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dhoward
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Posted: December 17 2014 at 20:40 \| IP Logged

All,

PowerHome version 2.1.5b is now available for download here: http://www.power-home.com/download/ph215bsetup.exe

See the second post for the changelog.

If you are upgrading from 2.1.5 or 2.1.5a, then no need to uninstall, just rename your PowerHome directory and then install fresh. Copy over your database and pwrhome.ini files (as well as any others) and you should be good to go.

If you are upgrading from a version prior to 2.1.5, see the more detailed upgrade instructions in the 2.1.5 post.

MD5 for the 2.1.5b download is: c69e59e1f83a2649714ad76f0dbaeabd

Dave.

dhoward
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Posted: December 17 2014 at 20:41 \| IP Logged

Changes for 2.1.5b:

Fixed major bug with PowerHome execution queue that resulted in random errors manifesting as queued
actions never being executed and disappearing, actions being executed multiple times when they were only submitted once, and actions being executed with the wrong parameters and variables (such as a formula trying to be executed as a macro). This fix should take care of all known execution queue problems.

Added new ini parameter priority under section [Device Status] allowing user to select the priority that device status actions are queued at.

Added new ini parameter priority under section [Control Center] allowing user to select the priority that control center actions are queue at.

Modified the Remove Device Status program to make use of the new Device Status priority setting.

Webserver processing modified to respect new control center and device status priorities. Also modified internal processing so there is a better chance that the change in status will be reflected when next page is loaded.

Modified webserver device status page to remove unnecessary form data for devices which are display only.

Modifed the webserver device status screen to allow for specifying the desired columns and order. Added new INI parameter DSCOLUMNS under the [WebServer] section to store this setting. The current allowed columns are numbered 1 thru 7 and are: Control, Status, Device Name, Location, Type, ID, Last Changed. The default is blank which is equivalent to 1,2,3,4,5,6,7

Added internal variables to webserver to track total requests, bad logins, trusted logins, etc. Also added the ability to programmatically enable and disable the webserver. Access these new variables and functions using the new ph_system function. See the help file for more details.

Added new DEVICECONTROL command to socketserver. Made this command use the new device status priority setting. Also modified the CCACTION command so that it uses the new control center button priority setting.

Added INI setting to store the status bar height for the PowerHome Multi-Editor.

Added code to prevent a critical error that could occur while using menu options in the PowerHome Multi-Editor.

Modified ph_webds function to allow for specifiying the device status columns and desired order for the web based Device Status screen.

Added new ini parameter reinitmethod under the [System] section allowing user to select the method used to reinitialize PowerHome. Setting parameter to 0 will use the current method where a portion of PowerHome stays active. Setting parameter to 1 will cause PowerHome to fully shutdown and then restart itself. The default is 1.

Modified PowerHome Status screen to allow for the hiding of titles and resize borders to maximize screen space. Modified some of the windows for a better fit. Also modified so that window size/position is saved automatically upon exiting. Minor changes to some screens.

Fixed bug in URLScraper plugin where a overflow runtime error 6 can occur with certain frequencies.

Created new URLScraper1 plugin that uses a raw socket vs an HTTP control in the URLScraper plugin. Solves obscure problems with certain websites that refuse to work with the HTTP control. URLScraper is still the preferred plugin to use since it supports SSL.

Added small mod to the load plugin routine to trim any leading/trailing spaces for the launch data string. If the launch data has an extraneous leading or trailing space then the plugin will not load properly and return -2.

Documented the SALOGDIR environment variable for the ph_backupdb function.

Modified w_msgbox window so that if oversized, it will fit on the screen and add a vertical scrollbar.

Fixed timeout issue associated with ph_getitcurl function.

Modified PowerHome Explorer macro detail window to allow for comments field to fit on screen. Currently, the formula field resizes to fill the screen pushing the comments field off to the right. The comments field size is not taken into account when doing a window resize. Also added a button to show/hide comments.

Modified PowerHome Explorer window title to reflect the actual screen type currently active. This has the benefit of being able to distinguish between multiple open Explorer windows under the open window list in the "Windows" menu option.

Rewrote the PowerHome Virtual serial port plugin to no longer be an activex exe. New version has gone back to being a standard OCX and previous issues have been fixed.

Corrected issue in Global Cache reconnect code. Critical error should no longer appear.

Added new Elk controller command to perform a full refresh of all Elk devices (also fires device change triggers as necessary if requested). New Elk controller command 1000. parm1 = 0 retrieves all. parm1 = 1 thru 7 retrieves individual sections. parm2 = 0 will fire triggers, parm2 > 0 will not fire triggers. See help file for more info.

Rewrote eventlog viewer to correct all known issues introduced with version 2.1.5. Viewer is still a multi-threaded viewer.

Completely rewrote Device Status screen update mechanism. This fixes an issue where the Device Status screen would require manually closing and reopening in order for changes made via Insteon group or group cleanup commands (and others) to appear. Changes now all appear in realtime.

Corrected reported errors concerning Timedevents. Rewrote the entire timedevents section. You can no longer create a timed event in the past (they will always have logic applied to bring them in the future). Also, when executing past due events, the past due event will ONLY be executed once and the reftime/starttime brought to the next logical event in the future.

Updated Insteon thermostat code to add support for the new extended insteon discrete get cool setpoint and get heat setpoint commands of the 2441 thermostat. Also added extended command support for older thermostats as well.

Added support for the 1-wire DS18B20 devices (family code 0x28) to the 1-wire controller.

Added the ability to have the formula builder popup window (the window that opens when double-clicking the formula field within macrodetail and other screens) resizeable. The current size will be stored when the window is closed and reopened at that size. The statusbar height is also saved and restored.

Added ability to Insteon Explorer Links screen so that non-standard Local Ramprates can be entered (0 thru 255) instead of just the dropdown values of 0 thru 31. Also added ability to enter a value in seconds and have it converted to the closest ramprate. To enter a value in seconds follow the value with a lowercase "s". Entering in "20s" would result in the value being changed to the closest ramprate to 20 seconds.

Added code to highlight when a critical error has occurred and that PowerHome must be restarted.

Added the x, y, height, and width info of a selected object to the Control Center design properties window.

Added Copy/Paste capability to the Control Center Objects screen in PowerHome Explorer (same mechanism as used for macro detail). Use control and shift click to highlight rows and then right click and choose desired action from popup menu.

New Plugins:
URLScraper1

New Functions:
ph_datetime,ph_system

Changed Functions:
ph_webds

Removed Functions:
ph_insteonprodlistimport

PWRHOME.INI Changes:
[WSH Editor]
statusheight=348

[WebServer]
DSCOLUMNS=

[System]
reinitmethod=1

[Device Status]
priority=1

[Control Center]
priority=1

[PowerHome Status]
titles=no

[FormulaEditor]
width=2377
height=1448
statusheight=348

Database Changes:
None

gg102
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Posted: December 18 2014 at 23:01 \| IP Logged

Dave,

Thank you for all your work. We all very much appreciate all your efforts.

I did the upgrade/install today and ran into a few rough spots. Only #4 hurts.

1. (This has probably been in PH for a long time) If, in a macro, you select message box, and DO NOT select TTS/No TTS and/or NO "ok/ok-cancel...." you'll get a message box that won't go away. You need to re-init to get collapse it. Perhaps the editor should test for this condition.

2. I do not fully understand how to use the new WEB status variables. Is there a trigger that happens when there is a WEB login/invalid login occurs that tells me to check those statuses? It would not be efficient to just poll these variables repeatedly. I'm looking for your guidance on how to make efficient use of these statuses.

3. Do you write a log entry for invalid remote WEB accesses as you do for valid remote logins?

4. The Remote-CC crashes, perhaps on a variable update. I checked all my coordinates, and none were out of range nor negative. This did not happen in ver. 2,1.5a.

5. The installation went very smoothly. After all was installed, I needed to spend time merging my ini files. I know for this version, you made structural changes to the ini files.

I and I'm sure other users have made changes in the filemon, remote-cc, or other ini files. If it's easy, maybe for the next installation, you could merge them or have an option to not overwrite them. The reason I bring this up is that they are in several places, and it's easy to miss one or two (as I did). Just an observation.

Again, thank you for all your efforts.

dhoward
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Posted: December 19 2014 at 10:06 \| IP Logged

gg,

Appreciate the feedback

.

1. Wasnt aware of this but will definitely work on it. Should be a relatively easy editor fix to prevent the situation.

2 and 3. The new web variables are in preparation for a trigger and eventlog entry. I wasnt able to add them in this release because it would require a database upgrade which would have pushed the release beyond Christmas. As a temporary measure, polling would be the only option. I'll get the trigger and eventlog added to the next version (2.1.6) along with the requisite database upgrade shortly after the new year.

4. This is troubling. I checked the code and you are right. The error is in response to a global variable update. However, I cant see why it would happen. The RemoteCC is unchanged for version 2.1.5b as well as the UDP broadcast section of PowerHome. I use the remote CC in my own setup with Global variable updates and have not experienced an issue.

Is it possible to review the eventlog to see what GV is causing the problem? Does it happen every GV update or just occasionally?

The odd thing is that the error is an invalid row or column in the datawindow. The row should be good because line 82 references the same row without error. The column should be good (key_x) because its hardcoded into the datawindow and is used by every other object on the CC. Since its definitely a GV update causing the problem, any other info surrounding this that you can provide will help me get this solved quickly.

5. You shouldnt need to merge your ini files (that I can think of). The main pwrhome.ini file of course changed but those additions/modifications are handled automatically the first time PowerHome is run after copying your old pwrhome.ini file over the new version. The other ini files should just be copied over from your renamed directory. Let me know if this was not the case for you.

Thanks,

Dave.

smarty
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Posted: December 19 2014 at 13:08 \| IP Logged

Just upgraded to 2.1.5.b

Seemed to go pretty well.

I did notice that upon PH startup, my initial PH window was not full screen and the PH Explorer was only part "windowed" (I like to have it open and "full screened").

So, I started to change a few settings in the pwrhome.ini file and ended up with this error (see image file).

Any ideas on what to change in the .ini file for full screen Powerhome and full screen PH explorer?

I have also attached my .ini file (changed it to a .txt file and scrubbed for security).

Thanks in advance.2014-12-19_130724_pwrhome.txt

Edited by smarty - December 19 2014 at 13:10

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GadgetGuy
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Posted: December 19 2014 at 13:18 \| IP Logged

Incredible KUDO's to you Mr. Howard.

This has to be the best PH release ever put out.

I don't think it took me 15 minutes to upgrade from 2.1.5a.

The transition went off without a hitch, and I was up and running with the latest and greatest in no time at all.

I think everyone will really appreciate the many positive changes and great reliability improvements.

For years I have had bazar happenings with macros running multiple times in a row (although only called once) and missed Triggers time after time, and bogus claimed errors on code that worked flawlessly all the rest of the time. Every morning I checked the Event Log and Filter for "type=27" (System Errors) and always found at least 1/2 dozen of them. This morning THERE WAS NOT A SINGLE ERROR LOGGED!!!!! YES!!!! Good Job.

I love the improved Window Resizing, and especially the more interactive window contents refreshing. It sure makes the user experience much more satisfying.

Thank you for all your hard work. Tis a nice Holiday Present.

I have found a small potential bug.

When I started 2.1.5b up from my pwrhome.db it did not seem to incorporate some of the settings.

I discovered the following were not set as I last had them set...

In Web Setup "Enable Web Server" was unchecked (I had it checked)
In Setup Logs, everything was checked (I had a number of items unchecked)

Other than these small things, my fairly broad utilization of almost every aspect of PH has yet to find any other issues.

What I'm really looking forward to discovering is that for several years the computer hosting PH (and nothing else) crashes about 3-4 times a year, and is only recoverable with a full reset and restart. I have replaced the motherboard and several months ago the disk drive, but have still had several of these lockups. I have always been suspicious of PH as the root cause (don't know how it got out of its system sandbox though) because these crashes seemed to always occur during times of intense Macro activity where there were lots of WAIT statements to allow task switching. I am hopeful that your major bug discovery re: Macro paging might just have killed this problem for good.

Thanks again for the fantastic release.

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dhoward
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Posted: December 19 2014 at 13:27 \| IP Logged

Steve,

Not sure what could have caused that error. I'll take your INI file though and see if I can reproduce.

You shouldnt have to edit your INI file directly though for these settings. From within PowerHome, just open the windows and position/size and set state the way you like. When you close PowerHome, it will automatically update the INI so that at next launch the windows will open in their previous state. Note: you can only have PowerHome remember to open a single window on startup. If you want to have multiple windows open on startup, you can use the ph_openphwin function in the startup trigger.

Just to get you going, I would copy over your pwrhome.ini file from your renamed directory and launch PowerHome. It should startup without issue. Then just set the windows the way you like within PowerHome, close PowerHome, and reopen and see if they remember the state or not.

I'll load up your INI file and see if I can pinpoint and fix the error to prevent it from happening in the future.

Dave.

dhoward
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Posted: December 19 2014 at 13:34 \| IP Logged

Ken,

Not sure why your web server and event log settings were changed (those settings are actually stored in the pwrhome.ini file and not the database file).

Would it be possible to verify those settings are as they should be in your renamed directory copy of pwrhome.ini? If everything looks good there, can you try shutting down PowerHome, renaming your c:\powerhome\pwrhome.ini file, copying over your copy in the renamed directory with the settings intact, and then relaunching PowerHome. I'd like to see if the problem is reproducible.

Thanks,

Dave.

BeachBum
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Posted: December 19 2014 at 16:00 \| IP Logged

I want to add my Christmas Tree Lighting also. Was playing with linking after I was in setup. I'm trying to install the Dongle and have no idea what to call it. So it may be self induced but should not light up the screen. Love this new look...

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smarty
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Posted: December 19 2014 at 16:55 \| IP Logged

dhoward wrote:

I did copy over the prior .ini file ...I have not seen the error again (can't reproduce it). After sizing the PH windows and then closing/exiting PH, upon the restart, the PH windows did not come back as desired.

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GadgetGuy
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Posted: December 19 2014 at 18:36 \| IP Logged

Quote:

Dave said -"Not sure why your web server and event log settings were changed (those settings are actually stored in the pwrhome.ini file and not the database file). "

Dave-

Probably my bad. I copied what seemed like a million files from my old 2.1.5a installation to the new install, BUT I didn't copy the .ini file.

I looked quickly at the new .ini and didn't seem to spot anything relevant, and didn't want to copy mine in, in case you had changed something that needed to be there for 2. 1.5b.

The pwrhome.215b.ini has the things, I mentioned, set accordingly. The .ini I imported, "pwrhome.ini," is correct in its contents. I assume it is the later that PH is looking at. It must have initially started up looking at the "pwrhome.215b.ini" file instead? I may have copied my file over afterward and things didn't get updated, or god knows what. :-{

Anyway it starts up OK now every time so I think my concern may have been a false alarm.

BTW- The Change Log indicates a number of windowing enhancements. In the bottom pane of the PowerHome Status window I have always wished I had more Event Log records, especially since the above date/time/macroID pane is normally almost empty.

Could you post a brief definition of the .ini file parameter definitions that would allow us to change things?

I haven't been very successful in figuring out what ss/ti/eg/wm/el all mean in order to adjust parameter values.

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gg102
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Posted: December 19 2014 at 19:48 \| IP Logged

Dave,

I might have some information about the remote-cc crashing. I have been trying to narrow down anything that could identify anything. I'd chase something, and that would go nowhere, then I'd chase something else and that would go nowhere. Then all of a sudden I saw this on the remote-cc screen......(partial clip attached)

The motion counts are numbers,
and the Vizio TV is set to only "on" or off".

it should be:

Just after I saw this, the remote-cc crashed. I ran the system again, and was able to re-capture this. When I re-captured it, I immediately looked up the actual global vars, and they were correct. The remote-CC had the wrong information. The CC has the correct information!

Now, the data "1 days" is the first part of ph_windowsuptime()". So, I looked at the macro that updates my global var of {stat_win_running}. I set the global var {stat_win_runing} to mid(ph_windowsuptime(),1,(pos(ph_windowsuptime(),"sec"-4)). The purpose of this is to drop the "seconds".

So, I wrote only this one line in a test macro, and when I run this, it changes only the DISPLAY on the remote-cc global var {stat_vizio_tv2} from "on" to "1 days" while the actual global var remains "on".

The "East side motion" global var {motion_east} gets changed when I run:
set global var {motion_east} to "mid(ph_powerhomeuptime(),1,(pos(ph_powerhomeuptime(),"sec") -4)). Again, to drop the "seconds".

This is now repeatable, and I have no idea of why it's happening.

Looks like maybe some kind of memory overrun, or bad programming on my part. This might be related, might not.

I'm going to keep looking, but this is what I've found so far.

renard
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Posted: December 19 2014 at 20:28 \| IP Logged

Dave,

I generated another instance of BeachBum's critical error, exactly same message but with a different fact pattern. Conversion to 2.15b was uneventful. After an hour or so a decided to address a previously identified linking problem with a Insteon-mediated 4-way switch linking structure. Looking at the links for the switch controlling the actual circuit a noticed some '[ID Not Found]' lines in the links. I have some in these my large database for some reason and they have never seemed to be a problem but I decided to remove them by dragging them to the the left. 2.15b immediately crashed with the error message noted above. I repeated the process with a fresh copy of the program and database with the identical result.

I went back to the 2.15a DB and program and tried to remove the [ID Not Found] lines and 2.15a removed them with no difficulty. I went through the nearly 100 Insteon devices in my DB and removed every instance of [ID Not Found] and switched to 2.15b and it has been running without incident.

As the DB is version compatible, I suggest users retain 2.15a for at least this type of database maintenance until this problem is figured out. Otherwise 2.15b is terrific. PH just gets better and better.

Thanks Dave.

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dhoward
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Posted: December 19 2014 at 20:50 \| IP Logged

Steve,

Ive tried to reproduce your critical error and have been unable to. Ive been using the INI file you attached with only a slight change to the database location and cannot reproduce the critical.

However, I can reproduce the PH Explorer window not opening/staying at maximized. This is an error that got introduced as a result of a user requested mod to have the title of the window reflect the actual screen that is opened in the PH Explorer. It won't happen with any of the other windows, just the PH Explorer. It took me awhile to come up with a fix but I have it working now. There is an annoying flicker as you change detail windows within the Explorer and unfortunately, I cant get rid of it. The flicker is really only evident in the maximized mode but the desired operation of opening maximized (and staying that way) is now working.

It'll be out in 2.1.5c (a bug fix to be released in the next few days).

Dave.

dhoward
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Posted: December 19 2014 at 20:53 \| IP Logged

Pete,

You've encountered a major bug I introduced in this version. It looks like the link screen will be down until I release 2.1.5c in a few days.

Ive already located the issue and corrected it.

Appreciate the testing.

Dave.

dhoward
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Posted: December 19 2014 at 21:10 \| IP Logged

Ken,

On a fresh install of 2.1.5b, you would have had both a pwrhome.ini and a pwrhome.215b.ini which would be identical to each other. When you copy over your old pwrhome.ini and overwrite the new pwrhome.ini, you'll of course keep your settings but lose any new changes. However, upon first launching PowerHome, it checks the INI file for any missing settings and adds them as needed so in effect you'll get the same thing as the original pwrhome.ini but with all your old settings. PowerHome will never look at the pwrhome.215b.ini and its merely there for those who want to use it to copy over pwrhome.ini and start fresh at the default.

Concerning the PowerHome Status window and settings within the pwrhome.ini file...the only setting that you would need to manually set would be the EVENTLOGROWS under the [PowerHome Status] section. This controls how many rows will show in the realtime eventlog.

The other settings concerning the Status window would all be set from within the PowerHome Status window. With the Status window open, double-click on the display area of any of the mini status windows and this will toggle the titles being displayed or not. With titles displayed, you can drag and rearrange the mini windows or resize them as you like. Once you're happy with your layout, you can right click and save the settings, restore settings if you're unhappy with changes you made, or use default settings. When you close the window, the current settings will also be saved and the window will reopen with the same settings that it was closed with.

What I like to do is turn on titles, resize all my windows to display just the data I'd like to see with titles off and then turn the titles off for maximum screen real estate.

Dave.

dhoward
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Posted: December 19 2014 at 21:13 \| IP Logged

Terry,

Appreciate the feedback. Definitely a bug that I introduced and is now fixed. We'll see 2.1.5c early next week with the fix.

Dave.

dhoward
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Posted: December 19 2014 at 21:20 \| IP Logged

gg,

Your issues are definitely a cause for concern. Im wondering if it would be too difficult to run your same test scenario in your old version 2.1.5a. If you upgraded according to the upgrade info, it should be fairly easy either by renaming your 2.1.5a directory back to c:\powerhome or by editing the database section of 2.1.5a pwrhome.ini file. Im hoping the issue will be in 2.1.5a because nothing really changed CC-wise between the two versions.

One thing that could cause an issue would be if you changed the CC definition without loading the remotecc but I doubt that has happened.

I'll try to reproduce on this end but if I cant, I may ask you to export that CC screen and test macro so I can reproduce on this end.

Thanks,

Dave.

dhoward
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Posted: December 19 2014 at 21:38 \| IP Logged

Ken,

Missed part of your question. Even though you shouldnt need to manually edit them the parameters you listed are defined below:

ss = System Status
ti = Time Info
eq = Execution Queue
wm = Waiting Macros
el = Event Log

Dave.

dhoward
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Posted: December 19 2014 at 21:58 \| IP Logged

gg,

Started looking at your error with the Message Box macro command.

Did some digging and the PH Explorer doesnt have any checking on ANY of its commands and instead either throws an error at runtime (such as the IR command fields being left blank) or just silently bypasses them (macro, x10, jump, etc). Due to the way the Explorer is constructed, it would be tricky to catch all of these types of errors at edit time so I would prefer to handle the message box problem at runtime as well.

I can either make a popup message like the blank IR command or make it the same as other commands where nothing at all will happen. Just wondering if you had a preference.

Thanks,

Dave.

Edited by dhoward - December 19 2014 at 22:18

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