8-gang NEO goes mad?

Ok, my opinion of c-bus is being constantly challenged over the last 18 months I've been working with it. The number of "oh, that happens occasionally" or "yeah, they do that now and then" type weirdness.

First it was three failed B&W C-touch - similar failure mode but nobody ever able to tell me what exactly it was, or more importantly if it was something that could be prevented with changes at the site. It's just "one of those things" aparantly.

Well, today I was sitting here working away when I noticed one of the switches on the far wall (8-gang neo) had one of its LEDs orange, and one off. (It should have been all blue with everything turned off). Thinking someone had turned on a light, I went to turn it off - but when I got there, the load *was* off already. Thought it was perhaps dimmed right down, but no, couldn't bring it up.

None of the switches controlled any of the lights or loads they should have, or anything else that I could observe. Other switches in the house are all working, the touchscreen works etc.

Thinking this switch had got confused, I pulled it off the wall, undid a terminal, pulled the wires out, waited a few seconds, returned but exactly the same thing. Some switches toggled the lights when pressed, some toggled several lights, some did nothing, but no loads came on or off.

Changed the house-wide LED levels through bright/medium/dim, and all the other switches changed, but not this one.

Pulled the wires out again, held the top two buttons down, reapplied power and it does its self-test ok, so the switch *seems* ok.

Back to toolkit, hook everything up, scan the network and there is the switch on its serial number, but all the programming is completely screwed up.

The "Part Name" has become "Q12 /" (with the space and slash), the application has changed from "Lighting" to "40". Everything else appeared ok once I changed the application. Saved the unit back to the network but it still didn't work. Loaded the unit from the database and exported it back to the network - it took a VERY long time - thought it had hung twice, once at about 63%, once at about 81%, but finally came back. This time its working fine.

Anyone got any bright ideas on this one? Please don't say it's "just one of those things"!!

 

A few hours later..... and the thing has failed again.
This time SOME of the switch elements seem to operate, but others don't, and several of the switches are *RAPIDLY* flickering blue/orange.

This time, I can't talk to it via c-bus. Trying to read or write, toolkit just waits for a while, then comes back with an error.

"Saving changes to network: 0%", then a popup box, error 20037, "Unit Failed To Save to the Physical Unit"
Or
"Loading parameters from network: 0%", then popup box, error 20044, "The unit you selected failed to load"

It would happen now, wouldn't it - just when we're expecting house guests for a few days!

 

Hey Ross,

I know this isnt a constructive comment, and I wish I could help you with your problem, but I just have to remind you about one of "Murphy's Laws"...

"Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong"...

Good luck with your problem buddy.

Darpa

P.S. In my highly uneducated opinion, your problem definately doesnt sound like you've done something wrong, especially if the rest of your network is functioning properly, it sounds to me like its a fault unit, but like I said, its an uneducated opinion, and I will probably be proved wrong by someone far smarter.

 

Nah... It's not a problem... It's an unplanned feature !

 

Try this

Hi Ross,

I know you don't want to hear this, but try cycling the power to C-Bus, not just the switch. Had something like that as well in the past. Cycling the power with an OFF period of 10 or so seconds helped. Not sure anymore if I had to download to the unit again.

Cheers