UI5 scenes unreliable

I just upgraded my Vera 2 to the latest version of UI5 last week and I’m having trouble with scenes not running. I have a few scenes that control my thermostats that work one day but not another and I can’t find any logical explination for this. I deleted the orginal scenes from UI4 and recreated them in UI5, just in case something was wonky about them, but they are still unreliable.

The scenes are very simple:
scene “Morning Therm” - at 7:30 turn both thermostats to 65
scene “Evening Therm” - at 3:30 set them to 71
No timers, no other triggers and no other scenes involving the thermostats exist.

Anyone have any ideas? Is UI5 not a good idea on Vera2?

If you are using UI5 on a V2 then it’s likely running a bit low on memory and the reason the scenes may not be executing is it may be locking up or restarting.

Try it with a USB thumb drive installed, and select the option to log to USB drive; this normally helps stabilize it for a lot of people, since it will free up memory.

[quote=“strangely, post:2, topic:173423”]If you are using UI5 on a V2 then it’s likely running a bit low on memory and the reason the scenes may not be executing is it may be locking up or restarting.

Try it with a USB thumb drive installed, and select the option to log to USB drive; this normally helps stabilize it for a lot of people, since it will free up memory.[/quote]

I have a USB logging now.

I would recommend checking the standard items:
a) “[tt]uptime[/tt]” - is your machine rebooting?
b) When did the LuaUPnP process last start - when did it last restart?
c) “[tt]logread[/tt]” - anything unusual?
d) “top” - Is the memory of LuaUPnP growing materially over time? - how much is “left” (in free, cache, etc)

For example, my Vera3 is rebooting a few times per day (rebooting, not just [tt]LuaUPnP[/tt] restarting). This results in flaky scene execution. In some cases, this is just delays in the execution, but in others they won’t execute, or they’ll execute multiple times.

Failing diag here, it would be worthwhile calling support to have them diagnose in detail… others would likely have the same issue.

PS: Should this be in the “Upgrading” forum area?

Belt and qbraces workaround, set up a second scene to run 5 mins after the original to make the same change, you have twice the chance of it working that way

Nick

…or create worse problems since an extra scenes uses a fraction more resources if it was a memory issue!

Exactly, better to find the cause than to create a hack that could cause more issues.

  • Garrett

[quote=“guessed, post:4, topic:173423”]I would recommend checking the standard items:
a) “[tt]uptime[/tt]” - is your machine rebooting?
b) When did the LuaUPnP process last start - when did it last restart?
c) “[tt]logread[/tt]” - anything unusual?
d) “top” - Is the memory of LuaUPnP growing materially over time? - how much is “left” (in free, cache, etc)

For example, my Vera3 is rebooting a few times per day (rebooting, not just [tt]LuaUPnP[/tt] restarting). This results in flaky scene execution. In some cases, this is just delays in the execution, but in others they won’t execute, or they’ll execute multiple times.

Failing diag here, it would be worthwhile calling support to have them diagnose in detail… others would likely have the same issue.

PS: Should this be in the “Upgrading” forum area?[/quote]

Ok…how?

Most of these commands will require command line access via ssh, along with Some basic Linux knowledge to get, and interpret, the results.

If you’ve not done that before, it may be simpler to contact support to have them diagnose.

[quote=“mbairhead, post:1, topic:173423”]I just upgraded my Vera 2 to the latest version of UI5 last week and I’m having trouble with scenes not running. I have a few scenes that control my thermostats that work one day but not another and I can’t find any logical explination for this. I deleted the orginal scenes from UI4 and recreated them in UI5, just in case something was wonky about them, but they are still unreliable.

The scenes are very simple:
scene “Morning Therm” - at 7:30 turn both thermostats to 65
scene “Evening Therm” - at 3:30 set them to 71
No timers, no other triggers and no other scenes involving the thermostats exist.

Anyone have any ideas? Is UI5 not a good idea on Vera2?[/quote]

Hi

I have about 30 different zwave devices running on a Vera 2 on UI5 (1.5.408) (with external logging) and my scenes run very reliably. I have never noticed a problem. I use timers, and triggers.

Don

The magic number seems to be anywhere between 40 and 60 devices before people start to see issues.

[quote=“mbairhead, post:1, topic:173423”]I just upgraded my Vera 2 to the latest version of UI5 last week and I’m having trouble with scenes not running. I have a few scenes that control my thermostats that work one day but not another and I can’t find any logical explination for this. I deleted the orginal scenes from UI4 and recreated them in UI5, just in case something was wonky about them, but they are still unreliable.

The scenes are very simple:
scene “Morning Therm” - at 7:30 turn both thermostats to 65
scene “Evening Therm” - at 3:30 set them to 71
No timers, no other triggers and no other scenes involving the thermostats exist.

Anyone have any ideas? Is UI5 not a good idea on Vera2?[/quote]
I’m not clear on how you setup this scene since doing something at 7:30 is using a timer and youve stated that no timers exist. However though my scenes are often highly reliable I do get unpredictible glitches where a scene wont run at all or most of a scene will run leaving one element out, or a very long delay of a minute or two will precede the action. This is no failsafe technology

[quote=“pgrover516, post:12, topic:173423”][quote=“mbairhead, post:1, topic:173423”]I just upgraded my Vera 2 to the latest version of UI5 last week and I’m having trouble with scenes not running. I have a few scenes that control my thermostats that work one day but not another and I can’t find any logical explination for this. I deleted the orginal scenes from UI4 and recreated them in UI5, just in case something was wonky about them, but they are still unreliable.

The scenes are very simple:
scene “Morning Therm” - at 7:30 turn both thermostats to 65
scene “Evening Therm” - at 3:30 set them to 71
No timers, no other triggers and no other scenes involving the thermostats exist.

Anyone have any ideas? Is UI5 not a good idea on Vera2?[/quote]
I’m not clear on how you setup this scene since doing something at 7:30 is using a timer and youve stated that no timers exist. However though my scenes are often highly reliable I do get unpredictible glitches where a scene wont run at all or most of a scene will run leaving one element out, or a very long delay of a minute or two will precede the action. This is no failsafe technology[/quote]

I guess I’m using timers by that definition but going by UI5 interface, I’m setting up a “Schedule” and a “timer” is the delay that you set up to reverse that action (or do anyother action". So, instead of saying “Set temp to 65 at 7:00 for 2 hours then return to previous temp”, which generally work well unless there’s a disruption in Vera’s connection, then the second part of that scene will fail every time I’m setting up two scenes…temp down and temp up.

Actually I do have a scene on a timer that didn’t run today. Turn on outside lights 1.5 hours Before Sunrise then Off in 90 minutes.

Actually I do have a scene on a timer that didn’t run today. Turn on outside lights 1.5 hours Before Sunrise then Off in 90 minutes.[/quote]

Hi

I would be curious to determine if the scene ran in Vera as opposed to the rf signal was not acted upon by the light switch. Can you check the dashboard or the log to see if Vera thought the scene ran?

 Don

[quote=“Don Diego, post:15, topic:173423”]Hi

I would be curious to determine if the scene ran in Vera as opposed to the rf signal was not acted upon by the light switch. Can you check the dashboard or the log to see if Vera thought the scene ran?

 Don[/quote]

The scene ran because the lights were on as expect when I left, the delay failed though.

Interesting, I have 67 devices (including 2 IR blasters) and I still have about a half dozen switches stilll in the boxes waiting to install. I may just be blowing past my Vera’s capabilities

Likely, however I would submit a ticket and have the MCV gusy look at your logs to see if anything restarted… I’m pretty sure this is whats happening, it just may not be due to low memory though, and I’d hate to make you update to a V. Lite or V3 only to find similar issues.

The memory stick should’ve helped, since it moves the logging (which takes a big chunk of RAM) to the memory stick instead. Its possible that even though you have the USB stick present, it may not have formatted correctly, and thus might not be mounted correctly, and could still be logging internally; this also happened to a few others, but again you’d need to SSH in to find out!