Confusing ??

[The Ol Alfer]

Hi, been using HS for quite a while on an older 400Mhz machine with Win98, upgraded to Win 2000 Pro. I thought it would help some of my problems, such as.

I use HS to control my home theater lights which consist of only 2 modules at this time. I use a mini controller to send I2 command to HS. it then sends commands to moduals H9 & H10 to control the lights.

H9 is a Switchlinc RX PLC Model # 2384W2
H10 is a Lamplinc PLC Model # 2000SHL3

H10 is suppose to dim down to apprx 40% for wall lights while the movies are on, and H9 is to go off.

Then during intermission the wall lights (H10) are to go off and the main lights (H9) are to brighten up to approx 80%.

The problem is some times every thing works great, then some times it is like HS or the system goes dead and will not respond to any command from the mini controler. All of the other lights controlled by the system on a time basis for the outdoor & interiour lighting work like a charm. I have a coupler across the two legs of the electrical phase, and have just bought a repeater coupler to install (Not yet).

Any ideas why the system some times listens to the ( I ) commands from the mini controller ? Or am I going about this in the wrong way ??

Thanks

Alfer

[Msekelsky]

Could be a coupler/repeater issue; you'll certainly know after you install. When looking at the HS log is HS seeing your mini-controller command? If not, do you have another mini-controller you could try. the one you have could be flakey. If HS is seeing the command, do you also "see" the commands being sent to your modules? If so then maybe you do have a repeater issue. If not, maybe there is some condition within your event that is causing an issue.

[rocco]

Or maybe something in your home-theater setup is generating a lot of noise.

[The Ol Alfer]

Thanks for the info, I looked at the log and you are right The command line is as follows:

11/21/2004 9:55:13 ... X10 Received I1 (?) On
11/21/2004 9:55:13 ... Event Trigger X10 Trigger (Movie Setup)


Further down the log it did say after: X10 Trigger ( Movie Setup)
11/21/2004 9:55:47 ... Event Trigger X10 Trigger (Movie Setup) H10 On (Home Theater Wall Lights)

As you can see in the one event above @ 55:13 It says there is an event trigger but it did not complete the command of that trigger, which is to turn the lights on in the theater.

The part that gets me about this is that some times the events will take place, and sometimes it won't, all of the other events that are just routine timed events like the light control in the rest of the house work all the time. If it was a noise problem why are they not affected as rocco says by something in the home theater?

All I have in my HT are a Yamaha Amp, Yamaha DVD player, & Paradigm Powered Sub, and a 50" Panasonic DLP HDTV.

[Msekelsky]

Can you post the triggers/conditions of your event? If it were noise I would expect to see the commands sent, but you'r not seeing that. Maybe there is something in the event that is incorrect.

[rocco]

Yes, scratch the noise idea. It appears to be something in the event itself.

[The Ol Alfer]

Hi the following Trigger is listed for this event: Show Time,

Type: By X10 Command
Group: Default
Trigger if X10 House Code & Unit Code received are: I2 - ON Command
Attribuites: None
Days: Every

DEVICE ACTIONS

Home Theater, Wall Lights, H10, Preset Dim to 45%
Home Theater, Ceiling Lights, H9,Preset Dim to 30%
Home Theater, Celing Lights, H9, Off, Delay - 3:00 Min.

DEVICE Properties.

Name - Ceiling Lights
Location - Home Theater
Device Type - Smart Home LampLinc
Address - H 9
Device Type Overides - Switch/LampLinc CHECKED
Device Can Be Dimmed - CHECKED
Status Response - Device Supports Status Response - CHECKED
Dim Type - Preset Dim - CHECKED

Name - Wall Lights
Location - Home Theater
Device Type - Smart Home LampLinc
Address - H 10
Device Type Overides - Switch/Lamplinc CHECKED
Device Can Be Dimmed - CHECKED
Status Response - Device Supports Status Response - CHECKED
Dim Type - Preset Dim - CHECKED

The Wall lights are actually a Smart Home LampLinc, but the Ceiling lights are a Smart Home SwitchLinc RX device, I could not find it listed on the device types in HS so I used the LampLinc, don't know if that makes any difference but I am not to sure on how to set the Smart Home devices, I am also not to sure if the dim should be Absolute or Relative, I read the manual but not quite getting the way the dim work's.

Thanks Again for the help...

Alfer

[Msekelsky]

I'm not sure about the RX switch, but I would try using the type of SwitchLin instead of LampLinc. Here is a screeh shot of howmy SwitchLins are setup (it sounds like yours ore OK, but sometimes seeing....).

Is your trigger I2 is On or is the trigger I2 changed to ON I believe you want the latter. Second, how does I2 ever get set to OFF? Assuming all you use this for is triggering this event, you can have the event turn I2 OFF as part of device actions. If you are not turing I2 OFF anywhere then although HS will "see" an incoming ON command it will not act upon it since I2 is already ON.

[The Ol Alfer]

Thanks Mark,

How did you do the screen shot ? would have saved me a lot of typing.

You are right I never thought of it before but I use the I2 ON command just to trigger the event, It is a mini controller that sits next to my home theater seating, I have never sent an I2 OFF command. Nor did I think of the fact that HS would not see I2 OFF so it might not react to the next I2 ON command.

Thanks again for the great help all of you have been ...

Alfer ...

[Msekelsky]

I did the screen shot with a freeware program called "Howies Quick Screen Capture." It allows you to capture the active window only, which is quite handy.

I have a lot of triggers based upon something turing ON/OFF (mostly ON). I either have the event turn the device back OFF as part of the action or I use my "reset stuff" event. This events runs at 4:00 AM and resets most a lot of virtual devices back to OFF. In your case it sounds like you should just use the initial event.