Help setting up Altsteon

Shakey · May 6, 2012, 4:30pm

If I gave you my log me in credentials would you log in and walk me through setting up Altsteon? I don’t know Linux and don’t want to screw up my Vera 3. I’ll send you some $ by PayPal for your time.
I’m afraid I might make it a brick.

(I would have sent in a pm but it will not let me pm yet.) if agreeable please pm me your email.

Aaron · May 6, 2012, 10:09pm

I (a linux noobie) built a dead simple how-to… see this thread… http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,10471.0.html

fba · May 6, 2012, 10:33pm

@Shakey -

I would give Aaron’s docs a try first. The odds of bricking your Vera are REALLY small. If you follow his instructions exactly, the odds are pretty much 0.

IIRC, you also said that you already have some automation set up with the Vera. It might be worth asking yourself what you hope to gain by using Altsteon. If the native stuff does everything you need, then I would suggest sticking with it. (It will probably be easier to use and maintain.) If there are devices that it doesn’t support, or something else that you need, then Altsteon probably makes sense.

If you still feel like you don’t want to try it, but you feel you need Altsteon, ping me in a week. I’ll be on the road this week, so I won’t have much time to help, and who knows what my internet connection will look like.

P.S. I just got an answer on getting a binary put in to an app in the app store. It looks like it might be possible. I’ll probably start looking in to it when I get back from my trip this week.

Shakey · May 7, 2012, 3:51am

Well I got the binaries installed and the luup files but I get an error message of “Plm[8] lua engine filed to start” I double checked I have all the luup files loaded. The deamon is running I can kill it and restart it and it reads the Plm on USB0. I started the _cli and can ping and control a switch directly, just not in the ui. Plm ip is set to 127.0.01 as forum post say.

Any ideas? Read the forum post and tried those odes but got the same results.

Stuck but not bricked as feared.

mwbehr · May 7, 2012, 6:19pm

Post your lua startup code exactly as it appears.

Shakey · May 7, 2012, 6:27pm

Here is the code

local plm = “/dev/ttyUSB0”

os.execute("/overlay/sbin/altsteon -p " … plm)

I copied and pasted it out of one of the post. The plm is working as I can run the Altsteon_cli and turn lights on and off.

Thanks for the help, its much appreciated.

mwbehr · May 7, 2012, 6:55pm

I’m going to quote a post from fba’s thread in response to someone having your identical problem:

[quote=“fba, post:173, topic:170014”]@RyanAHolland -

The “Lua engine failed to load” error happens when the LUA code that the UI uses to talk to the Altsteon daemon can’t be compiled for some reason. If you SSH in to the Vera, and run the command :

tail -f /var/log/cmh/LuaUPnP.log | grep "^5\|^10"

Then, click the Reload button in the UI. You will probably see some red text pop up that indicates that there is an error in one of the XML files. Unfortunately, these errors aren’t terribly useful for telling us much beyond that there is something broken.

There are only a couple of things that can happen that will cause this error :

The LUA code is attempting to access a function that doesn’t exist.
There is a typo in the LUA code that is causing the compile to fail.

#1 will usually only happen if you didn’t upload all of the files in the vera-files directory, or if you updates some files from this thread, but didn’t get all of them. I need to get a new version posted that collects all of those changes, and hopefully I’ll have the time to do that soon.

#2 happens when I screwed something up in the code. This is generally the reason that I have posted fixed versions for various people in this thread.

Hopefully this gives you enough information to get a little farther.[/quote]

Did you upload every single file in vera-files directory (the D_, S_, I_, & J_ files)? If you did, all I can suggest is redownloading the package and uploading them again.

Shakey · May 7, 2012, 7:05pm

I did load all of them and went thru with a list of them and checked them off just make sure I didn’t miss one.

I tried the code you posted last night as I found that also, but it didn’t change anything or show any erros in the UI besides the Lua engine one.

I’m going to redownload the tarball and copy everything over again just to double check.

I really would like to get this working as I’m want to use FanLincs as they are a great fancontroller/ light option. I like the way they work better than Levitons fancontroller, Lutrons or UPB(or lack of on the last two). Plus all the fan switch locations in my house have no neutral wire.

Aaron · May 7, 2012, 7:27pm

I had a problem with something similar. I had to kill the Altsteon daemon and then reboot the Vera before it started working properly.

So, before you re-do everything, do the items below:

login via SSH and run these commands…

[code]killall altsteon

/overlay/sbin/altsteon -p /dev/ttyUSB0 -dd[/code]

… this will tell you if the daemon will run properly. If it is running properly then do a killall again and reboot the vera (type REBOOT in the ssh shell - and wait 15 minutes before you see if it is working)

If it is still not working, then there is something else wrong and a factory reset may be in order (I had to do this also).

Shakey · May 7, 2012, 7:49pm

I tried all the above, the daemon is starting fine, not sure what is wrong. Altsteon can see the PLM, but still get the Lua engine message. If try a device in the UI it errors with device not ready.

A Factory reset is not a huge issue right now as I only asscociated one Z-wave switch for testing. But I rather not do it if its avoidable. I’m leary as this is my second VERA3 as the first one was a brick out of the box.

(Log Me In is great for working on this from work.)

Aaron · May 7, 2012, 8:34pm

post the SSH text from after you run /overlay/sbin/altsteon -p /dev/ttyUSB0 -dd

Shakey · May 7, 2012, 8:50pm

It appears to be working correctly. Going to try reloading the Luup files again unless some has a better idea.

mwbehr · May 7, 2012, 9:18pm

I just got the “failed to load” message after adding a dimmable device (non-KPL). All my devices went unresponsive. I deleted the device and everything went back to normal. I’m going to look into the issue as I imagine someone has to have working dimmers. Just thought I’d give you a heads up.

Edit: Download these files [url=http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,8910.msg70152.html#msg70152]http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,8910.msg70152.html#msg70152[/url]

It fixed the issue for me.

Shakey · May 8, 2012, 12:15am

@ mwbehr

Thanks that fixed it. I can control and have status returns. I don’t get light status updates right away when I change it with the keypad but from the instructions this looks like fba hasn’t gotten this far.

Right now I’m just running a FanLinc and a 6 button relay KeypadLinc to control the FanLinc locally. Would like be able to get the KeypadLinc scene lights to show the right settings when changed from within Vera but I think an update might be needed for that, have to ask fba when he gets back from Vegas.

Thanks aaron, mwbehr and fba for all the help and creating an “Altsteon for Dummies” guide for me.

mwbehr · May 8, 2012, 1:15am

Glad you got it working. As for the response for switch changes, fba mentioned manually linking the devices to the PLM (including each individual button of you keypadlinc) with the PLM in responder mode. Not sure if that corrects the issue for sure or not as I’ve never really cared much about whether my device status is indicated correctly on the dashboard.

For your button issue, I know that’s something that fba also wanted to accomplish for his own application, but I have no idea if he ever got anything developed or not.

Shakey · May 8, 2012, 1:52am

The dashboard updates, I set the PLM as a responder in the Houselinc Software.

It would be great if the KeypadLinc scene buttons followed status changes that where made remotely but its not needed for operation.

Maybe some day fba will get to this, after he’s done parting in Vegas. ;D(Hangover movie comes to mind)

fba · May 11, 2012, 4:18pm

Unfortunately, I was actually working a booth at Interop, so the parties were limited. That said, guys from another booth offered me a keg at one point. What is funny is of all the people in our booth, I am the only one that doesn’t drink. But the other people in our booth enjoyed it!

I have the LEDs on my kpl somewhat following my fanlinc in one room. There is a set of commands that can be used to cause the buttons to act more like radio buttons. This lets you configured the kpl so that only one LED is on for the four scene buttons. Unfortunately, the paper I had it written on was mauled by my 1 year old, so I will need to figure it out again. It is starting to get warm here, so I suspect my wife will start pressuring me to get the other fanlinc set up. So, I’ll post the commands here once I sort them out. (Along with description of how they work.)

garrettwp · May 11, 2012, 4:22pm

I manually set the buttons on my kpl to follow using the instructions that came with the kpl. So only one of the scene buttons is active at all times for my fanlinc. If this can be done easily via the command line, that would be much better. It took some time to do it on the switch. Now if I can get the kpl to show the correct status of the scene when active.

Garrett

fba · May 13, 2012, 2:07am

I don’t know that I would say there is an “easy” way to do it from the command line. There are two commands for each button that need to be sent. Let me dig up the developer doc on it, and I’ll post a new thread with some info.