Auto restart of hd-pvrs, best way to figure out a good time to recycle?

[WhiteWhisker]

In an attempt to improve WAF, I want to improve hd-pvr stability...I have been pretty lucky so far, but every 4-5 days maybe 1 of my hd-pvrs becomes unavailable and has to be power cycled...I just RMAed it thinking my problems would be solved but the one I thought was good just did it!

Anyway on to the topic...reading through posts I saw somebody mention that its not necessary to power cycle the hd-pvr, but that this process works:

stop sagetv service > disable hd-pvr in device manager > enable hd-pvr > restart sagetv service.

Unfortunately I didnt see it until after I had already just powercycled my hd-pvr, have other people had success with this process? If so I was going to whip up a program to do that in sequence for my hd-pvrs, but I am not sure the best way to determine the optimal time to run this (hopefully 1x a day in a certain range). I was thinking about using SJQ to do this somehow but im not sure...

Basically I am trying to figure out the best way to determine when the sagetv service is totally idle: no recordings in the next x minutes, SJQ isnt processing anything (comskip), no clients connected, etc...Is this information easy to get through some of the APIs? Is there a crazy SJQ rule I could create?

thanks!

[Peter_h]

This functionality is not yet available in SJQ but slugger has started working on it and something similar to what you want to do should be available with SJQ 3.0.

[eric3a]

Have a look at my solution on the SageAlert thread if you want.
I have a web controlled power controller which can be reset via the web or using command line.

SageAlert detects HDPVR lock-ups, activates Growler which then triggers a .bat file that resets the power on the HDPVR.

Sounds complicated but it isn't as bad as it sounds. It works very well now. I only get about 1 lockup a week, but now they don't affect recrodings much.

Eric

[WhiteWhisker]

Originally Posted by eric3a

Have a look at my solution on the SageAlert thread if you want.
I have a web controlled power controller which can be reset via the web or using command line.

SageAlert detects HDPVR lock-ups, activates Growler which then triggers a .bat file that resets the power on the HDPVR.

Sounds complicated but it isn't as bad as it sounds. It works very well now. I only get about 1 lockup a week, but now they don't affect recrodings much.

Eric

Ya, I saw your solution which sort of inspired me to go do something about it lol. Unfortunately I seem to own the only UPS on the planet that doesnt allow you to control the power to ports in software (who knew they even made such a thing!). Im hoping to be able to do this without buying a new powerstrip, but thats a backup plan if I cant get this to work.

[dead_ferrets]

I went through this as well and given my lack of programming skills I did it the low tech way. I bought a power outlet timer and plugged the HD-PVR into it and programmed it to power cycle the HD-PVR every day at 4AM (i.e., when I wasn't doing any recording). Then used Windows task scheduler to reboot the computer about 5 minutes after the HD-PVR had rebooted.

Low tech, but great results so far.

[davephan]

Originally Posted by dead_ferrets

I went through this as well and given my lack of programming skills I did it the low tech way. I bought a power outlet timer and plugged the HD-PVR into it and programmed it to power cycle the HD-PVR every day at 4AM (i.e., when I wasn't doing any recording). Then used Windows task scheduler to reboot the computer about 5 minutes after the HD-PVR had rebooted.

Low tech, but great results so far.

It's been several months. Has power cycling the HD-PVR resolved the periodic problems with HD-PVR lockups?

I've been thinking about power cycling with a timer and/or installing a cooling fan in the HD-PVR.

I also may try the more complex method to determine when error messages occur and have them trigger a power cycle of the HD-PVR and/or reset the SageTV service. The most complicated part would be determining with a command line when the error messages occurs or when nothing is being recorded.

The power reset itself would be easy with a parallel printer port card. I have code that can turn on and off data lines on the parallel port. Those data lines could trigger a solid state relay to power cycle the HD-PVR.

Dave

[jerryt]

Originally Posted by davephan

It's been several months. Has power cycling the HD-PVR resolved the periodic problems with HD-PVR lockups?

I've been thinking about power cycling with a timer and/or installing a cooling fan in the HD-PVR.

I also may try the more complex method to determine when error messages occur and have them trigger a power cycle of the HD-PVR and/or reset the SageTV service. The most complicated part would be determining with a command line when the error messages occurs or when nothing is being recorded.

The power reset itself would be easy with a parallel printer port card. I have code that can turn on and off data lines on the parallel port. Those data lines could trigger a solid state relay to power cycle the HD-PVR.

Dave

I have been running Eric3a's recycle .bat on reboot and when sage sends a recording error it runnings all the scripts. With the drivers 1.0.5.301 and the scripts, I have not missed a single recording. And in the two months of running the scripts, they automatically recovered from the one (and only) lockup.

In testing the scripts I noticed that if you have two HD-PVR's, Sage is smart enough to start recording on the second HD-PVR as soon as the first one stops recording. So a daily recycle.bat run by the system scheduler may yield someone most of what the automatic recycle scripts do, without the cost of a IP power switch.

[aflat]

From what I could see all of those scripts required a programmable power strip. I took the lower tech approach (mentioned by someone on the boards, forgot who, sorry) and plugged my HDPVR into the STB on the switched outlet. So if I get a recording error, I power cycle the STB. I have the STB power cycle scripted, but I haven't hooked it into sagealerts or anything like that.

[davephan]

Originally Posted by eric3a

Have a look at my solution on the SageAlert thread if you want.
I have a web controlled power controller which can be reset via the web or using command line.

SageAlert detects HDPVR lock-ups, activates Growler which then triggers a .bat file that resets the power on the HDPVR.

Sounds complicated but it isn't as bad as it sounds. It works very well now. I only get about 1 lockup a week, but now they don't affect recrodings much.

Eric

Could you post a link for a web controlled power controller that can also be set with a command line?

What is "SageAlert"? Is this part of the Sage Job Queue?

I think the best way might be to detect when the failure occurs, then power cycle, with an automatic device. I need some more details on how you did it.

I think I will also install a cooling fan in the HD-PVR, which might prevent the HD-PVR lockups from occuring.

Dave

[jerryt]

Originally Posted by davephan

Could you post a link for a web controlled power controller that can also be set with a command line?

What is "SageAlert"? Is this part of the Sage Job Queue?

I think the best way might be to detect when the failure occurs, then power cycle, with an automatic device. I need some more details on how you did it.

I think I will also install a cooling fan in the HD-PVR, which might prevent the HD-PVR lockups from occuring.

Dave

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...ert#post381520