Remote Vera2 unresponsive

Community Playground General Discussions
1

Hello. Can anyone make a diagnotic suggestion? I have a remotely located Vera2 unit. It has worked fine for a month. Since 10/14 I have not been able to log into it remotely with UI4. I just get the message box “data not loading?”. I also notice the system stopped making daily backups on 10/14. Is there a way to determine if the problem is in the unit or in the Mios server?

I also had some quirky behavior in the system on 10/14 where a notification I was supposed to receive by email didn’t arrive due to a message send “failure”. The log is captured below. This was working a few days earlier. Any suggestions?

Thanks.

xxxxx dnarba guest@comcast.net
E
2010-10-14 14:47:58 Failure
2010-10-14 14:48:31 Failure
2010-10-14 14:48:58 Failure
2010-10-14 14:49:25 Failure
2010-10-14 14:49:48 Failure
2010-10-14 14:50:05 Failure

2

I finally had someone go over to the house and reboot the Vera2 with a power down. Is this a common issue, for a unit to lock up after a few weeks of operation? The best soluition I can think of presently is to add a remote power controller for the Vera2 using a phone based controller. Maybe a watchdog timer is also an option. Any suggestions on making the system reliable enough it can really be used for remote home control?

3

I had that problem after a nasty power failure and had to power cycle the Vera afterward to get it to be responsive. Any chance that occurred? If so, perhaps just a battery backup UPS might be sufficient.

4

My Vera1@1.1.1047 locks up after about 1-2 weeks of operation. If you don’t have physical access to your Vera, I would recommend to use an external timer to reboot the device on a daily basis.

5

My Vera 2 locks up frequently (several times / wk) As did my Vera 1.

I was told by MCV that they have never seen a unit LOCK UP. I stated that when I cant get in via remote, local or telnet, its LOCKED UP and the only remedy is a power cycle. Aaron then told me that if those staements are true, the problem is on them.

I reported this problem to them a year ago, months ago and again this weekend.

JOD.

6

A cheap light timer is the best peace-of-mind insurance for a remotely operated Vera. Even if you’re currently not having problems, I don’t think there is any harm in having Vera reboot (off/on) at 3am and that way you’ll know that if you are locked up today…chances are tomorrow you’ll be able to log-in.

Certainly it isn’t an ideal fix and MCV has stated that they would rather fix what ever is causing it, but if your Vera is 1000 miles away then you have to do what you have to do.

7

@dnarba

I flew 2000 miles each way in September to fix my unresponsive Vera2 and made a few changes to my setup.

Now I have the router, modem, and Vera2 on a timer so that they power cycle once daily. I also have the router setup for Dynamic DNS, allowing me to remote manage it to see if it is a router/Vera2 issue, or even ping the IP to check on internet connectivity.

I had connectivity issues a few days ago, but with this setup I was able to verify that it was an ISP issue and not the Vera2. I have not had the Vera2 lock up or fail in over a month (knock on wood). If it does, then my setup should help resolve it.

8

Adding to the chorus:
My new Vera2 is unreachable remotely.
I can access my router and cam through their own web interface
So clearly not an Internet problem.

Of note is that I just completely reset my network and recreated all the scenes after failing to be able to migrate from Vera1. Peachy.

9

Been there, done that. Remote cabin over 300 miles away. I started with a simple applicance timer for a Hawking HomeRemote. The problem was sometimes I needed to figure out what was causing things not to work properly and I wanted to be able to power cycle “on demand” the individual components. My solution, somewhat crude, but effective was to put all the main components on X-10 appliance modules each with a a unique X-10 ID. I then got an X-10 telephone interface from Fry’s Electronics and now I can power cycle my Vera and my router separately with a telephone call. I’ve used this set-up for over three years originally with the Hawking HomeRemote (which needed constant power cycles just to work) and it has not failed me since.

10

I also have my Vera on a digital timer and UPS and another timer for my 3G wireless Internet connection. Not that Vera has failed often and locked me out its more of an insurance that if it ever does most likely everything will be running worst case scenario in 24 hours. My Vera’s are in my summer house and a rental unit that are usually unoccupied during the winter week days and I need to monitor the house temp and the hot tub temp with confidence. The last thing I need is a skating rink instead of a hot tub.

11

Thanks for the stories. Lock-up looks like a common enough issue that I will also set up a remote power cycle controller. I think I’m going to use an Aube phone based controller with a relay to toggle power on the whole network setup. I did like the suggestion to use a 24 hour timer, but I like the idea of rebooting on demand.

12

And, once again, Vera2 is unreachable remotely a week after rebooting it manually. It has been doing nothing but sitting there, and mysteriously goes down. Again.

Cam is fine and reachable. Router is fine and reachable. Are people really thinking about hooking this up to a security system?? Yikes.

Ticket submitted. Again. Never got a resolution last time.

.//A.

[quote=“anthonyris, post:8, topic:166779”]Adding to the chorus:
My new Vera2 is unreachable remotely.
I can access my router and cam through their own web interface
So clearly not an Internet problem.

Of note is that I just completely reset my network and recreated all the scenes after failing to be able to migrate from Vera1. Peachy.[/quote]

13

Mine also stays up about a week before locking up (1.1.1047). If you’re away from your Vera then I would do what most others have done that have this problem, and put it on a manual timer that reboots it every night until MCV can get it run for an extended time.

14

is there any way with lua to have the box reboot itself? Doesn’t help if it’s locked up, but maybe a nightly reboot would prevent lock ups?

15

My vera2 (ui2) is remote. It has behaved very well and not locked up since I installed it a few months ago. I do have it (and dsl modem) on a UPS for what its worth. The only failure so far has been DSL modem after a bad t-storm this summer.

Keep in mind its a real simple set up so far… Schlage deadbolt, Trane t-stat and a door sensor.

16

@michaelk

os.execute(‘reboot’)

17

I don’t know if it makes sense to rely on a soft reboot, unless it was coded to occur automatically after lock-up and was lower-level than Lua, as lock-ups may occur regardless and prevent Lua reboots, hence the light timer (cheap ,effective, and reliable).

18

Not to mention that the Reboot button (Advanced → Net & Wi-Fi → Reboot) does not work …

19

Am back at the beach house (the one with the repeatedly-unreachable-by-remote Vera2).

Vera was sitting there in the rack, plugged in, but no lights on the front panel. All other devices (MicroCell, cam, router, modem, network drive, etc.) operating just fine.

I grabbed the plug, and wow it was warm. Also making a just barely audible humming sound. Hm. Bad plug?? They look a little cheap-ish, but certainly not garbage (unlike the one that comes with the battery pack…)

Anyhow, I swapped in an adjustable universal power supply. Vera2 booted and is running. I’ll post again as to whether it stays up or not. Folks having issues with Vera2 dying periodically may want to check the thing we all never check: The Plug…

Man, this is work.
.//A.

[quote=“anthonyris, post:12, topic:166779”]And, once again, Vera2 is unreachable remotely a week after rebooting it manually. It has been doing nothing but sitting there, and mysteriously goes down. Again.

Cam is fine and reachable. Router is fine and reachable. Are people really thinking about hooking this up to a security system?? Yikes.

Ticket submitted. Again. Never got a resolution last time.

.//A.

[quote=“anthonyris, post:8, topic:166779”]Adding to the chorus:
My new Vera2 is unreachable remotely.
I can access my router and cam through their own web interface
So clearly not an Internet problem.

Of note is that I just completely reset my network and recreated all the scenes after failing to be able to migrate from Vera1. Peachy.[/quote][/quote]

20

I set up a scene with this and get command failed:invalid scene

I have saved it many times and still get the same thing.

I am not a programmer, I probably did something wrong, all I did is set up a scene with a timer for 3am and then put os.execute(‘reboot’) in the luup tab. Is there more to it than that?

I get the error when I click on Run

I was hoping to use this temporarily until MCV fixes whatever is going on with the server issues causing cp.mios to not find vera until after a reboot.

[quote=“Ap15e, post:16, topic:166779”]@michaelk

os.execute(‘reboot’)[/quote]