A call for advanced zwave logging

[Guest jrkalf]

Dear Developers!

since I've bought the HC2 solution and some zwave.me wall controllers I had inexplicable errors trying to configure the devices properly.

It was until recently when I "hacked" the HC2 box to gain root access, I was able to solve the issue. By opening up the "screened" zwave process I was able to look under the hood to what actually was going on, on the zwave network.

I saw a lot of transmit errors and reconfiguration errors which caused a lot of transmit delays and my zwave network was going berserk! This has costed me 3 pairs of AAAA batteries on the devices already because the zwave network was literally draining the life out of the wall controllers trying to configure them properly.

With some testing I found out it was the angle at which the antenna of the HC2 was set that caused a weak spot in the coverage of my house and the proper communications with the controllers.

I was only able to recognise this by monitoring the output of this screened z-wave process which should have been logged to a file which is viewable in the web-interface for debugging purposes!

Because I was finally able to recognise this, I deleted my wall controllers from the network and set them up properly again under a right angle of antenna and have proper communications.

It seems that setting up the zwave.me devices isn't hard at all and doesn't require a lot of waking up the devices. It's all about feedback and knowing WHEN to wake up the device and start receiving the information.

If you need help setting this up "under the hood" of the device, I won't mind helping. I want a perfectly working device.

please provide us with the essential tooling for, besides having an easily usable device, a powerful device.

[ Added: 2013-02-26, 12:18 ]

Link to Fibaro Bugtracker:

Please login or register to see this link.

and

Please login or register to see this link.

[Lambik 194]

Some questions about the root access:

1 - If I mess up the debian system, can I restore the system with the 'Recovery' USB-Stick?

I made a backup/image from the recovery-stick before using my HC2 (with Linux's dd-command).

I noticed when connecting a usb-keyboard and vga-display I can access the Linux system. (Need of the root-password is still needed though...).

About giving users root access: When there is a way to restore your HC2, why not giving users the right to access their OWN unit? You can make a selectable option in the web-UI with a proper warning when, selecting this option, Fibaro support will expire.

A lot of linux-based devices work this way (for example Synology and QNAP NAS, Mios Vera etc.)

2 - Will root access be restored to factory-default when a firmware update is installed?

[Shad 4]

No, if you root your system your avoid your guaranty. Fibaro don't allow that.

But after I don't know if you can restore the system with the stick but I don't think so.

[Lambik 194]

No, if you root your system your avoid your guaranty. Fibaro don't allow that.

But after I don't know if you can restore the system with the stick but I don't think so.

As far I can tell, but I didn't investigate enough (yet), the recovery-stick has (Fibaro-adapted) Linux partitions, based on Debian 6. The system boots from this stick.

So, I have a copy from a non-adapted rescue-stick then I can use the this to reboot the system?

I will try this to check this if this is true.

[Shad 4]

No, if you root your system your avoid your guaranty. Fibaro don't allow that.

But after I don't know if you can restore the system with the stick but I don't think so.

As far I can tell, but I didn't investigate enough (yet), the recovery-stick has (Fibaro-adapted) Linux partitions, based on Debian 6. The system boots from this stick.

So, I have a copy from a non-adapted rescue-stick then I can use the this to reboot the system?

I will try this to check this if this is true.

You backup key are not going to work. They must register the pendrive in HC2 to work. I tell you that because when I receive my new one, they ask me to login on hc2 for that.