UPB delay?

[Uncle Michael]

I'm not sure if this is related the last thread or not, but I am also seeing some delays. I'm hoping the attached log extract will help with a diagnosis. (Most recent is at the top.)

UPBdebug.txt

[spud]

I don't think it's related.
Do you use a PIM or a PGW?

Do you still have the delays after a restart of the plugin?

[Uncle Michael]

I'm using the PCS serial PIM. I just tried it again after restarting the plug-in.

[spud]

What does the following events do?
"Lighting Scenes Kitchen Scene Cook"
"Kitchen Motion Kitchen Occupied - Activity or scn Cook"
"Lighting Adjust Kitchen"
Could you post some screenshots of them?

Don't you have some kind of loop there?

Do you have the delay problem when you turn on one UPB device, or is it only with UPB Link and/or these events?

[Uncle Michael]

The first two events set virtual devices. One keeps track of the scene selected, the second monitors the room for occupancy.
The third event runs a script, which re-sends the UPB link in this case, so it's sort of a loop.

This is the only circumstance where I have noticed a delay. If re-sending the link could be the cause, that should be easy to fix. I'll modify, retest, and report back.

Edit: Preliminary test looks like that was the cause. I need to do a bit more, but am curious why. (The event that could cause a loop had a re-trigger restriction to prevent an endless loop. Would that cause HS to wait?)

[Uncle Michael]

More testing confirms that the delay seems to be caused by two link message being sent in succession. I can avoid re-sending the same link, but the reason for the second link transmission is that I want HS to use the selected lighting scene as input, but use time of day and daylight brightness to adjust secondary lights and the overall lighting level. For example, if it's morning or evening or the day is overcast, the light over the kitchen table will be brighter than at midday. If it's dark out and the 'Off' scene is selected, HS will replace that with a scene that provides a low level of lighting to prevent the kitchen from being a black hole.

In those cases where the overall scene is replaced the adjustment is still delayed, but if only ancillary lighting is adjusted, there does not appear to be a delay now. It seems that sending two link messages in the space of a second or two to the same target receivers is what leads to the delay. Is that what you would expect? Is there a minimal timing gap that I can include to prevent the problem?

[spud]

I'm not sure to understand why you need to send the same link twice, anyway there is probably a bug here but I can't tell by just looking at the logs, if you can find a very simple test case where this problem happens everytime, I could try to replicate it on my setup even if I'm not sure I would be able to, as my UPB network is very small.

[Uncle Michael]

I'm not sure to understand why you need to send the same link twice,

I don't need to do that. That part is fixed. I just did that because I didn't think it would cause a problem. I now assure only new links get sent, so no repeat links occur. (That change was easy and helps quite a bit.) What I still do is (occasionally) send a new link soon after the original. That is because the button press on my keypad to select a lighting scene sends a link to the associated switches and to HS. HS uses the link along with environmental data to determine if a different scene is more appropriate. It so, it sends a new link to the same switches.

. . .anyway there is probably a bug here but I can't tell by just looking at the logs, if you can find a very simple test case where this problem happens everytime, I could try to replicate it on my setup even if I'm not sure I would be able to, as my UPB network is very small.

Basically, the problem occurs when I send two (different) links in quick succession to about a half dozen switches. (I don't know if the number of target switches is a factor or not.) The first link comes from a key press, the second is from the plug-in in response to the first link.

The issue is not serious. Now that I know to avoid sending a duplicate link, the frequency of the delay has been cut by over half. Also, the cases where I still experience a delay are not very evident, so the delay is often unnoticeable. I'd still like to understand if there is a way to avoid it, but it's more curiosity than anything else.