Upgrading from HS2 to HS3 (including PRO versions)

[skybolt]

Yup; try to block the two above UDP/TCP ports on the LAN side.

I have a 2008R2 server running which handles the DNS/DHCP stuff, blocking the ports will not change anything. Blocking access did though. Very strange.

If I were to write a client for HS, I would not allow most of the external stuff they do, I would only allow the client to acces it's assigned server and thats it. Maybe add some logic and timming for the connection away from the home and thats it.

[Pete]

Yup here do similar with OpenDNS and NTP on the the PFSense firewall. Keeping the play with PFSense simple these days cuz it does so much more and I am learning about it still.

It does much more though than my old Smoothwall firewall which I ran for years. Most of the changes on the Smoothwall were mods of the base. PFSense includes just about anything you would want to do with a firewall these days.

Here when the ports are blocked the wintel client takes minutes or so (typically its only a few seconds) to connect to the HS box and response times on the touchscreen is really slow and it has nothing to do with running the client.

I have a "few" scripts running on the client locally without really connecting to HSTouch server and while I am still getting a message about no connection; basic scripts are still running just fine which is providing me with only basic functions. (radio, clock, cctv).

With the 10+ HSTouch clients being unresponsive just because....is pushing me towards some other mechanism of an in house Homeseer touchscreen console. It gets kind of old; such that its not worth my efforts to fix or bother with it anymore.

I am not sure really what it is that has crippled my HSTouch server to HSTouch client use right now such that I have gone to using other means of client to HS server connectivity as its really not worth pursuing (HSTouch server is off).

BTW even HSTouch designer is sort of cripppled doing this which makes no sense to me at all. (IE if I can connect to HS2 server; mostly doesn't; an update to a client takes maybe 10 minutes which again doesn't make sense to me).

I wonder if I can just record a youtube video of the start up of HSTouch client as that would be the easiest way to see the difference. The same exact "thing" occurs with HSDesigner for whatever reasons.

Once its running though the touch pieces are so slow that it cripples the functioning HSTouch client. Note that this is what I see; but best to try yourself such that you can see what I see.

[Kbevo]

I have to admit, I am confused about "the whole HSTouch thing", what are you referring to?

Rich, I was referring to the HS2 HSTouch, and the HS3 development processes. The HS2 HSTouch product was put out there with many problems (especially in Designer) and development was pretty much abandoned for years in favor of HS3 development. Now, after years of HS3 development and a lengthy debugging period, we (who bought the upgrade) still do not have a stable HS3 product. To me, the "concerning" part about this is, it all brings into question HST's (LLC) long term viability. HST LLC has a lot on its development plate right now with HST(3), HS3, HSPhone and all of the HS3 pro plugins, with what seems to be a limited and over worked development staff. I admit my vision on these issues is obscured, but none-the-less that's the way I see it at this point. If/when I begin to see things more clearly, I will begin my migration, either to HS3 or some other HA product.

Please understand, I, like many of your customers, have a very significant investment in HST LLC products, both in time and money. I very much want you to succeed.

Gary

[brmeeke]

HS3Import

Hi.. I decided to make the jump to HS3. My HS2 configuration is running very well but there are several updates that I want to make and it does not seem to make any sense to stick with HS2 anymore.

I have HS3 installed but when I try to run the HS3Import utility, I get the following error:

"Your database is an older version, please update your HS2 installation to the latest and then re-run this tool."

I am running HS2 V2.5.0.52 which would appear to be the latest version. Does anyone have any suggestions about what I am missing??


Thanks

Brian

[joegr]

...I am running HS2 V2.5.0.52 which would appear to be the latest version. Does anyone have any suggestions about what I am missing??...

The latest version of HS2 is V2.5.0.81. It's not in the updater, but it is available on the downloads page.

[brmeeke]

Problem solved. Thank you

Now back to my original task of migrating to HS3. I have watched the Webinar but sometimes things don't work exactly as described. Wish me luck.

Brian

[zguy]

Once upon a time.... PART 1

Holly s....! I'm getting this board error:

"The text that you have entered is too long (79856 characters). Please shorten it to 75000 characters long."

It's just adding to my frustration!

Yeah, once upon a time, as a techie, I embarked on the Home Automation bandwagon. That was some 20+ years ago. Back then, the only thing available to an average salaried person was the X-10 technology.

Assuming you know a bit about it, you'll agree it had its flaws, drawbacks and weaknesses. I won't go into those details as it does not pertain to the issue at hand. And I have to mention I never got to automate more than may be 20% of the things I would have liked. Yet, I lived and endured all these for quite some time because it did meet some of my needs. But at some time, I needed something better. That was about 10 years ago. At that point, Z-Wave seemed to be the technology that could replace X-10. And since then it has proven it could do it although some implementations are rather closed. It took me several years after that to decide to switch technology. What made me decide to switch was HomeSeer. Their software promised a lot. And it included backward compatibility with the X-10 technology I was then using. Definitely, that seemed a good opportunity to switch. So I bit the bullet and shelled the money for for HS2 Pro and a Z-Troller.

Well, what a deception. Yes, it did support X-10 technology. But what a clumsy inefficient software that was. Not much better than the X-10 software. And it didn't even support storing events/macros in the X-10 controller. Yet, my goal to switch technology was still there and I bought a bunch of Z-Wave devices since then.

Before I started the upgrade to HS 3 Pro (damn, man, this should never have been called an upgrade, make it forthcoming to your users they will start from scratches from the sales page, will you please? There is no way of knowing that unless you check the forums.), I had been waiting for many months, hoping from Homeseer to provide a stable software release. Well, I bit the bullet today, and once again, like pretty much every time I sent money to Homeseer, the only result I get is deception.

Yet, after paying and downloading the new version, I went thru the upgrade process guidelines in this thread, got some useful information, but ended up with a non functioning system, be it with the new HS3 or my old HS2.

Balance of post following...

[zguy]

Once upon a time.... PART 2

So, basically, I spent about 100$ CDN to screw up what I had working and now have nothing working. I could comment more on what I think of the new version interface. I sure I'm not too impressed on that part. It's a bit better than the old clumsy and clunking one. But at this point, I'd rather have a way to get something working again, preferably in the new version.

My main problem in the new version at this point, is that, although I successfully added the Z-Wave Troller interface, it does not import the devices. Here is what I get:

Now great! Can't paste the image. Will try in a next post.


And, of course, no devices show nowhere in the application.

On another note, I do understand the need to re-write the code from scratch. That was however not clear from the sales pages. Again, you should be forthcoming about this. The effort to "upgrade" as you call it is high enough not to call it an upgrade. It is actually a full re-install from scratches . Even your "events import utility" didn't work .

As a matter of fact, so far, after spending about 12 hours on this today, not only the new version does not work, but the older one does not any more either. So much for claiming they could work on the same box because they don't.

I still have a device sold by HS I never was able to get working. And your support never managed to help. Now, what it is gonna be to support my failed so called upgrade and no longer working system?

[zguy]

Once upon a time.... PART 3

Here is what HS 3 told me after trying to import devices from the Z-Troller:

And obviously, no devices are showing up nowhere in HS3.

Honestly, after spending over 12 hours on this, something in my book should have taken minutes, at worst an hour, I'm disgusted.

[Rupp]

So, basically, I spent about 100$ CDN to screw up what I had working and now have nothing working. I could comment more on what I think of the new version interface. I sure I'm not too impressed on that part. It's a bit better than the old clumsy and clunking one. But at this point, I'd rather have a way to get something working again, preferably in the new version.

My main problem in the new version at this point, is that, although I successfully added the Z-Wave Troller interface, it does not import the devices. Here is what I get:

Now great! Can't paste the image. Will try in a next post.


And, of course, no devices show nowhere in the application.

On another note, I do understand the need to re-write the code from scratch. That was however not clear from the sales pages. Again, you should be forthcoming about this. The effort to "upgrade" as you call it is high enough not to call it an upgrade. It is actually a full re-install from scratches . Even your "events import utility" didn't work .

As a matter of fact, so far, after spending about 12 hours on this today, not only the new version does not work, but the older one does not any more either. So much for claiming they could work on the same box because they don't.

I still have a device sold by HS I never was able to get working. And your support never managed to help. Now, what it is gonna be to support my failed so called upgrade and no longer working system?

Wow that's a lot to read. For Z-Wave you should be running the latest Z-Wave beta available via the HS3 updater beta section near the bottom. The latest plugin has a lot of fixes.

[zguy]

Wow that's a lot to read. For Z-Wave you should be running the latest Z-Wave beta available via the HS3 updater beta section near the bottom. The latest plugin has a lot of fixes.

This is what HS shows:


Same version as in the beta plugins. Yet, not devices.

[Rupp]

This is what HS shows:
Same version as in the beta plugins. Yet, not devices.

I'm not near my system at the moment to get the exact links but did you try to import your devices from your Z-Troller and none imported?

[zguy]

I'm not near my system at the moment to get the exact links but did you try to import your devices from your Z-Troller and none imported?

I did import the devices from the Z-troller. You can see the result in the Part 3 post.

I can now see the devices.
But none of them are controllable. And they are not identified properly.

[Rupp]

I did import the devices from the Z-troller. You can see the result in the Part 3 post.

I can now see the devices.
But none of them are controllable. And they are not identified properly.

This is because HS couldn't reach your devices when you added them. HS queries a device when it's added and if it can't reach the device you get what is shown in the screen shot. I would recommend trying a few optimizations and remember to wake any battery operated devices. You can also select the rescan option on any device to manually scan it again. I personally started over with HS3 and added my devices starting closest to the controller working my way out and optimized after adding three to four devices. After this the network is strong and works very well.

[zguy]

Devices recognition

It seems that HS can not recognize the devices properly.

When I imported them from the z-troller, I got the following message for each devices:

Warning: Failed to retreive Z-Wave class information for node x, device synchronization/creation will not continue

When I go in the node information screen, what I see is not what is expected. All devices show Sigma Design as the manufacturer when none of them are. They are identified either as a switch binary or switch multilevel.

If you look at node 2 and 3, these 2 devices are Cooper Split control Duplex wall receptacle. One of them shows some command class while the other says "No command class available".

There is a similar problem with devices 15 and 16, which are Evolve in wall dimmers. And again, I have 4 devices like node 6 that all have the no command class error. These are GE lamp modules.