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Questions about EZRain V1 and EZFlora in HS3

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    Questions about EZRain V1 and EZFlora in HS3



    1) Is there any difference in the way the EZFlora-HS3 plug-in handles the EZRain V1 vs the EZFlora - other than that the EZFlora has an additional sensor interface?

    2) Are the EZRain V1 and EZFlora controllers useable sid-by-side with the EZFlora 2.0.0.1 plug-in with HS3? If "not", what are the issues that may or will arise?

    3) Is it OK to directly edit the text labels in the ezflora.ini file? (This was done as a shortcut to configuring the text-name fields in meaningful ways.) Is there a character length restriction on these text fields?


    4) The default for adding an EZFlora device seems to be that "debug" mode is "on", even though HomeSeer doesn't actually show this. Then, if the debug-off is clicked, program 4 and valve 8 icons show "on" which means that 4 & Valve 8 must be manually turned off. Then, the valves operated via manual control or events as expected. Is this normal behavior?
    5) when deleting an EZFlora device, all features must be checked "on" or the device will not be removed. Is this normal behavior?


    6) Smartenit will "attempt to upgrade" the firmware in an EZRain V1. What benefit is there in doing this?

    #2
    I'll try to answer the questions as best I can with the information provided:
    1. The basic command set is the same for EZRain/EZFlora V1 and EZFlora V2. The latest revision of EZFlora V2 has additional capability to connect a rain sensor and pulse water meter to an additional connecter not present on V1. There are additional commands in support of these new features. I am not aware of any other differences to the command sets.
    2. I have not tested the EZFlora plugin with the older EZRain V1 devices. Since the command set is so similar, I would expect them to work okay other than some possible issues with configuration and status reporting messages where the rain sensor was added to the EZFlora.
    3. The text name fields should be edited using the device management page in the plugin so that the changes can be synced with HS. There should not be a need to directly edit the .ini file when things are working correctly.
    4. This is not normal behavior unless the device was already in this state prior to being added tot he plugin. Please post a debug log of the issue and I'll look into what is happening.
    5. This also is not normal behavior. If some of the valves are not enabled, the plugin should still remove the remaining valves and the root device. Please post a debug log of the issue and I'll look into what is happening.
    6. At this time I wouldn't recommend upgrading unless we find an issue that prevents the EZRain from working with the EZFlora plugin.


    Adam

    Comment


      #3
      Debug mode apparently ON

      This morning, discovered a EZRain V1 valve circuit ON, despite its event and devices indication that it was off. It appears as though the debug function is ON or returns to ON, when set to OFF.

      The attached file type & size restrictions limited what I could upload. I'll try to clarify or extract other info as needed. Please advise. Thanks.
      Attached Files

      Comment


        #4
        Sorry for the delayed response. I looked through the logs and did not see any indication of a valve being active when it wasn't commanded to be. It doesn't appear that you have polling setup on any of the devices, which you may want to do since some of the status indications aren't automatically sent so HS may not be aware of valve changes that occur outside of HS. Also, you may want to setup timers so that if for some reason a valve change does occur, that it won't run indefinitely.

        There are two different debug modes and I'm not sure which one you are inference to. The log debug mode only enables additional log messages and has no impact on the device. There is a valve debug mode which will cycle through the sprinkler valves at a pre-defined interval so that you can test that all valves are working. The logs do not show that the valve debug mode was ever entered.

        Based on the information provided, it appears that the plugin is working properly, but there may be some incompatibilities or other issues with the EZRain V1 devices. Try setting up polling on those devices and post a log if you continue to experience uncontrolled valve changes.

        Adam

        Comment


          #5
          EZRain V1s not functioning with EZFlora plug-in

          My first three devices used with the EZFlora plug-in are EZRain V1s. Their addresses are 05.95.35, 05.94.FD & 05.94.3C. When adding & using these devices, I found that the EZFlora plug-in "Add New Device" function seemed only to work if I first cleared out all devices. I also noted that if any device configuration option was unchecked, the device could not be deleted. Interspersed with this, an individual device valve may not turn on when instructed.

          Also, I noted in my previous post that I noticed that individual valves were turning on & off periodically.

          Based on you review & feedback from the logs in my previous post, I set a polling interval of 5 (the units of this appeared to be minutes). Also, I reasoned that as I am not using the Device Programs nor do my EZRains have Rain Sensor inputs, I should uncheck those functions. So, the only device functions "checked" for each of the three EZRains attached are the "Enable Valve" functions.

          What is occurring is that none of the valves are cycling according to the defined events. And, periodically, I see a valve circuit cycle on/off as though it received brief on pulse.

          To test things, I changed an event time to turn on 05.95.35 valve 2 at 2:48:00. The event definition automatically turns off the valve two minutes later. Although the log indicates that this event took place, the valve itself did not turn on.

          I have attached a segment of the log file. Can you determine from this what the issue is?

          Thank you.


          After posting the section above, I decided to manually turn on/off valve 2 above. The icon didn't indicate ON and the valve did not turn on. See the attached log segment. So I tried to enable all of the device functions (as is the default when first adding the interface). The valve cannot be turned on. Historically, at this point, I must first enable all device functions, then delete all devices and add them again.
          Attached Files
          Last edited by mkuetzing; October 18, 2015, 06:02 PM. Reason: additional info

          Comment


            #6
            More EZFlora info

            This morning, I found one irrigation circuit on. It had been on all night. I tried to turn it off and could not. So, as with info detailed in earlier posts, I found that I could not delete the EZFlora devices if any of their functions were unchecked. Once the functions were checked, some of the devices could be deleted, others became "unknown" and could not be edited due to a "Boolean" error. Logs & screen shots attached.
            Attached Files

            Comment


              #7
              I think there may be an issue with the .ini file from the previous attempts at deleting the device. Please post a copy of your EZFlora.ini file. I'll also look into the plugin to see what may be causing problems with deleting the device when all of the functions are not enabled.

              Thanks,

              Adam

              Comment


                #8
                I have only a couple of copies of the EZFlora ini files. But, here they are...

                The latest one (without the date) was the one in use when the EZRain devices could not be deleted. For each EZRain device, when only the valves were "checked", the devices could not be deleted. Once the remaining items were "checked", those EZRains could be deleted.

                For some reason, once all four devices were deleted (the three EZRains & the single EZFlora), the ini file still contained NumDevices=2 and Logging=3. The NumDevice value being greater than zero caused the effect of the EZFlora plug in reporting two devices with all other fields "unknown". Trying to "edit" or "delete" devices listed in the EZFlora plugin with "unknown" in the fields associated with each device, caused an error message on the screen with something like "Boolean" error. Manually editing the ini file corrected the problem of non-existent devices being listed at all.

                Clearly, there are differences between the old EZRain and the current EZFlora. Your EZFlora plugin does not return any values for the timers or programs; rather, it makes several attempts and then reports an error.

                I located a utility at Smartenit which is supposed to connect to and set items within EZFlora. I tried that utility and it could not talk to the EZRain devices either. So, I sent all four of my EZRains back to Smartenit for a "hardware upgrade" that they offer. Today, they reported that all four have successfully been upgraded. I'll probably get them back next week.

                Adam, you are the programmer. You understand what your plugin code does and how it's supposed to work. From my point of view, it appears as though the EZRain V1s that I had were causing errors to occur in your code that were not handled, either correctly or at all. So, hopefully, all my issues will go away with my "upgraded" EZRains which will be the same as the current EZFloras (with the exception that the PLMs will not be dual-band).

                But, to summarize, the issues I saw with my EZRains included but were not limited to:
                1) difficulty adding or deleting from the EZFlora device list.
                2) no response from querying timers or program values.
                3) odd behavior with the valves:
                - valves would pulse on/off with no state change being logged
                - valves would not turn on with commands in events (my plants were dying because of no water)
                - valves would turn on (probably with associated events), but would not turn off (water running down the street - risk of fines under California drought rules)

                Perhaps, this feedback will guide you in making changes or enhancements to your plug-in code. But, from my point of view, all I want is to make my Smartenit interfaces to all work correctly. And, besides the EZFlora (now all "current" ones) I also have several of their other I/O interfaces which I hope to make use of.

                Thanks.
                Attached Files

                Comment


                  #9
                  I agree that there must be some incompatibility with the EZRain V1 that isn't apparent from looking through the command sheet for each device. Unfortunately, I do not have any EZRain V1s so I am unable to perform any extensive testing to determine what was the root cause with compatibility with those devices. Hopefully the upgrade to the EZFlora firmware resolves all of the issues, but if not, please let me know so that I can further investigate.

                  Adam

                  Comment

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