What a mess!

[jhimmel]

Okay, I am having a LOT of problems. Maybe my 2414U is no good, but before I call Smarthome, I have a couple of question I hope someone can answer.

1. My 2414U has a sticker that says v1.6 - is that an old version?
2. My 2414U blinks continuously - is that normal?
3. Currently, my 2414U can not poll status successfully, but I could have sworn it worked in the beginning.
4. Currently, my 2414U can send X10 commands, but does not seem to receive them.
5. Given 3 and 4, is there any way to do a hard reset of this device? I tried something I saw in another post (unplug, wait 30sec, hold button while plugging in, release after 5 sec) but it did not seem to do anything.

[jlegan]

jhimmel,

Let me just inject in here that until you get your 2414U swapped out for a v2.12 (mine is on the way this week), none of your testing will be conclusive. I have v1.4 which cannot control any device.

Save yourself a lot off headaches and just get it swapped and then start documenting any issues you encounter.

Jim

[jhimmel]

Well, I just spoke with Smarthome and they say that the REV 1.6 (sticker) is using the latest FIRMWARE of 2.12 (he did check). However, he said that the unit should not be blinking all the time and they are swapping it out for another (cross ship).

So - 1.6 is the latest revision and is using the latest firmware (2.12)

[chrkov]

actually, yes.. I called about the same thing. I have a 1.6 sticker on mine and he said it was running the lastest rev 2.12. So just to make sure, I turned on debuging in the plugin, and when it started up, it did say the firmware is 2.12.

Dont know why they just dont slap a firmware sticker on the things..

[jhimmel]

Yes, the sticker should have both - hardware revision and firmware version.
It would make things easier when hunting down problems.

[ehill99]

OT: Version Numbering

Just to mention something related...

The firmware version is a bit weird, in that:

v2.12 is the latest version
v2.8 is an older version

Huh? Whelp, 12 is obviously greater than 8. But, that's usually not how version numbers in software would be done.

IMHO, v2.8 should have been labeled v2.08. Then it would have been clear that v2.12 is a newer version than v2.8.

There's a technical reason for this. From my understanding, the firmware version is held in two hex bytes. The second byte is the portion after the dot. It just gets incremented. 1, 2, 3, etc. There are no leading 0's.

FWIW.

Eric

[Oman]

The blinking light is supposed to mean that the "core app" in the interface is not installed/running properly. There is a command in the plug-in setup to try download and re-install it. However I have had TWO interfaces that worked one day and died the next with the blinking light. No amount of hard resets or core app downloads could bring them back. I hope this is not a foretelling...

Jon

Just to mention something related...

The firmware version is a bit weird, in that:

v2.12 is the latest version
v2.8 is an older version

Huh? Whelp, 12 is obviously greater than 8. But, that's usually not how version numbers in software would be done.

IMHO, v2.8 should have been labeled v2.08. Then it would have been clear that v2.12 is a newer version than v2.8.

There's a technical reason for this. From my understanding, the firmware version is held in two hex bytes. The second byte is the portion after the dot. It just gets incremented. 1, 2, 3, etc. There are no leading 0's.

FWIW.

Eric

[jhimmel]

Yes, this is worrisome. The download and re-install did nothing for me either. What also has me worried is that the unit seemed to fail during a session of installing and deleting devices through the plugin. At some point, the plugin began having a problem with installing a new device, then it had a problem deleting a device, and then the PL USB never fully recovered. I suspect (but can not confirm) that this is when the unit started flashing and never recovered.

Under the circumstances, I doubt I will continue right back in with the plugin when my new unit arrives until some of this is sorted out.

[Oman]

My two devices failed before the plug-in existed - while using SmartHome provided tools. Unless there is something they don't disclose about the firmware there is nothing that is not supposed to be able to survive the factor power-up restart. Yet all attempts by SmartHome to revover the unit failed. The most likely cause I would think would be bad memory in the unit.

Jon

Yes, this is worrisome. The download and re-install did nothing for me either. What also has me worried is that the unit seemed to fail during a session of installing and deleting devices through the plugin. At some point, the plugin began having a problem with installing a new device, then it had a problem deleting a device, and then the PL USB never fully recovered. I suspect (but can not confirm) that this is when the unit started flashing and never recovered.

Under the circumstances, I doubt I will continue right back in with the plugin when my new unit arrives until some of this is sorted out.

[jhimmel]

My two devices failed before the plug-in existed - while using SmartHome provided tools. Unless there is something they don't disclose about the firmware there is nothing that is not supposed to be able to survive the factor power-up restart. Yet all attempts by SmartHome to revover the unit failed. The most likely cause I would think would be bad memory in the unit.

Jon

Interesting. So far, this has not been a great testament to the PL USB v2 robustness.

[amblix auto]

Interesting. So far, this has not been a great testament to the PL USB v2 robustness.

Im having the exact same problem and cannot get the blink away. Its brand new....

[Oman]

Before you send it back, let's try a few things (assuming you have the 2.12 firmware)

I assume if you enable detailed debug mode in the plug-in you get at least a good start-up with no errors.

If that is the case you could try going to your browser while HomeSeer is running and try typing the following into the address bar:

http://localhost:9020/abc.txt?isResponding



If you get back an =True message then at least part of the interface is working. This is where my bad units were at. You can then try the following:

http://localhost:9020/abc.txt?DownloadCoreApp=clear


This should take a while and it should reset the unit when done. At this point shut the works down and startup HomeSeer again.

Jon

Im having the exact same problem and cannot get the blink away. Its brand new....

[polycron]

I had a similar problem with the blinking light and did the DownloadCoreApp=clear but it didn't solve my problem. Someone talked me through downloading the salad timer app which solved my problem. Unfortunately I didn't write down the instructions on how to do that. And I'm not 100% sure my terminology is correct either. All I know is that the downloadcoreapp didn't do it for me but this timer app download did. Hopefully someone with here will know what I'm talking about and can provide the command to try out.

[jhimmel]

Polycron, I hope someone responds to your message. I am very interested in trying what worked for you.

After visiting other HA forums, I have found that this PL V2 USB flashing light failure is widespread.

Jon, I'm going to try what you suggest as well.

[Oman]

Try this from your web browser with HS2 and the plug-in running:

(Download and unzip the attachment to the !ROOT OF YOUR C DRIVE! - there are path problems with the SDM)

http://localhost:9020/abc.txt?downloadSALadFile=c:\timerCoreApp.slb

Let me know if this works.

Jon

Polycron, I hope someone responds to your message. I am very interested in trying what worked for you.

After visiting other HA forums, I have found that this PL V2 USB flashing light failure is widespread.

Jon, I'm going to try what you suggest as well.