Another reef-pi build.

[b4tn]

@Ranjib I think I found the problem. Certain timers are being disabled and showing as disabled but still running.

My powerhead is set as follows: At every minute past every 2nd hour (The cron sytax is below). Both power heads work identical but opposite each other.

If I manually turn off the power head thats currently on in the equipment tab, exactly 1 minute later it turns back on. I was saying 30 seconds but timed it to one minute which matches the Cron syntax. So it work like it should.

Here is the problem. If I go to the timer tab and select disable in the status box then turn off the pump in the equipment tab, exactly one minute later the pump comes back on. Likewise if I make a macro that disables the timer and turns the pump off... it turns off but comes back on 1 minute later. All the time It will still show disabled in the timer tab.

So it seems that for some reason the timer is showing disabled but still running. you can replicate the issue by creating one of the above two timers and trying to get it to turn off and stay off until the timer is re enabled. The only issue is sometimes they do turn off and stay off but i cant figure out what it is that I do that makes it sometimes work.

 

[crusso1993]

@Ranjib I think I found the problem. Certain timers are being disabled and showing as disabled but still running.

My powerhead is set as follows: At every minute past every 2nd hour (The cron sytax is below). Both power heads work identical but opposite each other.

If I manually turn off the power head thats currently on in the equipment tab, exactly 1 minute later it turns back on. I was saying 30 seconds but timed it to one minute which matches the Cron syntax. So it work like it should.

Here is the problem. If I go to the timer tab and select disable in the status box then turn off the pump in the equipment tab, exactly one minute later the pump comes back on. Likewise if I make a macro that disables the timer and turns the pump off... it turns off but comes back on 1 minute later. All the time It will still show disabled in the timer tab.

So it seems that for some reason the timer is showing disabled but still running. you can replicate the issue by creating one of the above two timers and trying to get it to turn off and stay off until the timer is re enabled. The only issue is sometimes they do turn off and stay off but i cant figure out what it is that I do that makes it sometimes work.

Just out of curiosity; have you tried entering 1 in the minute box under Timer Status?

 

[b4tn]

Just out of curiosity; have you tried entering 1 in the minute box under Timer Status?

That would change the function so that it would come on every 2 hours. I want it to come on every minute so it will resume if its been turned off. But if the timer is disabled it shouldn't be coming back on. It should stay off until the timer is re enabled.

 

[crusso1993]

Yup, I understand that the setting * dictates "every". I was just curious if you might have tried it to see if it operated properly under a different setting.
As for the "disable", that is weird.

 

[crusso1993]

Oh, and change the 3600 seconds to 60 or 120 seconds. Just to see if the reconfiguration produces a working result.

Disclaimer; I'm no expert but can screw things up just as well as one!

 

[b4tn]

Just to verify it was not something else I just deleted the timer all together, turned off the pump from equipment and it stays off.

Re created the timer from fresh and the pump comes on after 1 minute.

Disabled the timer, turned off the pump in equipment and it would not come back on.

Enabled the timer and after one minute the pump came on.

So deleting the timer and re creating it seemed to fix the issue. But I am willing to bet if I go back after a few hours it will still run after disabling the timer. Thats where my inconsistency is coming from. Seems that creating a fresh timer temporarily fixes the issue.

 

[b4tn]

Oh, and change the 3600 seconds to 60 or 120 seconds. Just to see if the reconfiguration produces a working result.

Disclaimer; I'm no expert but can screw things up just as well as one!

That would break the timer also. The 3600 has to be half of the every 2 hours (*/2) for it to work. I am positive its the timer not fully being disabled. And looks like a re configure (deleting and re adding the timer) temporarily fixes the issue.

 

[b4tn]

And now that I think about it. That makes total sense. As I am troubleshooting trying to figure out why the timer is not disabling I get frustrated, delete the timers and macros, and make new ones and am happy because it all works now. Then try a few hours later and its not working again.

 

[crusso1993]

It is very frustrating when things that are designed specifically to perform certain functions do not perform the way they were designed. This is especially common with software and especially with alpha, beta, etc versions. I know you know this but I understand your frustration.

The reason I suggested entering a different value than * in the macro is because I seem to recall someone else having a macro issue when they entered * into the settings. Once they changed the * to a number value, their problem ended. That is why I was hoping you would enter different parameters within the macro. If we can get it operating by eliminating the * then that would strongly indicate there is a coding issue surrounding using * as an input. Please bear with me as I am simply spitballing here and would love to get to the bottom of this problem. Can you go in, delete whatever timers and macros you have and reset them up eliminating the *? Doesn't really matter what the values are as we are simply looking to see it the new configuration will work.

 

[b4tn]

It is very frustrating when things that are designed specifically to perform certain functions do not perform the way they were designed. This is especially common with software and especially with alpha, beta, etc versions. I know you know this but I understand your frustration.

The reason I suggested entering a different value than * in the macro is because I seem to recall someone else having a macro issue when they entered * into the settings. Once they changed the * to a number value, their problem ended. That is why I was hoping you would enter different parameters within the macro. If we can get it operating by eliminating the * then that would strongly indicate there is a coding issue surrounding using * as an input. Please bear with me as I am simply spitballing here and would love to get to the bottom of this problem. Can you go in, delete whatever timers and macros you have and reset them up eliminating the *? Doesn't really matter what the values are as we are simply looking to see it the new configuration will work.

So I just went in and changed the minute from

*

to

0/1

which is basically the same thing to trigger the timer every minute. The timer still functions as it should coming on every minute. But I still have the issue that if I manually disable the timer then turn it off via equipment tab it comes back on automatically after one minute. The timer status shows disabled.

 

[b4tn]

Which on another note but similar subject. I have found these two websites that are amazing at helping to build Cron timers.

This makes the timer for you based on what you want to do.
http://www.cronmaker.com/

This outputs it in English
https://crontab.guru/

Its slightly different than whats in reefpi but the concept is the same.

 

[crusso1993]

So I just went in and changed the minute from

*

to

0/1

which is basically the same thing to trigger the timer every minute. The timer still functions as it should coming on every minute. But I still have the issue that if I manually disable the timer then turn it off via equipment tab it comes back on automatically after one minute. The timer status shows disabled.

I think this is good news as it seems to prove that the problem lay in the enable/disable function of the software. Frustrating, YES, but very helpful in determining how/where the fix is for the coding people (Ranjib).

Which on another note but similar subject. I have found these two websites that are amazing at helping to build Cron timers.

This makes the timer for you based on what you want to do.
http://www.cronmaker.com/

This outputs it in English
https://crontab.guru/

Its slightly different than whats in reefpi but the concept is the same.

Thanks for sharing these! I was aware of the second one but not the first. Now I have both of them bookmarked.

Perhaps, @Ranjib will have some time to accurately pinpoint the issue, due to all the input you have provided, and code the fix.

Oh, I really hope I'm not coming off as a jagbag! If so, my apologies!

 

[b4tn]

Oh, I really hope I'm not coming off as a jagbag! If so, my apologies!

Not at all, I work for the military where everything is based on rank. Normally it is assumed that the person with the highest rank is the smartest and end all decision maker. The group I work for is a think tank of sorts and rank is purposely disregarded so that people of all levels of experience and knowledge from none to decades can provide input towards problems and come up with a solution. You would be surprised how well this model works.

 

[Ranjib]

Not at all, I work for the military where everything is based on rank. Normally it is assumed that the person with the highest rank is the smartest and end all decision maker. The group I work for is a think tank of sorts and rank is purposely disregarded so that people of all levels of experience and knowledge from none to decades can provide input towards problems and come up with a solution. You would be surprised how well this model works.

That is pretty streamlined decision making . Lot of the work I do at professional side is derived from techniques used in army , fema like bodies ( ooda loop, incident management to name a few ). Very inspiring

 

[Ranjib]

So I just went in and changed the minute from

*

to

0/1

which is basically the same thing to trigger the timer every minute. The timer still functions as it should coming on every minute. But I still have the issue that if I manually disable the timer then turn it off via equipment tab it comes back on automatically after one minute. The timer status shows disabled.

I’ll try to reproduce this and get back to you . Thank you for taking the time to run these tests and provide such detailed feedback

 

[b4tn]

So to further add to the timer mystery I have this timer set up and configured and set to disabled.

If I turn off the the equipment listed "WMR" it initially turns off but comes back on automatically after one minute. It does this with a timer status of enabled or disabled. So it appears that the timer is not being disabled.

However.... lol At the one hour point when it is supposed to turn off it will not turn off if the timer is disabled so it acts like the timer is partially disabled. ;Wacky

 

[b4tn]

I’ll try to reproduce this and get back to you . Thank you for taking the time to run these tests and provide such detailed feedback

You know its funny because troubleshooting can frustrate me to no end. But I actually enjoy it.

 

[Ranjib]

You know its funny because troubleshooting can frustrate me to no end. But I actually enjoy it.

Talk about it. Often time I open up a fully functional thing to just understand how it works , only to realize that I can’t put it back, or even worst i’ll Be able to re-assemble it but notice few components left out after I finished the reassembly . The thing will work almost always in the later scenario, but I don’t know what it means,,,,, may be some feature will not, or it’s unsafe ... or unreliable... I’ll never know

 

[crusso1993]

Talk about it. Often time I open up a fully functional thing to just understand how it works , only to realize that I can’t put it back, or even worst i’ll Be able to re-assemble it but notice few components left out after I finished the reassembly . The thing will work almost always in the later scenario, but I don’t know what it means,,,,, may be some feature will not, or it’s unsafe ... or unreliable... I’ll never know

Much to the chagrin of my parents, I did this exact thing with one of these back in the late 70's. Been doing it ever since!

 

[b4tn]

@Ranjib I ran through several different tests this weekend and have narrowed it down to the minute dialog box in the timer that is the issue. I have the timer set to activate “At every minute past every 2nd hour.” then turn off after 3600 seconds. The Cron looks like this.

Day of Month: * Hour */2 Minute: * Second: 0

I have entered several different values int he minute field from 0/1 or 0/5 and just * it does not matter what value I put in whether to make it turn on every minute or every five minutes it always comes back on after one minute passes. This happens when the timer is both enabled and disabled.