HAI HVAC Problems

[Scott Mischler]

I've lost the "HAI HVAC" part of the HAI plugin. I tried downloading the "HAI RC Thermostat" plugin thinking that this would resolve the issue. With the loss of the plugin, I've also lost the ability to get the information from my thermostats and external temp/humidity sensor even though they are still listed under the status page...it seems like they are no-longer updating.

Any thoughts??

[Rupp]

Welcome Scott,
Did you try first of all rebooting? Did you try reinstalling the HAI Omni plugin? What version of HS are you running?

[Scott Mischler]

Thanks Rupp,

I'm using the most current versions of HS and of the HAI plugin.

I've finally got it working....Seems like there is a little bit of quirkiness in the loadup of the plugin.

HAI seems to go through 2 "loads"...the first load starts HAI and gathers some information...then it goes through a second script where it seems to do a "device polling". When I reboot the computer (windows XPPRO)...if the second script doesn't occur, the HVAC component doesn't load...if the second script runs, it goes through the poll and identifies the HAI devices, then the HVAC component shows up. I've rebooted at least 6 times and sometimes the HVAC component shows, sometimes not. Interestingly, even when the HVAC component doesn't show, there is communications with the OmniProII because I can see changes in the status of security zones.

I'd like to findout more details on how the HAI plugin works...maybe I could help solve the problem.

[Rick Tinker]

Your questions were answered in the help file that comes with the plug-in. In the section, appropriately named: "How It Works - What To Expect" - the section ends with these lines:

And finally, the completion of the startup/recovery check should be indicated with the following line:

~HAI System~!~All HAI Items and Units are Up-To-Date. Triggers and Conditions are now active.

When you see the above line, the plug-in is fully functional.

[Scott Mischler]

Thanks Rick,

The problem is that on at least 50% of the bootups, the startup/recovery check hangs. The final line in the logfile is "1/14/2006 6:37:11 PM - HAI System - Getting panel configuration information." ...nothing else (HAI) loads and the "HVAC" component doesn't show (note the HAI Security and the HAI Units and Devices components always load).

Once the "getting panel configuration information" processes begin, what triggers the next part of the plugin startup?

Scott

ps..I'm trying to configure the mscAudrey plugin....and have been rebooting a lot.

[Sean Willoughby]

Sounds like some of the problems I had. Good luck! I tried a help desk ticket and overall I was told that nothing is wrong with this plug-in. It was my fault. However I am have much butter sucess with the previous plug-in.

[JLehnert]

This is EXACTLY the same problem I'm having. Sometime it loads correctly, other times it doesn't. I have a open help desk ticket, but the last week was real busy and I haven't been able to document the latest findings (or lack thereof).

Could you please check one thing? When you shut down HS, pull up task manager and see if hspi_HAI and hs17compatibility shut down at the same time? (I'm not sure of the exact name on the second one, and I'm not at home at the moment) I've noticed that these two programs do not always shut down on my installation.

Also, when the hai security and hai units load, but not the hai hvac, is there actually data in the security and units areas? When mine fails, the HVAC is not available at all, and the other two areas are empty.

[Scott Mischler]

Jlehnert,

I just rebooted and HVAC was not available. When I shut down the Homeseer Service, there were still services under Task Manager Processes. I closed those services. Then I went to Services under Administrative Tools and restarted the Homeseer Service. Then I checked task Manager and found - Homeseerservice.exe, hs_compatability.exe, hspi_hai.exe under Processes and HS1.x interface plug - in and hspi_hai under Task Manager Applications. Then I started homeseer on Localhost and HVAC and all other components were present. The next time I reboot and HVAC fails to load, I'll check Task Manager and let you know.

Scott

ps...You were right...when HVAC is not loaded, HAI Security and the HAI Units and Devices components load and contain devices, units, etc...but no data....it apparently loads the framework but doesn't poll the devices.

[beerguy]

I have run in to a similar problem lately. No idea if we have the same problem, but I found that I had to wait and not click anywhere for about 3-4 minutes. If I waited without doing anything my log file would say:

1/16/2006 12:01:57 PM - HAI System - All HAI Items and Units are Up-To-Date. Triggers and Conditions are now active.
1/16/2006 12:01:57 PM - HAI System - --- Elapsed time: 1 seconds.
1/16/2006 12:01:57 PM - HAI System - --- DONE with global update of system at: 12:01:57 PM
1/16/2006 12:01:56 PM - HAI System - --- Starting global update of system at: 12:01:56 PM

If I don't wait this never shows up in my log file. This has now worked 100% of the time.

The one other thing to know is that I'm in the trial version if that makes any difference.
Pat

[JLehnert]

If things are working correctly, then I get that message also. Takes around a minute or so.

If things are not working, I've waited over 13 hours without it showing up.

[Rick Tinker]

OK, here are the details of what is going on - if it helps in some way, let me know...

When you are getting name data or configuration data from the panel, it is a series of packets being sent back and forth. The panel sends a name or config packet, the plug-in responds with an ACK that it got it and waits for the next one. If the system is overloaded at startup and not enough CPU is given to the HAI plug-in when it is trying to download the configuration from the panel, then a config packet or an ACK back to the panel might get missed because of timeout situations. In this case, while it is possible to send a retry request, the protocol is too flimsy for me to truly trust that I am getting the packet I missed versus it re-sending one I already got, and there is no packet sequence number (hence the flimsy part) for me to know this, so an error like this causes the plug-in to abort the sequence. If this happens, then it is attempted a 2nd time, and if that fails, then the plug-in displays the message:

Failed to get the panel configuration information. Please restart HomeSeer after checking the panel connection and passcode.

This might be getting missed by people and so they think that the plug-in is suppose to be doing its thing when it is in fact NOT doing its thing.

Once the config has been retrieved, the panel goes into its update sequence where it gets the status of everything in the panel. This is so it can update the devices to be in sync with the panel BEFORE it starts allowing triggers to happen in HomeSeer. Here is an example of why it does this - if the panel was disarmed when HS was shut down, then you armed it, then started HS, then the plug-in would run all of your events based upon the system being armed even though it may have been armed hours ago. Thus, all of the devices are updated and then the plug-in changes a flag which allows updates to the devices to cause triggers to happen.

If the plug-in is not successful in getting the configuration, I don't know what to tell you other than perhaps to change the IO_INTERFACES line in your settings.ini file so that the HAI/OnQ plug-in is the LAST plug-in to be loaded, thus giving time for the other plug-ins' initializations to finish sucking up all of the CPU in the system. If changing the order of the plug-ins fixes the problem, let me know - although it will delay the start of the plug-in further, I can modify it to either wait a little bit before downloading the configuration, or I can increase the number of attempts that it makes.

[JLehnert]

No dice Rick. I moved HAI to load last, but it still failed. I let it run 3.5 hours, and never did get the "failed to get configuration" message (and yes, I used the search function). I'm gonna try moving HAI to the front of the queue, but I'm not hopeful.

Knowing you don't spend every minute monitoring this board, I'll dump this info into the current help desk ticket.