Constantly Needing To Reboot Homeseer For OMNI To Work

[Pete]

Curious how you have Windows 10 updates scheduled?

Windows 10 will typically take care of itself before anything else running on the computer. It doesn't really throttle it's connections.

There is a bunch of fluff running on Windows 10 that provides you with some nice eye candy for that ultimate experience.

I have been able to thin out Windows 10 using Revo uninstaller. There is a list I posted relating to what I removed that you cannot remove with the built in Windows 10 uninstaller.

Stuff like weather, news, games, et al.

[bitjockey]

I regularly use Revo and CCleaner to kill all that fluff, no Candy Crush, news, weather, etc. All very minimal. The Minix Neo has been quite stable, apart from one experience where it bricked itself.

And when my Omni plugin disconnects, I don't reboot HS3, I just disable and re-enable the Omni plugin.

[Pete]

What model of the Minix Neo are you using?

Maybe watch the Blue Iris plugin resource utilization?

Do you have a ZWave USB stick plugged in to your Minix?

Does the Minix Neo have a Gb ethernet port?

Maybe watching W10 resource monitor or utilizing Jon's resource monitor?

What is the network topology like?

IE: router combo switch (is it a Gb switch?) ==> direct connects to devices on the network?

[bitjockey]

My Minix is the Z83-4, which supposedly has a Gb Ethernet port.
I will try disabling my Blue Iris plugin and see if that helps, I don't really use it for much.
I do have a ZWave USB stick plugged in, an older Aeon Labs v2, latest firmware.
Router is an Asus RT-N66U, with a 24-port Gb switch, most devices plug into the switch.

I will try to monitor more closely, but that's hard to do when I'm not there, as TeamViewer adds lots of extra burden when I'm remote.

Great suggestions Pete, I will report back but it may be a week or two, thanks

[Pete]

Instead of using Team viewer you can maybe install a VPN server on the Asus RT-N66U and VNC on Windows 10 to see it via via your home?

You can also create a VPN tunnel between your vacation home and regular home such that your home network would include your vacation home network.

[raprap]

Pete rmasonjr

So far, all is well here. I have had one Panel Offline event. At the time I had PC Access connected to the panel for an extended period of time, maybe 24 hrs, as I'm troubleshooting some UPB signal noise. Finally traced it down to a bank of three fluorescent fixtures in the garage which happen to be on the same branch circuit as the Omni!

At one point PC Access just died. Showed that it was connected but nothing. Has to shut it down and restart so I think Pete nailed this one with the panel getting overloaded. Now, where to find an old, slow hub!?!

[Pete]

Good news raprap.

PCA is fussy and does lock up sometimes if there is some sort of network disconnect. Way back with network problems went to using PCA via a serial connection until my problems were solved.

Here utilize a micro router inside of the can powered by the panel. Tiny thing. The NEXX microuter I use can be found on Ebay for around $20.

I upgraded it to using OpenWRT. With a router you can manage and watch the network traffic.

Don't use one of those hooded network cables in the panel as when you pull the ethernet cable out of the port it tends to pull up on the network port and gets loosey goosey after a while and I have seen cases where the connections do come unsoldered.

Way back and due to UPB powerline noise initially tried a UPB phase coupler which didn't fix it to going to a UPB split phase repeater. Works great.

Still also have X10 in place and using Jeff Volp's dual phased TW-523 emulators (X10 on steroids). Panel here connects to UPB, X10, ZWave (VRCOP) and Zigbee (HAI ZIM).

About two years ago here replaced the garage lighting and other home fluorescent lighting to LED lighting. Daylight now in the garage using about 25 watts of LED lighting.

Did kitchen LED's a few weeks back. Easy stuff these days.

[raprap]

Good news raprap.

PCA is fussy and does lock up sometimes if there is some sort of network disconnect. Way back with network problems went to using PCA via a serial connection until my problems were solved.

Here utilize a micro router inside of the can powered by the panel. Tiny thing. The NEXX microuter I use can be found on Ebay for around $20.

I upgraded it to using OpenWRT. With a router you can manage and watch the network traffic.

Don't use one of those hooded network cables in the panel as when you pull the ethernet cable out of the port it tends to pull up on the network port and gets loosey goosey after a while and I have seen cases where the connections do come unsoldered.

Way back and due to UPB powerline noise initially tried a UPB phase coupler which didn't fix it to going to a UPB split phase repeater. Works great.

Still also have X10 in place and using Jeff Volp's dual phased TW-523 emulators (X10 on steroids). Panel here connects to UPB, X10, ZWave (VRCOP) and Zigbee (HAI ZIM).

About two years ago here replaced the garage lighting and other home fluorescent lighting to LED lighting. Daylight now in the garage using about 25 watts of LED lighting.

Did kitchen LED's a few weeks back. Easy stuff these days.

Thanks, much Pete

Just found a 10Mbps HUB (not switch) on eBay for $15. I'll give that a try, it should slow things down enough and be just fine for the OMNI-plugin and Communicator Board.

To test, I pulled out the gigabit switch and it seemed OK with direct to Omni panel. 24 hours without disconnect. Put the switch back in and disconnect started right up. Even tried different ports on the switch. Oddly, went back direct to the panel and now seeing disconnects.

I just refreshed a dozen 48" fluorescent tubes with new daylight ones. Great light! Probably should have swapped out for LED fixtures. Put that on the list or maybe a few wire-in PWC ILC filters.

[raprap]

Update: I have had the half-duplex 10mbps hub in place for about two weeks now. The incidence of OMNI disconnects has gone way down but only after I removed the OMNI notifier board from the hub. Prior to removing the notifier it was still going offline frequently, maybe daily. After removing the notifier board I have gone several days without a disconnect but it seems about every 48 hours it will disconnect. Runnig with the notifier disconnected for now.

The last disconnect occurred when the motion detector tripped and was updating HS...poof.

Second disconnect this evening;
11/14/2018 8:54:44 PM [2] [CONNECTION STATUS: Disconnected]
11/14/2018 8:54:43 PM [2] [CONNECTION STATUS: Retrying]
11/14/2018 8:54:35 PM [2] [CONNECTION STATUS: Connection Reset By Peer]
11/14/2018 8:54:32 PM [2] [CONNECTION STATUS: Retrying]
11/14/2018 8:54:23 PM [2] [CONNECTION STATUS: Retrying]
11/14/2018 8:54:16 PM [2] [CONNECTION STATUS: Retrying]
11/14/2018 8:54:11 PM [2] [CONNECTION STATUS: Retrying]
11/14/2018 8:40:15 PM [2] [--> Zone 2 changed status. Updating Homeseer...]
11/14/2018 8:40:15 PM [2] [SECURE]

[rmasonjr]

Update: I have had the half-duplex 10mbps hub in place for about two weeks now. The incidence of OMNI disconnects has gone way down but only after I removed the OMNI notifier board from the hub. Prior to removing the notifier it was still going offline frequently, maybe daily. After removing the notifier board I have gone several days without a disconnect but it seems about every 48 hours it will disconnect. Runnig with the notifier disconnected for now.

The last disconnect occurred when the motion detector tripped and was updating HS...poof.

Second disconnect this evening;
11/14/2018 8:54:44 PM [2] [CONNECTION STATUS: Disconnected]
11/14/2018 8:54:43 PM [2] [CONNECTION STATUS: Retrying]
11/14/2018 8:54:35 PM [2] [CONNECTION STATUS: Connection Reset By Peer]
11/14/2018 8:54:32 PM [2] [CONNECTION STATUS: Retrying]
11/14/2018 8:54:23 PM [2] [CONNECTION STATUS: Retrying]
11/14/2018 8:54:16 PM [2] [CONNECTION STATUS: Retrying]
11/14/2018 8:54:11 PM [2] [CONNECTION STATUS: Retrying]
11/14/2018 8:40:15 PM [2] [--> Zone 2 changed status. Updating Homeseer...]
11/14/2018 8:40:15 PM [2] [SECURE]

I sure wish I knew what to do to prevent the disconnects. Those messages above are from the HAI DLL and indicate that the HAI library attempted to reconnect for 33 seconds or so.
Again, I can add reconnect code in there, but it is going to seriously impact your system when it polls the panel on reconnect. Messages to/from the panel will be missed during that time as well.
I'll start investigating to see what options I have.

[lakemirror]

While you're on this, Rob, I'll re-float my disconnect situation. I used to have seemingly random disconnects until I did two things...I removed my internal IP cameras from the network and isolated the omni panel behind a router.

Now, there is only one event that causes a panel disconnect for me....an "all units on" event. My OP2 is setup to perform all units on in the event of burglary. It's almost like clockwork....burglary mode activates (because I'm stupid enough not to remember to disarm the system in the morning), all lights come on, and the panel disconnects then reconnects. Reconnect takes about 5 minutes or so.

I'll scratch out some time tomorrow to test this with the logs on debug, then send you the logs. We've discussed this a while back.

Tom

[Pete]

there is only one event that causes a panel disconnect for me....an "all units on" event.


Curious if you are running the event using the Omni Plugin?

How many units?

Here run a similiar automation line on the OmniPro 2 panel that blinks the lighting.

Here have left the cameras connected and configured in PCA with the microrouter in place.

[raprap]

I sure wish I knew what to do to prevent the disconnects. Those messages above are from the HAI DLL and indicate that the HAI library attempted to reconnect for 33 seconds or so.
Again, I can add reconnect code in there, but it is going to seriously impact your system when it polls the panel on reconnect. Messages to/from the panel will be missed during that time as well.
I'll start investigating to see what options I have.

Thanks for your update and looking into this. I'm still at it trying to track down a bit more info.
Once the panel disconnects, a reconnect whether it is manually initiated or automatically initiated seems like it will have the same impact on the overall system. No getting around this, once it's offline there nothing left to do. If you were to implement an auto restart perhaps you could implement an enable/disable option.

Further update... watching the system with the notifier board still disconnected. i) once the OMNI disconnects and upon restart it will usually disconnect in 1 - 2 hours, ii) however, if after the last disconnect I power cycle the HUB there will not be a disconnect for about four days. It disconnected this morning at 5:39AM. Alarm set in night mode, nothing really happening at all, same ol' log info:

11/18/2018 5:29:31 AM [2] [CONNECTION STATUS: Disconnected]
11/18/2018 5:29:31 AM [2] [CONNECTION STATUS: Retrying]
11/18/2018 5:29:21 AM [2] [CONNECTION STATUS: Connection Reset By Peer]
11/18/2018 5:29:16 AM [2] [CONNECTION STATUS: Retrying]
11/18/2018 5:29:02 AM [2] [CONNECTION STATUS: Retrying]
11/18/2018 5:28:51 AM [2] [CONNECTION STATUS: Retrying]
11/18/2018 5:28:42 AM [2] [CONNECTION STATUS: Retrying]
11/18/2018 5:28:35 AM [2] [CONNECTION STATUS: Retrying]
11/18/2018 5:28:30 AM [2] [CONNECTION STATUS: Retrying]
11/18/2018 3:27:13 AM [2] [--> Zone 2 changed status. Updating Homeseer...]

Zone 2 is an interior motion detector that was tripped two hours prior to the disconnect.
The Panel Log is all quiet too.

I do know that once I plug the notifier board into the HUB disconnects are more frequent. Seeming to indicate the HUB is doing a better job but it fails too somehow. Is it possible that this Dynex HUB is just bad? I'm willing to chase down another one like a Net Gear or other suggestions...

Putting the Hub behind a router...not real clear to me how to do this and manage DHCP, port forwarding..etc in concert with the total network. If someone can point me to a tutorial or instructions I will have a look. @lakemirror

[Pete]

Putting a router in place is easy peasy...

The LAN side connects to the OP2 ethernet port and the WAN side connects to your network.

The LAN side IP subnet has to match the OP2 IP address. I changed my OP2 IP address and made the WAN side IP address the same as the old ethernet IP.

I also went to using the smallest travel router with two ethernet ports that I could find and powered it by a mini 12VDC to 5VDC transformer to make it all self contained.

The LAN side autonegociates at 10Mbs 1/2 duplex and the WAN side autonegociates at 100Mbs full duplex. I only let pass port 80, 22 and 43XX and use OpenWRT firmware here. You configure it once and never look at it again. Here utilize the built in firmware diagnostic utilities / graphing to watch the OP2 / Omni traffic. There isn't much.

Without the firewall in place the OP2 Ethernet port is old and very promiscuous and sees too much stuff (broadcast traffic et al) and that binds up the ethernet port and

[raprap]

Pete
"The LAN side IP subnet has to match the OP2 IP address. I changed my OP2 IP address and made the WAN side IP address the same as the old ethernet IP."
Pretty sure I don't understand this configuration.
WAN side IP address is the address of the router, correct? Subnet is always 255.255.255.0

Back to the issue if disconnects with just the 10BaseT hub - disconnects within an hour or two with the communicator board also plugged into the hub and disconnects after 3 to 4 days without the communicator board in the hub. So, with or without the router it seems something is in the hub is going awry. If it were traffic on the home network I think it would affect the hub for either case.