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My first experience with HomeTroller SEL

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    My first experience with HomeTroller SEL

    I started with homeseer a few years ago (HS2). I didn't like the PC based product and wanted a low power standalone unit. I shamefully defected to Vera where I spent a few years trying to build a reliable system. There were a few features I really liked, particularly the split z-wave network connect by ethernet. Works great for outbuildings. I have finally thrown in the towel and back to homeseer. With the move to Linux it seemed time to try again and the z-net bridge seems like the right way to go for networks that span large areas. So I ordered the SEL, Z-Net and a zwave stick (figured I'd replace the old ZStick).

    Just received the new HomeTroller SEL. Attached the monitor, keyboard and mouse and powered up. Following the getting started guide. I get to the system password screen. The guide says I will need to set the password and to follow the prompts. What prompts ? I log in and just Linux, nothing else. I need to configure WiFi as I wont have hardwired ethernet in the final install so do that now.

    From another machine I navigate to the web interface on the SEL. Interface opens fine so I poke around and add the HomeSeer SmartStick+. Enable the Zwave plugin, upgrade it and attempt to setup the interface. It fails to initialize and says the list needs to be refreshed. How ? So reboot should fix it. Maybe, but the network is no longer connected. It seems that the wifi will not automatically connect until after login. I fiddle with the network settings and after disabling the hardwired port it seems to automatically connect the wifi. Phew...

    But now there are 30 some serial ports listed for the zwave stick (ttySx) and ttyACM0. Sure, must be ttyS0, nope ttyS1, nope ... Last one listed, ttyACM0 ... bingo. Seems to connect to a zwave interface. Sure would save some time if I knew this in advance.

    Now I need to move the unit within 3 meters of my existing controller to copy the network config over. I know from prior experience this is going to be painful. But it should be easier that resetting all network devices and importing them one by one. So I move the unit and it wont boot. I take it back and plug in the monitor, keyboard and mouse and it boots fine. I move it again and no boot. Back to the monitor and boot. Hmmm, seems the unit will not boot without a monitor attached. There must be a setting but I have no clue. So I drag an hdmi cable over to where I can get the unit with 3 m of the current controller and boot it up. Unfortunately there is a wall between the units. Not close enough.

    I take the unit back to the monitor and log in. I opened the web site from the SEL itself and viola, a screen pops up saying I need to change my system password. Ahhh, I think this must be the screen the install guide was talking about. But who would log into the unit itself to use the web browser (besides me) ? Unless perhaps the login is supposed to open the website ?

    I'll keep fiddling with the network copy, I know it can be done since I was successful with HS2 and HS3 on a PC.

    #2
    Welcome to the HomeSeer world Mike. Hope your discovery is fun filled
    Blair

    HomeSeer: HS3 Pro | Blue-Iris 4 on Windows10Pro
    | Devices: 832 | Events: 211 |
    Plug-Ins: Z-Wave | RFXCOM | UltraRachio3 | Sonos
    BLLAN | BLLOCK | NetCAM | Global Cache Pro | Blue-Iris4

    Comment


      #3
      Welcome back! Sorry for your troubles. Hopefully someone with a SEL will chime in here.


      Sent from my iPhone
      Tom
      baby steps...starting again with HS3
      HS3Pro: Z-NET & 80 Z wave Devices,
      HSTouch: 4 Joggler (Android Kitkat), 2 iPhone, 3 iPads
      Whole House Audio: 5 SqueezePlay Jogglers w Bose Speakers
      In The Works: 10 Cameras Geovision, new Adecmo/Envisalink Alarm, Arduinos
      System: XP on Fanless Mini-ITX w/ SSD

      Comment


        #4
        Thanks!

        After a bit of googling I found that changing /etc/default/grub to use text mode instead of video mode solves the hang without a monitor issue.

        This post describes the change. Although it is for a slightly different symptom there are posts linking to it for hang on boot issues.

        http://askubuntu.com/questions/16129...grub-boot-menu

        Comment


          #5
          I wish I could report success but not today.

          After many attempts to copy the network from the primary it seems I just can't get it to work. The SEL hangs after each attempt and requires a reboot to get it back even though the operation says it timed out and is complete. A disconnect of the USB controller (click the green check mark) and reconnect (click the red circle) does not bring the controller back on line, just spins the wheel of death. I suspect part of the problem is the Vera may not be sending the controller info. It is all a bit of hokus pokus.

          I had such high hopes for this setup. A very expensive replacement with just as many issues as I currently have, hopefully they are all in startup. This does not appear to be a zwave appliance as I hoped but rather a zwave control program on an operating system/hardware platform I still need to debug/manage. I am still somewhat optimistic that once it does get setup it will perform a bit better but that will have to wait for another day when I can spend more time. I'd much rather be trying to use it than trying to set it up. Seems zwave is still as complicated as ever ...

          I did see that the Linux platform was for the technically advanced. I am comfortable with this but was hoping that the hardware/software combination would operate more as an integrated HS product rather than HS software running on a Linux box. I'll get it setup soon.

          Comment


            #6
            Mike
            I think once you get it set up and established you'll be happy with it's performance. I just moved about 50 physical devices from a Zee (1) into a SEL. I had been in the Zee for a year and had about 75 events helping to run the house. I was also switching from the Aeon Labs zstick to the Smart Stick+ on my new HomeTroller SEL.

            I had some of the same issues happen during the first couple days, like not knowing what USB port to assign the Smart Stick to. Everything on my network has a static IP address, and the SEL has a WiFi built in so that was kind of a surprise. And to get the IP address assigned was not too difficult.

            There were times when I felt that HS had just been dropped into a Linux box and I was on my own to get the thing to run. Logging into the HDMI with a monitor wasn't any issue like you're having at all. I get a nice GUI screen to log into Ubuntu with.

            Trying to get the Smart Stick+ to stay enabled was a challenge also. I didn't want to transfer my device data over, because I didn't have a really clean inventory and didn't want to carry that over into the SEL So I used the SEL to go around the house and un-enroll and re-enroll my devices. I used a 50 foot Ethernet cable to get closer to each device.

            When I tried to get the SEL to SPEAK or play wave files it was silent, and come to find out the aplay.sh had no permission to Execute. I was a little rusty on my Linux but found it somewhat easier after a bit of careful practice.

            I had developed quite a set of about 20 pages of Designer screens that controlled my house, and after getting all my device mapped over to the SEL it was easy to go into each of the Designer pages and point the device to the newly installed ones.

            Just last week I got the MyHomeSeer setup so I can get access from the two Cell phones we have, in the house we use 4 - 7" tablets to operate with from inside, and since my external IP address never changes it was easy to get the cell phone to connect without using MyHomeSeer.

            Now connecting to our 2 Echos in the house it was a breeze and got 20 devices found within a half hour.

            I hope your experience smooth's out with your new HomeTroller as mine did...!!
            Blair

            HomeSeer: HS3 Pro | Blue-Iris 4 on Windows10Pro
            | Devices: 832 | Events: 211 |
            Plug-Ins: Z-Wave | RFXCOM | UltraRachio3 | Sonos
            BLLAN | BLLOCK | NetCAM | Global Cache Pro | Blue-Iris4

            Comment


              #7
              Back for another try today. The SmartStick+ in the SEL seems to be deaf. I was able to copy the network from the Vera using an old Z-Stick but not the SmartStick+. However, after importing the network and scanning with HS3 there are many nodes it can not reach. I have tried numerous optimizes, rescans, etc. Moving the SEL around seems to change things a bit so perhaps because it is not the primary controller it does not change routes ? It did not say anything about that I could see but it just does not seem to work. It was able to optimize some of the nodes. The controller is probably less that 25' from the nodes it can not reach ...

              Using my old HS3 license I installed HS3 on my Ubuntu 14.04 laptop and tried the SmartStick+ again. I used an old HSM100 to see if it could add anything to a network and it turns out it can't. I was able to remove the device so the SmartStick+ can hear some things but it refuses to add anything. I don't see any errors. I am running the laptop version of HS3 using the ./go script and instructions from the forum.

              For grins I added the HSM100 to the Vera and it added immediately so I know the device is working. Perhaps the SmartStick+ is defective ??

              Comment


                #8
                Some success tonight. I was able to add an Everspring SP103 to the SmartStick and HS3 running on the Linux laptop so it is not totally deaf. Selective hearing ?

                I tried to copy the network from the Vera to the SEL (Z-Stick) to update the SEL. However, HS3 failed to put the Z-Stick in "Learn mode" and it could not be done. I reset the Z-Stick and copied the network over from scratch. With the SEL on the shelf directly above the Vera and directly wired into the switch I am able to access the nodes imported. It seems like the "optimize" function executed on the secondary does little. I guess this makes sense given the Zwave network topology static routing scheme but I'd think the optimize functions would either not be available on a secondary or would warn you they are not changing routes.

                Also, it would be nice if the routes were shown on the "node information" screen when viewed from the secondary controller. The last route is shown on the HS3 with the SmartStick+ as a primary controller. The node info is terrific but routes seem to be critical for a working network.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by emike View Post
                  Thanks!

                  After a bit of googling I found that changing /etc/default/grub to use text mode instead of video mode solves the hang without a monitor issue.

                  This post describes the change. Although it is for a slightly different symptom there are posts linking to it for hang on boot issues.

                  http://askubuntu.com/questions/16129...grub-boot-menu
                  I am also looking for a solution for my SEL not being able to boot up without an active HDMI monitor connected. In my case, this problem only occurred after I was forced to do a System Restore from the Ubuntu boot screen of my SEL.

                  I am a little hesitant to follow the procedure at the link not knowing what the risks are, or how to go back. I am in no way familiar with Linux. I copy the instructions from the link. Do I do this from Putty or some similar terminal? I am familiar with using WINSCP to access my SEL to load up images for HSTouch, or loading plugin files.
                  1. Open the terminal with Ctrl+Alt+T
                  2. Paste the below, and enter your password when asked:
                  3. sudo sed -i -e 's/#GRUB_TERMINAL/GRUB_TERMINAL/g' /etc/default/grub
                  4. Then type sudo update-grub


                  What are the risks? How do I go back if something doesn't work out?

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Ignore my previous post. I just got advise from HS support. In my case, the System Restore has installed an outdated version of Grub. That needed to be updated. Here are the instructions I was given and it did fix my problem.

                    1) Navigate to Tools > System > Linux Tools
                    2) Login with the system password that you created when you first set up the device
                    3) Download the update script using the following command, without quotes "sudo wget www.homeseer.com/linux/grubupdate.sh"
                    4) Run the script "sudo sh grubupdate.sh"
                    5) Restart the HT-SEL via Tools > System > Reboot System

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