What’s to blame?

Called out to our first customer this week to look at some issues with his Loxone system.

There were a number of problems, firstly he couldn’t access his mini-server from outside his network, then he couldn’t access the mini-server from his already configured IPad’s, then finally his heating didn’t seem to be coming on. Where to look?

Until several months ago, said customer had a bog standard DSL connection running through a Draytek modem, which was gave me the option to setup a VPN to allow access to his entire network, with the upgrade to FTTC came a new router from Plus net. We spent a good hour configuring the router with port mappings, and DHCP reservations for his various devices around the house.

Fast forward a couple of months and a few new TV boxes, some modifications to the router were clearly made and it would appear the new router lost all of its settings.

With the Loxone config program I ran a quick scan for the mini-server and it popped up, then we tried to login, the customer had changed the main password for the mini-server, so 3 attempts later i got locked out of the mini-server. I then went ahead, powered the mini-server down and more problems reared their head, on reboot the mini-server had reverted its firmware back to version 6.x for some reason which Loxone as yet haven’t told me, apparently James has only seen it happen twice in his time. Simple solution, lets upgrade to version 8 and skip the version 7 upgrade. More grief, and the same problem as I’d had the previous week with the upgrade failing on my own system. I am now sure that the version 8 upgrade only works on cards greater than 2Gb. A swap to one of my spare 4gb cards, a format and restore from the last backup i’d taken and all appears to be working fine from a Loxone point of view.

For some reason the last change to the mini-server i’d made back in February hadn’t been restored. Luckily it was just a pair of light circuits, which i’d documented the last time i’d visited the customer. Five minutes later and everything looks to be back to normal.

Now on to the heating issue, i checked all the valves were opening and closing so no problems with the Loxone there, but four hours later and the house is still not heating up, the customer’s first thought was the Loxone was to blame. No matter how much I assured him the configuration was the same as before he was adamant that it was the Loxone at fault.

Many calls to the heating guy and several hours of head scratching and it turned out that there was pump set a level it would never have been effective enough to heat the house!

Result : The house is now warm and working as it should be.

My lesson learnt : Bring the bloody heating guy on-site with me next time!