wappinghigh Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 Every once in a while even the best designed Control4 systems can just stop functioning.It seems it has nothing to do with the current status of director or the master controller (they have been working fine). Or my home network (It's great now) Or changes to zigbee mesh (they have been stable). Or power outages (there haven't been any lately). Or DIY tinkering (I haven't done any for months ) or a lack of knowledge on the part of an end user in what to do (I have a pretty good hands on knowledge now)After 6 or so stable months, things just stopped working.Last night we noticed we couldn't use the Big4 central4 button to launch navigator on one of our 3 controllers. Everything else was fine.The error was that the controller "couldn't authenticate" or some such message.So obviously the first step was to reboot that controller. When I did this, up came a screen to re-register the controller. Of course because things have been stable as I said for over 6 months I have forgotten the registration code. I mean what with having to change a million passwords all the time with the likes of Sony's playstation hack and all..Anyway. The logical next step was to reboot the main HC1000, which I did.Now running Composer HE, and an IP scanner on the mac, I see all controllers are networked, but running system diagnostics in HE shows the original controller that failed still doesn't show up.Now after rebooting the HC1000, the Zigbee mesh seems to be down. All SR250's are "waiting for network"So just why does such a thing happen?Clearly there is a fault in the equipment, software or my.control authentication. ?I've done nothing to personally bring this on. I have no idea why this happened. But my system is now down. I'm happy to try and fix it myself if I knew the appropriate steps.Please no angst from forum members on this. Control4 just has to accept that with no rhyme or reason, and thru no fault of anyone, even the best of systems can just stop working every once in a while. OK?They just do :|I'll start by asking what the name of that program is you can run on Win7? No not ComposerHE. But that program to run more detailed checks of things....Cheers everyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AceOfSpades Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 Are you referring to "System Diagnostics"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevvo Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 A shot in the dark here but maybe your hc1000 is affected by the DOM bug. In which case your dealer will need to run a diagnostic program to see if it can be saved. Otherwise it would need to be RMA-ed. Do you know when you installed your HC1000? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wappinghigh Posted July 19, 2012 Author Share Posted July 19, 2012 Are you referring to "System Diagnostics"?No..Isn't there some other program you can run outside HE? Director?..Like to check all the controllers etc... I've forgotten. It's been stable for so long.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wappinghigh Posted July 19, 2012 Author Share Posted July 19, 2012 A shot in the dark here but maybe your hc1000 is affected by the DOM bug. In which case your dealer will need to run a diagnostic program to see if it can be saved. Otherwise it would need to be RMA-ed. Do you know when you installed your HC1000?Sure. I'm onto them.. Can't I run the diagnostic program in the meantime?What's the DOM bug? Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevvo Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 A shot in the dark here but maybe your hc1000 is affected by the DOM bug. In which case your dealer will need to run a diagnostic program to see if it can be saved. Otherwise it would need to be RMA-ed. Do you know when you installed your HC1000?Sure. I'm onto them.. Can't I run the diagnostic program in the meantime?What's the DOM bug? Cheers It is a supplier defect where the DOM (think of it as an internal usb hard drive that your HC1000 boots from) reports more and more bad sectors over time' date=' eventually rendering it inoperable. It was mentioned in this post here: [url']http://www.c4forums.com/viewtopic.php?id=11684If your HC1000 was shipped in the timeframe mentioned in the thread then that might be your answer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wappinghigh Posted July 19, 2012 Author Share Posted July 19, 2012 Thanks for all the help everyone.Early 2010 would have been the shipping date of my HC1000I can still run Composer HE and see all my project on the HC1000Is there a way of re-authenticating controllers? (Even though I can't see any..as there is no navigator or mesh happening now) That was the original problem the very first time I noticed something wrong...I changed my password (for composerHE access a few months back) Could that be the problem?Gotta luv this hobby. Just when things are working smoothly a "random" happens and comes back and bites ya.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyanE Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 If the mesh went away, and/or you lost Navigator, it sounds like your project file got messed up, which is possible with the DOM issue.The proper step (after getting the DOM issue fixed) would be to restore the project file from a backup.I've not dealt directly with the DOM issue, though, so I'm not the expert in that.Sorry.RyanE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wappinghigh Posted July 20, 2012 Author Share Posted July 20, 2012 Again. I'd like to thank everyone for your help.AC from Recluse (my dealer) has spent the afternoon "rebuilding" my HC1000. Thanks Alan When I say rebuilding, think software..think having to rebuild a Windows PC from Fdisk.., then adding Windows, then restoring your other programs and data (say Excel) from a backup... (you all backup don't you) For those that don't know, Control4 Composer is a program written in "Lua". (Wikipedia it) And though "cross platform" code, Control4 runs it on LinuxFor some unknown reason the linux on my HC1000 became corrupted. Fortunately the DOM is OKSo The HC1000 was reflashed via USB, Linux put back on, then Director/Composer etc added onto that. AND once Alan had done that we ran a (very recent) backup project file..Interestingly, for some reason this seemed to have been corrupted as well (for example some drivers were missing (like Push Notify)..So tonight I wound back to a more stable project from a month back(using ComposerHE), and reloaded that.... :cool:We shall see how things go over the weekend. But it appears I'm petty much 95% up and running...So the moral of this little sordid event: Control4 is really just another software program running on an everyday computer, so BACKUP GUY's...And problems are not necessarily in their "Control" (or their fault)..pun intended... Could be Linux/Network/Computer Hardware/Power/Wireless...Linux might be very stable. But (you know what) happens...I hope this is informative for someone out there. You can learn heaps about your own system going thru an "experience" like this A couple of final questions> I assume some things will need to be "rebound"..Sonos in particular...correct? And would this experience prompt those in the know to consider ditching the HC1000, or would it be purely software related?Cheers all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyanE Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 For those that don't know, Control4 Composer is a program written in "Lua". (Wikipedia it) And though "cross platform" code, Control4 runs it on Linux.I'll give you points for trying (as there are a lot of pieces in a Control4 system), but you've got a few of your facts a bit mixed up.To clear the terminology up a bit...Composer is a program that runs on *Windows*, and is built in C#. It is *not* cross-platform, it only runs in Windows.Director is the cross-platform program that controls (along with other processes) a Control4 system, and it's written in C++.Navigator, the UI part, is written in Adobe Flash.Lua is the language used for DriverWorks drivers, and is integrated into Control4's driver architecture. Lua can run on Windows and Linux, but in this case is built into and integrated into Director.So The HC1000 was reflashed via USB, Linux put back on, then Director/Composer etc added onto that. AND once Alan had done that we ran a (very recent) backup project file..The USB restore of a controller *includes* both the Linux base, as well as Director and all other necessary Control4 daemons. Composer is never installed on a controller.So the moral of this little sordid event: Control4 is really just another software program running on an everyday computer, so BACKUP GUY's...While the HC1000 is pretty much a standard x86 platform, all of Control4's other controllers are *not* standard x86 platforms, but the moral of the story is still right. Backups are as important with your automation system as they are with any other valuable data.Glad to hear your system is getting back going.RyanE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wappinghigh Posted July 20, 2012 Author Share Posted July 20, 2012 ^ So when we drag and drop stuff around ComposerHE we are kinda using C#..not Lua?..Thanks for the above "explanation" BTW. What do I get for trying.... 3 outa 10? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanchow Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 ^ So when we drag and drop stuff around ComposerHE we are kinda using C#..not Lua?..Thanks for the above "explanation" BTW. What do I get for trying.... 3 outa 10? actually its xml Glad to see you got most of it running. As you've restored your project looks like i'll need to redo some of the additional programming today. Let me know when you're available Alex. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyanE Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 The app is C#, the data is XML.You're using *both* when you drag and drop stuff around Composer.RyanE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.