Fellow Cocooners,
I'm having a bit of a UPB headache and I've exhausted all the debug techniques I know to do. I have arrived at a conclusion, but the probability that my conclusion is right seems very low. Maybe you all can come up with better theories.
Here's the setup:
I have two 200A panels both with SAI phase couplers in the panels. I have five SAI switches; three US2-40s and two US11-40s. Most control their own load except one of the US2-40s. I have an Omnipro II panel with an HAI UPB PIM. Also, a SAI USB UMC that I use at my computer for programming the switches and experimenting with different setups.
I got everything setup how I wanted about 4 months ago. The switches all worked how I wanted and the Omnipro is programmed to turn off and on my exterior lights at sunrise and sunset. This worked beautifully barring a couple of mornings where the lights weren't turned off.
Symptom 1 - About a week ago, the exterior lights were not turning off or on at the programmed time. I tried manually turning them off and on using PCAccess and that didn't work. I thought it was the PIM, but I was able to turn on/off my interior UPB switches (this was a brief test one morning). The next morning, same problem so I opened UpStart and tried turning the exterior lights off from there. It worked, but turning them on took three tries. Turning them off worked each time. Thanksgiving rolls around so I table this until today.
Symptom 2 - I double check control via PCAccess and I can't control any switches with it. It has to be the PIM, I'm thinking. So I go back to UpStart (which uses the SAI USB PIM) and try controlling switches there. I have marginal success. Mostly, nothing works. I open the Signal & Noise Meter in Upstart and I see I have medium noise and excellent signal. Hmmm? I then decide to create a brand new network file by using the Network Discovery feature in Upstart. This fails. I see my five switches show up as new, but they come and go. When I click the box to have each device added to the network design, every device fails with red in the upper part of the box and black in the lower part. So there's a "Problem" and "Comm fail". I then open my existing network file and attempt to control switches from there. No luck. I then decide to grab my HAI PIM and put it on my computer to see if it will work. It fails miserably, during network discovery it doesn't see any of my devices. I then reset both PIMs to factory defaults and try this all over again. Same results.
Oh, and I should mention here that the switches all work fine even the ones that only transmit links. The load controlling switches are still working so the communication among switches seems fine. I loaded UpStart on my laptop and moved the PIM to another room (different circuit) and still no luck.
Symptom 3 - During my testing, I have the Log Viewer opened so I can see the UPB messages that are being generated by UpStart and by the switches. I decide to put the two PIMs in different rooms and see if they can receive messages from the other. In my office, I have the HAI PIM connected to a PC that has my network file on it so I open it and start turning on switches. I do NOT see those message on the laptop running the SAI PIM. I then used the laptop to perform a network discovery which saw the switches, but ultimately failed the same as symptom 2. During the discovery process, not a single message was received by the HAI PIM connected to my office PC.
I forgot to mention that during this testing, I also put three different switches in setup mode (at different times) and UpStart was never able to detect that.
I don't see how this is possible, but I think that both PIMs are bad. I think they are unable to transmit even though they seem to receive fine. I just ran a Network Comm test using Upstart and it failed on every switch due to no response. The probability of two PIMs having the transmitters fail with a week or two of each other seems very, very low. That's a pretty specific failure on two devices of a different age and manufacturer. As far as I know, I haven't had any lighting strikes or major surges. The HAI pim is behind a surge protected outlet (and this was working). The SAI PIM is only plugged in when I need so it has been unplugged for weeks.
I'm at a loss. Is there some other test I can run or should I just buy a new PIM and see how that works out?
Thanks,
cmarcus
I'm having a bit of a UPB headache and I've exhausted all the debug techniques I know to do. I have arrived at a conclusion, but the probability that my conclusion is right seems very low. Maybe you all can come up with better theories.
Here's the setup:
I have two 200A panels both with SAI phase couplers in the panels. I have five SAI switches; three US2-40s and two US11-40s. Most control their own load except one of the US2-40s. I have an Omnipro II panel with an HAI UPB PIM. Also, a SAI USB UMC that I use at my computer for programming the switches and experimenting with different setups.
I got everything setup how I wanted about 4 months ago. The switches all worked how I wanted and the Omnipro is programmed to turn off and on my exterior lights at sunrise and sunset. This worked beautifully barring a couple of mornings where the lights weren't turned off.
Symptom 1 - About a week ago, the exterior lights were not turning off or on at the programmed time. I tried manually turning them off and on using PCAccess and that didn't work. I thought it was the PIM, but I was able to turn on/off my interior UPB switches (this was a brief test one morning). The next morning, same problem so I opened UpStart and tried turning the exterior lights off from there. It worked, but turning them on took three tries. Turning them off worked each time. Thanksgiving rolls around so I table this until today.
Symptom 2 - I double check control via PCAccess and I can't control any switches with it. It has to be the PIM, I'm thinking. So I go back to UpStart (which uses the SAI USB PIM) and try controlling switches there. I have marginal success. Mostly, nothing works. I open the Signal & Noise Meter in Upstart and I see I have medium noise and excellent signal. Hmmm? I then decide to create a brand new network file by using the Network Discovery feature in Upstart. This fails. I see my five switches show up as new, but they come and go. When I click the box to have each device added to the network design, every device fails with red in the upper part of the box and black in the lower part. So there's a "Problem" and "Comm fail". I then open my existing network file and attempt to control switches from there. No luck. I then decide to grab my HAI PIM and put it on my computer to see if it will work. It fails miserably, during network discovery it doesn't see any of my devices. I then reset both PIMs to factory defaults and try this all over again. Same results.
Oh, and I should mention here that the switches all work fine even the ones that only transmit links. The load controlling switches are still working so the communication among switches seems fine. I loaded UpStart on my laptop and moved the PIM to another room (different circuit) and still no luck.
Symptom 3 - During my testing, I have the Log Viewer opened so I can see the UPB messages that are being generated by UpStart and by the switches. I decide to put the two PIMs in different rooms and see if they can receive messages from the other. In my office, I have the HAI PIM connected to a PC that has my network file on it so I open it and start turning on switches. I do NOT see those message on the laptop running the SAI PIM. I then used the laptop to perform a network discovery which saw the switches, but ultimately failed the same as symptom 2. During the discovery process, not a single message was received by the HAI PIM connected to my office PC.
I forgot to mention that during this testing, I also put three different switches in setup mode (at different times) and UpStart was never able to detect that.
I don't see how this is possible, but I think that both PIMs are bad. I think they are unable to transmit even though they seem to receive fine. I just ran a Network Comm test using Upstart and it failed on every switch due to no response. The probability of two PIMs having the transmitters fail with a week or two of each other seems very, very low. That's a pretty specific failure on two devices of a different age and manufacturer. As far as I know, I haven't had any lighting strikes or major surges. The HAI pim is behind a surge protected outlet (and this was working). The SAI PIM is only plugged in when I need so it has been unplugged for weeks.
I'm at a loss. Is there some other test I can run or should I just buy a new PIM and see how that works out?
Thanks,
cmarcus