"Controller did not respond" on mobile device on local network

Hi,

Very recently an issue has developed using AltUI on mobile devices. It had been working great on my iPad but then stopped responding to any commands, and started generating “Controller did not respond” messages every second. When I try a command it also gives a “Not connected. Please verify your network connection.” message. I tried it on my partner’s Android Nexus 7 tablet and I see the same issue.

The UI7 interface is still working OK everywhere. AltUI still works OK on my laptop which is also connected wirelessly.

AltUI also works OK when used via the remote URL on my iPad (haven’t had chance to try this on Nexus yet).

As this is a mobile issue I don’t think I can get to any browser developer mode to give you logs I’m afraid.

I think I noticed this happen briefly a few days ago but the problem went away. It’s probably a coincidence but it seemed to start this time when I was prompted to upgrade to the latest AltUI version (v0.70.667). Responding “OK” to the upgrade prompt didn’t seem to do anything on the iPad but it was around that time (last night) it stopped working and continued after I’d upgraded AltUI (by taking option from PC browser).

Version - v0.70.667 (started on V 0.68.660)
Device - Vera Edge with latest UI7 (1.7.1419)
Issues on - iPad Air 2 (iOS 9 Beta), Nexus 7 2013 (Android 5.1.1)
Browsers - Tried Safari, Chrome, Dolphin on iPad & Chrome on Nexus - all same issue when used with local URL

Thanks for a great UI! Please let me know if there’s anything I can do to help troubleshoot this.

Richard

[quote=“SadGamerGeek, post:1, topic:188752”]Hi,

Very recently an issue has developed using AltUI on mobile devices. It had been working great on my iPad but then stopped responding to any commands, and started generating “Controller did not respond” messages every second. When I try a command it also gives a “Not connected. Please verify your network connection.” message. I tried it on my partner’s Android Nexus 7 tablet and I see the same issue.

The UI7 interface is still working OK everywhere. AltUI still works OK on my laptop which is also connected wirelessly.

AltUI also works OK when used via the remote URL on my iPad (haven’t had chance to try this on Nexus yet).

As this is a mobile issue I don’t think I can get to any browser developer mode to give you logs I’m afraid.

I think I noticed this happen briefly a few days ago but the problem went away. It’s probably a coincidence but it seemed to start this time when I was prompted to upgrade to the latest AltUI version (v0.70.667). Responding “OK” to the upgrade prompt didn’t seem to do anything on the iPad but it was around that time (last night) it stopped working and continued after I’d upgraded AltUI (by taking option from PC browser).

Version - v0.70.667 (started on V 0.68.660)
Device - Vera Edge with latest UI7 (1.7.1419)
Issues on - iPad Air 2 (iOS 9 Beta), Nexus 7 2013 (Android 5.1.1)
Browsers - Tried Safari, Chrome, Dolphin on iPad & Chrome on Nexus - all same issue when used with local URL

Thanks for a great UI! Please let me know if there’s anything I can do to help troubleshoot this.

Richard[/quote]
No idea, if you have issue across several browsers several devices I am clueless. Note that I use it daily on iPad Air and latest ui7 in local and remote mode so no idea…
A security setting? A third party app ? Anti virus?

Note that upgrade upgrades the Vera side files , nothing happens on your client device.

one suggestion : reboot your vera box ( although I could not explain why that would work locally and not from ipad ) but worth a try

Thanks for the replies.

I have tried a reboot. No change unfortunately. I’m trying to think of something in my local network that would be affecting iPad & Nexus but not laptop without much luck!

Is the “Controller did not respond” message generated when a client process doesn’t receive a response in a certain amount of time? Just wondering if there’s maybe some reason why traffic could take slightly longer on some of my devices and anything I could do to emulate this on different devices…

Probably not surprising, but when I tried to run a simple (df -h) OS command from the Misc menu, that also fails - "OS Command execution request failed. (returned error). It worked from my laptop but I see /mios and /rom are 100% full - is this a problem?

Just tried it on my phone - Android Nexus 4 (on local network/wifi). That works fine for some reason!

I updated again to the latest version on the laptop and got a few of the “Controller did not respond” messages immediately afterwards. I assume this is expected when upgrading?

[quote=“SadGamerGeek, post:5, topic:188752”]Just tried it on my phone - Android Nexus 4 (on local network/wifi). That works fine for some reason!

I updated again to the latest version on the laptop and got a few of the “Controller did not respond” messages immediately afterwards. I assume this is expected when upgrading?[/quote]

These messages are when the Ajax calls to the Vera box are failing for some reasons.
Theses reasons includes hard error like network issue or controller is down, or soft error like upgrading or any kind of luup,restart happening on the Vera. Either triggered by you , by ab action like saving device attributes or scene , or simply Vera deciding it Is time to reload luup to rotate logs or whatever… So it is ok they happen sometimes , if too frequent though you may have an issue on your Vera.

My Vera Wifi was disabled but to try to troubleshoot this I just enabled it and connected my iPad directly to its access point. I’m still getting the same errors so I guess that rules out something strange on my network, as there is nothing between my iPad & Vera now.

This though surely makes it even stranger that I get no errors with ALTUI connecting remotely as that’s a much more convoluted route!

I’m now hoping for some visitors with other mobile devices so I can try more test cases…

Does anyone know of any diagnostics I could run to understand if there is a health issue with my Vera? I don’t suppose I can really log a call as UI7 isn’t showing any issues.

[quote=“SadGamerGeek, post:7, topic:188752”]My Vera Wifi was disabled but to try to troubleshoot this I just enabled it and connected my iPad directly to its access point. I’m still getting the same errors so I guess that rules out something strange on my network, as there is nothing between my iPad & Vera now.

This though surely makes it even stranger that I get no errors with ALTUI connecting remotely as that’s a much more convoluted route!

I’m now hoping for some visitors with other mobile devices so I can try more test cases…

Does anyone know of any diagnostics I could run to understand if there is a health issue with my Vera? I don’t suppose I can really log a call as UI7 isn’t showing any issues.[/quote]

UI7 not showing the issue is not a reliable evidence, UI7 does not show when the calls to the box fails so you simply do not see it, I suppose MCV thinks it is hapening quite often and do not want to show it to the user. you sometime get a “Please wait” message but not allways

network seems ok but you could still have a vera box issue alghtough this is not consistent with the observation that remote access works. however nothing could really explains why remote access works and not local access

in terms of trouble shooting maybe the following steps

a) get the logs from you box ( see how from http://wiki.micasaverde.com/index.php/Logs ) or using http://vera_ip/cgi-bin/cmh/log.sh?Device=LuaUPnP. see often often LUUP is restarted in it. each restart will likely cause the message in altui

b) the following call should work , it is a standard VERA HTTP call, no ALTUI invovlement here. http://wiki.micasaverde.com/index.php/Luup_Requests#user_data

[quote=“amg0, post:8, topic:188752”]in terms of trouble shooting maybe the following steps

a) get the logs from you box ( see how from http://wiki.micasaverde.com/index.php/Logs ) or using http://vera_ip/cgi-bin/cmh/log.sh?Device=LuaUPnP. see often often LUUP is restarted in it. each restart will likely cause the message in altui

b) the following call should work , it is a standard VERA HTTP call, no ALTUI invovlement here. http://wiki.micasaverde.com/index.php/Luup_Requests#user_data[/quote]

Thanks. I viewed the log after leaving the iPad connected locally (& generating the error messages) for a while. I’m not entirely sure what a LUUP restart looks like, but I couldn’t see obvious signs of this happening. A search for “restart” text gave no results. A search for “error” only showed some 404 server errors where the Vera appears to be testing out other IP addresses looking for web servers. Is there any particular text I should be looking for in the log?

As a comparison, I then selected “Reload Luup Engine” from my working remote ALTUI session and checked the logs again. I could then see obvious restart stuff and 9 instances of the word “restart” when I checked this time.

If this is the same as a LUUP restart, then this indicates those restarts are not happening when I’m getting the errors.

The user_data data request returns a massive xml file. Am I looking for anything in particular in that?

Thanks for your help so far.

I have just set-up Fiddler on a PC as a proxy host for my iPad (not working) and Nexus 4 (working) so I have some comparative data to compare. I’m no expert on the tool, or indeed web calls, so I’m hoping for some help understanding what might be going on here! Both the phone and tablet were on the ALTUI “Devices” menu, with the same room selected.

The iPad seems to spend all its time getting a 502 response to these:

http://port_3480/data_request?id=user_data&output_format=json&DataVersion=186279004&_=1442345167445 http://port_3480/data_request?id=user_data&output_format=json&DataVersion=186279004&_=1442345167446 http://port_3480/data_request?id=user_data&output_format=json&DataVersion=186279004&_=1442345167447 http://port_3480/data_request?id=user_data&output_format=json&DataVersion=186279004&_=1442345167448

The phone generates much more data with all calls getting a 200 success response. Here’s a block of them:

http://192.168.0.106/port_3480/data_request?id=lu_status2&output_format=json&DataVersion=327545585&Timeout=60&MinimumDelay=1500&_=1442346231087 http://192.168.0.106/port_3480/data_request?id=lu_status2&output_format=json&DataVersion=327545586&Timeout=60&MinimumDelay=1500&_=1442346231088 http://192.168.0.106/port_3480/data_request?id=lu_status2&output_format=json&DataVersion=327545587&Timeout=60&MinimumDelay=1500&_=1442346231089 http://192.168.0.106/port_3480/data_request?id=user_data&output_format=json&DataVersion=327534040&_=1442346231090 http://192.168.0.106/port_3480/data_request?id=lu_status2&output_format=json&DataVersion=327545593&Timeout=60&MinimumDelay=1500&_=1442346231091 http://192.168.0.106/port_3480/data_request?id=lu_status2&output_format=json&DataVersion=327545594&Timeout=60&MinimumDelay=1500&_=1442346231092 http://192.168.0.106/port_3480/data_request?id=lu_status2&output_format=json&DataVersion=327545599&Timeout=60&MinimumDelay=1500&_=1442346231093 http://192.168.0.106/port_3480/data_request?id=action&output_format=json&DeviceNum=79&serviceId=urn:upnp-org:serviceId:SwitchPower1&action=SetTarget&newTargetValue=0 http://192.168.0.106/port_3480/data_request?id=action&output_format=json&DeviceNum=79&serviceId=urn:upnp-org:serviceId:SwitchPower1&action=SetTarget&newTargetValue=0 http://192.168.0.106/port_3480/data_request?id=lu_status2&output_format=json&DataVersion=327545600&Timeout=60&MinimumDelay=1500&_=1442346231094 http://192.168.0.106/port_3480/data_request?id=user_data&output_format=json&DataVersion=327534041&_=1442346231095 http://192.168.0.106/port_3480/data_request?id=lu_status2&output_format=json&DataVersion=327545612&Timeout=60&MinimumDelay=1500&_=1442346231096 http://192.168.0.106/port_3480/data_request?id=action&output_format=json&DeviceNum=79&serviceId=urn:upnp-org:serviceId:SwitchPower1&action=SetTarget&newTargetValue=1 http://192.168.0.106/port_3480/data_request?id=action&output_format=json&DeviceNum=79&serviceId=urn:upnp-org:serviceId:SwitchPower1&action=SetTarget&newTargetValue=1

For completeness, here’s the iPad running UI7 (200 responses):

http://192.168.0.106/port_3480/data_request?id=lu_status&DataVersion=327545983&MinimumDelay=1000&Timeout=60&LoadTime=1442327534&rand=0.7128019751980901 http://192.168.0.106/cmh/skins/default/icons/RFXtrx433E.png http://192.168.0.106/port_3480/data_request?id=lu_status&DataVersion=327545984&MinimumDelay=1000&Timeout=60&LoadTime=1442327534&rand=0.013864913955330849 http://192.168.0.106/port_3480/data_request?id=lu_status&DataVersion=327545990&MinimumDelay=1000&Timeout=60&LoadTime=1442327534&rand=0.6585097119677812 http://192.168.0.106/port_3480/data_request?id=lu_status&DataVersion=327545992&MinimumDelay=1000&Timeout=60&LoadTime=1442327534&rand=0.4636555246543139 http://192.168.0.106/port_3480/data_request?id=lu_action&output_format=json&DeviceNum=79&serviceId=urn:upnp-org:serviceId:SwitchPower1&action=SetTarget&newTargetValue=0&rand=0.049834373174235225 http://192.168.0.106/port_3480/data_request?id=lu_status&DataVersion=327545994&MinimumDelay=1000&Timeout=60&LoadTime=1442327534&rand=0.3650180222466588 http://192.168.0.106/port_3480/data_request?id=lu_status&DataVersion=327546007&MinimumDelay=1000&Timeout=60&LoadTime=1442327534&rand=0.41744827409274876 http://192.168.0.106/port_3480/data_request?id=lu_action&output_format=json&DeviceNum=79&serviceId=urn:upnp-org:serviceId:SwitchPower1&action=SetTarget&newTargetValue=1&rand=0.6344470765907317

Is any of this helpful in understanding what’s going on in my environment?

Thanks

Richard

one strange thing, the ipad 502 lines cannot work. you miss the ip address
it has got to be http://ipaddr/port_3480/data_request etc …

http://port_3480/data_request?id=user_data&output_format=json&DataVersion=186279004&_=1442345167445 http://port_3480/data_request?id=user_data&output_format=json&DataVersion=186279004&_=1442345167446 http://port_3480/data_request?id=user_data&output_format=json&DataVersion=186279004&_=1442345167447 http://port_3480/data_request?id=user_data&output_format=json&DataVersion=186279004&_=1442345167448

[quote=“amg0, post:11, topic:188752”]one strange thing, the ipad 502 lines cannot work. you miss the ip address
it has got to be http://ipaddr/port_3480/data_request etc …

http://port_3480/data_request?id=user_data&output_format=json&DataVersion=186279004&_=1442345167445 http://port_3480/data_request?id=user_data&output_format=json&DataVersion=186279004&_=1442345167446 http://port_3480/data_request?id=user_data&output_format=json&DataVersion=186279004&_=1442345167447 http://port_3480/data_request?id=user_data&output_format=json&DataVersion=186279004&_=1442345167448[/quote]

Wow - I’m not sure how I managed to miss that!

That was how it was showing in Fiddler so I looked again at the url on my iPad. As you’d know, only the host shows in the iPad Safari address bar when it’s not selected, so I just see the IP address. When I selected it though I realised I had a double ‘/’ after the IP address:

http://192.168.0.106//port_3480/data_request?id=lr_ALTUI_Handler&command=home

Now the weird thing is, the basic navigation works with this extra character. I can switch between devices, scenes etc and even rooms. Is that because all of that is purely client side? Anything requiring interaction, including the regular refresh fails though. As soon as I removed that extra character all is good.

When I tried it on the Nexus tablet I think I just emailed the URL to it, keeping the error, where I think I just typed it in on my phone. So, definitely user error. I’ve no idea how I got that extra character in there but apologies for wasting your time. Thanks for helping me get to the bottom of it.