Bug: Incontrol updates control status before receiving updates
Overall, and due to a variety of issues, incontrol doesn't actually control my devices 5% of the time while saying it did. If I push a button to turn on a light, 95% of the time it will turn on then and represent it on the screen. However if the item ghosts (in another future bug report), has comm issues, or the cloud has issues, incontrol will act like it send the control and update itself immediately to represent that change. This is both in the android version and the main incontrol software. What it should do is send out the control, note the control was sent, and then update the device when it receives confirmation of that change. It should also generate an error in a log file somewhere if it doesn't receive that back in a timely manner. This makes it difficult troubleshooting a possible device issue because incontrol always behaves as if it received that feedback when it hasn't.
Check out version 3.138 – note this is an experimental version to address this exact issue. Please provide feedback about your experience with it.
Download it from here: http://8b00dabafb79df8fd29d-df819fbfa20aed079fcbd3a835f9ccad.r13.cf1.rackcdn.com/InControlInstalls/InControl_Setup_3.138.exe
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Jim commented
Hi Ryan:
I've started having a lot of issues with scenes not behaving properly - in some cases consistently and in others more along the lines of the 5% reported above. So I downloaded this versions to see if it helps. It doesn't.
Specifically, here are some of the problems I've started seeing, none of which were a problem until recently:
1. Light switch set to turn front lights on at dusk and off at 1:00AM. Periodically either does not turn on or does not turn off (~5% of the time). Also ~5%, the lights will turn on or off at random times, for no apparent reason.
2. Power outlet controlling a water feature pump. Scenes set to turn it on in the morning and off late at night. Now 100% of time, it does not turn on in the morning. I have to activate the outlet directly. If I try to activate the outlet manually from the software, the button shows "on" for a few seconds, then reverts to off, but the outlet stays powered regardless of software state. 95% of the time the scene to turn this off at night works fine. When I try to auto configure that outlet, I get the message: Auto-configuration node 3 . . . Associating device with main controller . . . Fail! Unable to retrieve manufacturer info from device. Performing basic configuration.
This outlet has worked for several years and does still respond correctly to the "off" scene, so not sure what's going on all of a sudden.
I've reset my USB stick several times; deleted and rebuilt scenes; uninstalled and re-installed InControl. Still no luck.
I'm thinking of reverting to an earlier version, as this was running beautifully for me until recently. I do try to stay current with updates, but I don't recall these issues having started immediately after an update.
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Magus commented
Hey Ryan,
This version is definitely better. I can see the spinning wheel when it's waiting confirmation on changing states. I did some testing and this is what I came up with:
1. It still says it is operating my "ghost" devices. The spinning wheels goes for less than a second then changes the state. At this point I did a reset of my stick to continue testing.
2. For the most part it behaved responsibly. However, if I was like a bad kid, and kept changing states, I would eventually get it to a point where it would say it changed, represent that on the screen, then get feedback from the actual device and change to that state. For instance it was off, I turned it on, the screen showed it was on, but it was actually off. Several seconds later the off state would update to incontrol.
3. Finally and most telling I have a plug control for my garage door that I used to test with this. First, I sent a few commands to double check it was working right. Then I would unplug it, send a command to turn on, the wheel would spin, and the device would show as changed even though it was unplugged. What was interesting was that the second I plugged it in, it would turn on to match the state.
I can't communicate directly to the Z-stick, but at this point I'm guessing that it is what is noting the state as changed, not your software. Is that correct?
Thanks,
Magus -
Magus commented
Awesome, thanks! I'll let you know how it works.