X10 plugin causing crash in XP...

[Francois]

I'm using the latest Girder 9.2.6 pre 4 with XP SP1 and noticed that the X10 plugin doesn't behave well (It doesn't turn on/off my peripherals and causes crashes of girder)... here's what the event viewer tells me:

Faulting application girder.exe, version 3.2.6.4, faulting module x10.dll, version 2.0.1.1, fault address 0x00002a24.

On my ME machine I also noticed that this plugin is not very reliable (crashes and not all commands go through)

Any ideas what could cause this?

[Mark F]

Are you talking about the X10-Firecracker plugin?

[Francois]

Yes, I am (I also recall that, when I initially tested this plugin a year ago, it worked well... so something must have changed in the meantime)

[Mark F]

It went from one version of the plugin interface to a different one.

I'll take a look at it this weekend. Sorry for the problems. :(

[Mark F]

I have a new version of the firecracker plugin ready for testing. I don't have XP but this appears to work on '98.

Could you (or anyone else :) ) try this on XP and tell me if it solves the problem? If so, I'll send it to Ron for the plugin page and remove it from here.

EDIT: See file in later post

[Francois]

Wow, that was quick!

It seems that whatever magic you did fixed one of the plugin problems (the plugin is now functional even as part of a multigroup... which was not the case before... a definite progress), but the 'fatal error' is still there :(


Faulting application girder.exe, version 3.2.6.4, faulting module x10.dll, version 2.0.2.1, fault address 0x00002ef6.

Thanks for looking into this...

Francois

[Mark F]

I'll look some more. :(

[Mark F]

Is there a pattern to the fatal errors? Is it one type of command (on, off, dim, bright) but not all? Is it one house code or one device number? Is it only on XP now or still on ME?

I'm not having any luck reproducing it on Win '98. I'll try my wife's ME machine right after I post this.

[Francois]

Mark,

To be honest with you, I'm not 100% sure that the problem is with the X10 plug-in, even if the error messages say so. The crashes I have experienced under XP (and, IIRC, ME) do not happen when a X10 command is sent. As the Windows error messages incriminate X10.dll, I assume it's the guilty party, but I am running the latest Girder beta, which may have some other issues

I experienced sporadic crashes when trying to close Girder's settings dialog (after activating some unrelated plugins)... the message says its a x10.dll isssue, even if I don't change anything about this particular plugin

Now that the plug-in works, I'll try to see if there's a pattern... I'll also try to deactivate the plug in and see if Girder becomes more stable then.

[Mark F]

I have attached an updated plugin to this post. Please give it a try and let me know if it works better.

I added a slider that will let you choose the amount of time to wait between commands. Values range from .5 sec to 1.5 sec. Some X10 devices work faster than others. This could also be done with a wait command BUT using this slider lets this wait overlap other Girder commands. :)

[Mark F]

Bump.

Is anyone still experiencing problems with the latest copy of this plugin? If not, I'll release it tonight. Thanks.

[Francois]

Mark,

Sorry for not providing an earlier response. I have only been able to conduct limited testing, but it seems to mostly work (with the default timer slider setting).

I had a few odd occurences such as -at one time- I couldn't get the X10 plug-in command dialog box to open (it would show under plug-ins, but clicking on X10 would produce nothing). Later, each time I started Girder, it would say 'Can't open COM2'... I retyped COM2 in the dialog box, and everything seems fine since...

As this newer version works better than the one currently posted, I think it should become the new official one...

Thanks

[Mark F]

The plugin on the download page has been updated. Additionally, the serial plugin now has a support file for the CM17A firecracker device. The serial plugin support is brand new and may need some tweaking so use at your own risk. ;)

[Francois]

Thanks... I'm glad you posted the X10 plugin as it is working like a charm (well, X10 charm ;) )

Now, off to testing the serial plugin...

Francois