Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Hubitat devices update status but can't be controlled

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Hubitat devices update status but can't be controlled

    I'm getting started on replacing my Insteon network with Zigbee and just got a Hubitat Elevation C7 and some generic outlets to play with. I've plugged one of the outlets in and can control it from the Hubitat's UI.

    I then followed the instructions for getting the mcsHubitat plug-in configured and I can see the outlet device in HS4.

    If I control the outlet from the native Hubitat UI, I can see its status change in HomeSeer, but if I click the "on" and "off" buttons for the Homeseer device, nothing happens. I've triple-checked that I followed all of the instructions correctly, so I'm not sure what's going on.

    Versions are:

    mcsHubitat: 4.4.4.2
    Hub platform: 2.3.1.142

    I also see in the instructions that A log of bidirectional communication between HS and Hubitat can be collected in the file “habitat_debug.txt”, but I can't find a way to enable this logging, and I assume I have to enable it because that file is currently not being created.

    And one last question... I see that the devices found by this plug-in get "HE1-" prepended to their names in HomeSeer. Is there some way to turn that off so I just have the bare device name from the HE?

    Thanks.

    #2
    Where are you running HS4? On Windows or something else (RPI for example). When you pull the devices over first time it creates (or should) a set of HT hub controls in HS one being sync. If there hit the sync button. This is also done by shutting down the plugin and restarting it. If you are running Windows and have debug turned on in the plugin the debug file is in the HS4 directory in the data tree.

    You can edit the HE-1 out in HS since the system uses the devices object numbers not the name so it doesn’t matter. It’s a good thing to have it use the HE-1 for example when pulling devices over into HS if you have more than one HT hub. I have four so HE-1,HE-2 (so forth) and it’s easier to keep track of that way. Also when and if you want to get to more advanced uses of multiple HT hubs they can communicate with each other and you can easily see if a device was shared on the HT side from one hub to another.

    Comment


      #3
      TL;DR: Restarting the plug-in made the outlet controllable from HS4
      • I'm running HS4 on a Windows Server 2012R2 VM.
      • I tried clicking sync but it didn't seem to change anything. I'm also not sure what I'd be synching since I didn't change anything on the Hubitat side after first connecting the plugin to it.
      • I do have debug enabled, and I restarted the plug-in just in case. I still don't have a log for this plugin anywhere under the Data folder.Click image for larger version

Name:	HS4 data folder.png
Views:	192
Size:	13.2 KB
ID:	1541916
      • While this didn't create the log file, it mysteriously caused the outlet to be controllable from HS4. I'd still like to figure out how to get the log file happening, though, in case of future issues.

      Comment


        #4
        \Config\mcsHubitat.ini is where the settings are saved. I will need to look as to why the Config page setting for debug is not working for you. It can be manually enabled by editing the file when the plugin is not enabled. It should be the DebugLog key, but just in case you may want to add the Debug key if I am wrong on the name.

        Code:
        DebugLog=True
        Debug=True
        The Sync makes a request from HS to Hubitat to deliver the description of devices that have been enabled with Hubitat's MakerAPI. If you already have the devices setup in HS then Sync will not have any noticeable effect. If you add a device to MakerAPI support then you will want to use the Sync button.

        I also do not know the relationship between settings & restart with respect to being able to control. I have never noticed the inability to control. If you have the Console enabled from HS Setup for developer mode then you will see the control commands being sent in the console window. They will also be in the debug file.

        Comment


          #5
          Originally posted by Eug View Post
          [*]I tried clicking sync but it didn't seem to change anything. I'm also not sure what I'd be synching since I didn't change anything on the Hubitat side after first connecting the plugin to it.[/LIST]
          I'm sure since you are just using a plug you didn't see anything BUT if the HT controller had the switch on and it was not on in HS if you hit the Sync it should come on in HS and be Synced then. Plugin Off/On does the same thing as it calls the devices again as Michael stated.

          Look here for your debug file in this directory:\HomeSeer HS4\Data\mcsHubitat

          Another thing I do to on my HT hubs is I create a Switch Timer With Reset Virtual Device in HT.(just search the HT community for the driver code). Once that is created I pull the Switch Timer device over into HS. Once there I create an event In HS that turns on that switch every 5 minutes and then I set the HT Switch Timer device in HT to reset after 10 seconds (turns it back off). This will keep everything synced every 5 minutes. Also just for safety sake I create another event in HS that watches the HT controller Watchdog in HS and if it gets over 10 minutes I do a HT controller sync from HS. This rarely happens but it can and will if something weird happens on the network (like a reboot of HS).

          Anyway I hope that helps you out and when it comes to the mcsHubitat plugin and all things associated with it Michael is the MAN!.

          Comment


            #6
            Thanks for the responses. I'm a bit concerned that there's a need for something like periodic resets. Should I be looking at a different Zigbee hub that's more reliable?

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by Eug View Post
              Thanks for the responses. I'm a bit concerned that there's a need for something like periodic resets. Should I be looking at a different Zigbee hub that's more reliable?
              I just do the syncs for my well being and it might be overkill but I am running four HT hubs and four HS Znets (large area) with many wifi connections etc so I want to be safe. I haven't found anything more reliable and flexible for Zigbee. There are also some other applications on HT hubs I like better than HS and the plugins.

              Comment


                #8
                I do not have Hubitat in production. Only for testing. From my perspective it is just a good system design to maximize availability. For whatever reason the connection can be dropped, or the application goes off the rails and a means to automatically restore it is good practice. When dealing with dumber interfaces the coverage of the lost communications is more limited. For example, a ping of the interface does not assure that the application running on the interface is still healthy. A wrap-around provides an evaluation of the entire communication cycle.

                For Zigbee I use Zibgee2MQTT in production. It has the most supported devices and an active community to add new devices when they appear. It is just an application running on a RPi in my case. I have not looked into what provisions exists in Zigbee2MQTT to assure availability. In general, I do not think it is not a consideration of developers who have not been exposed to systems where failure could have catastrophic consequences.

                When you see a product that have availability considerations you could view it as it is a fragile design and needs to be restarted all the time. You could also view it as an integration that is well thought out and have provisions for the unknown unknowns.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Revisiting the debug log issue a couple of weeks later, I've figured out what was going on. The log and everything else mcsHubitat-related is under the HS3 folder, not the HS4 folder, even though the plug-in was installed from within HS4, long after I upgraded from HS3.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    There is both a HS3 and a HS4 plugin for Hubitat. Could it be that you have the HS3 plugin installed? HS4 will accept either depending upon which one you select from the Updater.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Interesting. The legacy one was the only one that came up when I first did a "hubitat" search in plugins. I see the HS4 one now, so I'll get that installed and switch to it.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Wait... when I click to install the HS4 one, I get "reinstall" and "remove" options, so I guess I already have the HS4 one installed.

                        Comment

                        Working...
                        X