timelinex

Yep, I'm back in talks with him through PM. I'll update you guys.

I just wanted to give a shout out to their GREAT customer service. There are many outfits out there that make all sorts of drivers. But not every company provides customers service at the level of what I just experienced. I have a Vantage Qlink system which is a bit outdated, but luckily I found a driver made by @Cinegration to hook it up to my C4 system. It's worked great for over a year. Then OS3 came and something in the update broke a main feature of the driver. I contacted Cinegration and they responded FAST. They worked with me over the next week to troubleshoot and fix the issue. The issue was a bit tough to pinpoint, but they went as far as having a phone call with me to help diagnose and remote into my system. Then they fixed it and it now works great again. I know it might sound like this is just "how it should be". But in my experience, good customer service like this is a rarity. Especially considering this is an OLD driver of theirs that I am guessing isn't even used by many people anymore. 10/10

Unfortunately his look at the logs didn't really help, although I did appreciate that he took the time to do it. He looked at the logs and just confirmed that the logs say that the issue is that the DS2 wasn't responding the call, hinting at a network issue.... But again....If the NVR connects great and for that matter just a ping using CMD prompt connects.... the issue is definitely part software. I sent him a message saying almost the same thing as my post. We will see if he has any feedback.

I'm still having mostly the same issues. After doing what I can to optimize the CAT run and junctions, I can now mostly connect from intercom anywhere to the DS2 (very slow and laggy though). But I am always missing calls from the keypad and whether I get pinged on my phone is completely hit or miss. I understand that it's obviously partially a network issue, since connecting the DS2 with a short wire to my network removes all issues. But I can't do anything about the wire that goes underground to my front gate and that would be a very expensive job to run another. Luckily, it's also obviously a software issue. Either the app or the DS2 itself. I just don't know who to contact to try and get it resolved. I know it's a software issue as well because of 2 reasons: 1. My NVR is recoding the video/audio of the keypad camera at all times and has ZERO issues or lag. So the connection is more than good enough to pull the feed with no issues, and the feed makes up almost all the data entirely. However, even if I turn off the recording of the feed, my DS2/intercom anywhere issues remain. Once the connection is made through intercom anywhere, the feed and video is mostly ok though. Not great, but workable and doesn't disconnect. So it may have to do with poorly written handshake/invite? No idea, just guessing. 2. I have my C4 system ring my houses doorbell whenever I get someone press the call button on the keypad. This works flawlessly EVERY TIME. So I can be sitting inside my home, hear the doorbell, and watch my phone waiting for the call to go through (while having great reception).... And nothing. So OBVIOUSLY once again, the network is more than strong enough to send the signal through that there is a call and it works EVERY time to get it back to the C4 ea5 unit. But it's completely hit or miss to get it to intercom anywhere. Notice how the entire route from C4 to my phone can no longer be blamed on the long run... It's a great connection from EA5 to the internet. So once again, points to a software issue. I understand the code works well when everything is perfect... But as you guys know, things are rarely perfect "in the field". Any advice? Once other thing I was thinking about....does POE injection deteriorate connections at all? Maybe I can hook up a power supply to the DS2 and keep the Cat power free? Has anyone ever seen that help?

Router: Asus RT-AC87U Switch: 2x NETGEAR 8-Port Gigabit Ethernet Unmanaged Switch

Well, 9 hours later and I have a mostly working doorstation. I changed the splice to IDC's and I shortened the cable in my media room. This enabled it to get the calls intermittently. Sometimes it would work and sometimes it doesn't. The next thing I tried is changing the port that the POE patch cable goes into on my network switch. This actually made the biggest difference. I have a router, and then 2 switches inline for my ethernet. I tried a few different positions on the switches and now it works. It is slow, laggy, and sound is choppy. But it works to connect every single time and a ping test shows no lost packets. Why did the position on the switch matter? For that matter, I'm sure maybe connecting directly to the router may be even better. Unfortunately the router is in a different place. I'm thinking that it used to be connected to the router during the initial install and maybe thats when it worked ok. Theres a 50ft Cat6 between the router and switches and my other 12 things connected to the switches have no issues. EDIT: The Web GUI is working good now though. So it seems like the network is atleast alot better than it was. I also lowered the frame rate to 10 but raised the bitrate to 1024 and that seems to of helped a little. I would guess that the extra cable from the router to the switch is weaking the signal to a certain degree. Is there a way to re-boost the signal? Does a managed switch help with that?

Good point. Before putting on the idc's, I will pull the wire back out the conduit and try to connect the door station to that wire. Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

Yea, unfortunately a new wired didn't help. The new connection is wired correctly and good for data, according to my Klein Network tool. The signal is obviously too weak after the splice? I used a new keystone jack (which is actually what was there before, I was wrong to call it IDC.). I'm gonna try to now use the "3M Scotchlok IDC Butt Connector" instead and maybe that will work better. If that doesn't work any better, the last hailmerry I have is that where it terminates in my media room, there is actualyl alot of extra wire rolled up. It's probably a good 20+ ft. I'll cut that down to only what I need to reduce the wire length and see if that gives it enough extra juice.

Well, looks like you guys were right. Connecting the doorstation with a patch wire durectly to the POE worked. LUCKILY, connecting the doorstation to the junction box at the end of the driveway worked great as well. So the issue seems to be from the junction box to the keypad pole. The 25ft run should be easy enough to drag a new wire through, which I am planning on doing right now.

Appreciate the response! I cleared the logs, tried to unsuccesfully connect to the keypad 3x, and then immediately saved the logs. I sent you a PM with the log. Thanks

1 of the splices is an IDC junction Box type thing and the second I am not 100% sure, but I believe it is the same way (I can check though)

In my estimation that would either be impractical or ridiculously expensive. Most of the wire is in conduit underground.

It's probably around 300ft or so from the media room (hard to know exactly.) That includes atleast 2 splices. For months the intercom DID work just fine though.

I was afraid someone would say that! OK, that is what I will do. So I am checking both the cable and also trying to connect it with a shorter cable to the POE. Another data point is that I have it setup that every time there is a motion it will email me screenshots. I just checked and it has successfully emailed me screenshots everyday. So obviously its working! I guess maybe it's possible that the network isn't 100% and intercom everywhere just does a bad job of dealing with packet loss compared to the other avenues. I'll take out the keypad either this Wednesday or weekend. Open for any other suggestions in the meantime.

OK, so I tested the connection from the POE to the junction box a few feet away from my keypad. My LAN tool tells me all 8 strands are good. I haven't tested the CAT from the junction box to the keypad itself (10ft of cable or so) because it took a good hour to get the keypad into the box it sits in last time. It's quite the hassle. That also means I haven't tested using a short CAT from the POE either. I will do this as a last check if I run out of other ideas. Here is whats so confusing. At the current time here are my 2 issues that hint at possible network issues: 1. I can't use intercom anywhere to connect to the keypad anymore. I tried 20 times over an hour and 19 of those times it rang for a minute and said call couldn't go through. One of the times it did connect. 2. The web gui is very slow and disconnects every ~10 seconds. On the other hand, here are things that are telling me it is not a network issue: 1. Using c4 app I can open the gate manually using the relay. reliably and instant. 2. The motion sensor relay on the c4 app responds quickly and fires when there is motion. 3. MOST IMPORTANT: My NVR is hooked up to record the keypad camera. I can connect to the live feed through my NVR of my keypad, without fail, and I have watched it for a few minutes at a time and it doesn't skip a beat. It's obvious that the network is good enough to run the camera/audio Every part of the keypad responds great and is working, on an individual level (open/close response, motion sensor, camera, microphone, etc). So wouldn't that rule out network issues? But through the gui and intercom anywhere is where the issue is happening. Any ideas? EDIT: I pinged the local doorstation IP using command prompt and after several times, 1/4 of the packets timeout. So there is consistently a 25% loss. What gives?

This would not affect the connection issues encountered through the Web Gui of the door station though, right? I put off upgrading as everything else has been working good and I was planning on upgrading to 3 when people confirmed it's stable and I got a spare few hours.

C4: 2.10.5 DS2 Firmware Version 2.19.5.28.12 You guys might be onto something. I assumed the connection is good because the connection is hardwired and my NVR doesn't have any issues recording video from the keypad. I can also use C4 to open the gate at any time. Unlike wireless systems, I would think hardwire connections are less intermittent and more on/off. However....When I logged in to check my driver and firmware version, I updated the driver to the newest version and that started a whole update issue. The new driver tried updating the keypad firmware but would continually fail out. It completely bogged down my system and restoring a backup wouldn't put back the old version of the driver. After an hour or two of diagnosing I was able to bandaid this by manually editing the driver.xml and changing the "firmware version" it was checking my keypad to upgrade to. So now my system is stable and it doesn't try to upgrade. But why couldn't it update? I investigated further and I think there is some kind of connectivity issue. When I login to the DoorStations web gui, it works slow and every 10 seconds or so I get a "connection disconnected, trying to reconnect" type message. It reconnects. Works for a short period of time and then does it again. What are the options here? I figure either: My cat cable or some connection in between is bad, or the keypad is failing?

I have a DS2 door station with camera/keypad for my gate and it's just been an overall disappointing experience.The primary issue I have is that when I get a call from the door station and pick it up, there is a good chance that the entire mechanism will crash while the video is loading. I don't have strangers go to my gate alot, but when they do, it's very important for me to be able to communicate with them. Out of the last 4 times I used the door station, it crashed twice. Anyone else have a buggy experience like this? To best describe what happens: 1. I receive the call 2. I pick it up using my android intercom anywhere 3. the call seems to be loading but it just doesn't load. Even waiting a minute, just nothing happens inside intercom anywhere. 4. I end up exiting out of the app, and going back in. Now I find that the doorstation is grayed out and I can't access it period. 5. I can't remember if it starts responding again eventually or not. But it definitely doesn't for atleast a few minutes. (after the guest has obviously left). After this happened the first few times, I added a custom button to my C4 app screen to restart the doorstation. This allows me to enter back into it. I'm not positive, but it seems like it might happen when reception on my phone may not be 100%. That's not for sure though and just a guess. I have a Cat5e cable going to the doorstation, so internet going to it is fine. I also have the DS camera recording on my NVR and as far as I know it doesn't have any issues with that (although I don't know exactly what happens to the recording when I am having this issue). Anyone experience similar things? Any way to fix this? Any way to have the DS recover automatically when in a frozen state? Any other ideas? It's devastating when this happens as whenever someone rings my DS, it's important, and they usually leave before I can get it back and running.

Are you saying that the app no longer has a lights/security/heating tabs, or are you referring to the compatibility with the old C4 touchscreens? You mentioned issues with intercom. Can you expand on that or post a link to the thread? I have a DS2 video door station for my gate.

Is there a way to change what is shown on the IR remote screen in the C4 app. I am talking about the remote that pops up when you open the C4 app, go to a room, hit watch, and then select a TV (that is IR controlled). It's a pretty terrible selection. It's got channel up/down but no volume up/down. Don't worry though, it's got Page up and Page down... Which isn't even an option for any TV's I know and for some reason they fit that in there but not volume up or down. It's so frustrating and backwards (like many things C4). The remote that pops up when you double click the driver in Composer is great and has all the options. Side note: Is there any way to not have it automatically hit Power ON when you click Watch, and not have it automatically hit Power OFF when you power the room off. If I edit the driver and select "assume device is always on", I lose functionality of the power button on the app remote (I know I could make a custom button but that would make things very clumsy).