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[Reed]

I hope I'm posting in the right section...

My "Liv Rm Lts Off" macro turns off a few lights, and leaves two on very dim as night lights. It runs at 9:30 PM (and various other times.)

My "All Lts Off" macro is set to run at 9:31 PM. It does an All Units Off command for a couple of house codes. It should turn off all lights, including the two dim ones in the living room. It does indeed turn everything off when I trigger it from an HR12A 16-channel RF transmitter.

Yet when I come home from work, or when I look at the lights first thing in the morning, often times (maybe always?) the two living room lights are on very dim. It's as if "Liv Rm Lts Off" was run after "All Lts Off." To the best of my knowledge, I run "All Lts Off" within 5 minutes after I run "Liv Rm Lts Off" every time. Even after using Dusk/Dawn timers (e.g. at Dawn, Liv Rm Lts Off; at Dawn + 5 minutes, All Lts Off).

I thought I read somewhere that the order in which the macros appear in the macro list makes a difference. Is that true? I mean the macro list that appears when you hit the "Macros" button in the left window pane.

Maybe I should delete all of my timers on my macros, and start fresh, one thing at a time. What you you think?

[Noam]

I hope I'm posting in the right section...

If not, one of the moderators will move it to the right place 

My "Liv Rm Lts Off" macro turns off a few lights, and leaves two on very dim as night lights. It runs at 9:30 PM (and various other times.)

What types of modules are these? Are they "SoftStart" or not? Does the macro send them a "relative" dim command (dim down a certain percentage), or an "absolute" dim command (Set the lights to this exact dim level, no matter what they were at before)?

My "All Lts Off" macro is set to run at 9:31 PM. It does an All Units Off command for a couple of house codes. It should turn off all lights, including the two dim ones in the living room. It does indeed turn everything off when I trigger it from an HR12A 16-channel RF transmitter.

Yet when I come home from work, or when I look at the lights first thing in the morning, often times (maybe always?) the two living room lights are on very dim. It's as if "Liv Rm Lts Off" was run after "All Lts Off." To the best of my knowledge, I run "All Lts Off" within 5 minutes after I run "Liv Rm Lts Off" every time. Even after using Dusk/Dawn timers (e.g. at Dawn, Liv Rm Lts Off; at Dawn + 5 minutes, All Lts Off).

If the first macro uses an "absolute" dim command, then it is turning those lights ON when it runs.
Are there any delays in the first macro? If so, what is the total run time of the macro (add up all the delays)?
Have you looked at the Activity Monitor, to see what commands are happening, and at what times?

I thought I read somewhere that the order in which the macros appear in the macro list makes a difference. Is that true? I mean the macro list that appears when you hit the "Macros" button in the left window pane.

This only makes a difference if the macros use the same trigger address. In that case, they are treated sequentially for conditional macros.

Maybe I should delete all of my timers on my macros, and start fresh, one thing at a time. What you you think?

I think we need a little more information here before recommending that. It sounds like you are on the right track, just have a few bugs to work out.

[Reed]

Noam,

Thanks for your reply.

They are soft start lamp modules, X-10 brand, type PLM-01.

The dim command  for "Liv Rm Lts Off" is absolute. It leaves a PLM01 lamp at 9% absolute, and an X-10 brand PLW01 wall switch module's spot light at 14%. I don't think I have any relative dim commands anywhere in the program.

Right, the first macro uses absolute level commands. It shuts off several lamps, and then dims a couple (actually a lamp and a spot light). It clears a flag too. I overload the buttons on my HR12A by using flags. First push sets the room's lights bright, second push sets them dim. Each push toggles the state. Then, when you press "Off" the flag is cleared and the lights come on full brightness the next time. But we're talking about the "Liv Rm Lts Off" command, which just clears the flag.

There are no delays in the macro that turns the lights off and leaves two on dim. Nor are there any delays in the macros that turn that room's lights on. 

I went out the door at 6:40 AM today. I noticed the two lamps were on very dim. I came home this afternoon, and they were still on. Looking at the lamps' modules, I see no timers are set for the individual lamps. So I believe it was this "Liv Rm Lts Off" macro that left them on again.

I'm looking at the activity monitor, almost 12 hours after-the-fact, and I see entries for 4/12/2011 through 4/15/2011. But nothing for today! Isn't that weird? I thought the CM15A interface is supposed to log events even if the computer is off. The interface time at the bottom center of the ActiveHome Pro screen shows the correct time and date. Tools->Hardware Configuration shows Sunrise today was 6:09 AM. The listed "Interface Time" is correct. Available memory is 83%. I wonder why the activity monitor isn't updating!? Do I have to leave the computer on?

If I press a button on the HR12A, the Activity Monitor  logs the command. It sends commands for lights in the living room to turn off, and then it leaves two lights dim. A subsequent "All Lts Off" command turns off all units for house codes D and E. It clears several flags too. Works fine from the HR12A remote.

Thanks for the clarification: when macros share a trigger address, conditions are inspected sequentially. I get it now.

Hmm. I think I need to get my Activity Monitor working. This CM15A locked up once. I was thinking of buying another to have as a spare. It also refused to communicate on two occasions. But rebooting my HP laptop solved the communication problem. The CM15A began communicating again each time.

I think I've had the CM15A system for a couple of months now. At this point, it would be really painful to go back to my old JDS Technologies Time Commander/Event Manager. It's about 17 years old!

I'll continue scrubbing the program to try and figure out what I'm doing wrong. And I'd really appreciate any advice on the Activity Monitor or anything else you think is significant. I'll look up "Activity Monitor" in the manual and online help too, and see if there are any interesting tidbits there.

Thanks for reading this novel. I realize it's pretty long. I don't want to waste your time, but I want to give you enough details so you can get a good idea of what's going on.

[Dan Lawrence]

What version of AHP did you get?  Are the macros loaded to the CM15A or run from the computer?  If the latter, the PC MUST be left on as the macros are NOT uploaded to the CM15A.

Let us know so we can continue to help you.

[Noam]

The Activity monitor can only record events when the CM15A is connected to the PC, and the PC is turned on.
When the PC is off, the CM15A will record module status for the Monitored Housecode, but it won't keep track of all of the command history.

[Reed]

Dan, Thanks for chiming in!

Dan and Noam,

I'm running AHP version 3.305. I know how quirky this stuff can be, so I was hesitant to install the new version. I read the change list, and didn't think any of the improvements affected what I'm doing. But I can certainly install the new version anyway if you think it's a good idea.

All macros are running from the interface. Wow, thanks for the great question! I hit the Macros button on the left, and was scrolling through macros to ensure that they all have the little picture of the interface on them, and I ran across two macros that don't have the interface icon. I opened them and found the note at the bottom of the macro: "Macro must be run from the PC." Now I know why those macros don't work. I was trying to get my "Sundowner" controller's light/dark sensing working in conjunction with calculated sunrise/sunset times, so on cloudy days my inside lights would come on sooner. It's great to realize that the programming constructs I used require the PC to be on. I'll delete those macros. Don't really need them anyway. I want everything to run from the interface, without the PC.

Thanks for the info about the activity monitor. I've set my PC to never go to sleep so AHP can monitor all house codes until we get this "Liv Rm Lts Off" thing figured out.

Speaking of house codes, I read somewhere that using house code A might produce unpredictable results. In a (probably overly complicated) effort to reproduce a feature I had in my old program, I've used house code A to disable my weekday morning wake-up sequence on days I want to sleep in. I'll change that step to house code B today.

I REALLY appreciate your help. Thanks!

I'll leave the computer on, and see what commands are issued tonight and tomorrow morning. And I'll notice whether the lamps are left on low, or they go off as desired. I'll let you know what I find out. As always, suggestions are welcome.

[Reed]

Update:
This morning the lights are left on dim again. It happened while I was typing my previous post. The Activity Monitor shows "Liv Rm Lts Off" ran, and left two lights dim as desired. But the Activity Monitor also shows that the "All Lts Off" macro didn't run!

Hey, well theres' a problem! I have the two lights going dim (via "Liv Rm Lts Off" daily, but going off (via "All Lts Off") only on weekdays. I'll fix that now. Looking at the four sets of "Liv Rm Lts Off" and "All Lts Off" commands, I see I have MULTIPLE mismatches between weekdays, weekends, etc. I wrote everything down on a tablet, and I'm going to clean up this part of the code. I think it will work right once I get everything to match.

Thanks very much for all your suggestions! You led me down the right path. In a few days I'll let you know whether we got this issue all straightened out.

[Dan Lawrence]

I'm not sure housecode A creates any problems.  My X10 system dates from the middle 1980's. I began with a CP290 interface and DOS software and the first modules (in my living room and bedroom) got addresses in A.  Fast forward to 2011 those A modules are still happily running. 

[Noam]

The only issue with Housecode A is that it is the default that everything comes set to from that factory.
If your neighbor gets X10, they would probably decide (like you did) to leave everything on A, which might conflict woth your setup.
Also, I don't have any motion sensors, but I've been told that as their batteries start to get weaker, they can sometimes revert to the default code of A1. This can also cause unexpected results for your setup. The same is true for the keychain remotes and the slim stick-a-switches. Any device that doesn't have code wheels to set the house code and unit code can act funny when the batteries get weak.

If you change everything to a different code, and you start seeing stuff show up on A1, then it is a good indicator that you have weak batteries somewhere.

I also recommend upgrading to the latest version, which (as of Thursday) is 3.311. There were some stability improvements in the last update, and some changes to the way extended codes are handled by the software.

[Reed]

Everything is working fine now. Thanks very much for all your help!

[Dan Lawrence]

The only issue with Housecode A is that it is the default that everything comes set to from that factory.
If your neighbor gets X10, they would probably decide (like you did) to leave everything on A, which might conflict woth your setup.
Also, I don't have any motion sensors, but I've been told that as their batteries start to get weaker, they can sometimes revert to the default code of A1. This can also cause unexpected results for your setup. The same is true for the keychain remotes and the slim stick-a-switches. Any device that doesn't have code wheels to set the house code and unit code can act funny when the batteries get weak.

If you change everything to a different code, and you start seeing stuff show up on A1, then it is a good indicator that you have weak batteries somewhere.

I also recommend upgrading to the latest version, which (as of Thursday) is 3.311. There were some stability improvements in the last update, and some changes to the way extended codes are handled by the software.

Since it is well known that X10 does NOT mass market, it is very rare that two houses on the same transformer would have X10.  I've had it since the middle 1980's and NOBODY on my street except me has it.