SOLVED! Altsteon setup help

I am really new with HA and Vera and this is the first challenging tool I have tried to add. I have read through all of the posts about setting up altsteon multiple times and I am still having problems. thank you for everyone who has added input. I’m not sure where I have gone wrong. in the ssh commands I can access the command “/overlay/sbin/altsteon -p /dev/ttyUSB0” and get the response “starting altsteon”. so I think the daemon is running on vera ok. but I’m not 100 percent sure to how to test it by controling the plm directly through the daemon.

I have uploaded all of the files through the add luup files browser in the vera ui. the devices I added don’t show any control options, but in the settings I get some additional options: see attachment.

the plm device settings has the insteon logo but no control options. i did have a question about the ip address, some documentation stated to use 127.0.0.1 and some documentation that states to use the vera ip address. they are not the same for me. which is the right one?

I thought I would get options to control my device (fanlinc) in the device ui. any help would be very appriciated.

In the read-me file with the Altsteon files, it mentions how to control the daemon manually. I would start there and make sure your PLM is talking to the lamp-link. Also note you can add “-d” (multiple d’s for more verbose) and the daemon will print more information. To test the devices manually, start another SSH session and run the “altsteon_cli” program. It will connect to the daemon and allow you to try and control the devices manually. Start with “add_device aa.bb.cc”, where aa.bb.cc is the address of the device you want to control (fanlink). You should get a response, like “aa.bb.cc:0008,01,FF - aa.bb.cc button/group 255 is on”, which should tell you the current device status. You can then control it with “aa.bb.cc on” or “aa.bb.cc off”. See the readme for a list of more commands you can send for extra devices (I don’t have a fanlink, but I remember it having more advanced control than just on/off). Once that is verified, then you should proceed with the Vera UI setup.

The settings you see look correct for a device, they are extra options you can set/see for the device, like the LED state, etc. If you don’t see any device controls, the problem is probably because the daemon was not able to correctly communicate with the device. Some of the more advanced devices, like keypad links and fanlinks, need to communicate before the controls show up. A common problem is the device address format, note the “.”, a “:” is not correct. If the daemon seems to communicate properly, but it still does not work in the Vera UI, could you post a “log” of the events to help debug? To get a log, run the daemon as above with the “-ddd” options added, then “Reload” the Vera UI. Give it a few minutes, there should be a few entries that show the device address is added and the poll is attempted. Then save that output and post it here :slight_smile:

The PLM does not have any options. The IP address of “127.0.0.1” is a special number which always mean “the same machine” or “localhost”. The real IP should also work, but “127.0.0.1” is easier in case the IP changes I recommend using the “127.0.0.1” address.

Jimbo333 thanks for the response it really helped trouble shoot my problem. I went through the scp again. here is a copy of my log:

/overlay/sbin$ altsteon
Debug Level : 0
[1/5/2013 - 09:11:46] - --| Starting altsteon!
Quitting parent.
[1/5/2013 - 09:11:46] - PLM is devcat 3, subcat 21, address 1E.4D.64 running software rev. 155.$ altsteon -h
altsteon - Insteon Control Daemon v.0.04

Arguments :
-p - Path to the PLM device.
-t - Length of time (in seconds) between status polls. (Defaults to 10 minutes)
-f - Run in the foreground.
-l - Log to log.txt
-d - Enabled debug output. (-dd for more)
-h - This screen.

Example :
If your PLM is located at /dev/ttyUSB3, the command
line would look like this :

  altsteon -p /dev/ttyUSB3

/overlay/sbin$ altsteon -ddd
Quitting parent.
Debug Level : 3
[1/5/2013 - 09:11:59] - --| Starting altsteon!
[DEBUG] [1/5/2013 - 09:11:59] - Opening /dev/ttyUSB0…$ altsteon -p /dev/ttyUSB0
Quitting parent.
Debug Level : 0
[1/5/2013 - 09:12:18] - --| Starting altsteon!
[1/5/2013 - 09:12:18] - PLM is devcat 3, subcat 21, address 1E.4D.64 running software rev. 155.$ altsteon -l
Quitting parent.
Debug Level : 0$ altsteon -l
Quitting parent.
Debug Level : 0$ altsteon -t
altsteon: option requires an argument – t
Unknown command line parameter ‘?’!

altsteon - Insteon Control Daemon v.0.04

Arguments :
-p - Path to the PLM device.
-t - Length of time (in seconds) between status polls. (Defaults to 10 minutes)
-f - Run in the foreground.
-l - Log to log.txt
-d - Enabled debug output. (-dd for more)
-h - This screen.

Example :
If your PLM is located at /dev/ttyUSB3, the command
line would look like this :

  altsteon -p /dev/ttyUSB3

/overlay/sbin$ add_device 14.f5.92
-ash: add_device: not found
/overlay/sbin$ altsteon add_device 14.f5.92
Quitting parent.
Debug Level : 0
[1/5/2013 - 09:15:51] - --| Starting altsteon!

a few things i noticed. first the help command states that it is version 0.04 when I downloaded version 0.05. second I can get the altsteon command to work properly but whenever I run altsteon_cli it locks up and then I get an error that states that the device timed out and it forces me to abort. I am using a veralite and the binary files I downloaded are from the vera 3 binary folder.

when it froze on trying to open the altsteon cli command I got the image of the log below.

am I on the right track? has anyone else had problems getting the altsteon_cli to open?

thanks in advance for anyones insight.

here is the attachment for the response of the plm, it seems altsteon can’t get the plm to respond. i just tested it out in houselinc and everything worked fine.

I think you are getting close. I am not sure if the Vera 3 binaries work on the Lite, but I would think if it is running you are OK. The difference is the CPU, which I would think would crash with an invalid instruction error if it was the problem. Based on the log, I think there might be some confusion of how to run the 2 programs. I find it easiest to open 2 separate SSH sessions. It appears your modem is on /dev/ttyUSB0, which is the default value (based on the first run of the daemon).

Session 1 - Run “altsteon -ddd”
You should see the output:
[1/5/2013 - 09:11:46] - --| Starting altsteon!
[1/5/2013 - 09:11:46] - PLM is devcat 3, subcat 21, address 1E.4D.64 running software rev. 155.$ altsteon -h
altsteon - Insteon Control Daemon v.0.04

Session 2 - Run “altsteon_cli”
Once you run this, in session 1, you should see a “connection from cli” type of message appear. Once this happens, this window has a command-line where you can type the commands like “add_device aa.bb.cc” and “aa.bb.cc on”. Once you type those commands, you should see some data in the Session 1 window and eventually a response to the command from the device in the Session 2 window.

Once you have that setup, could you post the output from both windows, then I can help debug the problem further.

I keep getting stuck on running the altsteon_cli I have created a log file and a screen capture video of what happens when i run the program. here is a link to look at it. am I the only one having problems getting it to work on a veralite?

After playing with the settings in winscp the default timeout wat set to 15 sec and the plm was taking longer to respond. I extended the timeout to 60 sec and the plm responded and everything is working. thanks for your help Jimbo333.

I have the same error- but I don’t understand how you fixed the PLM interfacing with Vera. Is this a timeout issue with communication btwn the daemon/Vera/PLM? I am trying to implement this on a Vera2.

yes i had a timeout issue and at first had to wait longer for it to connect. however i don’t have vera 2. when running the daemon change the timeout setting in the daemon to 60 sec.

I am using ssh from the terminal on my Mac. How would I go about upping the timeout?