PROJECT TITAN - AUTELIS BRIDGE 2: THE NEXT STEPS
On July 31, 2017 USPS / Canada Post sent me a delivery confirmation text that my second 32 channel 1 Wire Autelis ISY Bridge had arrived.
This new piece of hardware will compliment the other 48 other one wire sensors in place now.
This will bring my 1 Wire network to 80 active sensors through out the home and property.
For those interested in the first deployment of the Autelis Bridge 1 can follow this link: (Add URL)
AUTELIS BRIDGE - PACKAGE:
The Autelis Bridge removed for the first time and into the Teken air.
AUTELIS BRDIGE - BOX:
AUTELIS BRIDGE - CONTENTS INSIDE:
AUTELIS BRIDGE - CONTENTS LAID OUT:
The latest hardware *Casing* has very slight cosmetic changes to identify each of the ports and inputs. In the past this information was listed at the top of the clear sticker above the logo.
AUTELIS BRIDGE - CONTROLLER:
That same information is now stenciled into a blue plastic frame as seen here.
The company has also changed over to using a generic power supply instead of the Motorola branded PSU. Going off memory the previous generation PSU offered the same performance specifications of 100 ~ 240 VAC, supporting both 50/60 Hz, 5 VDC @ 1.0 amperes.
This secondary 1 wire controller will also be mated to several pieces of RS-232 serial appliances enroute.
All of the new temperature and serial data will be pushed to the forth ISY Series Controller which is Z-Wave enabled. Taking advantage of the two way communications will allow me to finalize several important projects in the works for Titan.
The paper insert offers a quick glimpse and insight as to how the two way RS-232 communications works.
ALPHA DEVELOPMENT PRODUCTS - MY RANT:
This new controller was still using older 1.2.0 firmware which did not address all of the past issues I saw and had fixed.
As stated in that last thread entry I found it mind boggling that any consumer never mind company would offer and release a product that had so many obvious bugs and missing features!!!
That my friends makes it a Alpha product ~ Not a retail consumer product . . .
From a consumer stand point, I have no clue how come so many people never said a word about the obvious bugs in the software. Either they are clueless or just plain stupid in my estimation and have very low expectations for hardware.
I don't pretend to be the smartest person in the world but what I lack in paper smarts I make up in lots of common sense!!
Perhaps having been involved in many technical projects from the ground up has given me that insight as to what to look for. More realistically, its the fact I always try to ask questions, play with the product, while pushing a vendor to do better.
Doing so will benefit everyone from the top down and in the long run pushes sales, awareness, and market adoption. As of this writing I've been told this hardware has been abandoned and is (EOL) End Of Life.
This was in large part because of me having identified related technical issues with the hardware.
One can see these issues in the Autelis Forum found here: (Add URL)
Like this site, the forums are scattered with *Feature Requests* made by me to help resolve existing, unknown bugs, while adding more capability to the system. My push to solve these technical issues and have basic features added has increased the awareness and sales of this product.
Only to have the vendor tell me he has decided to halt all sales and technical support for the hardware?!?!
If that isn't a real WTF I just don't know . . .
This is why the second Autelis Bridge 2 was purchased because there would be no more 1 wire hardware to be seen from them. Those so interested in extending their 1 wire network may want to consider purchasing a unit before they are gone.
Based on correspondence with the vendor they stated the unit I have is the last one. I personally don't believe him to be honest and feel it was some kind of shell game to avoid fixing hardware issues I brought to his attention.
Regardless, today is a sad day for the Plug & Play crowd who seeks to integrate environmentals in their systems with very little effort.
AUTELIS BRIDGE - FIRMWARE UPGRADE PROCESS:
For historic reasons and because I have bad (CRAFT) memory.
Below is how the system tabs look using 1.2.0 firmware. Keeping in mind the latest 1.3.2 firmware includes no less than 25 feature request enhancements, performance and stability fix's, to obvious and glaring unresolved bugs, because of me . . .
RULES:
SETTINGS:
1 WIRE:
ISY SETTINGS:
The process to update the firmware is very straight forward and requires only a download of the Java application.
The system by default will find the IP address of the Autelis Bridge. This assumes all of the base network settings are in place. If you ever feel the need to install the same firmware for what ever reason you will need to select the *Force Update* box.
The system will prompt you to enter the port assuming it hasn't been changed otherwise it will default to port 80.
Next the system will prompt you to enter the user name and password credentials used to access the Autelis Bridge. If you haven't changed anything since the device was received the default password is admin in lower case.
At this point the system will begin the firmware loading process which takes about 30 ~ 120 seconds.
Finally, once the firmware has been properly loaded you will be presented with a completion message as seen below.
PROJECT TITAN - AUTELIS BRIDGE: THE JOURNEY TO STABILITY
As noted up above this second piece of hardware was purchased as a measure of fail over, spare, and to integrate with other sub systems on their way. For a long time I have been seeing the ISY Series Controller locking up and its reliability go down the toilet. One of the things I identified was that the Autelis Bridge at random times would lock up too?!?
Meaning when you were trying to access the internal web page nothing would come up. Simply hard rebooting would solve the issue until the next time. Another issue I would see is randomly it seemed the hardware would transmit endless packets to the ISY Series Controller.
Even though the send interval was defined to be very modest of 60 seconds it seemed the ISY Series Controller would be overwhelmed by the flood of data.
As a quick fix I created a program to soft reboot the Autelis Bridge in hopes of resolving this odd issue.
A network resource was created in the ISY Series Controller to invoke the reboot sequence. Since this hardware is very simple the reboot sequence happens in a blink of the eye, literally.
The only way to confirm this process actually happens is to watch the Ethernet port in the rear. If the soft reboot command is invoked the Ethernet LED will quickly blink.
PROGRAM - SOFT REBOOT:
The soft boot process is invoked every Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday at 10:00 PM each night. At that point the system will wait for 5 seconds then play a voice announcement via Julie U.S. Next the controller will send out a custom email to me confirming this process has been completed.
ISY NETWORK RESOURCE - SOFT REBOOT:
The network resource for this is very simple high lighted in red are the network parameters you will select and enter: HTTP, GET, IP ADDRESS, PORT. In green is the network command that needs to be sent Autelis Bridge. In blue you will select *Add* to include the user name and password credentials for the system.
PROGRAM - HARD REBOOT:
Anyone who has been around computer systems know soft rebooting can be a 50/50 proposition of success vs failure. To guard against such an incident the Autelis Bridge is hard rebooted. Meaning the physical power is removed from the hardware for a defined period of time. This is done using one of seven web enabled remote power switches in my home.
The hard reboot process is invoked every Friday at 7:00 AM. Like the other program the system is programmed to wait five seconds before it speaks to alert me. Finally, the controller will send out a confirmation email that this process has been completed.
ISY NETWORK RESOURCE - HARD REBOOT:
The remote web enabled switch is programmed to cycle outlet 6 and wait five seconds before restoring power.
As of this writing using these two methods seems to have fixed the web page lock up and data stream bombardments to the ISY Series Controller. I'm going to monitor this issue over the next few months to see if the above is the band aid solution. As I suspect the Autelis Bridge controller may very well be going out the door and sh^tting the virtual bed.
PROJECT TITAN - AUTELIS BRIDGE: 1 WIRE ENROLLMENT:
Having used and installed so many 1 wire sensors in the past that experience has taught me to be very patient and to test, validate, and confirm. Failure to do the three steps will result in lots of rewiring, ladder climbing, and endless nights of trouble shooting.
In this image capture you will see ten 1 wire sensors having been enrolled into the system. The first three sensors in green were from a previous project and found using long wire lengths caused these sensors and the controller to act up. This problem isn't seen using short wire runs or complex topology not recommended by Maxium.
The Maxium company call this *weight* I like to consider this as resistance / wire conflict. When thin wire like CAT5e Ethernet cable is used along with long runs slow readings can appear. Other times random out of band values will show up as you see here with numbers far exceeding the item being measured.
The goal for this second 1 wire temperature controller is to *Yet Again* hook up 32 sensors on a short length network. In red once I have validated which sensors are matched pairs I will group those same pairs to one another.
Next, I will test each matched pairs like the ones high lighted in blue for extreme hot and cold using boiling hot water, hot air gun, and a mini torch. For the cold I will be using water, ice cubes in water, and liquid nitrogen. Once the pairs that have been identified to be stable over a wide temperature range has been found those pairs will be grouped into another block.
From there a 30~90 audit & tracking will be used by the Z-Wave enabled ISY Series Controller. I'll be able to track the current, low, and high limits seen by each sensor. Once I am satisfied by this long term validation process I will commission the sensors into service.
*Oh joy ~ Teken what did you do over the 120 days of summer*
1 WIRE - TEN SENSOR ENROLLMENT:
This same process will need to be rinsed and repeated with the longer wiring network. As noted in the GEM 2 install I will use a single home run wire to the Autelis Bridge. From there I will star out using the terminal blocks with *Even Length* cabling. I will be using high quality 22-4 quad cable as seen in the GEM 2 installation process to ensure the lowest resistance. While using the forth pair for the ground terminal to run in parallel to also reduce resistance.
Preliminary testing has shown this has made the difference in obtaining an extra 10~15 feet. As such regardless of wire length I intend to use the shortest run possible in hopes of lesser *Weight* on the 1 wire network.