Toolket 1.7.4 Unexpected Error

Hi,

I upgraded to Toolkit 1.7.4 last week. Ever since when I connect to CGate from Toolkit I get "An unexpected error occurred." with the following message:

Exception 'EAssertionFailed' in module CBusToolkit.exe at 001175AC
Assertion failure (c:\KipperBuild_VM-GEO-D2006\DelphiComponents\Clipsal\FlashXML\Code\CIS_XMLLoader.pas, line 526)

Module: CIS_XMLLoader, Source: CIS_XMLLoader.pas, Line 527
Procedure: TFlashXMLStackItem.Destroy

CGate is on a remote machine, running the CGate version that comes with 1.7.4. CGate is running fine with no obvious problems.

This error can occur between 1 -10 times before Toolkit connects to CGate. Once it is connected it works perfectly.

Is there anything I can look at to isolate the problem? I have allowed Toolkit to email a few reports with it's automatic system. I don't know if that actually goes anywhere?

Any help would be appreciated. It is very frustrating when attempting to use Toolkit.

Andy.

 

I pretty sure this is a problem if there network connection between c-gate and toolkit is slow. I'm not sure if there are any workarounds, but I think there has been some work done recently to improve this.

 

Richo,

Thanks for the quick reply.

Unfortunately I don't think that is the problem in this case. Both machines are sitting on an internal wired ethernet network. There is not any apparent connectivity problems since I regularly login to the machine and the machine is performing other minor network tasks. Both machines and the network are very lightly loaded.

It is unusual to see an assertion fail in production code. Normally I would expect the "real" error to be caught before an assert is thrown and shown to the user.

Andy.

 

Actually, I have seen this is C-Gate is in the process of doing a network sync when you try and connect with Toolkit. By Default C-Gate does a sync when something besides Toolkit opens it's network. Do you have S+ or HG on this system? You will need to have them closed as they will force syncs and networks to be open. Try opending a telnet session to C-gate and manually close all networks and see if that enables Toolkit to connect reliably.

telnet ip.address.of.cgate 20023
> project use [projectname]
> net close *

 

Interesting. You have hit the nail on the head! Thank you!!!

I have two applications running. One is MisterHouse (a home automation program) and another is an interface I wrote to control SlimDevices SqueezeBox's (network MP3 players) via CBus switch buttons.

It appears that the errors occur when either of those apps are running. I can still sometimes connect (1 in 5 attempts) with the apps running, but the errors disappear when I stop them both AND enter your suggested network close commands.

Are their any plans to change this?

It is a little frustrating to shutdown the whole automation system, just to check or tweak a minor setting. MisterHouse is responsible for a lot more than just the CBus system, so I prefer to leave it running.

Andy.

 

The desire is certainly there! I ran into this problem with the OPC Server and had to code some magic into it to accomodate Toolkits unwillingness to play nicely with others.

I'm not in a position to say whether this is going to be addresses soon or not. I will speak to the relevant people because it certainly impacts the commissioning process in larger sites where you can't just shut everything else down to fire up Toolkit.

 

Thanks for looking into it.

Out of curiosity, what magic did you use in OPC? I am reworking the CBus support in MisterHouse at the moment. Is their a way to get out of the way of Toolkit when needed?

Andy.

 

In the OPC I have the concept of Commissioning Mode and Production Mode. When in Commissioning mode the OPC server doesn't open networks, start the sync process or set networks to use AutoSync. AutoSync is the default behaviour for C-Gate, but Toolkit switches it off while toolkit is running.

This stop the OPC server clashing with Toolkit. But the user has to switch between the 2 modes. This doesn't solve the problem of C-Gate being in the process of doing a sync already. You need to either wait for the sync to finish or close the networks (as I described above). Still a bit rough, but I will look into wether it is possible to reliably/safely stop an active sync.