Frustrated Newbie

[Anonymous]

#40219

I was quite excited about the prospects for this EZSrve device. I’m needing to replace an aging Circuit Cellar HCS and this seemed to have everything I needed. Unfortunately, I’m having a very negative first user experience. Before dumping a return on you, let me see if some things can be easily explained:

Given:
(Ver 02.05.04 PLM Ver 76)
I have NO Insteon devices – only X10 devices.

1. Trying to use the Flash user interface worked ONCE. Now, even after resets, all I can get is a hang or Server is not responding, please try again later!
Using the build in WEB interface:

2. I’m not understanding why a WEB interface still requires a user to constantly reference an Appendix for codes. At an absolute minimum, the user interface should provide a link to pop-this-up in another window, but your code should provide this interpolation for me.

3. There is no useful documentation to help with X10 devices. When configuring an action, I don’t know if I’m supposed to select Status or X10 Control in the attribute column. Also, inside the condition, if I want to test for a module’s state, is Attribute ‘Status’ what I want, or X10 control. And, is it 0 for off, or (3 or E) from Appendix C? The one time I was able to get the Flash interface working, I set up a condition using the user interface to see what the condition looked like when I returned to the WEB interface. The condition was set to Status with an attribute value of 0 for my OFF test. But then again, my action never worked.

4. How do I DIM an X10 device to, say, 50%?

Here is what I want to accomplish:

I use three phantom modules to simulate sending 7 possible commands to my program:

MODULE14 MODULE15 MODULE16 Means I want to perform function
0 0 1 1
0 1 0 2
0 1 1 3
1 0 0 4
1 0 1 5
1 1 0 6
1 1 1 7

If I wanted to do Command 6, I would press on an X-10 controller: 14, 15, ON.
So, the Controller sees 14 & 15 come on at the same time, and seeing M16 off, knows I want function 6.

Here is an example of my Function 2: When I want function 2, that is, just Module15 is on, Toggle ThisDevice and then turn OFF 14, 15 and 16 so these modules can be watched for the next command:

IF MODULE14==OFF and MODULE15==ON and MODULE16==OFF and ThisDevice ==OFF Then
ThisDevice=ON
MODULE15==OFF
End If

IF MODULE14==OFF and MODULE15==ON and MODULE16==OFF and ThisDevice ==ON Then
ThisDevice=OFF
MODULE15==OFF
End If

Forgetting the number of key clicks and dialog box OKs I need to get through: HOW is this accomplished in EZSrve?

[Anonymous]

#43165

The Harmony (Flash) client is at a Beta level so there may be some instability. If the Harmony client says the Server is not responding it means that the IP address entered in the URL field of the login screen did not respond. You can try to power cycle the EZSrve (unplug, wait 30 seconds, plug) which will cause the EZSrve to reboot and normally restores operation. You can also try the HTML interface Server Administration Icon. There is a Restart (not Reset) button on that screen which will direct EZSrve to reboot.

Use the “Status” attribute in both the Condition definitions and the Effects definitions. The Value is 2 to turn On an X10 device and 3 to turn Off an X10 device. The Action Effect issues both X10 message segments, House/Unit followed by House/Command. There is no mechanism to issue only the House/Unit message without the House/Command message (as you can with something like a Maxi hardware controller).

To have an Action issue multiple X10 commands, code multiple Effects.

Effect 1 – Device A Status 2
Effect 2 – Device B Status 2
Effect 3 – Device C Status 2

issues an On command to Device A followed by an On command to Device B followed by an On command to Device C.

[Anonymous]

#43166

If you can log into the server via the OLD web interface but NOT the harmony flash or local client, then you have the same issue as me.The harmony worked for a day or two and then stopped. I was told it was a problem with my network, but I fixed that. Then I could get into harmony into my ezserve and there are my areas and no devices! But alas, web into the ezserve and they’re all there.

The ezserve is up and running, though misses sending commands more often now on 2.05. My lights were on this morning. Yesterday worked fine. I was so excited about the new interface and the idea, but now I wish I had the old way when my stuff worked.

Called tech support and Al thought it might be corrupt files, which is weird because I just had to rebuild them when we moved to 2.05. Sent my xml files to him and inquired about them 2x since. No reply. I fear this software is made by a guy in his workshop on the weekends or something.

[Anonymous]

#43167

If the EZSrve finds a syntax problem with the specific xml file or it is no longer in sync, such as if the Actions xml references a device that is no longer defined, the particular xml file is reset to an empty file. For Devices xml this would be a file that contains only the EZSrve device. Send me your xml files to lwgwork@embarqmail.com. I will load them on to my EZSrve and see what happens.

[Anonymous]

#43168

After two days with thing, unfortunately, I threw in the towel. Once this thread showed me how to getX-10 modules on, I couldn’t get conditions working.

Turn on DeviceD if A and C are off, but B is on:

IF (OR DeviceA Status 3) AND (DeviceB Status 2) AND (DeviceC Status 3) AND (DeviceD Status 3) Then

Effect 1 = DeviceD Status 2

END

If I disabled condition 1 and 3, and just let condition 2 and 4 remain enabled, DeviceD would turn on. If condition 1 and 3 were enabled in the condition, nothing. I was even using the Monterey X10 Powerline Signal Analyzer to watch what the EZSrve was sending, so I know there were no other variables with any local network conditions in my house.

I mean this is basic stuff and the first level of qualification I tried before implement my more sophisticated stuff.

This product (concept) is so sweet, I really regret having to had returned it. I mean it does everything I wanted and I really wanted it to work. My major concerns:

Having to go through (either) user interface to code the thing; why can’t I have an expert mode to just enter IF’s like I’ve shown above. Too much dialog box clicking the way it is. I have a serious program to write (two house codes full of devices) and this user interface is an inhibitor. If I was a contractor, implementing these for customers: This inefficiency would kill me.

No monitor mode or log files. When the conditions weren’t working, there is no way to trace or troubleshoot the thing. You have to guess at what may be wrong, and just assume it’s a logic problem of yours, and assume the thing is still running.

Flat-out lock ups that required me to pull the module from the wall.

Needs more ‘cooked’ X10 functions. I want to DIM to 50%. I never got that far, but don’t believe that’s even possible without a lot of DIM commands. I shouldn’t have to code that for every DIM function. There should be native user-level capabilities that do whatever X10-protocol is required to execute a DIM (or other) functions.

I can’t believe it, but that ActiveHome Pro deal for $50 is the only solution I’m finding at this time (with an even more horrific user interface, but at least you have built in X10 monitoring of the line).

I’ll stop back in a year or so to see how development on this is going; I’d still love to see this product work.

[Anonymous]

#43169

It appears you found a glitch in the Action Condition processing. I passed the information on to SHN support for their evaluation. You might have found working with the xml directly to be more to your liking. It makes one responsible for the correct xml syntax but perhaps easier for someone looking for a more program oriented approach.

I

How did you code an X10 50% dim in your previous technology. I replaced all but a few relay based X10 devices with Insteon years ago but don’t remember any X10 command that would support a 50% dim request. It has been some years so I may just not remember the command sequence.

EDIT: the Harmony client does show X10 status on nearly an instantaneous basis. The HTML interface does also but with a few second delay associated with refreshing the HTML area screen.

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