C-Gate problem

[Alex]

I'm using C-Gate build 1099 to read the levels of CBus groups, but I'm getting odd values when I read groups assigned to "logic" control on dimmers and relays. After random periods of time the levels reported by those groups (using "get 1/56/NNN level" commands) change to arbitrary values, even though there have been no commands to do so.

When this occurs the units using these logic groups do not respond as they do to real commands that change their levels - it's just the level reported by C-Gate that changes. If a real command changes the level, everything comes right again for a short while, but sooner or later it reverts to these "ghost" readings.

Any ideas?

[JackD]

This is pretty weird. Are there any bridges in your system? Do you use SENPIR or SENPILL units in your networks. If you have bridges, do you have the application connect in place? Are the values always the same? (Like, does the logic on channel 3 always to go 42 or something?) Are the logic groups found on any other units?

[Alex]

There's no bridges in the system, but there are 12 SENTEMP, 4 SENPIRSS & 1 SENLL, and a Minder 2. There are 93 units altogether. I was wondering if the Minder could somehow be causing the problem, since it uses the problem groups in some scenarios. However when I check the levels in Minder, they are reported correctly (as On/Off), and the problem persists even if I pull the plug on Minder.

There's also a program running every 2.5 minutes which reads the SENTEMP units and stores their values in a database, but killing that makes no difference.

The false levels reported are the same each time I look at them. Here's the relevant part of the tree:

320- 1/56/192 ($c0) level=223 state=ok units=20
320- 1/56/193 ($c1) level=255 state=ok units=4
320- 1/56/194 ($c2) level=222 state=ok units=7
320- 1/56/195 ($c3) level=238 state=ok units=6
320- 1/56/196 ($c4) level=251 state=ok units=6
320- 1/56/197 ($c5) level=125 state=ok units=20
320- 1/56/198 ($c6) level=195 state=ok units=19
320- 1/56/199 ($c7) level=0 state=ok units=21
320- 1/56/200 ($c8) level=221 state=ok units=22
320- 1/56/201 ($c9) level=255 state=ok units=8
320- 1/56/202 ($ca) level=250 state=ok units=4
320- 1/56/203 ($cb) level=215 state=ok units=3
320- 1/56/204 ($cc) level=0 state=ok units=18
320- 1/56/205 ($cd) level=126 state=ok units=4
320- 1/56/206 ($ce) level=0 state=ok units=
320- 1/56/207 ($cf) level=0 state=ok units=23

They should all be zero, and the strange thing is that system is behaving as if these levels are all zero. The unit numbers listed are the output units, although in 2 cases there are also switch units assigned to the logic groups, but they are not showing up in the tree.

If I run the tree command repeatedly after restarting C-Bus, I can see that these groups all start off with their correct value, but within a few minutes they change (each at seemingly random times) to the values listed. There's nothing showing in the monitor window port 20024.

I've tried setting up these groups as phantom groups to see if it would make any difference, but it doesn't. C-Gate is running on a Windows 2003 Server.

[Alex]

The problem disappears when I revert to C-Gate build 1086.