Troubleshooting

Modified on Tue, 26 Sep, 2023 at 8:37 AM

Troubleshooting¶

The smartengine hardware and smartmanager software collectively provide administrators and facility managers to not only understand the operating status of the smartengine deployment but they also provide self-diagnosis and troubleshooting information when certain aspects of the deployment are not functioning as expected.

Hardware Visual Indicators¶

The smartengines and smartsensors use LEDs extensively to help identify any hardware malfunction or physical connectivity issues.

smartengine front panel

The smartengine front panel has three sets of visual indicators:

Power LED
Port LEDs (one per port). Press SHOW STATUS button to turn on these LEDs.
Ethernet port LEDs (one for each port) embedded with the port

Power LED¶

The smartengine power LED conveys the operational state of the system and is solid green when functioning normally. The following table describes conditions that other colors indicate.

Indicator	Status	Corrective Action
Off	No power is delivered to the smartengine.	Check the power connection to the smartengine
Blinking green	The engine is booting up and the lighting controls have not initialized.	Wait for the engine to boot up, or check for maintenance mode
Solid green	The engine is on and functioning normally.	-
Solid amber	The engine is experiencing a hardware problem.	Call smartengine support for resolution.

Fixture Port LEDs¶

The front panel has 48 port LEDs above the fixture ports, one for each port. These are not active unless you press the SHOW STATUS button. Once you do so, it remains active for 30 seconds.

Indicator	Status	Corrective Action
Off	No smartengine endpoint connection is detected on the port.	If something is connected to the port, check the cable and/or end point for issues
Blinking green	The smartengine endpoint is undergoing a firmware update.	Wait for the upgrade to complete. Do not disconnect the endpoint. Disconnecting the endpoint will reset the upgrade process and will be initiated again when connected back.
Solid green	The smartengine is communicating normally with the endpoint.	-
Solid amber	The smartengine port is not functioning normally.	The endpoint may be getting discovered or is not functioning correctly. Check the cable and/or endpoint for issues
Blinking amber	The smartsensor connected to the port is not supported by the software version running on the smartengine	Upgrade the software on the smartengine

Ethernet Port LEDs¶

The ethernet port LEDs indicate the status of the network connection on that port.

Indicator	Status	Corrective Action
Off	Ethernet port is not connected.	Check the ethernet cable and make sure that the remote port is powered on.
Blinking green	Ports is transmitting and receiving packets.	-
Solid green	The port is connected and link is detected on the port.	-
Solid amber	The network connection has problems.	Check the ethernet cable and settings on the remote port

smartsensor LEDs¶

The smartsensors have a LED that can be used to diagnose issues as well.

Indicator	Status	Corrective Action
Off	Fixture is functioning normally or has not been detected at all	Check the smartengine port LED to check if there is any issue
Solid Red	Fixture has not been commissioned	Use the smartmanager to commission the fixture
Alternate Red and Off	Fixture discovery is not completed and being repeated	Diagnose the issues with the lighting fixture
Flashing Green	Flashlight naming process has been initiated and fixture is waiting to be named	It will become solid when flashlight is pointed at it and flashlight naming is done.
Solid Green	The fixture has been assigned a name through flashlight as it detected flashlight	It will turn off when flashlight process in smartmanager is completed.

The smartengine wall controllers use LEDs associated with the scene buttons in a similar manner as above.

smartdirector LCD¶

The smartdirector has an LCD panel on the front that will display any concerns relating to the smartdirector. During normal operation, only the serial number of the appliance is displayed on the LCD panel.

Investigating issues using smartmanager¶

As discussed in Monitoring section, the dashboard provides a quick overview if any smartengine or smartengine end points are offline. Additionally you can use the following applications to identify and investigate issues further -

View Alarms - view the complete list of alarm conditions that are active in the system. Refer to Alarms section, for details of various alarm conditions.
Manage Devices - check the details of the smartengines, theirs ports and the fixtures connected to the ports and any errors.
Manage System - check the overall state of the system software and gather more details

The following sections discuss some of the more commonly seen issues and steps to resolve them. If your issue is not covered below, or you need further assistance for resolution, refer to section on how to proceed.

Problems with smartengines¶

The following are some issues that one may encounter with the smartengines.

Browser not able to connect

If you are connecting to your smartengine (or smartdirector), and the browser is not able to connect, it may be a issue with the network connectivity to the smartengine.

Check the IP address, or system name that you entered on the browser address bar to make sure it is correct
If the address is correct, test that you are able to connect to that address using the ping command on your terminal (or command shell)
If you are not able to ping the specified address, connect to the smartengine secondary port.
If you are able to pingthe specified address, then
- smartengine may be rebooting, and so wait for a few minutes before the web server is initialized
- if you are not able to connect, confirm that the address you are connecting is indeed a smartengine (you may connect to the smartengine by connecting to the secondary port and check the IP address)
- if the browser is reporting errors, refer to section below.

If you are able to connect to the smartengine through the secondary port, but not able to reach its primary IP address through your network, then -

Navigate to Manage System application, and check the primary port status (and IP address) reported in the Overview section.
Check the ethernet cable on the primary port to make sure it is connected to the network
Please work with your IT personnel to resolve further network connectivity issues.

Unable to join cluster

The smartmanager dashboard shows the number of engines that are offline. An engine is offline if it cannot join the cluster. If your cluster master is a smartdirector

Navigate to Manage System application and select the Diagnostics section. Select the smartengine that is not part of the cluster and view its details.
The smartdirector can perform diagnostics and provide information or tools (like connectivity test) to isolate the issue.

You may connect directly to the smartengine and check the following -

The smartengine is running the same version of the software as the cluster master.
The smartengine cluster configuration (cluster name, local engine ID, master IP address, and master engine ID) are correct.
The smartengine network configuration (IP address, subnet, gateway) is correct and there is an IT issue that would prevent it from communicating with the cluster master.

Rebooting repeatedly

The primary function of smartengine is served by a Linux process -- Lighting and Sensor process. If this process crashes for any reason, it is restarted. After five repeated failures, the smartengine automatically reboots. This may result in the engine repeatedly rebooting and never getting out of the reboot cycle. In such a situation, you may use the following steps to isolate the issue and recover -

Disconnect the smartengine from the network to eliminate any issues caused by clustering to see if the reboot cycle stops. If so follow the steps to reset the member engine.
If problem persists, disconnect any fixtures that have errors or problems in connectivity. If this helps resolve the problem, isolate the fixture connectivity issue first before proceeding.
If the issues are not resolved, boot the engine into the maintenance mode. Reset the engine to default configuration.
The above steps help you restore the smartengine and fixtures to an operational state. Please contact smartengine support to resolve the root cause of the issue.

Reports not showing

After the smartengine/smartdirector has booted, the smartmanager will not show the sensor data charts in View Reports or in Dashboard applications. The initialization of the historical values for sensor data attributes is a function of the volume of the data (number of sensors and how long the site has been operational). During this period the charts for sensor data cannot be displayed until the data has been checked and initialized.

On a smartdirector, this may take over an hour for a very large site.

Problems with smartsensors, and lights¶

When you have issues with smartsensors and lighting fixtures, here are the common things to check first.

If multiple fixtures are exhibiting the same issue, check whether the smartengine they are connected to has any issues:

Repeated rebooting of the smartengine (discussed above)
The smartengine is participating in cluster (not disconnected from cluster due to network issues)
Check alarms to make sure that there are no power supply or fan issues with the smartengine
Power LED on the smartengine is not solid green (possible issue with the power supply on the engine or it is still initializing)

If you do not have access to the smartmanager, examine the behavior of the smartengine port LEDs, and the smartsensor/smartgateway LEDs. Refer to the sections above that detail the LED behaviors. The smartengine port LED power up when they detect the smartengine end point on the other end, and then power the LED on the smartsensor/smartgateway. The smartsensor LED turning ON is an indication that smartengine end point is able to communicate with the smartengine. Any further troubleshooting needs to be focused on the lighting fixture and its connection to the smartsensor/smartgateway. Unless the fixture discovery is complete, the smartengine will reset the port by powering it OFF and then ON again. Check the following to eliminate common issues -

Check that the cable connections and terminations are good.
Check that the number of ports that the fixture expects are connected to the engine.
Check that fixture does not have defective LED boards.
Check that there are no shorts in the fixture.
Check that the smartgateway is connected to ports on the same engine.

If you have access to the smartmanager, you can examine the issues more easily. The following are some of the actions that you can take in the different applications while troubleshooting issues -

Application	Action
View Alarms	Examine fixture alarms to get more details. If so refer to the Alarms listing to correct the issue.
Manage Devices	Select the smartengine where the fixture is connected to. You can now examine the port state and look for any errors on the engine there.
View Reports	Select location and/or fixture of interest to review power levels and motion data.
Control Lights	Make temporary modifications to policies or tune fixture light levels to debug the issues.
Commission System	Use Events and Policies section o review the current policy in effect in the location. Use Fixtures section to review fixture, fixture type information and reset any fixtures if required.
Manage System	Use Diagnostics section to restart the sensor and lighting process on an engine if required.

Advanced Lighting Optimization Features

Please make note of any advanced lighting optimization features that you may have enabled so that you do not overlook their impact.

The following are some of issues that you may encounter.

Lights turning on and off

When a light is turning on and off by itself when it is expected to stay on, then it is usually a symptom of issues with the smartsensor, lighting fixture, or their cabling connections. There should be an alarm associated with the fixture that should provide a more precise cause.

Lights partially on

If your light is dimmer than expected or only partially on, then check for the following:

Has the smartsensor/smartgateway been programmed for the correct fixture type?
Is the fixture LED board defective?
Review the power levels of the fixture over time for any anomalies.
Adjust the light level of fixture to see how it responds.
If there are no hardware issues, review the location policy in effect to identify the cause of the behavior.

Lights not turning on with motion

If your light is not turning on with motion, then review the following:

Check that there are no issues with smartengine which is powering that fixture.
Review the power levels of the fixture over time for any anomalies.
Check that the lights are not off because of the wall controller dimming action.
Check that the fixture has not been turned off (task tuning).
Is the issue specific to a single fixture or all fixtures in the location on a given smartengine?
Adjust the light level of the fixture.
If multiple fixtures on the same smartengine are affected, reboot the smartengine.

Lights levels not consistent in location

If the lights in the location are not consistent, then check for the following:

Check that there are no issues with the smartengine which is powering that fixture.
Review the power levels of the fixture over time for any anomalies.
Check whether daylight harvesting is in effect in the location. Daylight Harvesting drives fixtures to light levels based on the ambient light readings detected by the individual sensors. This can cause fixtures to be at different light levels.
Check that the fixtures have not been task tuned to different levels.
If multiple fixtures on the same smartengine are affected, reboot the smartengine.

Insufficient light level with Daylight Harvesting

If the lights are not bright enough based on the ambient light in the location, then check the following:

Do the light sensors need to be recalibrated? The sensor calibration data determined during the calibration run may not be good because there was excessive ambient light at the time of the calibration, or fixtures were missing.
Check that there is no item in the space which may be skewing the results due to the reflection of light.
Adjust the floor level for daylight harvesting to ensure that the light level never goes below that. This will ensure that there is sufficient light at all times.

Wall Controller dimmer actions not working

If you press the wall controller buttons and the lights in the space do not respond to it, check the following -

Has the wall controller been commissioned and assigned to a location? Wall controller buttons are disabled unless they are commissioned.
Check the wall controller and the smartengine it is connected to for issues. If the wall controller is not participating in the cluster, the fixtures will not respond to it. Similarly, make sure that the buttons have proper contact.
Check that the configuration (switch profile or button configuration) is correct.

Wall Controller scene not turning on

If you press the scene control buttons, and the lights does not respond to it, check the following -

Check that the space is occupied and motion is detected in the location. Scenes are deactivated when the space is not occupied.
Check the configuration of scenes so that the scene buttons are mapped correctly to defined scenes.
Check the wall controller and the smartengine it is connected to for issues. If the wall controller is not participating in the cluster, the fixtures will not respond to it. Similarly, make sure that the buttons have proper contact.
Check the configuration of events for the location. If an event with priority higher than the scene controller is active, then the button actions will not have any response.

Problems with smartmanager¶

The following are some of issues that you run into when trying to connect to the smartmanager with your browser. The following are the recommended browsers to use (recent versions) -

Mozilla Firefox
Microsoft Edge
Google Chrome

Other browsers such as Opera or Safari should work but may have inconsistencies and are therefore not recommended.

Browser SSL Protocol error

If you are running an older version of the software, the browser may reject the connection attempt because of the version of SSL library being used by that version. You can use browser specific settings to address this issue, and then upgrade the software on the smartengine/smartdirector.

Browser SSL Certificate error

The smartengine/smartdirector systems have a self-signed certificate by default and this prompts the browser SSL certificate warnings since the browser cannot validate the certificate. You may use browser specific methods to bypass this issue.

You may also install a valid SSL certificate for each smartengine/smartdirector using the Manage System application. The Diagnostics section provides information about the configured certificates and actions to update it. You may also create your own certificate authority and then have the smartdirector distribute certificates generated from that to each cluster member. You can then configure your browser to trust that certificate authority.

Forgotten Password

The smartdirector/smartengine password is maintained in an encrypted form only within the system. Users with administrative privilege can change the passwords for other users. But if you are locked out because you have forgotten the administrator password, then the configuration has to be reset by booting the system into the maintenance mode. If you have a backed up configuration file, it will need to be edited to set the password to the default. Contact smartengine support team if you need assistance.

Connecting to secondary ethernet port¶

You can connect to the smartengine/smartdirector by pointing your browser to its IP address. However, if for some reason the network connectivity is not working, you have the option of connecting directly to the smartengine/smartdirector by connecting to the secondary ethernet port on the system. The secondary port on the smartengine is labeled as AUX and on the smartdirector it is Gb2. Follow these steps to connect through the secondary port -

Use a ethernet cable to connect your system directly to the secondary port on the smartengine/smartdirector.
The smartdirector/smartengine secondary ethernet port is configured with an IP address of 192.168.1.1. Configure the ethernet interface on your system with the static IP address settings for same subnet (IP Address: 192.168.1.100, IP Subnet: 255.255.255.0, Gateway: 192.168.1.1)
Disable all other network interfaces on your system.
Point your browser to the 192.168.1.1 to connect to the smartengine/smartdirector and access the smartmanager.

Resetting member engine¶

A smartengine that participates in a cluster as a member gets its configuration from the cluster master. It fetches and saves only the configuration information that is relevant to the fixtures it is connected to. If under any circumstance, you need to reset the systen and have it rejoin the cluster to start with a clean slate, you can use the System Configuration section of the Manage System application to restore the minimum configuration snapshot that is present on the system. This configuration will cause the system to rejoin the cluster and fetch all the configuration information afresh from the master.

Maintenance Mode¶

The smartengine/smartdirector comes with a dedicated recovery image that may be booted into as a way to recover from any issues that render the system inaccessible. This image provides web interface that may be used to upgrade the main system image.

Booting smartengine into maintenance mode

Hold the SHOW STATUS button down while you reset the power (you can hit the recessed reset button with a pen/pencil/pin once).
Release the button when the power LED turns amber and then transitions to a fast blinking green.
The system will boot into maintenance mode now and the power LED indicator will flash green as long as it stays in that mode.
You can now connect to the secondary ethernet port as described above with one exception. You will need to use the HTTP protocol (as opposed to HTTPS) when accessing the URI. This is because in maintenance mode, HTTPS is disabled.

Booting smartdirector into maintenance mode

Connect to the secondary ethernet port on the smartdirector as described above with one exception. You will need to use the HTTP protocol (as opposed to HTTPS) when accessing the URI. This is because in maintenance mode, HTTPS is disabled.
Power cycle the smartdirector.
When the LCD panel displays the message "Ready To Boot Image", refresh the browser. You will be provided with a page that prompts you to abort the boot process.
Interrupt the boot process by clicking the button and the system will now be in maintenance mode.

The maintenance mode web page provides you the ability to upload new images onto the system. You may also reset the system to defaults and clear the configuration, or sensor data partitions. Contact smartengine support team for further assistance.

Requesting Support from smartengine support team¶

The smartengine support team can help you with troubleshooting issues, software upgrades and any questions you may have under an annual support contract. The contact information is listed below.

Services and support

New software releases are available to all customers that are on an active annual service/support contract. Your sales representative can provide you more information about the benefits and details of service contracts.

You may contact smartengine support team at -

Website: https://wtec.io/support
Email: go@mysmartengine.com

When contacting support team for any issues that you may be facing with your cluster, it is recommended that you gather as many details as possible and be prepared for faster turnaround. Here are some of things that would be helpful -

Identify the time frame during which the issues occurred.
Clearly identify the impacted location, fixture, and the observed behavior.
Download cluster information that can be used by the smartengine support team to investigate the issue further.

Download Cluster Information

Navigate to the Diagnostics section of the Manage System application.
On smartdirector, click the Download Cluster Information button to download the items (default selection) from the cluster engines. This download can take some time.
The smartengine support team can guide you on any additional data that may have to be downloaded.