Errors in Plugin1.0.9.1

[lpitman]

Why do I still get these errors ?

4/5/2005 8:27:17 PM~!~HAI System~!~Checksum calc error: 98E6 and message has 7858 for message type 18
4/5/2005 8:27:27 PM~!~HAI System~!~Checksum calc error: 4815 and message has BB27 for message type 16
4/5/2005 8:28:59 PM~!~HAI System~!~Checksum calc error: F0B9 and message has 7858 for message type 18


Everything appears to work ok, but these anoying messages just fill up the log. Any ideas ?


Larry.

[Rick Tinker]

Well, they are indicative of a communications problem. The problem can be caused by several factors....
1. A legitimate electrical problem caused by a serial cable that is too long or running near high power equipment.
2. The plug-in not being able to perform as fast as it needs due to the CPU being too busy all the time.
3. The COM port on the PC not having a good buffer for overflow protection.
4. The plug-in asking for too much information from the HAI panel at one time for how busy the panel is (instead of returning a valid packet with less or no information, it returns a bad packet with the checksum messed up.)

Suspicions 3 and 4 have very good potential as the cause. I have recently learned that Microsoft's serial port control is a VERY poor performer, and that is what I am using. When I get back to working on this plug-in, I am going to replace it with a 3rd party high performance serial port controller that I found and have had good results with in other applications. We can see if we can mitigate this, if this is the cause and not suspicion 4, by reducing the polling rate if your system is frequently very busy. You can change it by putting a "PollingInterval" setting in your INI file - the default is 500ms, so try a value of 1000 (every second) and see what happens - e.g.:
PollingInterval=1000

Suspicion 4 is something that the beta version can address. The INI settings are: Poll_U, Poll_Z, and Poll_T for determining how many Units, Zones, and Thermostats to get the status for at one time. The default values are 25, 16, and 4 respectively. You can try reducing the number of units first as that is the one that routinely flusters a busy HAI system - try this setting:
Poll_U=10
And if that does not help, try cutting the zones in half:
Poll_Z=8

Hopefully one of these will make a definite improvement which will lead me to understand which problem is the cause.

[anogee]

Rick, which beta version has did those ini settings first appear in? (Poll_U, Poll_Z, and Poll_T) I'm not using the beta now because of problems that maybe these settings will fix.

[mbreeden]

I am using the latest beta and can not find that info. Which ini file is it located in?

- Mike

[Rick Tinker]

In the file HAI-BETA-Important.txt that I KNOW you all read, it says under the entry for "Update 1/24/2005 - Version 1.1.59":

INI entries to control the polling system in the plug-in are described in the help file. If your system with the current beta gets a lot of CheckSum errors, please consider adding entries for adjusting Poll_U, Poll_Z, and Poll_T. Try reducing the default values for these items as described in the help file to see if they eliminate the CheckSum errors while still providing adequate update times for the non-event items in the system.

And before that in the same doc...

Help files have been updated - please let me know what topics I have missed covering in the help file so I can get it added before this goes to production. The Web User Configuration page needs a screen capture and more detailed information.

So if those don't help, let me know - might have to write the help file differently but it should be there.

[mbreeden]

Rick:

Thanks for the information. I added the lines in the ini file but it made no difference. I still get the Checksum errors. I only have about 19 zones and I am not running any scripts on the HAI panel. I have a very simple setup. It is just running security and my TSTAT.

- Mike

[Rick Tinker]

What settings did you use? The values you set them to is important.

Also, what system do you have running HS and what other plug-ins are running? e.g. A PC running at 300MHz can be the cause of Checksum errors rather than the panel.

Rick

[mbreeden]

Rick:

I have a Dell 2.8 P4 machine running HS. It is a semi-dedicated machine. The only plug-ins that I have are:

HAI
Doo menu
HSTV
WAFCallerID
Slink-e
Weather XML

I do not have a lot of scripts running, very simple setup.

[Rick Tinker]

OK - Checksums are constant or just at specific times of the day?

Also, what is the panel firmware version?

[mbreeden]

Rick:

They are constant. They are random throughout the day/night. some come minutes apart and other 4 hrs.

I will have to check the version of the panel when I get home. It was purchased in Jan 04.

Thanks

- Mike

edited: I meant that constant in the fact they are always happening but random in the occurrance.

[mbreeden]

Rick:

The panel firmware is version 2.5. Also, I used the setting that you posted earlier in this thread. (it did not increase nor decrease the errors)

- Mike