PING-PONG and errors (solved)

[costo]

I have a problem which may be RFLink or Domotcz related.

In all latest Domoticz beta versions I get this sequence regularly in my log, on average once/hour.

every 40 seconds a PONG
2015-12-13 11:13:05.005 RFLink: 20;26;PONG;
2015-12-13 11:14:24.968 Error: RFLink: Nothing received for more then 50 seconds, restarting...
2015-12-13 11:14:24.969 RFLink: serial retrying in 30 seconds...
2015-12-13 11:14:54.785 RFLink: Using serial port: /dev/ttyACM0
2015-12-13 11:14:55.704 RFLink: 20;00;Nodo RadioFrequencyLink - RFLink Gateway V1.1 - R35;
2015-12-13 11:14:55.705 RFLink: Controller Initialized!...
2015-12-13 11:15:45.085 RFLink: 20;01;PONG;

I guess Domoticz (BetaVersions) pings the RFLink gateway every 40 seconds and expects a 'PONG' response.
If for some reason Domoticz does not get this response it restarts the RFLink gateway after 80 seconds after the last reception of PONG.
If Domoticz sends a command during the startup process of RFLink there will be a 'RFLink: TX time out' error , resulting to this error in the log:

2015-12-13 13:23:09.000 RFLink: 20;30;PONG;
2015-12-13 13:24:28.961 Error: RFLink: Nothing received for more then 50 seconds, restarting...
2015-12-13 13:24:28.963 RFLink: serial retrying in 30 seconds...
2015-12-13 13:24:38.609 RFLink Sending: 10;Powerfix;000877;1;ON
2015-12-13 13:24:43.000 Error: RFLink: TX time out...
2015-12-13 13:24:58.777 RFLink: Using serial port: /dev/ttyACM0
2015-12-13 13:24:59.700 RFLink: 20;00;Nodo RadioFrequencyLink - RFLink Gateway V1.1 - R35;
2015-12-13 13:24:59.700 RFLink: Controller Initialized!...
2015-12-13 13:25:49.077 RFLink: 20;01;PONG;

This annoys me because it happens with RFLink R32, R33 and R35 but when I use the stable version of Domoticz V2.3530 these errors do not happen. (or these errors are not reported in the log's stable version ?)

I wonder is it an error in the beta versions of Domoticz or is it the RFLink gateway ?
I also wonder what/why is this PING-PONG stuff polluting my log.

[gizmocuz]

This ping/pong was implemented ages ago, and has nothing todo with 'beta' versions

[costo]

I do not see the ping-pong stuff in the log of stable v2.2530 i only see it in the log of the beta versions.

But maybe Domoticz could be set a little leaner and waits for at least a few times in a row it does not get a respond of RFLinks and restarts the RFL gateway after a few minutes. Maybe RFLink just reponds again with pongs in that time and a restart is nor nescessary ?

[Stuntteam]

Due to some changes that were implemented in the way the ping/pong (heartbeat to make sure RFLlink is alive) are working, the messages have been enabled temporarily.
Dont worry about it too much..

[costo]

Hi Stuntteam,

I am not so much worried about these PONG messages themselves, I can understand that they may be temporary enabled as a way to debug a/some problem(s) with the RFLink-to-Domoticz communication.
What really worries me are the frequent restarts of the RFL, apparently initiated by Domoticz.
Every restart makes the RFL unresponsive to signals&commands for about 1-2 minutes or so. That is a fairly large percentage of the time if it happens a few times every hour.
This is adding a new layer of uncertainty about the reliability of the the 433MHz ASK/OOK protocol, above out_of_range and 433MHz_in_channel_interference that already makes the use of this protocol so unreliable

So I really like to have this problem solved but I'am not sure where to look for the source of the problem.
Can it be because I have recently added a ESPEasy WiFi gateway ?
Or may it be caused by the Aurel TxRx module that I use since a few days ?
Or even can it be caused by my weather station that may have a low battery ?

I can and will exclude one by one any hardware problem on my side and publish my findings in this post.
I would like to see some feedback from other RFL users who experience the same kind of problems i.e. the frequent restarts of RFL.

[Stuntteam]

Hi,

This is not your ESP/Aurel/weather station that is causing this. It is also not a hardware problem.
It is most likely something within the heartbeat/timeout handling that might need some improvements.

[thecosmicgate]

Having the same errors like :
2015-12-14 13:17:49.988 Error: RFLink: Nothing received for more then 50 seconds, restarting...

2015-12-14 13:17:51.752 RFLink: serial retrying in 30 seconds...

[costo]

I checked al the possible hardware issues on my side and nothing changed, so I guess it is like Stuntteam says:

Hi,

This is not your ESP/Aurel/weather station that is causing this. It is also not a hardware problem.
It is most likely something within the heartbeat/timeout handling that might need some improvements.

So I switched back to the latest stable version of Domoticz (V2.3530) and the problems vanished.

edit: Today dec 15, tried the latest beta V2.3817 and the frequent restarts still happen , so this version is also unusable with (my) RFLink. I have to go back to stable V3530.

[Alomamabobo]

Just to let You know same here:
" Error: RFLink: Nothing received for more then 50 seconds, restarting..." all 30 minutes.
RFLInk 1.1 r35 / Domoticz 2.3817.

By the way there seem to be no other problems with RFLink & RXCom on the same Raspberry Pi 2.

[Manny]

Same problem here.
I bought the RFLink a while ago with no sensors to read or devices to switch. From the very start I have had the errors:

2015-12-15 18:56:40.073 Error: RFLink: Nothing received for more then 50 seconds, restarting...
2015-12-15 18:56:40.074 RFLink: serial retrying in 30 seconds...
2015-12-15 18:57:09.895 RFLink: Using serial port: /dev/ttyACM0
2015-12-15 18:57:10.815 RFLink: 20;00;Nodo RadioFrequencyLink - RFLink Gateway V1.1 - R35;
2015-12-15 18:57:10.815 RFLink: Controller Initialized!...

and than again and again 10min later:
2015-12-15 19:06:00.475 Error: RFLink: Nothing received for more then 50 seconds, restarting...

I'm running version V2.3799 Beta of Domoticz


Update:
in 2 hours time 20 restarts...
2015-12-15 18:05:17.807 Error: RFLink: Nothing received for more then 50 seconds, restarting...
2015-12-15 18:09:58.016 Error: RFLink: Nothing received for more then 50 seconds, restarting...
2015-12-15 18:11:58.108 Error: RFLink: Nothing received for more then 50 seconds, restarting...
2015-12-15 18:31:58.999 Error: RFLink: Nothing received for more then 50 seconds, restarting...
2015-12-15 18:47:59.691 Error: RFLink: Nothing received for more then 50 seconds, restarting...
2015-12-15 18:53:59.958 Error: RFLink: Nothing received for more then 50 seconds, restarting...
2015-12-15 18:56:40.073 Error: RFLink: Nothing received for more then 50 seconds, restarting...
2015-12-15 19:06:00.475 Error: RFLink: Nothing received for more then 50 seconds, restarting...
2015-12-15 19:15:20.897 Error: RFLink: Nothing received for more then 50 seconds, restarting...
2015-12-15 19:18:41.027 Error: RFLink: Nothing received for more then 50 seconds, restarting...
2015-12-15 19:20:41.110 Error: RFLink: Nothing received for more then 50 seconds, restarting...
2015-12-15 19:36:41.794 Error: RFLink: Nothing received for more then 50 seconds, restarting...
2015-12-15 19:38:41.880 Error: RFLink: Nothing received for more then 50 seconds, restarting...
2015-12-15 19:41:21.995 Error: RFLink: Nothing received for more then 50 seconds, restarting...
2015-12-15 19:43:22.080 Error: RFLink: Nothing received for more then 50 seconds, restarting...
2015-12-15 19:45:22.184 Error: RFLink: Nothing received for more then 50 seconds, restarting...
2015-12-15 19:47:22.274 Error: RFLink: Nothing received for more then 50 seconds, restarting...
2015-12-15 20:03:22.992 Error: RFLink: Nothing received for more then 50 seconds, restarting...
2015-12-15 20:05:23.080 Error: RFLink: Nothing received for more then 50 seconds, restarting...

Hope this is solved soon...

[Alomamabobo]

Solved for me with V2.3823

[Manny]

V2.3846 did the trick for me, all peace and quit now!

[costo]

I can confirm that beta version 2.3846 works fine now with RFLink.
I have it running stable for several hours with 2 RFLink devices and i have not had any restarts, so it seems to be fixed permanently.

Thank you Stuntteam for solving this issue.