It seems that after listing all devices, it sends a reset command, no response is coming back. I never see the data from the sensors in the logs either, but I can see them just fine in RFXmgr.
I see the same reset command in my logs. But eventually I see a log entry like:
luup_log:21: RFXtrx: debug: Response to a Get Status command or Set Mode command <0x73bd4520>
If you never see that I’m afraid I don’t have any idea why not.
As for where you might see the message from the transceiver, in the RFXtrx Settings page in Vera, watch last received message area at the bottom.
I’ve pretty much figured out the issue by now, much thanks to comparing with your experiences. I’ve had the RFXtrx connected to RFXmgr for a couple of days, and this time I GOT NO DATA in RFXmgr either!
After choosing “Reset RFXtrx” in RFXmgr a couple of times, all of a sudden a steady flow of messages starts to come in from all sensors. I disconnected and connected RFXtrx, and again, no messages. It seems that every X restart of RFXtrx it stops listening for messages.
So it seems I’ve got an unstable RFXtrx unit and have been hunting ghosts for the last couple of weeks.
Do anyone here have a similar experience, or am I the only one with a possible faulty RFXtrx unit behaving like this?
Upgraded RFXCOM433E to EXT2, updated the files on VERA, created the device (Luup failure), set the port (Luup Failure gone) but now I am stuck at “Can’t find the device”
I am running VERAPLus on 1.7.3501
How did you get it to detect the device? I tested it on an VeraEdge and it works just fine. Even when trying to restore a backup of the Edge on a Plus it still does not seem to work…
OK, after ridiculously long hours of troubleshooting, I have (together with several experts in the area) concluded that I don’t have one problem, I actually have four different problems…
USB port compatibility. When having the RFXtrx connected to the USB3 ports on my computer, I don’t get consistent communication from the sensors. This problem is intermittent, somtimes it’s working fine and sometimes not. Tried this on two different computers: same result. Using USB2 ports on the computers the sensors will be received 100% fine every time. Not sure if this is big issue, but it did make the troubleshooting more difficult for me.
Quality difference between different RFXtrx units. I got two new replacement units from the seller, and I noticed that the original unit and the first replacement units where more sensitive to problem 1 and 3. Originally I thought they where faulty, but they work OK if I eliminate problem 1 and 3. This to me indicates that the units vary in quality.
USB Power from Vera. Now this is a very important finding (and also possibly explains the difference in success between VeraPlus and VeraEdge). I tried to power the RFXtrx from an active powered USB HUB between Vera and RFXtrx. Suddenly Vera received almost every message from the sensors. It seems that when underpowered, the RFXtrx unit is behaving as if it works OK, but in reality it doesn’t receive messages consistently. It also seems that VeraEdge can provide more USB power than VeraPlus making it work better with RFXtrx.
Compatibility of Viking sensors 02812. In the newer batches the manufacturer suddenly added a checksum to the data, possibly breaking the compatibility with RFXtrx to some extent. When the manufacturer changed this, these sensors stopped working with Tellstick NET, but they fixed it by discarding the checksum in their firmware. RFXcom has been informed about this to see if the can fix it in a firmware upgrade.
So, to summarize, most of the issues where not related to software (except firmware), but instead of different hardware and compatibility issues. I’m confident that I will sort this out despite the magnitude of the issues above, and as soon as I have a definite solution for all the issues I will post it here.
Thanks all for your help with the troubleshooting, especially tinman for helping out with the plug-in.
Oh wow. Good catch. While right now I only use RFXtrx on my VeraLite/UI5 at a remote location, I was working a problem this weekend with my VeraSecure running the EnOcean plug-in. Similar config to RFXtrx, with a USB chip + antenna listening at 315 Mhz. Low power from the VeraSecure USB port would definitely explain the reception issues I was experiencing. Will test tomorrow to confirm.
Seriously! Low power… VERA HOW COULD YOU!! I don’t have a powered option available, not even sure how that works? Just plug in a powered USB hub in the USB output? I’ll see if I can order one and then test again! This is so annoying!
[quote=“fyford, post:29, topic:197949”]Seriously! Low power… VERA HOW COULD YOU!! I don’t have a powered option available, not even sure how that works? Just plug in a powered USB hub in the USB output? I’ll see if I can order one and then test again! This is so annoying!
Thanks for your efforts chaps![/quote]
Please note that I don’t know whether A) Vera is providing to little power (less than 500mA) or B) RFXtrx requires more than USB max of 500mA to work correctly.
Also, this might not be a universal problem with VeraPlus, it is possible that this is a problem with my unit only.
[quote=“madmaniac73, post:30, topic:197949”][quote=“fyford, post:29, topic:197949”]Seriously! Low power… VERA HOW COULD YOU!! I don’t have a powered option available, not even sure how that works? Just plug in a powered USB hub in the USB output? I’ll see if I can order one and then test again! This is so annoying!
Thanks for your efforts chaps![/quote]
Please note that I don’t know whether A) Vera is providing to little power (less than 500mA) or B) RFXtrx requires more than USB max of 500mA to work correctly.
Also, this might not be a universal problem with VeraPlus, it is possible that this is a problem with my unit only.[/quote]
The RFXtrx433E uses only 28mA in receive and 45mA max in transmit, see chapter 2.8 in the RFXtrx User Guide.
It is not the current but a low voltage level or a spike on the USB power that makes the FTDI interface of the RFXtrx433E frozen.
For solutions, see also chapter 15.3 in the RFXtrx User Guide.
Using a different USB device (EnOcean USB) and a Drok USB tester, I compared my Vera3 versus VeraSecure. Both showed 0.04 Amps of usage. The Vera3 tested at 5.05 Volts, while the VeraSecure tested at 4.95 Volts - both within specifications. I could pull my RFXCOM off my VeraLite to test, but since I don’t have a VeraEdge or VeraPlus (everything else), it is probably not of interest to you.
[quote=“madmaniac73, post:27, topic:197949”]OK, after ridiculously long hours of troubleshooting, I have (together with several experts in the area) concluded that I don’t have one problem, I actually have four different problems…
USB port compatibility. When having the RFXtrx connected to the USB3 ports on my computer, I don’t get consistent communication from the sensors. This problem is intermittent, somtimes it’s working fine and sometimes not. Tried this on two different computers: same result. Using USB2 ports on the computers the sensors will be received 100% fine every time. Not sure if this is big issue, but it did make the troubleshooting more difficult for me.
Quality difference between different RFXtrx units. I got two new replacement units from the seller, and I noticed that the original unit and the first replacement units where more sensitive to problem 1 and 3. Originally I thought they where faulty, but they work OK if I eliminate problem 1 and 3. This to me indicates that the units vary in quality.
USB Power from Vera. Now this is a very important finding (and also possibly explains the difference in success between VeraPlus and VeraEdge). I tried to power the RFXtrx from an active powered USB HUB between Vera and RFXtrx. Suddenly Vera received almost every message from the sensors. It seems that when underpowered, the RFXtrx unit is behaving as if it works OK, but in reality it doesn’t receive messages consistently. It also seems that VeraEdge can provide more USB power than VeraPlus making it work better with RFXtrx.
Compatibility of Viking sensors 02812. In the newer batches the manufacturer suddenly added a checksum to the data, possibly breaking the compatibility with RFXtrx to some extent. When the manufacturer changed this, these sensors stopped working with Tellstick NET, but they fixed it by discarding the checksum in their firmware. RFXcom has been informed about this to see if the can fix it in a firmware upgrade.
So, to summarize, most of the issues where not related to software (except firmware), but instead of different hardware and compatibility issues. I’m confident that I will sort this out despite the magnitude of the issues above, and as soon as I have a definite solution for all the issues I will post it here.
Thanks all for your help with the troubleshooting, especially tinman for helping out with the plug-in.
/Johan[/quote]
Finally, after weeks of red herrings, frustration, false conclusions I have sorted all outstanding issues with my sensors, Vera and RFXtrx. In the end it seems that problems 1-3 wasn’t hardware problems after all (in my case). It all boiled down to problem 4, compatibility between sensors and RFXtrx. Bert at RFXtrx succeeded in replicating my problem after he got one of my sensors and one of my RFXtrx-units and found a bug in RFXtrx Viking compatibility causing all of the issues above, kindly releasing the brand new 1024 Ext2 firmware version to address this issue. After flashing this version all issues are gone, and sensors are working consistently even without powered USB HUB. It seems that the firmware bug was mitigated to some extent by all my attempts to work around the issues, but the firmware sorted it all.
Big thanks to all of you who helped out, and of course to RFXcom for astonishing customer service!
Morning, i’m having similar issues with my RFXCOMM, not being able to add any new devices. I’m running version 1.7.3532 of Vera.
However I have about 30 devices installed including Lightwave and Oregon Scientific, many of them are used in various Scenes.
Do i really have to uninstall the RFXComm and all associated devices to upgrade its software or is there a way I can do it and keep my existing set-up intact.
What version of the plugin are you running now? If the version you’re using now is close to the most recent version it may be possible to simply upload the updated files.
Anyone here experience poor sensor update after applying the patch?
A lot of my sensors are flat lining for long times with irregular intervals… I downgraded to .3015, which worked well before, but still strange behaviour… I’ll try to reload the original RFX plugin files too if noone has a better suggestion…
BTW: all functions seems to be working well with the plugin except said problem…
For what it is worth this might help someone else;
In short :: CHECK IF YOU HAVE MORE THAN ONE USB PORT UNDER YOUR SERIAL PORT CONFIG, IF SO CONFIG THE RFXCOM ON THE SECOND ONE
My situation is that I migrated from an Edge to a Plus and the RFXCOM would not work. I kept getting can’t detect device etc issues and eventually landed on this thread. My initial set-up on the Edge was done using the instructions from Vesternet earlier on in this thread as I purchased my RFXCOM from them.
I tried adding a powered hub and that seemed to make matters worse, after using a powered hub the RFXCOM would not work on the EDGE. I ended up leaving it for a while as I did not have time to mess any more. So I plugged it back in the PLUS and oddly I noticed in the ‘DEVLOP APPS’ section the SERIAL PORT CONFIG showed up 2x USB ports. I removed the RFXCOM from the default USB0 and configured it on the USB1. I then went to the device ‘ADVANCED’ settings and under Variables changed the IOPortPath to /dev/ttyUSB1
Voila this then worked and I could use the RFXCOM, but seeing I have a huge number of LightwaveRF devices I figured I will re-migrate and see if I only change the USB port again maybe I could save a lot of time. Many power down and LUUP reboots later, the 2nd USB port vanished from the options, so I reconfigured it to port zero (baud 38400) etc and it all now works!
Happy that it now works, but frustrated that it can be so hit and miss with Vera
[quote=“madmaniac73”]OK, after ridiculously long hours of troubleshooting, I have (together with several experts in the area) concluded that I don’t have one problem, I actually have four different problems…
USB port compatibility. When having the RFXtrx connected to the USB3 ports on my computer, I don’t get consistent communication from the sensors. This problem is intermittent, somtimes it’s working fine and sometimes not. Tried this on two different computers: same result. Using USB2 ports on the computers the sensors will be received 100% fine every time. Not sure if this is big issue, but it did make the troubleshooting more difficult for me.
Quality difference between different RFXtrx units. I got two new replacement units from the seller, and I noticed that the original unit and the first replacement units where more sensitive to problem 1 and 3. Originally I thought they where faulty, but they work OK if I eliminate problem 1 and 3. This to me indicates that the units vary in quality.
USB Power from Vera. Now this is a very important finding (and also possibly explains the difference in success between VeraPlus and VeraEdge). I tried to power the RFXtrx from an active powered USB HUB between Vera and RFXtrx. Suddenly Vera received almost every message from the sensors. It seems that when underpowered, the RFXtrx unit is behaving as if it works OK, but in reality it doesn’t receive messages consistently. It also seems that VeraEdge can provide more USB power than VeraPlus making it work better with RFXtrx.
Compatibility of Viking sensors 02812. In the newer batches the manufacturer suddenly added a checksum to the data, possibly breaking the compatibility with RFXtrx to some extent. When the manufacturer changed this, these sensors stopped working with Tellstick NET, but they fixed it by discarding the checksum in their firmware. RFXcom has been informed about this to see if the can fix it in a firmware upgrade.
So, to summarize, most of the issues where not related to software (except firmware), but instead of different hardware and compatibility issues. I’m confident that I will sort this out despite the magnitude of the issues above, and as soon as I have a definite solution for all the issues I will post it here.
Thanks all for your help with the troubleshooting, especially tinman for helping out with the plug-in.
/Johan[/quote]
I lost half my sensors this week. They did not work at all or only worked during the day when it is not so cold. I therefore tought it was because of the freezing cold winter weather, so I replaced all my batteries. Still none of my sensors reapeared or got stable on my VeraPlus. The only way to get them to appear steady was to place the remote sensors inside my house.
After reading this post I externally powered the Usb hub, all sensors reapered and everything works again. So thanks for sharing.