Still Getting Occasional Crashes on Windows 10

[BzowK]

Hey Guys -

First of all, thanks again for your work on this app - it's great...

As a followup to issue #27, I upgraded to (started using) 1.0.9 after it's release. It seems that most of the crashes have been resolved, but I still get about 2-3 a day so I still must run a script to have it restart when it occurs. When it crashes, a dialog appears stating:

In case the image doesn't appear...

Could not read rpm for fan 1.
Please check serial port settings
Exception
Write timeout
The application will now exit

It also logs the following Application Event:

Faulting application name: gridcontrol-1.0.9.exe, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x5a2e9fe6
Faulting module name: unknown, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x00000000
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x00000000
Faulting process id: 0x7574
Faulting application start time: 0x01d44dd4524c0b70
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\GridControl109\gridcontrol-1.0.9.exe
Faulting module path: unknown
Report Id: 0dbf97fc-b8f6-4c0d-9204-96418be715cd
Faulting package full name: 
Faulting package-relative application ID: 

Note: If there's a question why I have the app in "C:\Program Files (x86)\GridControl109", its just to organize it and I have the folder set for full access to all users.

XML Data...

- <Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
- <System>
  <Provider Name="Application Error" /> 
  <EventID Qualifiers="0">1000</EventID> 
  <Level>2</Level> 
  <Task>100</Task> 
  <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords> 
  <TimeCreated SystemTime="2018-09-17T14:43:08.604096700Z" /> 
  <EventRecordID>522291</EventRecordID> 
  <Channel>Application</Channel> 
  <Computer>KelNetSVR</Computer> 
  <Security /> 
  </System>
- <EventData>
  <Data>gridcontrol-1.0.9.exe</Data> 
  <Data>0.0.0.0</Data> 
  <Data>5a2e9fe6</Data> 
  <Data>unknown</Data> 
  <Data>0.0.0.0</Data> 
  <Data>00000000</Data> 
  <Data>c0000005</Data> 
  <Data>00000000</Data> 
  <Data>7574</Data> 
  <Data>01d44dd4524c0b70</Data> 
  <Data>C:\Program Files (x86)\GridControl109\gridcontrol-1.0.9.exe</Data> 
  <Data>unknown</Data> 
  <Data>0dbf97fc-b8f6-4c0d-9204-96418be715cd</Data> 
  <Data /> 
  <Data /> 
  </EventData>
  </Event>

Any suggestions? Thanks!

[akej74]

Hi, thanks for the detailed report. The problem occurs in the following function:

        for fan in [0x01, 0x02, 0x03, 0x04, 0x05, 0x06]:
            try:
                # Define bytes to be sent to the Grid for reading rpm for a specific fan
                # Format is two bytes:
                # 8A <fan id>
                serial_data = [0x8A, fan]

                ser.reset_output_buffer()
                # TODO: Check bytes written
                bytes_written = ser.write(serial.to_bytes(serial_data))

                # Wait before checking response
                time.sleep(WAIT_GRID)

                # Expected response is 5 bytes
                # Example response: C0 00 00 03 00 = 0x0300 = 768 rpm (two bytes unsigned)
                response = ser.read(size=5)

                # Check if the Grid responded with any data
                if response:
                    # Check for correct response, first three bytes should be C0 00 00
                    if response[0] == int("0xC0", 16) and response[1] == response[2] == int("0x00", 16):
                        # Convert rpm from 2-bytes unsigned value to decimal
                        rpm = response[3] * 256 + response[4]
                        fans.append(rpm)

                    # An incorrect response was received, return an empty list
                    else:
                        return []

                # In case no response (0 bytes) received, return an empty list
                else:
                    return []

            except Exception as e:
                helper.show_error("Could not read rpm for fan " + str(fan) + ".\n\n"
                                  "Please check serial port settings.\n\n"
                                  "Exception:\n" + str(e) + "\n\n"
                                  "The application will now exit.")
                print(str(e))
                sys.exit(0)

It looks like an exception is triggered when communicating with the serial port, in the ser.write() function.

This causes the app to exit (a clean exit I was hoping, but as it's in a running QThread there might be some issues during shutdown that is logged by Windows). Why this timeout occurs is another question, the exception message is not very informative I'm afraid. Please let me come back on this when I have some more ideas.

[BzowK]

Good Morning -

... and thank you for the detailed reply! I feared that it wouldn't provide enough information as is the case with event logs usually, but it's all I could find. If there is any additional information you need or testing I can do, please let me know and I'll be happy to do so. I have the script in place which usually restarts it automatically so should be good for now.

Thank You!

[akej74]

I have found some information that may be of interest. This project by andyatgh is a similar application as Grid Control, but with a more simplified UI and more optimized communication routines. He writes the following in his readme (Known issues):

"Very rarely the controller may not execute the command given to it (setting fan speed may fail or data polling may not return voltage, rpm or amperage). It may stop responding for a few seconds and then come back to life. This will be properly handled by PyGrid which will reconnect to the device, but a brief warning message may be displayed in the Status panel."

This is interesting as I'm afraid that Grid Control doesn't handle these communication problem as well as his app. I need to look at his code and see how he managed these timeouts. Stay tuned!

[BzowK]

Good Evening -

Just wanted to write and see if there was any update. I'm currently having it error out about a dozen times a day. I wrote a script which automatically restarts it if not running, but must click OK on the error in order for it to restart. If this one issue is resolved, I think I'll be golden and could really use this app if working.

Thanks!

[akej74]

Hi,

I haven't got any further on this yet, but maybe you can help me out with some testing and running Grid Control from the Python source on your machine? This way it would be easier to add some more error handling and see how that works out with your Grid unit.

Please let me know what you think about this idea; I can provide some easy to follow steps on how to get Grid Control up and running in your environment (installing Python and some other things).

[BzowK]

Good Morning -

Know it's been a while, but recently revisited to see if there were any updates. I tried out pygrid for a while, but it lost communication with the controller on COM3 frequently. It didn't crash when this occurred, but did use quite a lot of resources is it stayed at 5-8% CPU usage when running so no longer use it.

I'm more than happy to test whatever including source code, I'm no programmer, but did have a few thoughts about the issue to suggest if interested...

• Wonder if possible to measure what COM settings CAM uses to communicate? I'm curious if lowering the baud rate or other port settings help. Not sure if your app sets those or taken from OS, but will test if possible
• Is it possible to extend the timeout for the port in your app? Whenever pygrid lost communication, it stayed open and after about 5 seconds got it back again.

Let me know - Thanks!

UPDATE
After posting, I changed the baud rate for COM3 from 9600 to 7200bps. After relaunching GridControl, it still seemed to communicate fine - at least initially. Let you know if I notice a difference.

Thanks

[akej74]

Hi, quick comment on the baudrate, it should be 4800 default (see line 27 in https://github.com/akej74/grid-control/blob/master/grid-control/grid.py), maybe you are referring to the settings for the COM device in Windows...?

[BzowK]

Thanks for the reply...

Yeah - I was referring to Windows. Didn't know if app used Windows settings or had its own. May try adjusting it within the py to see if that helps by chance. Thanks