Official 4.0 Beta Discussion Thread

[Dean Roddey]

If it's not actually 4.0 by that time, it will be effectively be 4.0 in all but name. I'm in documentation updates and video making mode now and won't be making any more dangerous changes, just fixing things that folks find between now and the release, and it's already quite solid anyway.

[pseigler]

gotcha. thanks!

[MikeW]

We're any images removed from the \System\ImgSets\BlueFantasy\ directory? I used some button images from this directory and now they're not showing up in my template.

EDIT: Looks like the buttons are still in the directory, but I had to re-add the "Medium Button" to all my button widgets.

[Dean Roddey]

What I did was that before they were separate surrounds and buttons. That meant two images for every button, one of which was 90% covered up anyway. That was just getting piggy, so I went back and redid them with the surround included in the button.

[paul]

Just upgraded to latest version and now have no volume control on my Integra reciever
"Field Z1Volume of Integra1 is not writeable"

[Dean Roddey]

Give this one a try:

http://www.charmedquark.com/vb_forum/showpost.php?p=132259&postcount=245

You might want to go back a page or so before that post and read through some of that just in case, to make sure you are up on what is going on. Anyway, that version should be in the next drop.

[Dean Roddey]

Here are the new tutorial videos for 4.0 that I've done so far. I'll just post them as I get them done, and then I'll put them on the new 4.0 web site when I get to that. I'm not doing too well on these so far. I did the first three, then figured out the first one was messed up for rendering because I'd set something up wrong in Camtasia. So I redid it, and did it slightly differently which really made the other two not really correct content-wise. So I had to re-do the first three. I spent the bulk of today getting a good version of the fourth one recorded and edited. But, I'm getting back into the groove of it again, re-learning the tricks and such, so hopefully I'll speed up a bit. Some of them may not need to be redone either perhaps.

These haven't really deviated a lot from the previous versions, since I've not gotten to the areas of the product where most of the new stuff is.

Installation 1 (http://www.charmedquark.com/Web2/Downloads/Video%20Tutorials/Version4_0/01.Installation1.wmv)

Installation 2 (http://www.charmedquark.com/Web2/Downloads/Video%20Tutorials/Version4_0/02.Installation2.wmv)

Basic Configuration (http://www.charmedquark.com/Web2/Downloads/Video%20Tutorials/Version4_0/03.BasicConfiguration.wmv)

Basic Concepts 1 (http://www.charmedquark.com/Web2/Downloads/Video%20Tutorials/Version4_0/04.BasicConcepts1.wmv)

[Dean Roddey]

I did pretty good today and got three done. They could always be better, but plenty good enough for now.

Client Side Drivers (http://www.charmedquark.com/Web2/Downloads/Video%20Tutorials/Version4_0/05.ClientSideDrivers.wmv)

Actions 1 (http://www.charmedquark.com/Web2/Downloads/Video%20Tutorials/Version4_0/10.Actions1.wmv)

Actions Variables 1 (http://www.charmedquark.com/Web2/Downloads/Video%20Tutorials/Version4_0/11.ActionVars1.wmv)

[Dean Roddey]

I've made up to .22 today in terms of getting written docs updated, plus making some good improvements to some of them along the way. I needed a break from video making.

[Dean Roddey]

I think I have all the written docs up to date. So later today or tomorrow I'll get the beta web site up, sans the videos I've still go to finish which I'll add to it as I go. I think I'm going to go back and start an "Installation and Configuration" technical doc as well. There used to be one, but now we depend on the videos. They are good but can't get into lots of detail.

[DaveB]

Dean -I have run into an issue with .30. I upgraded my master server running windows 7 without issue. I have three other machines, two running XP with just the viewer and one running WHS with a few drivers. When I attempted to upgrade those from .28 to .30, the installer can not locate the current version. When I attempt to search, and point the installer at the correct directory, it still can not locate it. I then try a new install, and the installer says that the master server is not running, which it is. When I try to run them under .28, both complain that the master server is on .30, so I know that they see the server.

[Dean Roddey]

Can you do a new install of .30 on those machines? That would help maybe narrow it down.

[DaveB]

I can not as the installer says that it can not locate the master server and the install fails. Everything has been working great up to the point of the update today. When I try to run the existing version .28 on the client, I get an error that the server is on version .30, so I know that the client has communication with the server. All three are doing the exact same thing. I have a windows 7 development machine that I will attempt to update now. I will let you know if it works on that version.

And post the results of the install log as well on the failed client. That may give more info as to why it failed.

[Dean Roddey]

You did say that you'd changed servers. Perhaps you should flush the DNS cache on the clients to make sure that they get updated. Also you may want to re-download the installer on the clients just in case. Once in a while the zip gets whacked when it's downloaded, and it might have whacked something that is only required on a non-MS install. Stranger things have happened.

[DaveB]

Well I figured it out. The IP address of the master server changed in error. I changed it to the old IP, flushed and rebooted everything but still had the same "could not find installation" errors on all machines with the exception of windows 7. The installer also could not find the server. I removed and reinstalled on those machines and all worked.

I guess the combination of a new server, old XP OS, wrong IP address and different DNS was enough to cause the issues. All better now. I just want to get through a week with nothing else crashing. I have been going through this for a month.

[Dean Roddey]

Here is the new external content part of the 4.0 web site:

http://www.charmedquark.com/Web2/ExtCont_4_x/ExtContent_Devices.htm

[DaveB]

Dean - Re: 4.0 web site - The issue has come back that you can not scroll the main window far enough down to see the bottom portion of the page and footer. This also cust off the last line or two of the inner window.

[Dean Roddey]

Here is the beta of the 4.0 web site:

http://www.charmedquark.com/Web2/Beta40Web/#/CQSLHome


Caveats:
1. It'll get moved later. It's just in a temporary location right now.
2. Not all the videos are there yet since I have to update them, or in some cases just confirm that the current ones are still valid.
3. The download link won't work since it's set up to point a 4.0 version that doesn't exist yet.
4. There's not any '4.0 is Available' type blurb in the slide show or in the News section. I don't want to confuse anyone who might drift by this temporary site.

[pseigler]

Upgraded to 3.4.30. i'm seeing these messages logged all the time after the upgrade:


08/08 17:16:54-AUTOSERVER01.acmenetwork.com, CQCGWSrv, CQCGWSrvWorkerThread1
{
CIDSock, CIDSock_StreamSocket.cpp.692, Failed/Not All Data Read, Error: 5014/0/0
Could not read or write all requested bytes
CQCGWSrv_WorkerThread.cpp - 613
}
08/08 17:16:56-AUTOSERVER01.acmenetwork.com, CQCGWSrv, CQCGWSrvWorkerThread0
{
CIDSock, CIDSock_StreamSocket.cpp.692, Failed/Not All Data Read, Error: 5014/0/0
Could not read or write all requested bytes
CQCGWSrv_WorkerThread.cpp - 613
}
08/08 17:16:56-AUTOSERVER01.acmenetwork.com, CQCGWSrv, CQCGWSrvWorkerThread2
{
CIDSock, CIDSock_StreamSocket.cpp.692, Failed/Not All Data Read, Error: 5014/0/0
Could not read or write all requested bytes
CQCGWSrv_WorkerThread.cpp - 613
}


i noticed the Proc mentioned is the Gateway Server.

[Dean Roddey]

OK, that's annoying but probably benign. Can you confirm for me that it happens when you disconnect a client from the GWSrv? Probably that's it. I just checked and it looks like there's no actual formal "I want to disconnect now" type of messsage that the client sends to the server. I don't know why I never provided such a thing. That would let us know the difference between a graceful disconnect and a dropped connection. I think I must have added some more error handling and it's seeing the client dropping the connection (while it's waiting for a command to come in) and giving that error.

If so, I'll either have to remove that check or provide a formal session ending message you can send.

[pseigler]

Can you confirm for me that it happens when you disconnect a client from the GWSrv? Probably that's it.

it does happen when we disconnect. for the past 3 or 4 years we actually poll the gateway every minute, which is how often we see the above error after the upgrade to 3.4.30.

do you feel there's any issues we may experience with the gateway using the 3.4.30 version?

[Dean Roddey]

None that I know of. That's a benign error, which just came about by me trying to add more checking. It's just saying, I was waiting for something to come in and the other side dropped the connection.

For the 4.0 drop I'll remove that check or just make it a more verbose mode message. Then for 4.1 I'll add a formal 'disconnect' type message you can send to let the GW server know you are about to drop the connection so that I can know the difference between a regular disconnect and a loss of connection and only log something when the client goes away without the disconnect message.

[Dean Roddey]

I've made this change. I've got a few small late fixes that I'll do as a 3.4.31 drop before the 4.0 release and it'll include this fix. The RIVA server was doing it as well and that was fixed. Since nothing else has been changed, and that's a large system, you should be able to just upgrade the MS (assuming that's where you are running the GWSrv) to fix this. If you are running the GWSrv on some other machine, it may not let you because the installer may complain about it being a different version from the master server.

[Dean Roddey]

And some more videos done:

Triggered Events (http://www.charmedquark.com/Web2/Downloads/Video%20Tutorials/Version4_0/20.TriggeredEvents.wmv)

Scheduled Events (http://www.charmedquark.com/Web2/Downloads/Video%20Tutorials/Version4_0/21.ScheduledEvents.wmv)

Logic Server (http://www.charmedquark.com/Web2/Downloads/Video%20Tutorials/Version4_0/23.LogicServer1.wmv)

[Dean Roddey]

it does happen when we disconnect. for the past 3 or 4 years we actually poll the gateway every minute, which is how often we see the above error after the upgrade to 3.4.30.

do you feel there's any issues we may experience with the gateway using the 3.4.30 version?

OK, the .31 version shouldn't log that annoying disconnect message now if you want to update it. Sorry for the hassles.

[Shaky]

Hello, I've attached a log file and am wondering if I could get a steer on where to look to resolve some issues i've been having off and on for a while. I'm on 3.4.30.

1) Fairly recently I've seen my Elk go briefly off-line (Serial connected) every once in a while, but I think it's gotten worse lately. (log at 15:58) This usually happens when I press a button on my user interface after it's been idle for quite a long time. Any elk fields then go ???? and re-populate after about 20-30secs. I've turned up the Elk Logging now.

2) Same scenario as above, when the IV has been idle a long time and I try to play an album from my CQSL player and filetag Media repo, I get a time-out error that pops up in the UI (I didn't catch the exact error, but can get next time). Then if I retry it a few seconds later it works fine. My Music is on a network share, so I'm a little suspect of that causing a delay. The log seems to indicate a watchdog timer failure?

3) There's an error in the log repeating over and over about CiDLib. What should I look for to get rid of this, or is it harmless or maybe related to the above issues? A search of the forums didn't bring up much.
" CIDLib, CIDLib_Thread.cpp.2193, Failed/Already, Error: 2454/0/0
There is already a thread with the name 'CQCPollEngPollThread0'"

Thanks

[paul]

1) Fairly recently I've seen my Elk go briefly off-line (Serial connected) every once in a while, but I think it's gotten worse lately. (log at 15:58) This usually happens when I press a button on my user interface after it's been idle for quite a long time. Any elk fields then go ???? and re-populate after about 20-30secs. I've turned up the Elk Logging now.

I have the same issue but im connected via IP. This issue has been around for a while for me and i have posted previously about it i think.

I would be soooo happy if this issue was resolved as it causes me a bit of grief and its extreamly annoying.

[Dean Roddey]

1) Fairly recently I've seen my Elk go briefly off-line (Serial connected) every once in a while, but I think it's gotten worse lately. (log at 15:58) This usually happens when I press a button on my user interface after it's been idle for quite a long time. Any elk fields then go ???? and re-populate after about 20-30secs. I've turned up the Elk Logging now.

And they were ok up to that point, e.g. any Elk related fields were showing up OK until you pressed the button? How often does this happen? Can you give me any possible associated conditions or anything?

2) Same scenario as above, when the IV has been idle a long time and I try to play an album from my CQSL player and filetag Media repo, I get a time-out error that pops up in the UI (I didn't catch the exact error, but can get next time). Then if I retry it a few seconds later it works fine. My Music is on a network share, so I'm a little suspect of that causing a delay. The log seems to indicate a watchdog timer failure?

The watchdog timer error happens when it tries to start up a file to play, but the playback never actually seems to start. This can happen sometimes on a file with some corruption or bad formatting of some sort. This is just to prevent such things from stopping the queue from being processed. The driver will wait for a while for the file to start playing and if it hasn't, it'll just assume it's bad and move on.

These things might be related. If that happens when you try to start a new file after a while, are you sure your server doesn't have any sort of 'go to sleep' type stuff enabled? Maybe it's starting to shut down things and so when you try to interact with it, it takes too long for it to get going again?

[3) There's an error in the log repeating over and over about CiDLib. What should I look for to get rid of this, or is it harmless or maybe related to the above issues? A search of the forums didn't bring up much.

That's definitely a wierd one. Does this just start as soon as you run the viewer? Or does it start showing up at some point later?

[Dean Roddey]

I have the same issue but im connected via IP. This issue has been around for a while for me and i have posted previously about it i think.

I would be soooo happy if this issue was resolved as it causes me a bit of grief and its extreamly annoying.

Is it on any particular periodicity you can recognize? Every so many hours or anything like that? What version of CQC are you on?

[paul]

Is it on any particular periodicity you can recognize? Every so many hours or anything like that? What version of CQC are you on?
No nothing stands out that effects the frequency of it going offline. The only thing that will slow it down is if i reboot the MS or cycle the MS. On a bad day the Elk could lose its connection up 30-40 times.
I also use ElkRM Remote Management Software on a PC and on an Elk Ce Touchscreen, when the Elk's driver goes offline within CQC the ElkRM software is not affected, it stays connected and is still functions as it should so the Elk itself is still keeping up the connection.
To have it happen on serial and ip would indicate a driver problem?

[Dean Roddey]

Are you leaving the ElkRM up all that time maybe? The driver can't be running while the RM software is up so it purposefully will disconnect when the RM sends out a message indicating it has started running, and should reconnect when the RM says it has exited. So in theory it should always be disconnected when the RM comes up.

[Dean Roddey]

Some more videos:

Web Server 1 (http://www.charmedquark.com/Web2/Downloads/Video%20Tutorials/Version4_0/25.WebServer1.wmv)

Interfaces Overview (http://www.charmedquark.com/Web2/Downloads/Video%20Tutorials/Version4_0/40.Intfs_Overview.wmv)

[paul]

im on version 3.4.30 but had been happening for a while now, sorry cant be more specific on time frames.

[paul]

Are you leaving the ElkRM up all that time maybe? The driver can't be running while the RM software is up so it purposefully will disconnect when the RM sends out a message indicating it has started running, and should reconnect when the RM says it has exited. So in theory it should always be disconnected when the RM comes up.
The RM software is running all the time on the Elk CE touchscreen, i will diconnect it to see if that has an affect. The RM software is hardly used on a pc and is never left running.

[paul]

Are you leaving the ElkRM up all that time maybe? The driver can't be running while the RM software is up so it purposefully will disconnect when the RM sends out a message indicating it has started running, and should reconnect when the RM says it has exited. So in theory it should always be disconnected when the RM comes up.
Oh wait, are you thinking of the ElkRP software?? if so that is never left running on anything and is hardly used so that is not the problem.
The RP is for programming purposes and the RM is for control and monitoring.

[znelbok]

Dean, do you mean RP or RM. RP is used for confivuration and can't run whith CQC at the same time. RM is the visual interface to the M1 system and CQC should be able to interface with the M1 while it is running.

Mick

[Dean Roddey]

Sorry, yeh, I meant ElkRP. My eyes are about shot and I saw it as RP instead of RM. So, nevermind on that. Though it would be worth it as a sanity check to make sure that another client wasn't somehow interfering if it's reasonable to run that test. Never say never.

[Shaky]

And they were ok up to that point, e.g. any Elk related fields were showing up OK until you pressed the button? How often does this happen? Can you give me any possible associated conditions or anything?

Yes, I think it shows fine as when this happens I can see the numbers were there and then disappear. I'll have to log it for a couple days and see if it is disconnecting just when un-blanking/pressing buttons or if it is intermittent even when blank & blanker is invoked too. I had a strange occurrence tonight where after I enabled full logging of the Elk it completely lost connection and I can't get it going at all on the com port I was using. I have now switched to a different com port. Maybe this will turn out to be a failed or failing port issue. I'll report back in a couple days on this one.


These things might be related. If that happens when you try to start a new file after a while, are you sure your server doesn't have any sort of 'go to sleep' type stuff enabled? Maybe it's starting to shut down things and so when you try to interact with it, it takes too long for it to get going again?

around the watchdog tripping on Music selection, I use Blank & Blanker after an hour or so and the hard disk spins down after 20min. I'll try disabling the disk spin-down and see if it helps.


That's definitely a wierd one. Does this just start as soon as you run the viewer? Or does it start showing up at some point later?


Good question and I think it has lead me to a place to look at further. It only spits that error out on one specific screen I have designed that I know has some glitches in it. I'll debug from there and also report back if anything looks to be CQC code related but suspect it's something I'm doing wrong with runtimers.

[Dean Roddey]

If you do find it only does it on one screen, save that screen before you change it, so that I can take a look at it.

And definitely disable any drive spin down on any machines providing background services.

[Shaky]

OK, a bit more on the Elk driver dropping off-line. This AM when I went to disarm the alarm here is what happened:

1. Alarm went off (exit Delay)
2. This wakes up the IV and unblanks the screen
3. I could see the Alarm screen and all values looked to be populated (status etc.)
4. Pressed Disarm ( Devices::FieldWrite(ElkM1_Serial.InvokeCmd, Disarm:1,####, True)
5. IV error popped up "The user invoked action failed" "Driver elkm1 is not currently connected to its device" "906/0/0" - alarm didn't disarm.
6. Log attached. @ 8:32:31 it seems to indicate a com port buffering issue? (I thought I had enabled more verbose logging, but didn't...)

This is a second com port on a USB/Serial device now vs the one I originally reported on, a PCI board com port in this server. So same behavior on 2 different com ports. It has definitely been doing this for a while (was on 3_4_25 before this) but a lot less frequent and seemed to recover itself prior to me upgrading to 3.4.30, (now it looks like I need to restart the CQC service and it recovers) Something else of major interest is I realized I'm using a modified elk M1 driver with the counter poll command (ver 2.2). I'll switch back to stock and see if the behavior changes. Any idea what the log messages would suggest is the problem here, or what else to try?

[Shaky]

OK, a bit more on the Elk driver dropping off-line. This AM when I went to disarm the alarm here is what happened:


2nd log attached with similar behavior and verbose logging on.
This time the update counters command triggered the off-line state.

[Dean Roddey]

Definitely as a sanity check fall back first to the regular driver and let's just divide and conquer along a fairly long front there. Quite a few folks use the Elk driver so I'm a little doubtful the driver is having problems.

BTW, I think that snap above is the same as the first one, isn't it? It still shows the same time range, and the port is still COM24.

[batwater]

Hi Dean,

Found the following in my log after I updated to 3.4.31


08/12 12:40:06-ncc1701-d, CQCDataSrv, CQCDataSrvMainThread
{
CQCKit, CQCKit_DriverCfg.cpp.1788, Warn/Data Format
Invalid device category 'EDevCat_Lighting in manifest. Make/Model=Insteon/2412S
}
08/12 12:40:06-ncc1701-d, CQCDataSrv, CQCDataSrvMainThread
{
CQCKit, CQCKit_DriverCfg.cpp.1788, Warn/Data Format
Invalid device category 'EDevCat_Lighting in manifest. Make/Model=UPB/PLC-Serial
}
08/12 12:40:06-ncc1701-d, CQCDataSrv, CQCDataSrvMainThread
{
CQCKit, CQCKit_DriverCfg.cpp.1788, Warn/Data Format
Invalid device category 'EDevCat_Misc in manifest. Make/Model=WGL Designs/W800RF32
}
08/12 12:40:06-ncc1701-d, CQCDataSrv, CQCDataSrvMainThread
{
CQCKit, CQCKit_DriverCfg.cpp.1788, Warn/Data Format
Invalid device category 'EDevCat_Misc in manifest. Make/Model=WGL Designs/W800RF32_Security
}

-Ben

[Dean Roddey]

Those are warnings, so they shouldn't stop anything from working. The way that the device categories are named was changed for the 4.0 release to support future auto-magical stuff. Those are either drivers that aren't shipped by us or you are using modified versions of them, so I wasn't able to update their manifests. You can change them if you want to get rid of these warnings.

EDevCat_Misc -> Miscellaneous
EDevCat_Lighting -> LightingSystem

Make those changes (those manifests should be in the [cqc]\CQCData\Manifests\User\ directory, with a text editor, then flush the logs and restart the service or machine and they should go away.

Hopefully we'll get any of these third party drivers updated to the new scheme before long.

[batwater]

Those are warnings, so they shouldn't stop anything from working. The way that the device categories are named was changed for the 4.0 release to support future auto-magical stuff. Those are either drivers that aren't shipped by us or you are using modified versions of them, so I wasn't able to update their manifests. You can change them if you want to get rid of these warnings.

EDevCat_Misc -> Miscellaneous
EDevCat_Lighting -> LightingSystem

Make those changes (those manifests should be in the [cqc]\CQCData\Manifests\User\ directory, with a text editor, then flush the logs and restart the service or machine and they should go away.

Hopefully we'll get any of these third party drivers updated to the new scheme before long.

That did it, thanks!

[DaveB]

Dean;
I am trying to get through my template package and want to integrate the new iTunes capabilities. What is a realistic date that the updated driver might be available? If you need assistance testing the driver, please contact me. I have about 22,000 tracks ready for testing!

[Dean Roddey]

Mark is working on it so drop him a PM about it.

[Dean Roddey]

Another video, providing big picture info about how to set up media. I'm trying to do more of these types of videos this time around.

Media Architcture 1 (http://www.charmedquark.com/Web2/Downloads/Video%20Tutorials/Version4_0/27.MediaArchitecture.wmv)

[Shaky]

Definitely as a sanity check fall back first to the regular driver and let's just divide and conquer along a fairly long front there. Quite a few folks use the Elk driver so I'm a little doubtful the driver is having problems.

BTW, I think that snap above is the same as the first one, isn't it? It still shows the same time range, and the port is still COM24.

Oops, not sure what happened there. Here's a log of the failure with verbose logging.

I tend to agree with your comments about the driver likely being fine, but will continue to review hardware and software on my end here. I've been contemplating a new server here as this box is about 7-8yrs old. What's the best option these days to add let's say 10 serial ports to a PC that works with CQC well?

thanks

[Dean Roddey]

There were some fixes done for the Elk driver, which you wouldn't have gotten if you were using some modified version. But, honestly, it looks hardware related. All is going fine and suddenly you start getting errors about the port handle being invalid, which is very unusual and extremely difficult to explain how that could happen.

But, there's also some fixes and more logging in the official driver now, a good bit of it in that area of handling the commands (and it looks like a disarm command did it), so it would be worth going back to the official driver for that reason as well. Even if it turns out to be hardware related, the better logging might give us more clues. And if it turns out to be driver related, the same perhaps.

[paul]

The RM software is running all the time on the Elk CE touchscreen, i will diconnect it to see if that has an affect. The RM software is hardly used on a pc and is never left running.
I did as i said and shutdown the CE touchscreen running the ElkRM software and the lost connection's stopped, when i i turned it back on the lost connections started happening again.

[Dean Roddey]

Interesting... Can you put the Elk driver into verbose mode and make it happen and get me a log dump? Maybe it's just something as simple as the Elk taking longer to respond because of someone fighting it for attention. Or it could be something else. But that the log dump in verbose mode should help us pin it down.

[Dean Roddey]

One more video. This one took way too long for some reason.

Interfaces - Editor Overview (http://www.charmedquark.com/Web2/Downloads/Video%20Tutorials/Version4_0/41.Intfs_EdOverview.wmv)

[Dean Roddey]

And another video, which also took too long.

One more video. This one took way too long for some reason.

Media Architecture 3 - Repo/Player Driver Config (http://www.charmedquark.com/Web2/Downloads/Video%20Tutorials/Version4_0/28.MediaArchitecture3.wmv)

[Dean Roddey]

Another video, an intro to the theme system:

Interfaces - Themes (http://www.charmedquark.com/Web2/Downloads/Video%20Tutorials/Version4_0/43.Intfs_Themes.wmv)

[Dean Roddey]

Another video, on popups. I had to re-do this one because of the changes in the action parameters, which are now available the whole time the popup is visible. It's a significant improvement so I had to get that into the video examples on this subject.

Interfaces - Themes (http://www.charmedquark.com/Web2/Downloads/Video%20Tutorials/Version4_0/44.Intfs_Popups.wmv)

[Dean Roddey]

And another couple videos. I really struggled with the variable based widgets one for some reason. It's a strange sensation I've discovered while doing these videos that you can hear words coming out of your own mouth and not have a clue what they mean. There's some alien speaking out of your mouth and you are just sitting there listening to it babble.

Global Actions (http://www.charmedquark.com/Web2/Downloads/Video%20Tutorials/Version4_0/22.GlobalActions.wmv)

Interfaces - Variable Based Widgets (http://www.charmedquark.com/Web2/Downloads/Video%20Tutorials/Version4_0/42.Intfs_VarBasedWidgets.wmv)

[Dean Roddey]

Another video:

Interfaces - Re-use Tips (http://www.charmedquark.com/Web2/Downloads/Video%20Tutorials/Version4_0/45.Intfs_ReuseTips.wmv)

[Dean Roddey]

And yet another video...

Interfaces - Widget Visbility/Interactivity Control (http://www.charmedquark.com/Web2/Downloads/Video%20Tutorials/Version4_0/46.Intfs_WidgetVis.wmv)

[Dean Roddey]

I got a bunch of Wuench's drivers into the build today. So those of you using those probably will want to switch over to the official ones at some point after 4.0 comes out. There was the sys log, net monitor, a Sharp LCD driver, and updates to the SNMP, 3808CI, and ISY Insteon driver.

[Ron Haley]

Using latest beta - The driver does not appear to be extracting the Aux1kwh field for Device B correctly. Instead of 1205.99, I'm getting 12.95.
Anyone else having this problem?
Running 2.35 of the Brultech ecm program

[Dean Roddey]

You might do better posting in the Beta Drivers section thread for this driver. It'll be more likely to be seen by other users of it.

[DaveB]

And yet another video...

Interfaces - Widget Visbility/Interactivity Control (http://www.charmedquark.com/Web2/Downloads/Video%20Tutorials/Version4_0/46.Intfs_WidgetVis.wmv)


Dean - It might be my computer, but check this video. The Audio is ahead by about four frames or so.

[Dean Roddey]

OK. Sometimes it happens with Camtasia. You just generate it again and it'll be happy. I always close it down after editing and re-open the project fresh before generating it, but sometimes it still comes out off.

[Dean Roddey]

Oops, I just realized that when I added that change in the last drop to automatically update affected actions when you rename a widget, that I forgot that those widgets that have the affected actions also need to be pushed onto the undo stack now, not just the one that was being edited. Else, if you did an undo, it would put the old widget name back, but not update the actions in the other widgets. I'll get that fixed for the next drop.

[DaveB]

Dean - do you have any docs available yet for the iTunes Tray App? Specifically;

iTunesPlayer.Command

[Dean Roddey]

It's still kind of being tested out, so it's not been documented yet. But if you look at the field in the field browser it'll show you the limits for the field.

[DaveB]

Dean - Is it just me or is the scrolling not correct on this page;

http://www.charmedquark.com/Web2/ExtCont_4_x/ExtContent_Devices.htm

The main window will not scroll down far enough to see the bottom of the screen. The bottom of the drivers window get cut off. I am using IE 9.0.8.

[Dean Roddey]

It looks like the bottom one can get partially cut off, or at least that's what I'm seeing.

[DaveB]

Yes - depending on the resolution either partially or fully cut off and you can not see the bottom of the frame. I do not know if there is a page footer, but you also can not see that.

[bigdude]

Dean,

I know you're busy with the eve of the 4.0 release, but I think I'm one of those people that got bit by the 3.4.30 template event handler action commands.

I have a bunch of macros running in both the Template OnPreload Action (working fine) and in the Events...Event Driven Action. These also work fine because they are still (illegally) coded, but I can't edit them because you took the MacroEng::RunMacro out.

Is there a reason it's unsafe to run Macros out of an event driven action?

-AJ

[Dean Roddey]

That's pretty heavy to be running from a template event, because the foreground is locked out while they are running. What are you needing to do in there? Or are you putting it there because you don't want to duplicate the logic? If so, remember that there are also now Global Actions which I think you can still invoke from in there, right?

So if you could do it as action level logic instead of macro logic, you could still have it in one place and invoke it from multiple places. Would that work for you?

[bigdude]

I have 25 values that are in int fields. I need to convert them from a 0-100 range to a 0-255 range then convert them to string type to place into the SetOpacity action. I think it could be done with Local Variables and 3-4 steps each, but I never got it to work so I created a macro instead to do it in 2 steps per field/widget.

Global actions won't work because I need access to all the widgets I am setting the opacity for.

[Dean Roddey]

Are you invoking a macro over and over, or are you calculating the values and returning them all at once and then setting them on the widgets? I assume it must be the latter since you can't access the widgets from the macro. If so, you couldn't you just invoke the global action repeatedly instead to do the calculation for each one, then set the returned value to that widget?