Ok. Get ready for some "prickly" questions

They should be able to, if your port forwarding is done correctly. They can simply make the programming changes from the office then upload it remotely to the Wiser and within a few minutes its back up and running with your new changes.

 

Robbo...

They can do this with the wiser. But not the PAC.

 

Was my first thought as well. I think the connection to the USB ports stops the code from being processed, or is that just when PICED has made a connection.

Not sure hwat VM software you are using, but I use USB dongles with VM's here all the time. I have three rainbow USB dongles for three guests on the one ESXi server.
I have used VMware Workstation, ESXi, server and player and all support USB just fine.
ESXi and server allw you to specifiy whcih USB device is to be used by the guest.

Not sure why more ethernet ports are required either (if you mean on the VM host) - one will do the job

Mick

 

USB connection

To the best of my knowledge, connecting the USB will not stop the logic from running. BUT when you connect to the project or C-Bus it will as it then changes to CNI mode where it works in 'transparent mode'. So leaving the usb connected should not cause an issue as long as you disconnect from the network once you have finished.
It would be wise to then check that your logic is running again, so being onsite would be a good idea.

I too have had many a success running usb dongles without the need for additional hardware. I have found some larger commercial servers don't have that many ports, so it has been necessary in these instances.

 

Using Citrix XENSERVER not VMWARE XENSERVER does not do USB or SERIAL passthrough to the HOST. For good reasons. The virtual machines are running in a High Avaliability Pair. 2 Machines, 1 shared storage.
if a machine fails the VM move to the other machine. If the USB is in the host machine and the VM fails over then the VM loses connectivity to the USB. having network USB fixes this issue.

Extra network port was for the USB network Device.

Charles

 

Hello Charlie Crackle
That setup sounds pretty clever.
Hopefully someone at CIS will consider your request to do away with the dongle.
Homegate has worked well for me and given no trouble from XP to Windows7.
I run some surveillance software, logic and schedules from a headless PC instead of the Colour Touch since it allows me to change them easily remotely.
ServerX is set up but I find for a single user that remote desktop gives faster response and the ability to access from nearly any device I can think of.
So I just copy the project for the CTC and remove the logic and schedules.
It works so well I am reluctant to start playing with Wiser.
I have a short video of RDP on iPhone if anyone is interested.

 

C-Bus driver install on WIN7 64 bit

 

I've worked on software 10 years and older, and typically it's not that great.
New software, new languages are helpful in producing better quality systems.

I can't say that I would be surprised that apparently no real dev work is being done on moving to newer platforms (an Eclipse or Visual Studio plugin for example), but I am, as ever, disappointed by companies that don't move with the times.

 

I was there, and it was a disaster. Could be due to the fact that every single rewrite ever is always a failure, or that perhaps their management of the project was bad. Or something else. One example is not enough to demonstrate a trend.

Mostly I would agree, but sometimes it's better to do a rewrite. Especially if there is legacy code that is dependent on other vendors who are phasing out support. I came in on this conversation because the OP said your software really only works on XP. But see below for more...

I didn't say you had to rewrite it all - my suggestion is that the dev environment be ported to Eclipse or Visual Studio {Express}. At the very least it should be made to run on the latest versions of Windows.

The back end code could be isolated (I presume it already is, if not then my point is already made), and a new front end built. Would it be that hard? If it is still stuck on XP, what future does it have?

 

But it does and has mostly worked without problems on all versions of Windows so what is your point.

 

I haven't used it, but was replying to the OP. He had problems/questions about running on something other than XP.

A quick look at Clipsal's website for PICED says about software compatibility..

"Summary
Clipsal software is tested on a range of operating systems including Windows Vista.
The software operates and is supported on Vista, however it is not compliant with all of the requirements for Vista and is not expected to be fully compliant until at least late 2009.
More Information
Microsoft released Vista, the newest version of its Windows operating system, in January 2007. This is the most significant change to the Windows operating system since 1995 (11 years ago)."


So if Clipsal's own website doesn't say anything about Windows 7, and clearly hasn't been updated since at least 2009 what does this say about the maturity of their process? It's good that it runs with Vista, but how much?

People need a bit more assurance than "mostly worked" before spending thousands of dollars. Clipsal are in the best position to give that assurance, but clearly haven't been bothered doing it.

My point is that there doesn't seem to be much evidence of Clipsal updating their material for the present. The web site is further evidence of this.

[Edit]...

You say "mostly worked". Is there a list of what doesn't work? I couldn't find this on Clipsal's website.

 

We dont need quick and easy access to the full million lines of code!

Why does the code have to be re-written entirely?

99% of changes I want to make are tweeking scenes, fine tuning logic or adjusting scedules, that have already been written by the installer.

Why cant you just write a http browser interface to this code so that minor changes can be done by the end user? Or does this actually require a total re-write of PICED?

 

Wappinghigh
You are right in metioning the details on the Clipsal website with regard to Vista support.
But since they were released and even with beta versions I used Vista and now Windows7 with no problems in Toolkit, Homegate and Piced.
I have noticed some people have had issues with USB drivers in the past with 64 bit but they seem to be either able to be worked around within Windows or fixed now.

 

The big question is how much faith do Clipsal have in their own software products? If they have lots and want to encourage people to invest in their system, why don't they give people assurances about it being able to be used with Windows 7?

I see an out of date website, and one poster saying it "mostly worked" on recent OS versions, and someone posting here with trouble working on Windows 64.

What message does this send?

 

DaleS
For reasons unknown to me the Clipsal website has never been updated to reflect that toolkit and piced worked fine on Vista and Windows7.
In fact if they didnt I would be jumping up and down too.
I take it you have a computer and also some CBus so why dont you just install toolkit or piced and start using it.

 

It may be worth highlighting the purpose of this forum.
The C-Bus Community Forums is place where C-Bus users can share information and help others with C-Bus. From time to time you will see Clipsal staff on the forums, but this is not an official support channel. If you really need help contact the official support services of Clipsal. More information about the purpose of this forum is available here.
Maybe you should give them a call to get the best information.
http://www2.clipsal.com/cis/technical/technical_support

 

The newly bought CBus stuff is sitting on the table - I have to wait until I get a few more bits before I can start programming it.
I thought I had read that the software requires a physical device to be connected before you can do anything with it.

I'm still trying to decide what environment I need to develop in.

 

Power monitoring..

This "ease of acces issue to PICED" re-surfaced as a problem for me when I went to make quick small changes to improve power management.

If/when you guys put in a CMU, you will see what I mean...

Sometimes all a user wants to do is say turn a scedule for a load on at a different time. A simple little change like that shouldn't need a complete login to PICED via a windows laptop. Download, upload etc....