No joy with HS2 & DS9490 ?

[steve-l]

Hi,

After getting over the first hurdle of "no trial period" with HS2.1972 (They sent me a 30 day code) - I find I'm now falling at the second

I have a DS9490 USB 1-wire interface and it works just fine with the Java based "one wire viewer" app... but every time I launch the MSCTemperature Config from the "Interfaces" page it says "1-Wire drivers need to be downloaded and installed to support DS9x9x etc..." I have tried letting it install again, letting it repair, uninstalling and removing the USB interface & drivers and then letting it install afresh but still it wants to install them every time.

The instructions seem to indicate that once the port is detected MCSTemp will fill in the values for my USB 1-Wire interface? But it doesn't do that for me, and if I manually type in the port number, "1" in my case and click update I get this error:

InitINIVariables Error on line 6770 ActiveX component can't create object

I have also tried re-installing MSCTemp from the installer but that didn't help either?

Would appreciate any suggestions to get this up and running!

Cheers,

Steve

[Michael McSharry]

The problem is usually that the Microsoft Java Virtual Machine is not installed on your PC because you are running a recent XP. Microsoft had to remove it due to antitrust ruling and the drivers do not work under the Sun Java VM. The iButton viewer does not use the COM interface that uses the MS JVM. The solution is to search the web for Microsoft's JVM. You will not find it as microsoft.com, but it is around at other locations.

[steve-l]

Nearly there!

The problem is usually that the Microsoft Java Virtual Machine is not installed on your PC because you are running a recent XP. Microsoft had to remove it due to antitrust ruling and the drivers do not work under the Sun Java VM. The iButton viewer does not use the COM interface that uses the MS JVM. The solution is to search the web for Microsoft's JVM. You will not find it as microsoft.com, but it is around at other locations.

Hi,

Thanks! That advice was spot-on, although I'm running 2003 Server. I thought Sun Java worked with everything, but obviously not! After a spot of googling I found and installed the MS JVM and all is well

I do have a another slight problem... My AAG weather station, humidity and several temp sensors are all working fine. However I have an atmospheric pressure sensor that displays as 3 voltage devices and a temperature device??? No matter what I try I cannot get HS/MCS to show pressure? This is the sensor if it helps: http://www.aagelectronica.com/aag/en-us/p_21.html.

Thanks,

Steve

[Michael McSharry]

You are the first to use this with mcsTemperature and the DS9097/DS9490 interface. There are a couple of barometer designs using the DS2438. If you can do the leg work and find where the AAG design is documented and the algorithm that converts one or more of the analog channels to an air pressure reading then I will incorporate it. I believe MidonDesign does support a barometer for the Temp08, but I do not know which circuit. It has been there for quite awhile and may have predated the AAG unit.

[steve-l]

You are the first to use this with mcsTemperature and the DS9097/DS9490 interface. There are a couple of barometer designs using the DS2438. If you can do the leg work and find where the AAG design is documented and the algorithm that converts one or more of the analog channels to an air pressure reading then I will incorporate it. I believe MidonDesign does support a barometer for the Temp08, but I do not know which circuit. It has been there for quite awhile and may have predated the AAG unit.

Well that explains that then! OK, I will see what info I can find out, although I'm no electronics expert or programmer but will do my best!

Hope you don't mind but I have encountered another couple of problems which I would appreciate some assistance with if possible.

Firstly the temperature.asp page. It is only displaying one of my devices (the first one I setup). There seems to be nowhere to "add in" my other devices. Selecting "edit" from the group menu does nothing. I cannot find anywhere in the main setup area to add the devices either?

Secondly I am trying to setup a "thermostat" type of event that will maintain a temp of between say 15 and 16 degrees C by switching a heater on and off accordingly. The web interface for doing this is a bit confusing - especially the 6 un-named check-boxes at the end of the page? Anyway, I think I have done it correctly - when I first manually triggered the event - the heater was already on and the greenhouse was about 20 degrees - it turned the heater off which is OK, but this wasn't recorded in the HS log - is that correct?

I'm also a bit concerned at this error it now throws up in my log every so often:

"GetPluginTriggers EventClass on line 340 Subscript out of range".

This is a summary of the event that I have cut'n'pasted:

Turn ON G3: Greenhouse Fan Heater Night\1: Greenhouse Thermometer is Within 20% of 15, Turn OFF G3: Greenhouse Fan Heater Night\1: Greenhouse Thermometer is Above 16

Sorry for all the questions, but I'm definetely getting there now

Cheers,

Steve

[Michael McSharry]

There are two types of "add" operations. One is to add a device for recording to the database and the other is the add a device for display on a chart. If you are trying to add to a chart then create a group other than "Default" and add by selecting the two checkboxes for any sensor that shows in the list. The "Default" group has some legacy problems.

I've used the GUI interface rather than the Web one so I would not notice any missing labels. I'm assuming that you are running HS2 that has only the web interface for events. A setup with a 15 +/- 20% tolerance on the low side overlaps the > 16 on the high side. You likely want < 15 on the low parameter.

Is your Device Action mode to run until manually turned off? What do you do to trigger to initiate the "thermostat"?

The Device Action to emulate a thermostat does do its actions without logging. I think that Homeseer updates the DeviceLastChange, but you see that it is not doing this then let me know and I will add a forced update of the time when the control action is taken.

The error message is not expected. It comes from a plugin trigger property from the Homeseer Event. I put a check prior to the error occurs so the contents of this property is shown in the log rather than the error message. It does not fix anything, but it will tell us what Homeseer has stored. This is posted as V4.37.12.

[steve-l]

There are two types of "add" operations. One is to add a device for recording to the database and the other is the add a device for display on a chart. If you are trying to add to a chart then create a group other than "Default" and add by selecting the two checkboxes for any sensor that shows in the list. The "Default" group has some legacy problems.

Without wishing to appear stupid, exactly where do I create a new group? I have scoured the GUI setup and cannot find anything there. If you mean on the asp page itself then as I mentioned, when I select "edit" from the group drop down menu absolutely nothing happens...

I've used the GUI interface rather than the Web one so I would not notice any missing labels. I'm assuming that you are running HS2 that has only the web interface for events.

Yes, HS2 only allows you to use web interface - if you take a look, you'll see what I mean - the way it appears makes very little sense - nothing like the GUI in the documentation.

A setup with a 15 +/- 20% tolerance on the low side overlaps the > 16 on the high side. You likely want < 15 on the low parameter. Is your Device Action mode to run until manually turned off? What do you do to trigger to initiate the "thermostat"?.

Well my setup didn't work for whatever reason last night - the temperature fell to 12 degrees. I will change the parameters to <15 LL >16 UL and see if that helps.

As for triggering, I already have an event that is scheduled to turn the heater on an hour after sunset, so I had the thermostat event set to trigger on receiving that same X10 command. Is that the wrong way to do it? I basically need it to run from an hour after sunset until sunrise when I will have a seperate thermostat setup (eventually!) to control daytime temp.

The Device Action to emulate a thermostat does do its actions without logging. I think that Homeseer updates the DeviceLastChange, but you see that it is not doing this then let me know and I will add a forced update of the time when the control action is taken.

As it didn't seem to work last night that is hard to tell, will try again tonight.

The error message is not expected. It comes from a plugin trigger property from the Homeseer Event. I put a check prior to the error occurs so the contents of this property is shown in the log rather than the error message. It does not fix anything, but it will tell us what Homeseer has stored. This is posted as V4.37.12.

I have installed the new version thank you. It has already brought to light 2 things:

1) I have the same problem as someone else mentioned in another thread - when I shut down HS, MCSTemp remains running and has to be manually ended.

2) After the MCSTemp plugin initialised it threw up the following error:

<TABLE cellSpacing=2 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=LOGDateTime1 noWrap align=left>19/09/2005 09:57:52 </TD><TD class=LOGType1 align=left colSpan=3>Info </TD><TD class=LOGEntry1 align=left colSpan=8>Interface mcsTemperature is running as a trial</TD></TR><TR><TD class=LOGDateTime0 noWrap align=left>19/09/2005 09:57:52 </TD><TD class=LOGType0 align=left colSpan=3>Info </TD><TD class=LOGEntry0 align=left colSpan=8>Initializing Plug-in: mcsTemperature</TD></TR><TR><TD class=LOGDateTime1 noWrap align=left>19/09/2005 09:57:54 </TD><TD class=LOGType1 align=left colSpan=3>mcsTemperature </TD><TD class=LOGEntry1 align=left colSpan=8>Version 4.37.12 Registered with Homeseer</TD></TR><TR><TD class=LOGDateTime0 noWrap align=left>19/09/2005 09:57:56 </TD><TD class=LOGType0 align=left colSpan=3>COM Plugin </TD><TD class=LOGEntry0 align=left colSpan=8>Calling InitIO</TD></TR><TR><TD class=LOGDateTime1 noWrap align=left>19/09/2005 09:58:09 </TD><TD class=LOGType1 align=left colSpan=3>mcsTemperature</TD><TD class=LOGEntry1 align=left colSpan=8>Ill-formed trigger for Night Thermostat=</TD></TR><TR><TD class=LOGDateTime0 noWrap align=left>19/09/2005 09:58:10 </TD><TD class=LOGType0 align=left colSpan=3>mcsTemperature </TD><TD class=LOGEntry0 align=left colSpan=8>Last temperature sample recorded at 19/09/2005 09:49:02</TD></TR><TR><TD class=LOGDateTime1 noWrap align=left>19/09/2005 09:58:10 </TD><TD class=LOGType1 align=left colSpan=3>Info </TD><TD class=LOGEntry1 align=left colSpan=8>Done initializing plug-in mcsTemperature</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>


Thanks for your patience!

Cheers,

Steve

[Michael McSharry]

The Trend Group is the area where chart definitions are made. It is one of the menu selections available under mcsTemperature where General Setup, I/O Stream, and Help are also available.

I fired up HS2 / 1972 and do see what you mean by the event setup is very hard to understand from a browser view. There are also some extra boxes at the end. Good thing there is a manual with the GUI view so one can connect the lines between the dots.

The way you are trying to use the emulated thermostat is just like it was designed to be used. I posted a test setup I just did for reference. B1 is the heater and A1 is the temperature sensor in this example. Note that I have setup a 10 degree band with set points of 10 and 20. You are using a 1 degree band. 1 degree may be a little tight and result in more cycles than is optimal. Unless you have a need for very steady temperature I would suggest opening up the band a few degrees. It does not matter to the software, but the power plant may not be efficient if cycled too fast.

Most importantly note that the control continues until B1 is turned off or on by another script of manual action. When your daytime control first changes B1 then mcsTemperature will no longer be in control of B1 until the trigger event (sunset-based in your case) is activated.

I did look at the DeviceLastChange and it does change when the controlled device changes between ON and OFF.

The error message shows that your Night Thermostat event is correctly associated with mcsTemperature, but the pi_trigger property that describes the event is blank. This looks like some type of corruption. I would suggest deleting it, restarting to confirm that the problem goes away and then recreating it. In my test with HS1 and HS2 I did not see this error.

I also tried to see the shutdown problem. I shutdown with the simulated thermostat active and not active and never had the problem of HS shutdown without mcsTemperature following suit. I did have a problem one time where HS2 hung during shutdown with the last message in the log about mailboxes being cleared. When this happened the compatiblity and mcsTemperature processes were also active. I terminated these two, but HS2 continued to hang.

[steve-l]

The Trend Group is the area where chart definitions are made. It is one of the menu selections available under mcsTemperature where General Setup, I/O Stream, and Help are also available.

Ok, I could give myself a good slap when I finally realised that MCSTemp had installed its own menu into the HS2 "floating window thingy" - it is pretty useless with HS2 and I always keep it minimised... I had been using "config" from the HS2 setup/interfaces screen... which brings up the main tabbed MCSTemp GUI... anyway graphing troubles now a thing of the past!

I fired up HS2 / 1972 and do see what you mean by the event setup is very hard to understand from a browser view. There are also some extra boxes at the end. Good thing there is a manual with the GUI view so one can connect the lines between the dots.

The fields could do with better naming at least, it is really confusing trying to do it by trial and error... I mean there are 3 "Turn Device", 3 "On When", 3 "Off When" and then just when you think you have it sussed you get 6 "Is" boxes. Still no idea what the 6 check boxes are at the bottom!

The way you are trying to use the emulated thermostat is just like it was designed to be used. I posted a test setup I just did for reference. B1 is the heater and A1 is the temperature sensor in this example. Note that I have setup a 10 degree band with set points of 10 and 20. You are using a 1 degree band. 1 degree may be a little tight and result in more cycles than is optimal. Unless you have a need for very steady temperature I would suggest opening up the band a few degrees. It does not matter to the software, but the power plant may not be efficient if cycled too fast.

I've got it working now. It didn't seem to work by "X-10 command" so I added a "Run Event" action to the sunrise/sunset events to invoke the thermostat events...

Most importantly note that the control continues until B1 is turned off or on by another script of manual action. When your daytime control first changes B1 then mcsTemperature will no longer be in control of B1 until the trigger event (sunset-based in your case) is activated.

In my case I have 2 heaters, say H1 (1KW Day) and H2 (2KW Night) - When I turn off H1 and turn on H2/trigger the night thermostat, how do I know

I would say that would be the one thing I would love to have added to the plugin - maybe some kind of device whose state reflects whether the associated Temperature event is still running? If that isn't possible, maybe there is another way?

Without going into boring details, the wife keeps Mediterranean tortoises in the greenhouse and their temps need to be properly controlled - if the temp drops too low at night then... well at the very least I'm in trouble! It is very disconcerting to see that the heater status is "off" at night without some reassurance that the "thermostat" is still working and will kick in when the temp drops? Hope you understand what I'm waffling on about

I did look at the DeviceLastChange and it does change when the controlled device changes between ON and OFF.

Yes, I can confirm that too.

The error message shows that your Night Thermostat event is correctly associated with mcsTemperature, but the pi_trigger property that describes the event is blank. This looks like some type of corruption. I would suggest deleting it, restarting to confirm that the problem goes away and then recreating it. In my test with HS1 and HS2 I did not see this error.

That did fix it, thanks again!

I also tried to see the shutdown problem. I shutdown with the simulated thermostat active and not active and never had the problem of HS shutdown without mcsTemperature following suit. I did have a problem one time where HS2 hung during shutdown with the last message in the log about mailboxes being cleared. When this happened the compatiblity and mcsTemperature processes were also active. I terminated these two, but HS2 continued to hang.

It doesn't always do it, just most of the time, usually after it has been running for a few hours I guess.

Thanks for all your help, its really refreshing to find someone willing to support their end-users like this!

Cheers,

Steve

PS - where is this thread on the main board? I can only get to this by following the email links I've been sent...

[Michael McSharry]

I think you have a good idea about creating a device for a Temperature Action so the status can be observed. I'll give it a try and hope I dont run into any issues.

At the top of browser display when looking at the Homeseer Message Board there is an indentured path to get to this thread. If you can get to any of these points then you should be able to navigate the remainder of the way.

HomeSeer Message Board > 3rd Party Plug-Ins/Scripts > MCS Plug-Ins and Scripts > MCS Temperature > No joy with HS2 & DS9490 ?

[steve-l]

I think you have a good idea about creating a device for a Temperature Action so the status can be observed. I'll give it a try and hope I dont run into any issues.

Great look forward to that!

I do have one other tiny problem that has justed started occuring today - I'm getting these errors:

<TABLE cellSpacing=2 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=LOGDateTime0 noWrap align=left>23/09/2005 09:26:13 </TD><TD class=LOGType0 align=left colSpan=3>mcsTemperature </TD><TD class=LOGEntry0 align=left colSpan=8>ComputeWaterCount: on line 1100 Overflow</TD></TR><TR><TD class=LOGDateTime1 noWrap align=left>23/09/2005 09:34:54 </TD><TD class=LOGType1 align=left colSpan=3>mcsTemperature </TD><TD class=LOGEntry1 align=left colSpan=8>ComputeWaterCount: on line 1100 Overflow</TD></TR><TR><TD class=LOGDateTime0 noWrap align=left>23/09/2005 09:41:42 </TD><TD class=LOGType0 align=left colSpan=3>mcsTemperature </TD><TD class=LOGEntry0 align=left colSpan=8>ComputeWaterCount: on line 1100 Overflow</TD></TR><TR><TD class=LOGDateTime1 noWrap align=left>23/09/2005 09:44:20 </TD><TD class=LOGType1 align=left colSpan=3>mcsTemperature </TD><TD class=LOGEntry1 align=left colSpan=8>ComputeWaterCount: on line 1100 Overflow</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

I don't have a rain gauge but I do have a phantom water device that showed up when I first installed my weather station - the readings for it are into 5 figures and I'm guessing this is the cause - is there any way to disable this "device"?

At the top of browser display when looking at the Homeseer Message Board there is an indentured path to get to this thread. If you can get to any of these points then you should be able to navigate the remainder of the way.

HomeSeer Message Board > 3rd Party Plug-Ins/Scripts > MCS Plug-Ins and Scripts > MCS Temperature > No joy with HS2 & DS9490 ?

I can navigate my way through all the board no problem, but on this one today, as it was the other day, there are only two threads showing, your "Intro to MCSTemp"... and "Features & Problems..." what happended last time is that AFTER I made my post the thread showed up again, which I expect it to this time. Seems like if a day goes by without a post the thread gets swept away...

Just come back to edit my post - after posting this, the thread re-appeared again... bizarre...

Cheers,

Steve

[Michael McSharry]

The overflow is surprising since it is being stored into the hs.DeviceValue which is a Long (32 bit). I took care of it anyway in 4.38.1

I think all you need to do is make the DeviceCode on the Analog tab blank. Make the entire line blank to make certain that the device is removed.

I also added the Temperature DeviceAction Status device. It really is a good idea and was something that missed when I was using it.

At the lower portion the Message Board screen there is a filter to select how old of messages you want to view. It is probably defaulting to 1 day in your case and that is why messages seem to disappear.

[steve-l]

The overflow is surprising since it is being stored into the hs.DeviceValue which is a Long (32 bit). I took care of it anyway in 4.38.1

I think all you need to do is make the DeviceCode on the Analog tab blank. Make the entire line blank to make certain that the device is removed.

OK, installed the new version so will leave it be for now, but if it crops up again I'll try that.

I also added the Temperature DeviceAction Status device. It really is a good idea and was something that missed when I was using it.

At the lower portion the Message Board screen there is a filter to select how old of messages you want to view. It is probably defaulting to 1 day in your case and that is why messages seem to disappear.

Oh bugger, another gaff

Cheers,

Steve