Odd problem with lights

[mas0282]

Hi guys

 

The lights on my system (HC-300) have started acting strangely.  Occassionally, lights will either turn off randomly, or turn on randomly.  When lights turn on, they usually tend to turn on together, as if a lighting scene has been executed.

 

This only seemed to start happening a few weeks ago.  I've rebooted the system and just recently had the software upgraded to 2.5 (I think that's the latest version IIRC). 

 

It could be that there is some rogue programming somewhere, but that doesn't really explain why this has only started happening in the last few weeks (no changes have been made to the programming recently). 

 

I don't suppose anyone has any thoughts on what might be causing this?  I'm really hoping it's not a sign of a fault with the HC-300 - it's only two and a half years old.

 

Many thanks

 

[Cyknight]

2.5.2 is the latest version to be exact.

These things are always hardest to trace. Like you stated it could be rogue programming, it could also be that time is off somewhere in the system...

On thing that comes to mind if you went to 2.5.x is that it is known that editing systems pre 2.5 with 2.5 composer can create proxy erros etc, although what you report is not directly related to that.

I doubt it's a sign the hc300 is failing though.

 

You may not have much choice but to have your dealer check this out, likely with C4 tech support help. Most important thing to do at this point is to capture logs to see if the cause can be chased down.

[mas0282]

Thanks Cyknight - as ever, very helpful.

 

I did wonder if the time might be off - because there are a few "if night time then do this lighting" items - so it stands to reason that if it's the middle of the day, but the system thinks its the middle of the night, I might get some odd effects.

 

Is there a reason why the timing might be off and a way to force the system to fix it?  The time has never been quite right on the system, it's always run approx. 10 minutes fast.

[Cyknight]

That may be an indicator. The system should be getting time from the internet, so be sure it's hooked up. Beyond that time in general can be set with composer pro for the whole system.

Bigger problem is if different pieces are on different times/ Each C4 device can be SSH'd into to set the time, but even a few ms off can be a problem. If time IS indeed the issue, one would need to make sure that

a) the system as a whole can connect to the internet properly

that the networking is in good order (so each 'secondary' device can connect to the main controller properly to get their time from it).

 

A temp measure you could try is reboot the network (modem then router then switches then APs) then reboot the main controller while having power off to every other C4 device. Once the LINK light has been up for a few minutes on the main controller power up everything else. This should force the main controller to re-synch with time servers on-line, and then force all the devices to re-connect with the main controler, getting their repective times from it.

This would be temp as it likely won't fix the root cause of the reason it's time is off, which is usually network/internet related though at rare times I've just had devices that wouldn't do this properly (and had to replace them).

[mas0282]

Again - really helpful.  Thank you, I'll try your suggestions.