Sound off! Who wants an European version - Now Available!

[LeoS]

Sorry I can not help you with this, however, love your logic that the upside down label must be the US version.

Hahah simply because I bought 1 US and 2 EU units, and there is one with upside down label and 2 rightside up (to the main logo).

Open the Z-Net RPi2 case and look for writing on the GPIO Z-Wave card.

Thanks. I had to open one yesterday because I couldn't seem to make it boot up (green blinking LED inside the case, no RED LED on the big LED on case), but didn't check the GPIO. d'oh.

[Pete]

Open the Z-Net RPi2 case and look for writing on the GPIO Z-Wave card.

[Gogs]

I have purchased a US Znet and 2x EU Znet. Unforunately somewhere along the shipping route, the (pretty thin) boxes spilll their znet content, so I'm having difficulties telling which ZNET unit is EU or US.

I've scoured the plastic casing and stickers and still couldn't tell which is which, since there are no markings of EU/US version, except for the sticker on the spilled boxes. I was hoping the information would presetn itself on the web admin, maybe by different firmware version or region string, but nope.

The only difference I could see is that the label is upside down on one of them. Could this be the US version? Can anyone help me tell which is which?

Sorry I can not help you with this, however, love your logic that the upside down label must be the US version.

[LeoS]

I have purchased a US Znet and 2x EU Znet. Unforunately somewhere along the shipping route, the (pretty thin) boxes spilll their znet content, so I'm having difficulties telling which ZNET unit is EU or US.

I've scoured the plastic casing and stickers and still couldn't tell which is which, since there are no markings of EU/US version, except for the sticker on the spilled boxes. I was hoping the information would presetn itself on the web admin, maybe by different firmware version or region string, but nope.

The only difference I could see is that the label is upside down on one of them. Could this be the US version? Can anyone help me tell which is which?

[Moskus]

The Arduino plugin also handles this seamlessly and fast.
As do UltraJones' Global Cache plugin. And the Squeezebox plugin (although, it has a Logitech server application to support it).

[Moskus]

These are my main controllers, Z-wave and RFXCOM:


The RFXCOM devices (both via ethernet and USB) quickly show their status, like this:





Much better than "No Status"...

[NicolaiL]

Don't get too hung up on the red/green light status of the box. We intentionally do not have the plug-in bombard the unit with continuous connectivity checks to avoid performance issues. If you disable and then re-enable the plug-in, it will force a check but physically disconnecting/reconnecting or power-cycling the unit will not. Sending a command will also force a check. It does take about 20 seconds to boot the box from a powered-off state.

If your power stability is bad, consider adding some protection for this. Obviously, your HomeTroller will be at risk too. consider adding a UPS to the equation since both of the items are computers!

I wasn't looking for you to "bombard" the interface, but simply have the PI be more aware of whether it is connected or not. A "hello" every 5 seconds over your TCP connection is hardly going to overload the unit, nor the network?

I don't have unstable power, but inevitably people have power cuts from time to time. My concern is the failure to boot, because this is the type of condition that is very unfortunate for a customer install and will almost certainly result in a support call / unhappy customer.

[LeoS]

You don't need to "bombard the unit" with connectivity checks, but you still need to do some automatic checks!! My guess is that a simple ping will do, say every 5 or 10 seconds.

To be honest, I haven't used ethernet equipment that doesn't handle disconnects and power dropouts before. I took it for given...

Finally, you can use the device created for the Z-wave controller for something! Status codes!
That way, I can set up Events to notify me if the Z-net goes offline.

+1

Yes, I can add an UPS, but that isn't always an option as the server is far away from the Z-NET (that's the point! ).

I think the optimal option is to have PoE support, so the UPS can be installed at the central to provide for all nodes

[Moskus]

Don't get too hung up on the red/green light status of the box. We intentionally do not have the plug-in bombard the unit with continuous connectivity checks to avoid performance issues. If you disable and then re-enable the plug-in, it will force a check but physically disconnecting/reconnecting or power-cycling the unit will not. Sending a command will also force a check. It does take about 20 seconds to boot the box from a powered-off state.

If your power stability is bad, consider adding some protection for this. Obviously, your HomeTroller will be at risk too. consider adding a UPS to the equation since both of the items are computers!

You don't need to "bombard the unit" with connectivity checks, but you still need to do some automatic checks!! My guess is that a simple ping will do, say every 5 or 10 seconds.

To be honest, I haven't used ethernet equipment that doesn't handle disconnects and power dropouts before. I took it for given...

Finally, you can use the device created for the Z-wave controller for something! Status codes!
That way, I can set up Events to notify me if the Z-net goes offline.


Yes, I can add an UPS, but that isn't always an option as the server is far away from the Z-NET (that's the point! ).

[John245]

[macromark]

OK - I did a lot of testing with a Euro Z-Net device this morning. See bottom of email for my setup. Here's what I found when testing:

On loss of network or power:

• Generally the Z-Net would power back up, and have a solid RED light on the LED.
• There is NO warning in the log or on the ZWave controller management page that connection was lost to the interface
• Conversely the plug-in does not appear to periodically check/establish connection
• The first command, sent from a device management page, results (expectedly) in an Unknown status to that device.
• However, this also causes the plug-in to re-establish connection (LED goes GREEN) and subsequent commands works and results in correct status on Device Management page

It would be great to have logging / alerting that could be triggered etc. for the connection. Perhaps the Z-Net Node 1 device could be used for connection status and connect/disconnect buttons?


HOWEVER, I did find that, on occasion, when the power was pulled (unplug PSU and plug it back in again), the Z-Net would NOT boot correctly. You can see this by the LED not coming (no red, green or blink or anything) although the smaller internal LEDs are on (so there is definitely power to the device). In these instances you also could not ping the Z-Net. The only way to fix this is to powercycle the device again.

I found the above condition to occur both when testing with the US supplied PSU and when testing with a UK PSU (supplied by a Raspberry Pi supplier who claims their PSUs are good for use with PIs). Mentioning this as I am trying to rule out a PSU issue here.

The failure rate for the above was about 2 in 10

This to me is somewhat concerning as this is difficult to remotely address and could result in the need to do a call out to a customer site.


Test Rig Setup:
Current Date/Time: 16/10/2015 11:57:29
HomeSeer Version: HS3 Standard Edition 3.0.0.208
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro - Work Station
System Uptime: 0 Days 3 Hours 14 Minutes 54 Seconds
IP Address: 192.168.1.50
Number of Devices: 290
Number of Events: 8

Enabled Plug-Ins
3.0.1.25: Z-Wave

Don't get too hung up on the red/green light status of the box. We intentionally do not have the plug-in bombard the unit with continuous connectivity checks to avoid performance issues. If you disable and then re-enable the plug-in, it will force a check but physically disconnecting/reconnecting or power-cycling the unit will not. Sending a command will also force a check. It does take about 20 seconds to boot the box from a powered-off state.

If your power stability is bad, consider adding some protection for this. Obviously, your HomeTroller will be at risk too. consider adding a UPS to the equation since both of the items are computers!

[sooty]

OK - I did a lot of testing with a Euro Z-Net device this morning. See bottom of email for my setup. Here's what I found when testing:

On loss of network or power:

• Generally the Z-Net would power back up, and have a solid RED light on the LED.
• There is NO warning in the log or on the ZWave controller management page that connection was lost to the interface
• Conversely the plug-in does not appear to periodically check/establish connection
• The first command, sent from a device management page, results (expectedly) in an Unknown status to that device.
• However, this also causes the plug-in to re-establish connection (LED goes GREEN) and subsequent commands works and results in correct status on Device Management page

It would be great to have logging / alerting that could be triggered etc. for the connection. Perhaps the Z-Net Node 1 device could be used for connection status and connect/disconnect buttons?


HOWEVER, I did find that, on occasion, when the power was pulled (unplug PSU and plug it back in again), the Z-Net would NOT boot correctly. You can see this by the LED not coming (no red, green or blink or anything) although the smaller internal LEDs are on (so there is definitely power to the device). In these instances you also could not ping the Z-Net. The only way to fix this is to powercycle the device again.

I found the above condition to occur both when testing with the US supplied PSU and when testing with a UK PSU (supplied by a Raspberry Pi supplier who claims their PSUs are good for use with PIs). Mentioning this as I am trying to rule out a PSU issue here.

The failure rate for the above was about 2 in 10

This to me is somewhat concerning as this is difficult to remotely address and could result in the need to do a call out to a customer site.


Test Rig Setup:
Current Date/Time: 16/10/2015 11:57:29
HomeSeer Version: HS3 Standard Edition 3.0.0.208
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro - Work Station
System Uptime: 0 Days 3 Hours 14 Minutes 54 Seconds
IP Address: 192.168.1.50
Number of Devices: 290
Number of Events: 8

Enabled Plug-Ins
3.0.1.25: Z-Wave

Further testing here produced exactly the same results as you Nicolai albeit I'm testing with Z-Wave plug-in 3.0.1.39 now.

I also noticed the random refusal to boot after power was cut / restored but forgot to mention it yesterday. I didn't test the reconnection after a failed send until today but I can confirm that the Z-Net does re-connect as you say following a failed command initiated from HS3.

Paul..

[NicolaiL]

Yes, The Z-Net is on Version 1.0.15

No, I deliberately used the current release of the ZW plug-in.

I can't see how the a newer release would have any impact on the ZNet powering up. This particular issue issue is way earlier in the boot process than talking to HS3/plug-ins

[Moskus]

HOWEVER, I did find that, on occasion, when the power was pulled (unplug PSU and plug it back in again), the Z-Net would NOT boot correctly. You can see this by the LED not coming (no red, green or blink or anything) although the smaller internal LEDs are on (so there is definitely power to the device). In these instances you also could not ping the Z-Net. The only way to fix this is to powercycle the device again.

Did you update the Z-net before doing these tests?

... and did you try with beta version .39 of the Z-wave plugin?

[NicolaiL]

OK - I did a lot of testing with a Euro Z-Net device this morning. See bottom of email for my setup. Here's what I found when testing:

On loss of network or power:

• Generally the Z-Net would power back up, and have a solid RED light on the LED.
• There is NO warning in the log or on the ZWave controller management page that connection was lost to the interface
• Conversely the plug-in does not appear to periodically check/establish connection
• The first command, sent from a device management page, results (expectedly) in an Unknown status to that device.
• However, this also causes the plug-in to re-establish connection (LED goes GREEN) and subsequent commands works and results in correct status on Device Management page

It would be great to have logging / alerting that could be triggered etc. for the connection. Perhaps the Z-Net Node 1 device could be used for connection status and connect/disconnect buttons?


HOWEVER, I did find that, on occasion, when the power was pulled (unplug PSU and plug it back in again), the Z-Net would NOT boot correctly. You can see this by the LED not coming (no red, green or blink or anything) although the smaller internal LEDs are on (so there is definitely power to the device). In these instances you also could not ping the Z-Net. The only way to fix this is to powercycle the device again.

I found the above condition to occur both when testing with the US supplied PSU and when testing with a UK PSU (supplied by a Raspberry Pi supplier who claims their PSUs are good for use with PIs). Mentioning this as I am trying to rule out a PSU issue here.

The failure rate for the above was about 2 in 10

This to me is somewhat concerning as this is difficult to remotely address and could result in the need to do a call out to a customer site.


Test Rig Setup:
Current Date/Time: 16/10/2015 11:57:29
HomeSeer Version: HS3 Standard Edition 3.0.0.208
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro - Work Station
System Uptime: 0 Days 3 Hours 14 Minutes 54 Seconds
IP Address: 192.168.1.50
Number of Devices: 290
Number of Events: 8

Enabled Plug-Ins
3.0.1.25: Z-Wave