Another Toolkit question

Hi Everybody,
In these turbulent times, when not all C-Bus "released" software is "Toolkit Compatible", how does one keep everything happy?
I have successfully imported and exported between Toolkit and C-Bus V2. I think this updates the tag database and what units are on the network as it goes so things SHOULD line up, is this right?
How does C-Bus V2 handle units that it doesn't know about? e.g. a wireless gateway? I will play a bit more in coming days and see what happens.
At this stage, I still use the "old" version of HomeGate, C-Touch and CIRCA.
I'm not worried about messing up my own network, but I have a task ahead of me to complete some C-Bus progamming for a client that involves some touch screens and I don't want to look too unprofessional!
Regards,
Michael.

 

What? No comments for me?
Looks like I'll be doing this project with V2 software, bummer!

 

Whoops, missed this when it was originally posted.

Releases of C-Touch and Circa to support Toolkit tags are very close now HomeGate is already out.

Apologies for the delay.

 

V2 will show unknown units in a Network Scan, but you cant program then.

 

Thanks for the info Duncan. I have had some success with the Import/Export function. One thing that I have found is that it doesn't seem to work properly if you export a multi network (1 x wired and 1 x wireless for example) project to V2. Upon starting the C-Touch software and loading the project, I find that all the C-Bus tags have lost what network and application they were assigned originally. This brings up a weird error. "An internal error has occurred"
Not too worried about it 'cause I find that the new update for HomeGate solves the problem.

BUT, is there any reason that C-Gate2 shuts down after a while?
I leave HomeGate running on my office PC with a connection to my ServerX/C-Gate 1.5 machine so I can have web access and I am finding that after some time, C-Gate2 is gone and HomeGate has lost it's C-Bus network connection? I have updated HomeGate this morning and have had this happen twice today....
Any ideas on this one??

Regards,
Michael.

 

Hmm... this is somthing that I have never experienced, and I'm not aware of any other reports of this happening.

Check your preferences in C-Bus Toolkit and make sure it's not set to shutdown C-Gate on application close.

Other than that, this is something we would really like to get to the bottom of.

 

Toolkit leaves C-Gate2 running on exit, I made sure of that. But I still get C-Gate2 closing, randomly leaving HomeGate high and dry. There is no error message, just that there is a socket error, probabl;y cause C-Gate2 is gone. If I re-start HomeGate or start Toolkit, C-Gate2 starts again and I can then "Connect to C- Bus" in HomeGate happily, until C-Gate2 decides to exit.
The only thing I want to see now, is if this problem shows up on my laptop. I know I'm not supposed to run HomeGate on two different machines (licencing issues and all that) but I want to get to the bottom of this problem...

 

Hmmm...yes, please try on your laptop. Meanwhile, we will dicuss at this end to see what can be suggested.

 

OK, I've installed HomeGate on my Laptop and it does the same thing!
Right now, not less than five minutes of connected C-Bus fun, C-Gate2 has gone and I get an error on the screen telling me that there is "No Connection to C-Gate present", and sure enough, C-Gate2 has closed without warning.
Is there a C-Gate2 error log somewhere that records any problems with C-Gate2. Short of trying to see what happens in the Command Window as C-Gate closes, I don't know what to do next...
Regards,
Michael.
P.S. Further test show that if I leave Toolkit running with the network open, then HomeGate doesn't have a problem. It's only when HomeGate is running by itself that the problem shows up.

 

Hi Michael,

How many networks are there in C-Gate? If more than one do you have licenses for the others? I'm wondering if there is some licensing issue going on.

 

There are two networks, one wired and one wireless. I do not have any C-Gate licences. Is this the problem? I realise that you need C-Gate licences for multiple network installations, is this mentioned somewhere in the Toolkit/HomeGate EU licence agreement seeing that this software uses C-Gate for connetion to the installation?

 

Currently to see both you will need a license. This however WILL be changing very SOON! A soon to be released update of C-Gate will allow a wired and a wireless network for free.

So basically yes this is most likely the problem. However, C-Gate isn't meant to close down completely only close the extra networks. Will check this out.

 

Is this C-Gate licencing requirement applicable to both the use of Toolkit for programming as well as HomeGate for control?? If so, this might explain why I have been having some bother talking to a C-Bus Wireless plug in dimmer with C-Bus Toolkit. I can see the wireless side of the gateway, but no further. I know the dimmer is working OK, 'cause I can control it with a remote control....

 

No. Licensing is ONLY applicable to control applications (Home Gate, Schedule Plus) and 3rd party applications. C-Bus Toolkit has unrestricted access to all networks.

I'm not sure why this would be. I will have to defer to our wireless gurus as I'm not that close to the wireless products.

 

OK, deleteing the 2nd, wireless network has stopped the funny C-Gate2 exit problem with HomeGate. All I gotta do now is wait for the "new" C-Gate2 that allows me a wireless network as well as my wired one.
I still can't seem to make sense of my wireless gateway not seeing my plug dimmer. But until I can use HomeGate with both networks, that has been put on hold.....

 

Hi Michael,

Have you taken the Plug Adaptor and Wireless Gateway through the Learn Operation to ensure they have the same House Code? The gateway will only "see" units that have the same House Code as it itself.

 

Hi Duncan,
Yes, went through the "learn" process. Took some time to work out which is the left and right buttons on the plug adaptor But I think I got it right...
But per my previous post, I'm not going to do much more at the moment due to the current restriction with using HomeGate with multiple networks. Wish I knew about that before I bought my Wireless GateWay.

 

Us too.. it just got overlooked, sorry