xAP Flash nee Joggler beta 5

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  • Kevin
    Moderator
    • Jan 2004
    • 558

    It's that time(r) of the morning again

    Gary,

    I have reworked some timers in beta 6 that I think were contributing to this issue and causing xAPFlash not to be able to reconnect if iServer was restarted whilst it had attached clients . I don't believe there is any issue within iServer.

    Whilst this doesn't explain why the disconnects were happening ( I sent you a few thoughts by email ) it should mean that it will reconnect OK.

    I'll be in touch by email tomorrow.

    K

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    • Digizz
      Automated Home Jr Member
      • Feb 2004
      • 17

      Running pre beta 5, I've noticed the joggler reboot about 3 times over the last 3 or 4 weeks (that's when I've been sitting next to it). Has anyone else seen this? XapFlash is left running on the joggler.

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      • BodgeIT
        Automated Home Sr Member
        • Jul 2010
        • 57

        Hi Digizz, yes both Kevin and I have noticed this but it's very difficult to pin down cause. Funnily as I was saying to Kevin, I have noticed it happening less over the last couple of weeks.

        Comment

        • Kevin
          Moderator
          • Jan 2004
          • 558

          Three thoughts...

          Is your Joggler set to use static IP or the default dynamic (DHCP) ? You should use static.

          Also ensure that whilst xAPFlash is running the iServer PC is not being turned off / sleeping as xAPFlash depends on that.

          Set to false the four <bsc....> tags within your XML too.

          (beta 6 will include some fixes for the latter two)


          The Joggler seems to change it's dynamic IP frequently (every day after midnight ) and reboots itself when this happens. I think it may also reboot if it fails to contact an internet server when it tries. Many apps are running on the Joggler even whilst xAPFlash is onscreen (every icon is a Flash app).

          I have quite a few Jogglers and they used to swap / jump around IP wise all the time - swap IP's and I even suspect there might have been duplicate IP's at one time. For me setting the IP to static has eliminated most (maybe not all) of the reboots. The IP renewal may be an aspect of my DHCP servers lease times but other kit stays where it's told.


          If you leave xAPFlash running and come back and instead the home Joggler screen is showing then you know a reboot happened whilst you were away.

          K

          Comment

          • Digizz
            Automated Home Jr Member
            • Feb 2004
            • 17

            Thanks guys,

            The joggler is using static IP and iServer is permanently running on my HA PC which is running 24/7 without any power saving. I'll look at the BSC tags...

            Cheers,

            Paul.

            Comment

            • kev_t
              Automated Home Sr Member
              • Jun 2004
              • 58

              iServer on the Home Automation Hub

              A heads up, particularly for those of you running the Livebox HAH from dbzoo.com.

              In the latest build, 256, released yesterday, brett has implemented the iServer application within the HAH.

              This means that the xAPFlash application, whether in a browser or on a Joggler, no longer need rely on a windows PC to support your flash based interface.

              For more info on the Livebox HAH go here



              For info on the HAH iServer application go here



              Obviously this a first release and I know that Brett and Derek would welcome any feedback on any issues you may encounter

              Looking forward to trying this out myself!

              KevinT
              (the other kevin)

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              • BodgeIT
                Automated Home Sr Member
                • Jul 2010
                • 57

                Am on it already. My HAH stopped overnight but Brett had already spotted an issue with the new xaplib2 and has implemented a new build since. So I'll wait until tomorrow before I mention it.

                The HAH + xAPFlash is now an amazing combo for Home Automation, everything you need for £100 or less! Now all I need is a little time to be able to do some cool configs!

                Comment

                • Kevin
                  Moderator
                  • Jan 2004
                  • 558

                  Originally posted by kev_t View Post
                  brett has implemented the iServer application within the HAH.
                  Yes it's a much tidier solution for all the LiveBox HAH 'ers...

                  Unfortunately I think there's a few issues still to iron out and I seem to have lost touch with Brett just at the moment, it is Thanksgiving over there, so I would hold off until perhaps the next HAH firmware build (258) is released. beta 6 of xAPFlash is also a far better behaved client with iServers.... beta 5 can throw tantrums on reconnects - recommended to restart it instead once iServer is running

                  Running the HAH iServer (256/257) can create malformed xAP messages on your network, especialy if BSC endpoints are enabled in xAPFlash, and this can cause iServer PC to crash with a runtime error 5 Invalid procedure call or argument . iServer should have been immune to this so it is nice to have found this vulnerability and it's now fixed in v0.12a. HAH iServer 257 could bring down other xAP apps too.

                  iServer 0.12a.exe download
                  http://tinyurl.com/37b4ytc

                  Getting rid of the need for a Windows PC for iServer is a great move. iServer Windows does support additional features and clients still but not needed for this and so for xAPFlash / Jogglers it's ideal

                  K

                  PS The xapautomation domain was moved this week to a new hosting service - and on Wednesday we might have missed some mail so if you did email anyone @xapautomation.org on that day they might not have received it. If anyone notices anything not working on the website please let myself and James know.
                  Last edited by Kevin; 25 November 2010, 07:07 PM.

                  Comment

                  • kev_t
                    Automated Home Sr Member
                    • Jun 2004
                    • 58

                    Hi kevin

                    Are you saying that if you run both the original iServer and the HAH iServer at the same time you get these runtime errors on the original iServer? I have turned off the PC iServer for my testing with HAH

                    I have only been running HAH 257 for a short while and have not experienced any malformed messages yet, but like I said

                    "Obviously this a first release and I know that Brett and Derek would welcome any feedback on any issues you may encounter"

                    Since you have mentioned beta 6, can you say what your plans are?

                    Cheers

                    kevinT

                    Comment

                    • Kevin
                      Moderator
                      • Jan 2004
                      • 558

                      Originally posted by kev_t View Post
                      Are you saying that if you run both the original iServer and the HAH iServer at the same time you get these runtime errors on the original iServer?
                      Yes. HAH iServer is truncating some xAP messages it sends on behalf of clients at an arbitrary place. So in almost all cases of truncation the xAP closing message chr(10) + } is not present. If a xAP app depends on these it will fail. However most apps will probably be able to recover any included parameters successfully. iServer however inspects all xAP parameters in the whole message and so reading the last one fails as it has no end terminator. The b12a update protects against this but in doing so will discard the whole message.


                      I have only been running HAH 257 for a short while and have not experienced any malformed messages yet
                      Viewer isn't flagging them but they're there and very frequent - you only really see them if the truncation happens in the header or a key value causing Viewer to flag them. Viewing messages originating from xAPFlash clients reveals them

                      xap-header
                      {
                      v=13
                      hop=1
                      uid=FF.6996:1029
                      class=xAPBSC.info
                      source=UKUSA.xAPFlash.CS4:Button.State.Spots
                      }
                      input.state
                      {
                      state=?
                      level=0

                      My whole HAH is dying after about three hours of running it's inbuilt iServer now too...

                      Since you have mentioned beta 6, can you say what your plans are?
                      I keep posting little snippets in this thread but the main changes are all in the sophistication of the graphics you can now create, they are pretty impressive now even though I say so myself. It's a significant change codewise.

                      Beta 6 is actually the beta 5 that was promised but got delayed as feedback was a bit sparse/slow on the pre beta and by the time it arrived there were so many additional changes it was probably no longer really beta 5 or as stable as it was..

                      So I'm going to put beta 6 out as 'bleeding edge' releases, with quite frequent updates. It will require people migrating their XML a bit and once I know that existing layouts are all working as expected then we'll announce and explore the new features that are included , some are ready and eagerly awaiting testing and some still in progress which we'll document once they're house trained.

                      K
                      Last edited by Kevin; 25 November 2010, 09:23 PM.

                      Comment

                      • kev_t
                        Automated Home Sr Member
                        • Jun 2004
                        • 58

                        Just a quick note to say I am seeing "Invalid messages" and "Listener errors" in xFx viewer now.

                        This happens when only Build 257 HAH iServer is running, ie it does not require the original iServer to be running as well for the failure to occur

                        It may or may not be significant but the errors occur on a screen with 16 BSC endpoints and associated text items but not on a similar screen with only 4 BSC endpoints

                        kevinT

                        Comment

                        • Kevin
                          Moderator
                          • Jan 2004
                          • 558

                          Originally posted by kev_t View Post
                          This happens when only Build 257 HAH iServer is running, ie it does not require the original iServer to be running as well for the failure to occur
                          Yes - there is no error created by having both iServers running - it's just that the HAH iServer can cause the Windows iServer to crash - (upgrade to the latest b12a version to avoid this).

                          The error is within the HAH version of iServer , and I think happens when it has a few successive messages to pass from xAPFlash - it seems to truncate some, possibly when they traverse a TCP boundary. Seeing more errors when xAPFlash sends larger volumes of traffic is inkeeping with what you're seeing.

                          There isn't a problem with xAPFlash or iServer Windows and I'm sure Brett will fix iServer HAH real soon. It's Thanksgiving holidays in the US , and this was his very first release so overall I think its pretty good.

                          K

                          Comment

                          • kev_t
                            Automated Home Sr Member
                            • Jun 2004
                            • 58

                            An upate on the HAH iServer problem...

                            Brett has been working on this and I have now been running build 260 with iServer some 12 hours overnight with the same two xAPFlash screens that had previously been causing problems, and I am not seeing any errors.

                            So definite progress there, and a very quick response to the error reports


                            I am running xAPFlash b5f, is this the latest version?

                            KevinT
                            Last edited by Kevin; 2 December 2010, 05:47 PM.

                            Comment

                            • Kevin
                              Moderator
                              • Jan 2004
                              • 558

                              beta 5f is the latest version ( I missed updating the version number reporting in the xAP messages so it still shows 5e) . There might be one further beta 5 release , not sure yet.

                              beta 6 is just around the corner and requires some XML changes so it's probably better to try and get everyone using that. beta 6 is more adventurous than beta 5 however and has quite a few features 'in progress'.

                              Brett has now release version 264 of HAH / iServer - and it's all looking pretty good now - I recommend that all iServer users update to that.

                              K

                              Comment

                              • dbzoo
                                Automated Home Lurker
                                • Aug 2010
                                • 7

                                Just wanted to say hi

                                Finally got my account sorted to I can post to this forum too. Yes the iServer on the HAH has stabilized at release 272 and I believe the last of the killer bugs has been fixed. We even tried running it native on the joggler and that is also working, however for now it will remain only on the HAH until no more problems are reported. When I'm happy with its stability I'll make a joggler binary available with some installation instructions.

                                Brett
                                Last edited by dbzoo; 5 December 2010, 12:35 AM. Reason: spelling

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