HWQS repeater issues - one down all down ?

[JDearden]

QS REPEATER OFFLINE CAUSES ENTIRE HWQS system to crash ?

I had an issue with a repeater being plugged into a power circuit (it was mounted behind a dresser) that kept on being tripped by the cleaners and their vacuum ! (it was a sensitive GFI circuit)

The repeater would obviously go off line, and the entire QS system would act like it had lost it's brain -- sensors failing, some buttons doing some stuff but not others. Similar to the "ghost" in the machine but worse.

HWQS tech support told me I had a repeater down to which I scoffed at first -- then I moved the dressed and found the problem. Reset the trip and YES -- everything came back.

They told me this was normal if a repeater goes off line.

Again I say this -- HWI did not have this issue, a down repeater MAY cause some RF areas to get bad signal, but often they got signal from another repeater.

This argues that whenever possible we should power the repeater over a comms wire. Of course that would happen only in new construction. RF is mostly used in retrofit where all but the first repeater is plugged into a local outlet and not wired back to mummy !!

I do NOT want to be doing house calls every time a repeater looses power or goes down. Surely HWQS is more robust than this ???? When you replace a banner product like HWI, the replacement should be better in all aspects.

I held off QS until this 2013, the systems I have installed so far are OK -- but I know I could do better with HWI, and I am looking at more support issues as well.

Is this going to be fixed or is it again an inherent QS comms bus issue ?

[Craig W.]

In the HomeWorks QS system if a repeater is no longer communicating with the system then any devices that need to go through that repeater to communicate with the rest of the system will not be able to. However when a keypad button is pressed if the RF devices are within range of the keypad they will still hear the command from the button press and will respond. The keypad will not have its LED updated as that information comes from the processor. The RF devices that are not within range of the keypad and the other system devices will not hear the command since the repeater chain is broken. So what can happen is that some device are responding to the button press as they are close enough to the keypad to hear the command directly while other devices will not respond to the button press as the repeater chain is broken.

[JDearden]

Sheesh - a good explanation. Seems like we have gone back to the old RadioRA days :-) Note to developers - do NOT let old RadioRA guys at Homeworks code LOL

Seriously - this does seem a crazy way of doing things, the whole idea of a central processor is that IT is in control. Are you telling me that when I press a keypad button, dimmers directly respond even if they cannot "talk" to the central processor via the repeater?

If a repeater goes down, and I have redundant repeater coverage from other repeaters, are you telling me the system will still go down as the dimmer will not "relocate" to a redundant repeater ?

This also goes someway to answering my previous post about double tap causing a load of zones to first start to go off, BEFORE the central processor catches the double tap and countermands the direct communication the dimmers have picked up from the keypad ??????

So who's idea was this "mesh" network ?

[BradKas]

We have had great success with putting all of our repeaters & processors on UPS.

They have audible alarms for battery power so generally issues are resolved by the home owner (turning tripped breaker back on, etc.), or over the phone.

On new construction it's easy to use a larger centralized UPS to feed power for all of your processors, module interfaces & repeaters.

[JDearden]

Agreed on the idea -- however repeater placement is often behind dressers and the like - adding a UPS not only adds cost/space, it is also another point of failure when the battery fails in 4-5 years !! :-)

As far as centralised UPS on new construction -- I have never installed a Homeworks system without a UPS ! LOL

We have had great success with putting all of our repeaters & processors on UPS.

They have audible alarms for battery power so generally issues are resolved by the home owner (turning tripped breaker back on, etc.), or over the phone.

On new construction it's easy to use a larger centralized UPS to feed power for all of your processors, module interfaces & repeaters.