Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

USB Issues

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    USB Issues

    Have any of you experienced having to unplug and plug back in a USB device after it has been plugged in and working for a while. I have had this happen a few times now, 2 or 3 times with one of my edgeports and this morning with my powerlinc. HS just stops seeing the device and a simple unplug, plug back in and all is well (after a restart). I am wondering if it has anything to do with humidity as this time of year the humidity is all over the place because of our monsoon season has started, currently the humidity is about 40% and will go to 100% in a couple hours when our daily thunderstorm arrives and then will be back down to 20% this evening.

    I guess I need to find a way to "ping" (for lack of a better word) the usb devices and have a TTS announcement of some type. I always seem to "discover" a USB device failure at the most inopportune time (like today when my wife went to open the back gate and the event didn't trigger)

    Anyone have any ideas how to monitor the USB ports/devices?

    Jack
    Over The Hill
    What Hill?
    Where?
    When?
    I Don't Remember Any Hill

    Virtualized Server 2k3 Ent X86 Guest on VMWare ESXi 4.1 with 3 SunRay thin clients as access points - HSPro 2.4.0.48 - ZTroller - ACRF2 (3 WGL 800's) - iAutomate RFID - Ledam - MLHSPlugin - Ultra1wire - RainRelay8 - TI103 - Ultramon - WAF-AB8SS - jvESS (11 zones) - Bitwise Controls BC4 - with 745 Total Devices - 550 Events - 104 scripts - 78 ZWave devices - 42 X10 devices - 76 DS10a's 3 RFXSenors and 32 Motion Sensors

    #2
    Power supply....

    Jackpod, It could very well be your power supply is heading South or is not big enough to handle everything you have connected to it.

    ...and it COULD be the humidity. I work with a lot of Data Centers and when the humidity rises, so too does power consumption. Evidently, the cooling fans have to work harder in the more dense humid air.

    Maybe the power supply is running at its limits and the humid air causes it to break that limit causing power disruption to your USB devices.... ???

    Put a meter to your PS and see if you are getting sufficient output.
    .

    Comment


      #3
      Also make sure the usb port is not going to sleep - check your power saving settings
      Running HS PRO V2.5.0.49 & HS Pro V2.5.0.51

      Comment


        #4
        Outback.. Yep done all those things and the room has an air conditioner.

        Neil, yep checked that too.

        The Hometroller has 6 onboard USB ports, one is connected to a 7 port powered hub and the hub has 5 devices plugged into it.

        Here is the strange part.. the three times this has happened (maybe 4) it has always been a different port and all the others work just fine

        Kepp the ideas coming, I know I haven't thought of everything

        Jack
        Over The Hill
        What Hill?
        Where?
        When?
        I Don't Remember Any Hill

        Virtualized Server 2k3 Ent X86 Guest on VMWare ESXi 4.1 with 3 SunRay thin clients as access points - HSPro 2.4.0.48 - ZTroller - ACRF2 (3 WGL 800's) - iAutomate RFID - Ledam - MLHSPlugin - Ultra1wire - RainRelay8 - TI103 - Ultramon - WAF-AB8SS - jvESS (11 zones) - Bitwise Controls BC4 - with 745 Total Devices - 550 Events - 104 scripts - 78 ZWave devices - 42 X10 devices - 76 DS10a's 3 RFXSenors and 32 Motion Sensors

        Comment


          #5
          Jack,

          Have you tried moving different devices to/from the hub/edgeport? It may be a data traffic issue. I know that "shouldn't" be a problem, but a lot of PC troubleshooting is fixing stuff that shouldn't be broken!

          Ps, sorry i never called you, been SUPER SUPER BUSY. When I get around to hitting the basement again (who knows when that will be) I'll definitely give you a call!
          Plugins:
          BLLogMonitor, BLGarbage, BLBackup, BLOutGoingCalls, BLUps, BLRfid, JvEss, DooMotion, Applied Digital Ocelot, AC RF Processor, UltraMon, PJC AVR 430, UPB, Rain8net, DSC Panel, JRiver Media center, Windows Media Player, SageMediaCenter, SnevlCID, MCSTemperature.

          Comment


            #6
            Ian,
            Yes I pretty much have the busier devices directly to usb ports and it has only happened like I say a few times in the last several months.

            No problem on the call, whenever is convenient for you.

            Jack
            Over The Hill
            What Hill?
            Where?
            When?
            I Don't Remember Any Hill

            Virtualized Server 2k3 Ent X86 Guest on VMWare ESXi 4.1 with 3 SunRay thin clients as access points - HSPro 2.4.0.48 - ZTroller - ACRF2 (3 WGL 800's) - iAutomate RFID - Ledam - MLHSPlugin - Ultra1wire - RainRelay8 - TI103 - Ultramon - WAF-AB8SS - jvESS (11 zones) - Bitwise Controls BC4 - with 745 Total Devices - 550 Events - 104 scripts - 78 ZWave devices - 42 X10 devices - 76 DS10a's 3 RFXSenors and 32 Motion Sensors

            Comment


              #7
              I have seen this on numerous machines over the years. I am convinced it's a problem with software design with the root cause due to the fact that Windows is not a real time operating system.

              I've seen it on machines that have very widely used USB controller chips from a semiconductor vendor that commands most of the market share and has shipped millions of chips. I've used them in my own designs.

              I've seen it on a server machine (controlled set of static applications) with only 1 device plugged directly into one USB port with very light CPU load.

              I'm guessing that when a machine occasionally maximizes the CPU usage for 5-10 seconds or longer, a USB driver or application using the driver times out trying to get routine status information from the USB device. The higher level USB software then assumes that the device is no longer connected. The USB bus itself might have very light traffic usage when this happens.

              This is exactly why I prefer to use RS-232 for all of my home automation hardware. The software to interface with RS-232 is far simpler. USB provides plug and play which isn't necessary for a machine performing home automation. Once I connect something, I want it to stay connected with no possibility of the computer thinking it has been removed. I don't want to use any Plug N Play interface (not just USB) for the same reason. I'm not looking forward to the next generation PC's that have hot-swap Plug N Play PCI slots as that will just insert one more failure point into the system because of the software required to make it work.

              If you ever happen to be looking at your machine when this happens (do you get a pop-up saying the USB device was disconnected?), check the CPU usage for the last 30 seconds with Task Manager and 'show kernal times' enabled. Leave it running all the time so it will catch what is happening. Microsoft's Process Explorer utility might help find something taking lots of CPU time.

              Have you recently changed your anti-virus software? I've found that anti-virus software can bring a machines to its knees for a few seconds during an update. I've always assumed this is because it must do a coherent file set change all at once, so everything else just has to wait until it's done. If you are running on a HomeTroller, then you don't have to worry about this.

              Comment


                #8
                Amen to that.

                I pulled all of my USB devices off the HA box about 6 months ago and went completely RS-232. (DigiBoard Neo)

                Stability has improved. No more weird hangs. And no hearing mysterious beep-beep noises indicating that some USB device has been removed then re-added. (Over the whole-house speakers, no less...)

                -S

                Comment


                  #9
                  Mountainman, Yes I am on a Hometroller and no I don't have antivirus software loaded and 3 of the 6 USB ports are Edgeport 2 port USB->Serial devices...
                  Over The Hill
                  What Hill?
                  Where?
                  When?
                  I Don't Remember Any Hill

                  Virtualized Server 2k3 Ent X86 Guest on VMWare ESXi 4.1 with 3 SunRay thin clients as access points - HSPro 2.4.0.48 - ZTroller - ACRF2 (3 WGL 800's) - iAutomate RFID - Ledam - MLHSPlugin - Ultra1wire - RainRelay8 - TI103 - Ultramon - WAF-AB8SS - jvESS (11 zones) - Bitwise Controls BC4 - with 745 Total Devices - 550 Events - 104 scripts - 78 ZWave devices - 42 X10 devices - 76 DS10a's 3 RFXSenors and 32 Motion Sensors

                  Comment


                    #10
                    I'd assume HST would have left these unchecked but double check for each USB port in the Device Manager.
                    Attached Files


                    ~Bill

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Also, I don't know how much current those Edgeports draw.
                      I didnt completely read the whole thread but possibly you can try a powered external USB hub and then plug all the Edgeports into that.


                      ~Bill

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Jackpod,
                        I was thinking that if you had a free serial port on each edgeport box.Then run a loopback on the serial port and test for it in Hs. Is should let you know when the box is not responding.
                        Stuart

                        link for loopback stuff
                        http://www.bb-elec.com/tech_articles...2_loopback.asp

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Bill,

                          I am trying to keep the edgeports on their own USB port. Reason I am using 4 2port edgeports is because the traffic seemed a little heavy when I tried using my 8 port unit. If I put them all on a USB hub it might be a little too much for a single port. And I have set the usb powersaving to off

                          Stuart, good idea I do have an open port on 2 of the 4, I might play with that concept. Now that Jon Ort has changed the ACRF2 as to how it handles busy systems I might try some different configs on my 3 w800's
                          Over The Hill
                          What Hill?
                          Where?
                          When?
                          I Don't Remember Any Hill

                          Virtualized Server 2k3 Ent X86 Guest on VMWare ESXi 4.1 with 3 SunRay thin clients as access points - HSPro 2.4.0.48 - ZTroller - ACRF2 (3 WGL 800's) - iAutomate RFID - Ledam - MLHSPlugin - Ultra1wire - RainRelay8 - TI103 - Ultramon - WAF-AB8SS - jvESS (11 zones) - Bitwise Controls BC4 - with 745 Total Devices - 550 Events - 104 scripts - 78 ZWave devices - 42 X10 devices - 76 DS10a's 3 RFXSenors and 32 Motion Sensors

                          Comment


                            #14
                            jackpod,

                            I have also wondered how many USB applications set up an isochronous link to the USB device versus a bulk transfer (bulk transfer does not imply a large amount of data). I'm no expert in writing USB drivers, but I do know that it takes more effort to create a driver like this versus a bulk transfer. Isochronous guarantees bandwidth while bulk transfer gets whatever is left over each time slice. This would only make a difference if the bus is getting saturated with traffic. It sounds like it might be in your case.

                            Comment

                            Working...
                            X