Announcement

**Rick Tinker** · July 2, 2004, 06:09 AM

So Brian, you already know that it is a software problem?

Did you open a helpdesk ticket?

We ask application providers for their "end of life" plans to get them thinking about it and so that, in the future, we can have a "more info" feature on the updater so people can see some of these answers. Before spending money on software, especially in this industry, it is desireable to know whether the author (and product) are going to be around for a while. There are a couple of plug-ins no longer with us today that fall into this category. There was NOTHING that said that the end-of-life of your plug-in had to be to turn over the source code. Keep in mind that if there is an end of life for HomeSeer, all 3rd party plug-ins go "end of life" as well.

I don't recall any history behind this issue that has been around for a year as you say. Please open a helpdesk ticket and let us know as much information as possible and one of us will look into it.

**UniKyrn** · July 2, 2004, 07:15 AM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote">quote:<HR>Originally posted by Rick Tinker (HomeSeer Tech):
So Brian, you already know that it is a software problem? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yes, Eric has acknowledged the problem but has admitted he doesn't have the time to work on the plugin.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote">quote:<HR>
Did you open a helpdesk ticket?
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

This is not a quesiton about how the bug was reported, it's a question about why the bug hasn't been fixed. Eric knows about the bug and since he appears to be the person who is responsible for the plugin, at least he's the one who tells us he hasn't had time to fix the bug because of other things going on. I'm satisfied that the bug's been reported to the right person.

I didn't say end-of-life meant you had to release the source, you did. I said non-HomeSeer plugins had to document what their plans were when they couldn't support their software anymore and HomeSeer actions have proven they can't support the plugin in anything resembling a timely manner.

What are your plans?

**Rick Tinker** · July 4, 2004, 10:46 AM

Well, Brian, for one thing you have never reported this to HomeSeer. Eric was the original author, not the support for it. He never passed the information to us about this bug when he handed it off to us, and we never got wind of it before now.

Thus, if there is an open helpdesk ticket that describes the problem, or better yet if Eric can tell us where the problem is since he appears to know about it in his code, then we can fix it.

**UniKyrn** · July 4, 2004, 12:57 PM

Considering that you told me the same thing for the Napco Plugin, and the fatal UI lockup bug I reported has been sitting in the helpdesk for 313 days now, I can't see where reporting it there has any better results than reporting it to the author of the code.

I simply want this bug fixed and I think a year qualifies as having waited long enough for action to be upset about the lack of it. If HomeSeer can't do that themselves or via Eric, then I want to know if you're going to make the source available so we can fix it ourselves.

**rjh** · July 4, 2004, 05:55 PM

This plugin is owned by HomeSeer Tech and the original author is no longer required to support it. Please open a help desk ticket describing the problem and the steps needed to reproduce it and we will have a look at it as soon as possible.

-Rich

**UniKyrn** · July 5, 2004, 01:01 AM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote">quote:<HR>Please open a help desk ticket describing the problem and the steps needed to reproduce it ... <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I can't tell you how to reproduce it.

**Rick Tinker** · July 6, 2004, 07:27 AM

Brian,

The severity of a bug determines when it gets fixed. The fact that it is 313 days old has nothing to do with it. If nobody else has reported the bug and if it is not critical to you using the plug-in, then it has to get prioritized with everything else that we have to do.

No, you will not get the source code to the plug-in.

If you cannot reproduce the error, then it is extremely hard for us to fix it. (Makes sense when you think about it since you have written a plug-in yourself.) However, this makes getting the information about the "known issue" from Eric all taht more important toward resolving it. Rich has already emailed Eric to ask him what he knows about it.

**UniKyrn** · July 6, 2004, 08:32 AM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote">quote:<HR>Originally posted by Rick Tinker (HomeSeer Tech):
Brian,

The severity of a bug determines when it gets fixed. The fact that it is 313 days old has nothing to do with it. If nobody else has reported the bug and if it is not critical to you using the plug-in, then it has to get prioritized with everything else that we have to do. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I left it at the default priority because at the time I created the ticket I talked with you about it and we agreed that while it was a nasty problem, it would be ok if you got to it within the next month instead of immediatly. The sad part is that all you'd have had to have done is commented out that button and recompiled, a 5 minute task.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote">quote:<HR>If you cannot reproduce the error, then it is extremely hard for us to fix it. (Makes sense when you think about it since you have written a plug-in yourself.) However, this makes getting the information about the "known issue" from Eric all taht more important toward resolving it. Rich has already emailed Eric to ask him what he knows about it. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

The single most posted to thread in this forum is about the bug in question, and it documents all of attempts at debugging it and the results of those tests. Try reading it. Then think of what kind of diagnostics you could add to the plugin to help narrow in on the problem and get us a version with those diagnostics included.

I'm willing to help you fix your problem, but I'm no longer willing to let the problem be ignored.

**ericvic** · July 6, 2004, 01:36 PM

Just wanted to throw in my $0.02 worth.

I'm not denying that there may still be a problem in the plug-in but I don't think I ever said that I knew what the problem was. The last thing I said was that I was too busy to look into any further for the time being.

If I knew what the issue was I would have fixed it because I don't like my plug-in to not work correctly. The unfortunate fact of the matter is that I don't know what the problem is, I can't reproduce it on my machine and don't have the time available to track it down.

I will make sure that Rich has the latest source and hopefully HomeSeer will be able to track it down.

Eric

**UniKyrn** · July 6, 2004, 01:54 PM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote">quote:<HR>Originally posted by Eric Vickery:
Just wanted to throw in my $0.02 worth.

I'm not denying that there may still be a problem in the plug-in but I don't think I ever said that I knew what the problem was. The last thing I said was that I was too busy to look into any further for the time being. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I don't think I said you knew what it was, I said you'd acknowledged that it was probably a software bug we were chasing when I was asked if I was sure it was software related. If it came across other than that, sorry, that wasn't what I meant. Even if it's a hardware bug in the device, restarting HomeSeer demonstrates that it can be cleared via software so we'd just need some way to detect we've gotten into the locked up condition.

I know you don't have the time to work on it. Based on previous experience I'm reasonably sure it's not your job to be working on it anyway. My point in bringing all this up in the first place is to get the bug fixed some other way, either via HomeSeer or directly by the users.

It's been a thorn in our sides long enough.

**rjh** · July 6, 2004, 06:05 PM

I have set up a PC with the latest plugin and its running. I'll let you know if I see a failure.

I will probably then add some debug statements to the code so you can also run it so we can see where the failure is happening.

-Rich

**UniKyrn** · July 6, 2004, 07:38 PM

If you're using it as your full time primary interface, experience sez you'll be waiting about a month for the problem to occur. Light loads don't appear to trigger it.

**UniKyrn** · July 13, 2004, 11:36 PM

It took less than a month for the problem to bite me again. This time I had full debugging in the plugin turned on and here is the output ...

7/13/04 9:56:00 PM~!~Event Trigger~!~Condition Trigger (Main Bath Motion Timeout) L9 Off (Main Bathroom Ceiling Light) , z3 Off (Internal Main Bath Motion Memory) , C5 Off (Master Bathroom Motion Sensor)
7/13/04 9:56:00 PM~!~LynX-10 PLC Plug-in~!~<< Received an ACK.
7/13/04 9:56:01 PM~!~LynX-10 PLC Plug-in~!~<< Received an ACK.
7/13/04 9:56:01 PM~!~LynX-10 PLC Plug-in~!~<< Received an X10 command success.
7/13/04 9:56:01 PM~!~LynX-10 PLC Plug-in~!~<< Received an X10 command success.
7/13/04 10:00:01 PM~!~LynX-10 PLC Plug-in~!~<< Received an ACK.
7/13/04 10:00:01 PM~!~LynX-10 PLC Plug-in~!~<< Received an X10 command success.
7/13/04 10:00:01 PM~!~LynX-10 PLC Plug-in~!~<< Received an ACK.
7/13/04 10:00:02 PM~!~LynX-10 PLC Plug-in~!~<< Received an X10 command success.
7/13/04 10:00:02 PM~!~LynX-10 PLC Plug-in~!~<< Received an ACK.
7/13/04 10:00:03 PM~!~LynX-10 PLC Plug-in~!~<< Received an X10 command success.
7/13/04 10:00:03 PM~!~LynX-10 PLC Plug-in~!~<< Received an X10 command success.
7/13/04 10:00:03 PM~!~LynX-10 PLC Plug-in~!~<< Received an ACK.
7/13/04 10:02:11 PM~!~X10 Received~!~I Bright 6
7/13/04 10:02:12 PM~!~X10 Received~!~I Bright 6
7/13/04 10:05:36 PM~!~X10 Received~!~C15 (Exterior Motion Sensor (front)) C On
7/13/04 10:06:57 PM~!~X10 Received~!~C15 (Exterior Motion Sensor (front)) C Off
7/13/04 10:21:14 PM~!~X10 Received~!~I Bright 6
7/13/04 10:21:15 PM~!~X10 Received~!~I Bright 6
7/13/04 10:21:15 PM~!~X10 Received~!~I Bright 6
7/13/04 10:21:16 PM~!~X10 Received~!~I Bright 6
7/13/04 10:21:18 PM~!~X10 Received~!~I Bright 42
7/13/04 10:55:34 PM~!~X10 Received~!~C2 (Basement Darkness Sensor) C Off
7/13/04 10:55:34 PM~!~Event Trigger~!~X10 Trigger (Basement Stairway Light On) B3+4+1+2 On (Basement WorkBench Lights , Basement WorkBench Lights , Basement WorkBench Lights , Basement WorkBench Lights)
7/13/04 10:55:35 PM~!~LynX-10 PLC Plug-in~!~<< Received an ACK.
7/13/04 10:56:01 PM~!~X10 Received~!~C2 (Basement Darkness Sensor) C On
7/13/04 10:56:01 PM~!~Event Trigger~!~X10 Trigger (Basement Stairway Light Off) B All Units Off ,
7/13/04 10:56:02 PM~!~LynX-10 PLC Plug-in~!~>> Waiting on pending event
7/13/04 10:56:11 PM~!~X10 Received~!~C2 (Basement Darkness Sensor) C Off
7/13/04 10:56:11 PM~!~X10 Received~!~C2 (Basement Darkness Sensor) C Off
7/13/04 10:56:12 PM~!~X10 Received~!~C2 (Basement Darkness Sensor) C Off
7/13/04 10:56:46 PM~!~LynX-10 PLC Plug-in~!~>> Waiting on pending event
7/13/04 10:56:46 PM~!~Device control from menu~!~B1 On
7/13/04 10:56:51 PM~!~Device control from menu~!~B3 On
7/13/04 10:56:51 PM~!~LynX-10 PLC Plug-in~!~>> Waiting on pending event

At this point I shut down HomeSeer

7/13/04 10:57:51 PM~!~Info~!~Application shutdown now...
7/13/04 10:57:59 PM~!~LynX-10 PLC Plug-in~!~Stopping the plug-in

Whatever that "Waiting on pending event" is, the fact if never stops waiting is
probably what locks the plugin up until it's restarted. It should probably have a
sanity timer on it, if that condition exists for N seconds without a confirmation
of a command being sent, whack something to go on to the next command after logging
an error.

**UniKyrn** · July 13, 2004, 11:40 PM

7/13/04 10:00:03 PM~!~LynX-10 PLC Plug-in~!~<< Received an X10 command success.
7/13/04 10:00:03 PM~!~LynX-10 PLC Plug-in~!~<< Received an ACK.

Could it be caused by the command success arriving before the ACK? Is there a state engine in the plugin that could be getting out of sync? The next command to be sent after this fails to go out.

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