Constant on and off of zone

[itanic]

I've upgraded from HS2 to HS3 and can't seem to fix an issue with my configuration of the plugin. As you can see from the attached screenshot of the run log, a zone in my system is constantly turning on and off. When it does this, there is a checkbox in the "Run Manual" for the zone on the Zone Status Page. How can this be fixed?

[Michael McSharry]

The external and forced control is from a source outside mcsSprinklers. External control is designed for use from the setup on the Remote Page such as from a handheld device. It is also possible that the HS API is used as external control.

More specific information such as Config\mcsSprinklers.ini and a general debug log will enable me to give better guidance.

[itanic]

configuration file attached.

[Michael McSharry]

Setup looks normal. Can you enable Debug from the bottom of the Other Page and collect data as a valve is being commanded such as you showed before?

[dmauer]

Having the same issue. Wondering if it is related to the update of the X10 plug-in (3.0.0.36)? Very frustrating. Any resolution?

6/22/2015 6:16:57 AM A1:J1 X10 Front Main ON
6/22/2015 6:17:00 AM A1:J1 X10 Front Main External OFF
6/22/2015 6:17:00 AM A1:J1 X10 Front Main Forced OFF
6/22/2015 6:17:01 AM A1:J2 X10 West Side External ON
6/22/2015 6:17:02 AM A1:J1 X10 Front Main OFF
6/22/2015 6:17:12 AM A1:J2 X10 West Side ON
6/22/2015 6:17:15 AM A1:J2 X10 West Side External OFF
6/22/2015 6:17:15 AM A1:J2 X10 West Side Forced OFF
6/22/2015 6:17:17 AM A1:J1 X10 Front Main External ON
6/22/2015 6:17:17 AM A1:J2 X10 West Side OFF
6/22/2015 6:17:27 AM A1:J1 X10 Front Main ON
6/22/2015 6:17:30 AM A1:J1 X10 Front Main External OFF
6/22/2015 6:17:30 AM A1:J1 X10 Front Main Forced OFF
6/22/2015 6:17:33 AM A1:J1 X10 Front Main OFF
6/22/2015 6:17:34 AM A1:J2 X10 West Side External ON
6/22/2015 6:17:43 AM A1:J1 X10 Front Main ON
6/22/2015 6:17:48 AM A1:J1 X10 Front Main OFF
6/22/2015 6:17:53 AM A1:J2 X10 West Side ON
6/22/2015 6:17:55 AM A1:J2 X10 West Side External OFF
6/22/2015 6:17:55 AM A1:J2 X10 West Side Forced OFF
6/22/2015 6:17:57 AM A1:J1 X10 Front Main External ON
6/22/2015 6:17:58 AM A1:J2 X10 West Side OFF
6/22/2015 6:18:08 AM A1:J1 X10 Front Main ON
6/22/2015 6:18:10 AM A1:J1 X10 Front Main External OFF
6/22/2015 6:18:10 AM A1:J1 X10 Front Main Forced OFF
6/22/2015 6:18:13 AM A1:J1 X10 Front Main OFF

Worked some more on the issue last night. Moved to previous versions of X10 and mcsSprinklers, restored old configurations and ini's. No luck. What I have not done yet is restored HomeSeer from .187.

[hansonsd]

I am also seeing the same issue. Turned debug on today and waiting for the random on/off to occur. Also using X10 plugin.

[Michael McSharry]

In another thread using X10 plugin I setup a test environment and was not seeing any of the external/forced messages and had normal X10 control via mcsSprinklers. To take the next step the debug output is needed to try to understand what is causing the commands from outside of mcsSprinklers to be received.

As a note there is an option on the Remote Page of mcsSprinklers to disable the ability to directly command a value. For example if your zone is I1 and mcsSprinklers receives an I1 ON command it will either ignore it or it will treat it as an intentional remote attempt to manually control I1 depending upon this setting. It may not be related. In my production setup I disable direct control to prevent unintentional control.

[hansonsd]

Here's my debug info...
At 7:08PM today, I see the EXTERNAL ON messages. Also, I have today (an even day) restricted, yet I see several on/off messages today.

[Michael McSharry]

What I see is at 8 minutes past each hour the external command may be generated. This seems to be due to mcsSprinklers putting the soil moisture level in the status of the device. Likely when I was testing I did not happen to be doing it at 8 minutes past the hour. In the next update I will remove this action.

Currently working on water use calculation issue and when finished I will put it in the updater.

[Michael McSharry]

Version 2.15.0.18 is available

[dmauer]

Version 2.15.0.18 is available

Updated to .18 however, still having the on and off issues. Attached is my debug file.

[Michael McSharry]

What I saw in the debug is not something that I had expected, but can understand. mcsSprinklers asks HS to turn a valve ON. I believe you are using X10 plugin so HS asks this plugin to control the valve. The DeviceValue of the zone (e.g. J1) does not change when mcsSprinklers makes the request. I suspect it only changes when the X10 plugin updates status.

mcsSprinklers also has a monitor function and it observes that a valve that it commanded to be ON was actually OFF so it attempts to correct. In this case it was not a failure, but just a timing problem so the corrective action resulted in a ON/OFF cycle.

I added additional logic to try to address this in 2.15.0.19. Since it is a timing issue it is hard to evaluate. I do not experience it with my X10 setup, but I only have the two plugins and have a faster PC.

If you continue to have problems please produce a debug file again. It may also be useful to have your \Config\mcsSprinklers.ini if further investigation is needed.

[dmauer]

2.15.0.19 seems to have fixed the issue. Yes, I am running homeseer on a Intel Bay Trail-M N2807 machine that seems to be running it fine. I have switched to MCSsprinklers to use Homeseer devices. I am on the Rain8 X10 however now using Insteon X10. When I began having issues, I assumed it was the X10 controller and switched to the Insteon X10 and moved to the HS devices. Bottom line, appears that the logic you added did the trick.

Thanks for your valued support.

[hansonsd]

Applied the update as well, and my system is now working. Thanks for the help!!!

[dmauer]

I have one last issue. As stated, using HS devices and getting my first location that fires over and over throughout the cycle. Unsure why? Front Main is my first zone that is scheduled.

Location
7/26/2015 3:00:00 AM A1:J1 Sprinklers Front Main ON
7/26/2015 3:22:00 AM A1:J1 Sprinklers Front Main ON
7/26/2015 3:22:00 AM A1:J2 Sprinklers West Side ON
7/26/2015 3:22:02 AM A1:J2 Sprinklers West Side External ON
7/26/2015 3:22:02 AM A1:J1 Sprinklers Front Main OFF
7/26/2015 3:23:00 AM A1:J1 Sprinklers Front Main OFF
7/26/2015 3:42:04 AM A1:J2 Sprinklers West Side OFF
7/26/2015 3:43:00 AM A1:J1 Sprinklers Front Main ON
7/26/2015 3:43:00 AM A1:J3 Sprinklers Back Edge ON
7/26/2015 3:43:02 AM A1:J3 Sprinklers Back Edge External ON
7/26/2015 3:43:02 AM A1:J1 Sprinklers Front Main OFF
7/26/2015 3:44:00 AM A1:J1 Sprinklers Front Main OFF
7/26/2015 4:03:04 AM A1:J3 Sprinklers Back Edge OFF
7/26/2015 4:04:00 AM A1:J1 Sprinklers Front Main ON
7/26/2015 4:04:00 AM A1:J4 Sprinklers Back Center ON
7/26/2015 4:04:02 AM A1:J4 Sprinklers Back Center External ON
7/26/2015 4:04:03 AM A1:J1 Sprinklers Front Main OFF
7/26/2015 4:05:01 AM A1:J1 Sprinklers Front Main OFF
7/26/2015 4:24:04 AM A1:J4 Sprinklers Back Center OFF
7/26/2015 4:25:00 AM A1:J1 Sprinklers Front Main ON
7/26/2015 4:25:00 AM A1:J5 Sprinklers East Back Back ON
7/26/2015 4:25:02 AM A1:J5 Sprinklers East Back Back External ON
7/26/2015 4:25:03 AM A1:J1 Sprinklers Front Main OFF
7/26/2015 4:26:00 AM A1:J1 Sprinklers Front Main OFF
7/26/2015 4:40:03 AM A1:J5 Sprinklers East Back Back OFF
7/26/2015 4:41:00 AM A1:J1 Sprinklers Front Main ON
7/26/2015 4:41:00 AM A1:J6 Sprinklers Front Garden ON
7/26/2015 4:41:02 AM A1:J6 Sprinklers Front Garden External ON