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**enigmatheatre** · February 5, 2017, 06:54 AM

Can you email me your Sketch and a debug log and I will have a look for you.

Greig.

**billt** · February 5, 2017, 07:07 AM

That was quick!

I've attached the simplest test sketch.

Can't find the debug log, just gives404 Bad Request: /\Arduino\ArduinoDebug.txt

Attached Files

APIBoard3_enet_test.txt (7.1 KB, 6 views)

**enigmatheatre** · February 5, 2017, 07:31 AM

some questions:

Are the other boards API?
Are the other boards Ethernet?
Have you checked the Sketch Mac address?
Have you checked the Board IP in the Sketch?
Have you checked the Homeseer IP in the Sketch?
Have you checked the Port in the Sketch?

I would have checked this for you in the debug log but there is an old error that sometimes stops the debug being created in the older versions of the plugin.
I understand you do not want to break what is working but I would recomend going with the Beta if you get time to update all your boards as there are lots more features and it is more stable.

Greig.

**billt** · February 5, 2017, 08:20 AM

Thanks for the reply.

One of the other boards is normal, the other is API. They are both ethernet connected.

The MAC address, IP address, port and HS IP address in the skecth match those in the plugin. Just re-downloaded the firmware and tested to make sure, with no change.

Is it possible to revert to 1.0.0.36 if I install the beta version for testing purposes?

**enigmatheatre** · February 5, 2017, 09:08 AM

Yes you can go back. The new version will update your devices to add extra features so you would need to do a full Homeseer backup then restore it if you want to go back. This is very easy as you just need to copy the HS3 main folder and then replace it if required. I would recommend BLBackup to run daily backups if you do not do this at the moment.

Greig.

**billt** · February 6, 2017, 01:04 PM

I think I've found the problem, which, of course is nothing to do with the plugin! It looks as if it was a dodgy ethernet cable.

My excuse is that the cable had been in use for years connected to another device with no problems; in fact it's connected to it now and is working properly.

Unfortunately, having changed to version 1.0.131 of the plugin and having downloaded and recompiled the sketches for the 2 existing Arduino boards, there are a couple of problems with the normal board.

First it seems to have generated an enormous number of spurious devices, 32 OutputTime devices, 5 input devices and 12 output devices, none of which were specified on the board setup page. (This board is an Arduino Mega and I'm using 32 outputs.) Can I delete these devices, and will they stay deleted?

Another issue is that the device setup doesn't stick between restarts. I spent some time this afternoon inverting most of the devices, renaming some of the buttons and deleting all the spurious buttons from the output devices. Restarted HS and they've all reset to the default. That can't be right!

A possible explanation is that the board reconnected with the 1.0.0.36 firmware after the plugin was upgraded and maybe something was corrupted before I upgraded the board firmware to 1.0.131.

The only idea that I have is to delete the board and reconstruct it from scratch, but that is probably going to be a days work, which I really don't want to do.

**enigmatheatre** · February 6, 2017, 03:13 PM

Originally posted by billt View Post

I think I've found the problem, which, of course is nothing to do with the plugin! It looks as if it was a dodgy ethernet cable.

My excuse is that the cable had been in use for years connected to another device with no problems; in fact it's connected to it now and is working properly.

Unfortunately, having changed to version 1.0.131 of the plugin and having downloaded and recompiled the sketches for the 2 existing Arduino boards, there are a couple of problems with the normal board.

First it seems to have generated an enormous number of spurious devices, 32 OutputTime devices, 5 input devices and 12 output devices, none of which were specified on the board setup page. (This board is an Arduino Mega and I'm using 32 outputs.) Can I delete these devices, and will they stay deleted?

Another issue is that the device setup doesn't stick between restarts. I spent some time this afternoon inverting most of the devices, renaming some of the buttons and deleting all the spurious buttons from the output devices. Restarted HS and they've all reset to the default. That can't be right!

A possible explanation is that the board reconnected with the 1.0.0.36 firmware after the plugin was upgraded and maybe something was corrupted before I upgraded the board firmware to 1.0.131.

The only idea that I have is to delete the board and reconstruct it from scratch, but that is probably going to be a days work, which I really don't want to do.

Yes this is part of the plugin and it is enhancements that have been made to the plugin. The plugin is creating an OutputTime device for every output that you have and the there are extra choices for the outputs that are added to the device.
All of this is in the manual and will explain how the output time works but it gives you an option to flash the output on and off at the set rate or toggle it.
The output invert should stick but if you are deleting the devices then the plugin will be recreating them on startup and over writing your setup for the device. If it has changed them then on the output device configuration page there in a Arduino tab and this will give you the option to invert the output easily.

The 5 input devices and 12 output devices I can not think why this is but I have never seen or heard of this behavior before. Can you send me a debug log so I can see the devices and what they are doing.

So in short That can be right! it is part of the upgrade to a better version of the plugin. I would read over the manual to see the enhancements as there are lots of great changes.

Greig.

**billt** · February 7, 2017, 01:05 PM

Yes, I had read the help file (presumably this is the manual - it doesn't even have a change log let alone a list of improvements) and I had worked out what the spurious device buttons were and what the spurious OutputTime devices were. I hadn't tried deleting any of the spurious devices, but today I've deleted the odd input and output devices and they haven't reappeared, so I guess they were cruft carried over from some earlier time.

Had some more time to experiment and I've found that control inversion and naming would stay across a restart as long as the spurious buttons weren't modified, but as I'd removed most of the buttons on the first run they all got reset on restart as well as the deleted buttons being recreated which lead me to think that there was no persistence.

That's not such a disaster as it first appeared as long as the buttons don't get modified, however I'm at a loss to understand in what way baking flash and blink functions into the plugin is an improvement. Surely it's trivial to make a flash or blink event in HomeSeer to do the same thing for the odd output for which it might be useful?

I don't understand why you should not be able to modify or remove the device buttons as you can do with normal HS devices. Adding loads of spurious devices and buttons (in my case 32 devices and 96 buttons) doesn't look like an improvement to me, but presumably someone has a use for such functions.

On the positive side, the speed up in board construction times is welcome.

**randy** · February 7, 2017, 01:47 PM

The change log is in this thread, though it only goes through .129. As soon as the current beta goes to production, I'm sure he will update the post.

As for the blink functions and the time devices, the flash, blink and toggle functions are useful. Making an event to blink an LED once a second, would be very wasteful of HS resources. I use the blink function on quite a few LEDs and vary the blink rate to tell me different things about the monitored device. The flash function is also useful if you want to provide a reset pulse to another device. I use the flash on 3 outputs to cause a reset in my Z-Nets. I also use the flash output to power cycle other devices. In order to have the flash or blink times variable, it does take another device. I simply hide the ones I am not using.

**enigmatheatre** · February 7, 2017, 01:48 PM

Originally posted by billt View Post

Yes, I had read the help file (presumably this is the manual - it doesn't even have a change log let alone a list of improvements) and I had worked out what the spurious device buttons were and what the spurious OutputTime devices were. I hadn't tried deleting any of the spurious devices, but today I've deleted the odd input and output devices and they haven't reappeared, so I guess they were cruft carried over from some earlier time.

Had some more time to experiment and I've found that control inversion and naming would stay across a restart as long as the spurious buttons weren't modified, but as I'd removed most of the buttons on the first run they all got reset on restart as well as the deleted buttons being recreated which lead me to think that there was no persistence.

That's not such a disaster as it first appeared as long as the buttons don't get modified, however I'm at a loss to understand in what way baking flash and blink functions into the plugin is an improvement. Surely it's trivial to make a flash or blink event in HomeSeer to do the same thing for the odd output for which it might be useful?

I don't understand why you should not be able to modify or remove the device buttons as you can do with normal HS devices. Adding loads of spurious devices and buttons (in my case 32 devices and 96 buttons) doesn't look like an improvement to me, but presumably someone has a use for such functions.

On the positive side, the speed up in board construction times is welcome.

HERE

If any of the above is not in your manual then this is a build problem I would need to fix or if you can think of a better way to word it or lay it out then please do say and I will look in to it.

Greig.

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HS is connected but Arduino says it isn't

HS is connected but Arduino says it isn't

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