
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Pete - X10 Oldie
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k2zs
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| Posted: December 19 2009 at 09:42 | IP Logged
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Thanks Pete,
I tried re-initializing, exiting and re-starting PH, and re-booting the PC. The only thing that worked was essentially unplugging the PLM and then plugging it back in. I figured it would be hard to trap that sort of error since the event log showed no activity to test against.
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grif091
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| Posted: December 19 2009 at 10:02 | IP Logged
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Is that a Serial or USB PLM?
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Lee G
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k2zs
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| Posted: December 19 2009 at 11:28 | IP Logged
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grif091 wrote:
| Is that a Serial or USB PLM? |
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This is a serial PLM
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Scott, K2ZS
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BeachBum
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| Posted: December 19 2009 at 11:32 | IP Logged
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Ditto
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grif091
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| Posted: December 19 2009 at 11:36 | IP Logged
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A Serial PLM on a true serial port seems to be the most reliable arrangement.
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BeachBum
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| Posted: December 19 2009 at 11:45 | IP Logged
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I have not notice any difference with reliability between “true” serial and USB to serial connection. I’ve run mine in both modes and have had excellent reliability. I’ve seen my failure in both modes and the frequency is about once every 6 months or so I’ll take a hit. Most of the time it will recover on its own if the queues don’t get too flooded.
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k2zs
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| Posted: December 20 2009 at 08:43 | IP Logged
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OK,
Purely by accident I was able to get my installation of PH2 to generate the error I saw the other day. It was a system message that said:
Get IM Info command failed for Insteon PLM K2ZS_PLM. Attempting to restart controller...
PH wouldn't do anything until I re-initialized. I see that you can set up a trigger that is based on system messages, Could I fire an email macro based on "System Message" and send the body of the system message? or will it do nothing because PH is locked up?
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Scott, K2ZS
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BeachBum
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| Posted: December 20 2009 at 09:53 | IP Logged
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Did that message appear at startup time or after PH had been running for awhile? The only time I have seen it was startup.
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k2zs
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| Posted: December 20 2009 at 10:49 | IP Logged
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It happened after a forced power down of the computer. I was doing something unrelated to PH and lost all mouse and keyboard control. I had to hold the power switch to power down the PC. When I restarted PH I got that system message.
I got that same type of message on another PH installation I maintain after I tried manually controlling a device. There had been about a 4 hour gap in activity in the event log which is unusual for this network.
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Scott, K2ZS
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BeachBum
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| Posted: December 20 2009 at 10:59 | IP Logged
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The startup problem is when the PLM is not talking to PH. There seems to be a 10 second freeze then a retry in which if you are quick you can get in to disable the controller. When I switch systems to use a different controller, PLC vs PLM, is when I get it.
That 4 hour gap is probable what I have seen. I wish I could duplicate the failure so I could control the type of trace. When it occurs you can’t start a trace.
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Topic: System error notifications
