[ANSWERED]Bad PLM or driver issue?

Hi everyone,

I recently rebuilt (not moved) my entire Indigo 6 server from an Mini running 10.8.X to another Mini running 10.9.X. During my rebuild, I had installed the latests FTDI driver to communicate with my old 2413U from my previous server and a FTDI based USB to RS232 adapter connected to a Davis WX receiver. I had read on one of these forums that Mavericks included FTDI drivers in the OS, but I was unable to get either USB device working without actually installing the USB driver package. I had also purchased Weathersnoop 3 as I had been running Weathersnoop 2 for quite a while and found it was no longer supported. Anyhow to make a long story short, I am having tremendous issues with Indigo communicating with the old PLM, getting all sorts of "power failures" and rebooting notifications in the Indigo event log. I initially thought the PLM may be to blame given the LED on the side was not illuminating at all or would occasionally illuminate red so I ended up purchasing a new 2413U. Now I am having extreme latency issues with Indigo communicating over this new PLM and discovered via Console that Weathersnoop 3 has been disconnecting from the serial interface and forcing itself to quit. Has anyone else experienced or heard of anything like this? Im not sure if I have a driver issue, two bad PLM's or if I am just loosing my mind? I have tried clearing links, resetting, and batch syncing all 125+ devices (which takes almost forever) to no avail.

Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

[jay (support)]

Are you sure you have the correct serial ports selected for your PowerLinc and Davis?

I'd start by unplugging all USB devices except mouse/keyboard and PowerLinc. Make sure the PowerLinc is plugged directly into a USB port on your Mac and not into a hub.

Are you sure you have the correct serial ports selected for your PowerLinc and Davis?

I'd start by unplugging all USB devices except mouse/keyboard and PowerLinc. Make sure the PowerLinc is plugged directly into a USB port on your Mac and not into a hub.

100% certain that I am using the correct serial ports and there are no hubs or anything like that present on this system. It's simply a headless Mini Running Indigo and Weathersnoop 3, that's it. Considering the amount of change between the old setup and the new setup (New hardware, new OS, New applications), I am having a heck of a time pin pointing where the fault is actually occurring.

[jay (support)]

I'm quite surprised that you had to install the FTDI driver - all reports have been that the one included in Mavericks works fine (including on Macs I have here). I wonder if this might signal that there's some odd OS corruption or, worse, some hardware problem.

I'm quite surprised that you had to install the FTDI driver - all reports have been that the one included in Mavericks works fine (including on Macs I have here). I wonder if this might signal that there's some odd OS corruption or, worse, some hardware problem.

I was able to verify that the FTDI driver I installed was not the cause of the issue. However as a precautionary measure, I have since uninstalled it and was able to get the driver included in the OS working. Still troubleshooting...

A quick update.

I found another thread where a user was having a similar issue. http://forums.indigodomo.com/viewtopic.php?p=65598#p65598

For the most part, my situation is identical to theirs (now having ruled out the driver issue). Seems that this new PLM (which is Ver: 9.11 FYI) does not sync well with many i2CS devices. I actually found that resetting the PLM and performing the sync over will yield varying results, where i2CS devices may or may not sync. One thing worth noting is that resetting the problematic i2CS device, then performing a sync on that specific device seems to be a work around. However, having 125+ devices where approximately 50% of them are affected means a lot of labor to do resetting. Even worse, some are buried in the attic and high up under the canopies of my (vaulted) ceiling fans. Ugh...

And yet another update...

In fiddling around with my old 2413U PML (Ver: 9.9), I am able to get it to temporarily come back to life (apperantly it has some sort of power supply issue). Anyhow, what I noticed was that (when operational) the "Sync All Links" function within Indigo would zip through the sync process with only a few devices having to be sync'd independently. However, the replacement PLM I recently purchased from SmartHome (Running Ver: 9.11) would not sync most of my i2CS devices. Even when the device in question was reset and I was able to sync it back up manually, the communication was intermittent. I have two more PLM's on their way, but I am beginning to wonder if this might be something that is effecting newer PLM's.

Opening both PLM's revealed the boards are physically identical and have the same Rev #.

[matt (support)]

The problem isn't that the new PLM doesn't sync with the i2CS modules, then problem is you need to perform a full Define and Sync and not just a re-sync. I just posted some details on the other forum thread that explain what is occurring. Note that no factory reset should be needed.

Now I'm not sure this explains this:

Even when the device in question was reset and I was able to sync it back up manually, the communication was intermittent

Try the full Define and Sync operation with the modules though and see if that helps with the intermittent communication problems. If it doesn't then please copy/paste the Event Log results of both the Define and Sync of the module as well as examples showing the intermittent failures.

My suspicion at this point is that your have a malfunctioning PLM. The Define and Sync versus Re-Sync is also a problem that tripped up using the new PLM, but I think there might be an underlying issue with the specific PLM you have not working correctly. So let us know how the new PLMs work, and be sure and Define and Sync your i2CS modules and not just Re-Sync them.