Can't get mcsxap1wire.exe (.NET ver 2.3) working

[Steve Q]

Michael,

I have been running xapmcs1wire 3.0.1.8 for over a month now. During that time it has stopped 8 times. I have all the debug logs. I'm pretty sure the stoppage is related to problems with my local network. And I am certain the last four stoppages occurred at the same time my wireless router "froze up" when I was accessing the network. 2 of those times I had to reset the router (turn it OFF-ON) to "unlock" it. The other times, the router seemed to recover by itself. But in all cases, I had to restart xapmcs1wire.exe and sometimes Homeseer (2.4.0.6) in order to get Homeseer to respond to my 1 wire devices interfaced via xapmcs.

I am not sure why my router (Linksys WRT45GS) is locking up. Nor am I sure if it is the cause or the result of the xap issue? But I think this is an important clue.

Note: All other Homseer activities continue to work including my 1 wire devices connected to the Midon 1WireSwitch and the TEMP08. Only xapmcs1Wire devices are affected.

I know that mcsxap1wire is always listening for messages on the LAN. Perhaps this is the source of the "deafness" issue. Is there any way to limit the communication of xapmcs1wire to the Homeseer computer?

Steve Q

[Michael McSharry]

I would use wireshark to see what is happening on the LAN at the Homeseer computer when your router locks up. If you truely have a network issue then the speaker client and the internet would also be non responsive. The operation of the Temp08 simply means that the serial port continues to be serviced by whatever software is connected to the serial port.

The LAN UDP protocol for xAP is a broadcast protocol so all NICs on the LAN will hear the messages. The operating system will deliver them to the connected application software. The application software has the abilty to filter. The xAP protocol allows a transmitting node to specify a target address so applications that listen to xAP and do not resolve to the transmitted target will ignore the contents of the message. Target addresses are used when commanding outputs, but xapmcs1Wire/mcsXap do not use target addresses for telemetry data.

Another option that is available is to use the VB6 rather than the .NET version of xapmcs1wire. Since it is a little older it does not have some of the later features requested. I do not recall any reports of the problems you are having now with the older version of xapmcs1wire.

[Steve Q]

Michael,

Thanks for the tip about using wireshark.

I am switching back to mcsxap1wire ver 2.11.0.3 This version was working great for me when I was using Homeseer version 2.2.0.66.
I will let you know in a few weeks if is is working as well with Homeseer version 2.4.0.6

Steve Q

[Steve Q]

I have switched back to xapmcs1wire ver 2.11.0.3 with Homeseer plugin mcsxap ver 2.3.1.0 I had to totally uninstall all of the 1-wire drivers from my Homeseer computer; then reinstall the version 4.00 1 wire drivers.

So far everything is working fine. I also went back to my previous (faster) polling intervals. Version 2.11.0.3 is responding much faster than version 3.0.1.7

Steve Q

[Michael McSharry]

It is a hassle with the 1-wire drivers and MS JVM, but I'm glad you have something that is working for you.

Adding a layer of managed code and running multiple threads does come at a cost. The benchmarks I ran on HS1 vs HS2 for handling sockets and ini files also showed a significant slowdown between HS1 and HS2. The .NET managed code does provide the developer greater insight into error trace so as systems become complex there is reasonable information to understand and debug. For small applications the overhead can be a significant portion of the total execution time.

[Steve Q]

I have switched back to xapmcs1wire ver 2.11.0.3 with Homeseer plugin mcsxap ver 2.3.1.0 I had to totally uninstall all of the 1-wire drivers from my Homeseer computer; then reinstall the version 4.00 1 wire drivers.

So far everything is working fine. I also went back to my previous (faster) polling intervals. Version 2.11.0.3 is responding much faster than version 3.0.1.7

Steve Q

Just an update. I have been running for 23 days (Homeseer up-time) without any xAP errors/issues. My setup is now working wonderfully! It is really great! I have not had any network issues.

I restarted Homeseer today to allow some windows updates.

Steve Q