Home assistant "Debug" not giving full or receiving messages

[James]

Hi all, hope you can help me figure this out.
I installed my rflink board on a Pi, in another country. I physically connected it and left it to configure remotely.

This morning I configured it in home assistant and the debug logs were showing full firmware info when HA reset, and then I was getting a good strong signal from my thermostat every 5 seconds or so. All seemed good and I was about to figure out how to learn the protocol from my power meter. Before I did so, I applied a HA update and things seem to have gone awry. No errors are thrown, but on reset I only get:
2023-01-03 00:55:43.095 INFO (MainThread) [homeassistant.components.rflink] Initiating Rflink connection
2023-01-03 00:55:43.104 INFO (MainThread) [homeassistant.components.rflink] Connected to Rflink
2023-01-03 00:55:43.120 DEBUG (MainThread) [rflink.protocol] connected
2023-01-03 01:04:53.020 DEBUG (MainThread) [rflink.protocol] received data: 20;AF;Drayton;

I have never received a fully formed packet since. I restored the backup of this update, but the problem persists.

I have the challenge that I cannot visit the hardware for another month, but I get no usable info from HA to help me debug it.

Any thoughts that might point me in the right direction? Even if it's just methods for resetting the rflink USB connection without having physical access

[TD-er]

As disclaimer: I have never used RF link myself.

Is it possible to reboot the system remotely and still get access to it after reboot?
If so, then this may trigger a reset of the USB bus and all devices connected to it.

But only do this if you are sure to regain access to it after reboot.
So any services you need, must be restarted at boot (e.g. VPN services, SSH daemon, etc)

[James]

In theory, yes. But that's a big in theory. I have SSH access but only if the other services on the pi come back up, as I use it as an encrypted VPN - I VPN into it to get a local IP, then SSH into itself. If something goes wrong on the openVPN startup, I'll be waiting a few weeks to get physical access again. Not the end of the world, but it is my last resort.

I've had 2 aborted datapackets overnight and one complete - this is all very odd considering how clearly I was picking up the stat originally, including the one next door! Nothing should have physically changed so I'm a bit baffled.

[TD-er]

No idea if the RF link supports auto baudrate detection, but is it possible this HA update changed the baud rate?
It sounds a bit like some buffer isn't read often enough.

[Stuntteam]

Hi,

>2023-01-03 00:55:43.120 DEBUG (MainThread) [rflink.protocol] connected
>2023-01-03 01:04:53.020 DEBUG (MainThread) [rflink.protocol] received data: 20;AF;Drayton;
This indicates that RFlink is up and functional. It also indicates that data is received and communicated correctly to HA (thus no baud issues).
However, if this is all that is received and this "dayton" device is received after each reset then it might be that one of your RF transmitting devices is failing.. possibly due to a low battery state.

[James]

Hi,

>2023-01-03 00:55:43.120 DEBUG (MainThread) [rflink.protocol] connected
>2023-01-03 01:04:53.020 DEBUG (MainThread) [rflink.protocol] received data: 20;AF;Drayton;
This indicates that RFlink is up and functional. It also indicates that data is received and communicated correctly to HA (thus no baud issues).
However, if this is all that is received and this "dayton" device is received after each reset then it might be that one of your RF transmitting devices is failing.. possibly due to a low battery state.

This was my feeling but the original (pre update) output from the RFLink was much more detailed, it gave firmware info etc. But previously it was super consistent on my own stat ID - it never failed to give good data, it's only 4m from the antenna. I can't think of a reason it would become so poor in the space of 1 hr.

Latest logs show a mess:
2023-01-04 21:49:57.191 DEBUG (MainThread) [rflink.protocol] received data: 20;4D;Drayton;ID=e440
2023-01-04 22:42:00.291 DEBUG (MainThread) [rflink.protocol] received data: 440;SWITCH=04;CMD=OFF;
2023-01-04 22:42:00.291 DEBUG (MainThread) [rflink.protocol] got packet: 20;4D;Drayton;ID=e440440;SWITCH=04;CMD=OFF;
2023-01-04 22:42:00.292 DEBUG (MainThread) [rflink.protocol] decoded packet: {'node': 'gateway', 'protocol': 'drayton', 'id': 'e440440', 'switch': '04', 'command': 'off'}
2023-01-04 22:42:00.292 DEBUG (MainThread) [rflink.protocol] got event: {'id': 'drayton_e440440_04', 'command': 'off'}
2023-01-04 22:42:00.292 DEBUG (MainThread) [homeassistant.components.rflink] event of type command: {'id': 'drayton_e440440_04', 'command': 'off'}
2023-01-04 22:42:00.292 DEBUG (MainThread) [homeassistant.components.rflink] entity_ids: []
2023-01-04 22:42:00.292 DEBUG (MainThread) [homeassistant.components.rflink] device_id not known, adding new device
2023-01-04 23:01:57.303 DEBUG (MainThread) [rflink.protocol] received data: B;Drayton;ID=e440;SWITCH
2023-01-04 23:31:57.352 DEBUG (MainThread) [rflink.protocol] received data: ID=e440;SWITCH=04;CMD=OF
2023-01-05 00:14:57.419 DEBUG (MainThread) [rflink.protocol] received data: 0;SWITCH=04;CMD=OFF;
2023-01-05 00:14:57.420 WARNING (MainThread) [rflink.protocol] dropping invalid data: B;Drayton;ID=e440;SWITCHID=e440;SWITCH=04;CMD=OF0;SWITCH=04;CMD=OFF

[James]

No idea if the RF link supports auto baudrate detection, but is it possible this HA update changed the baud rate?
It sounds a bit like some buffer isn't read often enough.

I suppose this is possible, I'm not sure how that interface is controlled to be honest. I'll ask over on HA forums in case they have a direction to pick at.