ControlThink Forums

 Hi,

I am using the 2.3 beta, build  4.  I am using the random sunset/sunrise feature with offsets.  Most mornings my TE crashes right as it turns off my outside lights.  The lights do go off, but TE displays a message that it has gotten an error and needs to shut down.  Then I need to manually restart it.  Anyone else have this problem?

Interesting, I've never seen anything like this.  What sort of devices are included in this event?  Is it an area on/off, a scene being called on an area, or a TE scene that the event is triggering on?

 I have two areas, each with an on event at around 30 mins before dusk, and an off event at around 30 mins after dawn.  One area has two switches and the other has two switches and an outlet.  I do not know which area causesthe crash, only that all lights are off after the crash.

 Had the crash again, this is what it reports:

EventType: clr20r3

P1: thinkessentials.exe

P2: 2.3.0.4

P3: 4a0dd03f

P4: thinkessentials

P5: 2.3.0.4

P6: 4a0dd03f

P7: 240

P8: fd

P9: system.argumentexception

Code: 0xe0434f4d

Flags: 0x00000001

Record: 0x0000000000000000

Address: 0x000000007c812afb

Hope it helps.

Hrmm, interesting that it would be throwing an argument exception.  Thanks for the info, I'll be sure to pass this along to the rest of the team.

 kkarhi,

 If you wouldn't mind, please create a backup of your network and send it to support@controlthink.com.  We'll recreate your network here, and see if we can cause the same failure to occur.  If we can, we'll be able to diagnose the problem, and hopefully have a fix shortly.

Thanks,

 I've got your backup file, and am trying to reproduce the crash now.  I'll post back with more information if it comes up

My TE just crashed again, so it does not seem to be only a morning effect.  All the outside lights are on so the crash happens after the commands have been sent to the switches.  The crashes have been happening much more rarely than before, not sure why.  The crash info is the same as above.

 Got the crash again this morning, with the same data as before.  This time only one of the areas has turned off (the one with the two switches), the other area still has all the lights on.  I do not know if this has anything to do with the problem, but when I restarted TE, it lied to me about the area with the lights on, saying that one of the switches was turned off, though I could see the light still on.  I clicked on the switch once, and that caused TE to think the light was just turned on, and in fact the light was still on.  A minute later all the lights for that area turned off and TE correctly reported it.

Thanks for the data point.  We're actively trying to address this problem, and will be sure to keep you informed as to our progress.

Dear kkarhi -

We're working to track down this issue, and although we haven't yet reproduced the problem with your failure mode here exactly, we've come up with a theory.  We think that perhaps your issue is related to the final four events in your event list.

We theorize that there's an unforeseen interaction between these four events that's causing the trouble.  Specifically, our theory involves "random offset" events overlapping --- being scheduled within 60 minutes of each other.

To test this theory, I wonder if I may offer up a workaround, to see if this is the smoking gun.  In fact, I have two workarounds, perhaps we'll try each and see what sticks.

1) Since we're trying to activate both the "outside" and "garage" areas at dawn and dusk time, we could instead create a new area, called "outsidegarage", and include all four devices it.  We could then delete the final two random events, and point the remaining two random events at this new "outsidegarage" area.   It's (unfortunately) important that you actually "delete" these events, and not simply "disable" them by unchecking them, due to the way things are structured internally.  This would remove the overlapping random events, and (we hope) mitigate the problem, with the side effect that the garage and outside would always activate at the same time, instead of each being independently random, as your events are designed currently.

 2) Since we think the "randomness" may be playing a role, as a test we could uncheck the "random" option for all of the last four events, and see if that mitigates the problem.  If that's successful, then perhaps we could enable the random offset on just one dawn, and one dusk event, and confirm that it still works.

Please let us know if these help your failures at all, and please understand that we recognize that these are not bug fixes, but tests and workarounds to help us better understand the problem until we are able to reproduce it fully here.

We really appreciate your help and patience as we sort out the kinks here.  Please keep us posted.

Regards and thanks

-Dan

 

 Hi Dan,

I have run all this time without a single crash, so I must agree with you that it has something to do with the random feature.  I have now implemented your suggestion #1 above:  I created a new area, outsidegarage, and associated all of my outside lights with it.  I then created two new schedules for the area, one for 30 mins before dusk and the other  around 30 mins after dawn.  I also deleted the existing four schedules for my outside and garage areas (which still exist).  Let's see if I get any crashes now, and if they are only at dawn.

Kkarhi,

 The latest ThinkEssentials beta (ThinkEssentials  2.4 beta build 1) addresses a timed event bug amongst other things.  We think the bug addressed is the cause of the crashes you originally experienced with random timed events in the mornings.  So if you'd like to go back to the original set of timed events that caused crashes, please download the newest beta and give it a try.  If it still crashes please let us know.

 Thanks