Actually the last code / variations of the code did get "caught" in somewhat of a loop (time) and the chime rang and rang last night during a pizza delivery. Somewhere have to insert some sort of delay in the code because it as written I can see that it would somewhat loop.
I currently don't use HS / HAI connection for anything super time sensitive/emergencies/life saftey because of the plugin polling issues/ time delays. HS uses the IR's but HS HAI plugin IR events are not critical. Actually mostly all critical / events that I care about are run from the HAI panel. IE: lights regular, lights bases on IR motion, thermostat, etc. I switched my lighting over to the panel many years ago. The trigger for said endeavor was a HW failure on the HA server the day before going out of town for a week or so. None critical and test HA events are run from HS. I still do get TTS events being triggered by some rogue HS/HAI legacy serial com issues - very annoying - alarm TTS on/off at irregular / non HAI driven times, etc. I'm glad I have no "life saftey" events set up in HA right now. What I do have and care about are 18 plus serial connections on HA box do screen scraps, 1-wire data input, controlling my sprinkler system, etc.
I have decided to go to a small footprint mini-itx dual core based HA box (just 2.5 " Raid-1 HD setup) (something like 8"X8" by 2" or so) using just the ethernet / USB ports and maybe attach this box to the basement catch all way adjacent to the HAI panel/ media panel.
I have time to play and will look at CQC set up on another 2003 box - what would the basics be right now for a pure CQC-HAI panel HA setup?
Just because the panel doesn't loop doesn't mean your code can't get caught in a loop. Those are really two different things. If one trigger causes an action which triggers a second action, and that second action causes a trigger of the first, you have problems, but its not the panel's fault.
The problems I had when I used HomeSeer serial polling with the HAI Omni Pro II was that HAI timers would suddenly quit out of the blue. For example, if I set a light to be on for 30 seconds, I might be viewing the timer in PC Access and see it count down as 30, 29, 28, 0 with the light never turning off. At first I thought it was a broken panel so I removed it and returned it to HAI. They sent me a new one and same problem. I later determined that if I stopped HomeSeer the problem didn't occur. Since I needed to use HomeSeer at the time I just lived with it, but with CQC, no problems at all.