New Firmware 3.10A old comm/time problems back

[pete_c]

I did another warm boot this morning. Looked at it an hour later and again the Omnitouch 5.7 was showing no ambient temperature and the time was off by around 10 minutes.

I then disconnect the power/battery. I then set the time. Disconnected the OmniTouch 5.7e screens and the network interface to see what happens.

I have recently moved all of the legacy Omnitouch screens over to an Omnitouch hub for power and connectivity.

Its been fine though for the last month or so. I have connected the analog CCTV stuff video to the legacy Omnitouch screens via a legacy video hub.

 

[pete_c]

Unplugged network cable and all is well again; except I cannot utilize my Omnitouch network connected screens. Time has remained correct to the minute.

 

[rsw686]

What network switch are you using? Have you tried a different switch? It sounds like something in the network stack is causing the controller to run slow missing time ticks and commands going over the serial ports. It has to be either the switch or controller itself.

 

[pete_c]

Thank you RSW686.

The OPII is connected to an older 24 port 10/100 Mbs switch. Same switch now for close to 10 years. Other than the OPII hanging off of it; it has not caused any issues with any other device on it. (few these days).

That said I have been moving towards converting the entire network to Gb and this older 24 port switch is the last 10/100 that will be swapped with a Gb switch.

While not using every serial port on the HAI OPII; I do have an X10 PIM, UPB PIM, Z-Wave PIM, Homeseer and Russound connected to the OPII. Historically I have unplugged the serial to Homeseer cable; left the network cable in place and still have seen the time loss / thermostat communications issues. At one time I thought it might have been the thermostat and did replace it working with HAI tech on it. (thermostat is an Omnistat2 1000); but the issue remained anyways ruling out the thermostat.

I have recently migrated to using an Omnitouch hub/video hub with its own power supply/battery. (so a mix of HS Omni touch legacy plus newer OmniTouch POE screens). Adjacent to the Omnitouch hub is a small 8 port POE switch (Tycon) which is only utilized today for the Omnitouch POE screens.

Yesterday I plugged the OPII back into the network as the legacy Omnitouch screens / Omnistat temperature time and temp values today appear just fine with no zero temps or losing time (after almost 24 hours now).

I have made no changes to anything other than plugging in the network interface. This is what I have done in the past to "correct" my issues.

I do have a secondary network interface on the firewall with a different subnet and could install the HAI OPII on that network; but I prefer not to right now.

I do not see still what may be causing this issue. The thermostat did start working a bit more as the ambient outdoor temps changed from the 40's to the 20's such that the furnace is working a bit more (and such so is the thermostat). Doesn't make sense to me though that the only way I can correct the issue is to unplug the network interface for a time (I have done this each time the issue has come up); then plug it back in.

 

[rsw686]

From the testing you have done it really sounds like you have ruled it down to the network switch or controller network port. That is the only thing you are changing that causes the issues to appear / disappear. The controller could be more sensitive and the 10 year old switch could have a issue that other hardware is unaffected by. Is there another switch you could swap it out for? Even a cheap 5 port Netgear would be enough to test with.

 

[pete_c]

Thanks RSW686.

Its really a random issue.

Will move the network connection over to the newest Gb switch and see what happens over time. (its just a patch panel over to another patch panel connection).

Better yet I do have a newer smaller Gb switch sitting right next to the older 24 port 100/10 Mbs switch); I'll plug it into that one instead.

 

[pete_c]

I wrote to soon. This morning after more than 12 hours of the network connection; the time between the OPII panel and the NTP server were synced.

That said I just checked and the OPII panel time is 30 minutes less than the actual network time.

For now will set the time again and disconnect the network cable.

Time is an issue here as I do utilize an NTP server for all of my devices on the internal network.

Meanwhile will do the patch panel connectivity thing to another switch and wait to reconnect it to the network until tomorrow (sans the Omnitouch 5.7e touchscreens - real pita).

 

[pete_c]

Something is goofy here now. I went to the Omnitstat2 thermostat to manually turn up the temperature.

When I did both the Cool and Heat temperatures cranked up.

Will do a reset of the thermostat and see what happens.

 

[JonW]

Has HAI ever been involved to troubleshoot this? Seems to me that your long running threads detailing this problem could turn potential buyers away from the HAI products and it would be in HAI's interest to get this resolved.

 

[pete_c]

Actually yes Jon with the Omnistat2 issues / HAI OPII panel problems relating to communications.

HAI Tech support was and always has been very pleasant. This is the third Omnistat2 replacement.

The time issue and serial comm issue to thermostat are related.

When I see the time issue then I notice a com issue with the thermostat.

After the third Omnistat2 replacement and unplugging the network connection the problem went away until recently.

The two "issues" are related; but I don't know whether its the Omnistat2 or the OPII firmware causing it.

I have a simpler set up in Florida with the OPII and never have seen this issue there.

 

[picta]

Pete, are you running homeseer plugins for HAI panel or an omnistat? I had various "goofy" issues when I had a HAI plugin active. All went away since I have disabled it. I am now using Haiku to update HAI values in Homeseer.

 

[pete_c]

Thanks Picta

I am running the older version of the Homeseer plugin.

That said though I tested without the serial link to Homeseer and the issue remained after doing a warm boot of the OPII panel.

This was during the time when HAI was helping me with the issue.

The newer version of the Homeseer HAI plugin totally would trash the Omnistat RC-80 settings after 1-2 days.

I tested the newer HAI Homeseer plugin many years ago with the RC-80 and decided not to utilize it.

I have never connected Homeseer directly to the HAI Omnistat RC-80 or the HAI Omnistat2-RC-1000

 

[pete_c]

0033c - 12/28/2012

Put the HAI OPII on a new Gb switch (patching some cables). Checked time and it was correct.

See what happens later today.

 

[pete_c]

0546c - 12/28/2012

Time is off after a bit more than 5 hours. I also disconnected the serial connection used for Homeseer for this testing.

 

[pete_c]

~0830c - December 28, 2012

I did a warm reboot this morning and adjusted the time.

Next test will disconnect Omnistat2 serial connection. Last time I fell back to using the RC-80 and the issue went away. I may try that again.