new installation with puck, no scene control

[tt55du]

Weird problem here, been using free SQ until my puck arrived, very impressed even though I was only able to control one type of device, being lights.

Installed the Puck, all features unlocked, setting up puck now.  btw, it works great but the UI config is very tedious but extremely customizable

So I setup other devices like fans and awnings, still works great until I get to scenes

I can set up scenes just fine, but when I activate a scene nothing happens, even more weird, SQ disconnects from vera for about 15 - 30 seconds

Tried making new test scenes with no luck.

anyone see this?

btw, running UI2 996

[SquareConnectMat]

Weird problem here, been using free SQ until my puck arrived, very impressed even though I was only able to control one type of device, being lights.

Installed the Puck, all features unlocked, setting up puck now.  btw, it works great but the UI config is very tedious but extremely customizable

So I setup other devices like fans and awnings, still works great until I get to scenes

I can set up scenes just fine, but when I activate a scene nothing happens, even more weird, SQ disconnects from vera for about 15 - 30 seconds

Tried making new test scenes with no luck.

anyone see this?

btw, running UI2 996

If you put in a ticket to SQ support system: http://www.squareconnect.com/ticket/index.php. We will take a look at this.

I have never heard of this issue, and we have been testing this stuff with Scenes for quite a while. Would love to find out what is happening.

Mat

[wmilsted]

The issue is the Vera firmware.  The UI2 Version 996 will not work with Scenes and SQ Remote.  995 will work and of course UI4 versions.

[tt55du]

doh, i think i remember seeing this issue with 996 vs 995 in another post.
Do you know if there are issues with 995?  Should I downgrade?

[SquareConnectMat]

I know we had a lot of issues with 996. I do not know of any issues downgrading will cause. Or what people feel about the UI4 firmware versions... I can tell you that the deeper SQ Blaster/Vera integration is going to be on the UI4 versions and I doubt it will be retro fitted. So if you are going to be looking at being able to integrate SQ Blaster devices from Vera Scenes, then biting the bullet at some point will probably be needed.

[tt55du]

dropped to 995, still nervous with UI4 in beta  and my vera1 which I will cling on to for as long as possible.

995 seems to work well with both the puck and vera.  Only issue is when the ipod touch comes back from being a sleep it takes a little tinkering to get it to work again. It's usually a combination of

closing and starting SQ app out of memory
rebooting the whole ipod touch
resetting the puck

I got a few things I want to try before opening a ticket.

[tt55du]

Alright, I think I figured it out.  At first I thought it was the Bluetooth, but it was addressed with SQ 2.1 and having it off made no difference.  Then I realized that the DHCP leases were really short and perhaps when the ipod and/or puck comes back from any power save mode it loses it ip address lease and a new random one and then has to resolve a new addresse for the puck and vera.

I just had the dhcp assign a static address to the puck and ipod based on their mac address

this is pretty easy using the web UI for wrt under network advanced settings unless you have UI4, which I hear has this disabled.  Very annoying and one more reason fro me to stick to UI2.
you could always modify the /etc/ethers file though

then i set the puck settings to the static ip address in the SQ app so it did not have to resolve by name.

Anyway, did it last night and when I got up this morning to try it out it seemed to work just fine.  I'll report back if this doesn't fix it

[SquareConnectJohn]

tt55du - thats Great news. Please keep us informed!

John

[tt55du]

So far the static IP addresses has worked well, but a new weird problem has arisen, it has happened twice now when I check the remote in the morning.  I'll continue to monitor each morning.

The Puck Config I have has it sitting in a closet with:

an IR signal splitter
an IR blaster
and a 3 head IR emitter

I wired the IR blaster through the closet wall to be in line of sight of my TV while the 3 head emitter controls my components within the closet.

So when I try the remote in the morning I am able to only to turn the TV on, then I get no further signals coming from the IR blaster, strangely, the 3 head emitter still works fine.  I would suspect the ir blaster was bad, but upon reboot of the puck everything is peachy again.  I've reset the cables and switched the connections on the splitter with no luck.  I'm stumped to what would be causing this, aren't the wires just passive conduits?  Is the Puck somehow able to distinguish what signals it pushes through each wire (I would think the same signal goes out each and every time out of all emitters?  Why is rebooting the puck sending a signal to both wires again?  I'll continue to monitor.

[SquareConnectJohn]

tt55du

You are right... there should be no difference here...Front and external are on the same line essentially.

When you try this first thing - can you observe the IR blaster LEDs using the viewfinder of a digital camera.? You will be able to see if it is blasting.

John

[woodsby]

Weird - having a similar problem here.  I have a 5-way splitter plugged into my blaster.  Two of the ports have 2-head emitters plugged in.  One of them works fine all the time.  The other seems to stop working after a while - failed the same "morning" test every day this week.  I've tried swapping ports, and the same 2-head emitter drops out after awhile, so it's not the splitter.  The 2-head emitter was working fine when plugged into my harmony extender.  Haven't tried pressing the buttons on the bottom, but the way i get it working again is unplugging and plugging in the emitter.  I have a different emitter plugged in now and we'll see what it does in the morning.  BTW, the other 3 ports on the 5-way splitter have single-head emitters and they work fine.
Just out of curiosity, tt55du, is your splitter stereo or mono - you should be able to tell by the number of bands on the plug.  Mine is stereo, so I'm wondering if that has anything to do with it, although it shouldn't.

Good point John... totally didn't think about pulling out the digital camera to see the IR...

[tt55du]

ok, wife got home today after a long period of inactivity on the ipod touch  and same thing happened, was able to turn on the tv then it stopped working.

After pressing the "B" button all is good again very weird

btw my splitter is a stereo splitter (two lines). It's the one that SQ sells.  all of my cables are from SQ, I didn't want to take any chances with such a new product.

I'll try the digital camera in the morning and report back.

I also have another thought, the length on the SQ splitter is quite long and the signal may be degrading (but still in operating tolerances) to a point where it is strong enough for the 3 head emitter channel, but not strong enough for the ir blaster.  I have a short splitter in which I'll try after my predicted  "morning" after failure.

[tt55du]

So as predicted I got the same problem this morning.  TV turned on via the blaster then nothing (the 3 head emitter was still working).  Pulled out the digital camera and it showed the blaster WAS emitting to the TV.  So my first assumption is there is not enough power, distance should not be an issue since the IR blaster is only 3-4 feet away.  I unplugged the splitter and plugged in only the the blaster and it works.

Put everything back together, did a reset and everything is good again.  Checked the emitter with the camera and it was slightly brighter. So I'm guessing that the power to the emitter is diminishing over time.

I removed the SQ supplied splitter and tried one of mine that is much shorter and it actually worked worse, but it was a crappy one and way thinner than the SQ one.  I have another one I'll try tonight. Would a mono splitter help?

Did some more testing and I'm finding that with the splitter in place I'm seeing about half the brightness coming from all the emitters.  It might explain why some of my TV macros sometimes flake out occasionally

Can I boost the power somehow?  I'll try another splitter too.  Maybe try a new USB power source? Maybe a future firmware fix would help.  It's obviously capable of handling two channels in my setup, I just need to know why the signal degrades.

So it looks like I figured out the problem so my question to the SQ team is what should I do next?  Should I open up ticket?

[SquareConnectJohn]

tt55du

This is a very interesting observation. Thanks for going to the trouble of trying this all out and documenting it. We will review the hardware internally to see if there is any reason for this happening, and as you say find a way to prevent this happening via firmware.

Please go ahead and raise a ticket, so that it is "officially documented.

Thanks

John

[SquareConnectMat]

We will look into this as a matter of urgency and report findings.

I really appreciate your diligence in identifying this issue.


Mat