I've read several threads that say most of the support calls are due to 3rd party apps, and that many 3rd party apps don't behave well. Is there a short list of 3rd party apps to avoid? My hub crashed (actually seemed to shut itself down) last night and it got me wondering if it could be due to a 3rd party app.
Here's the 3rd party apps I currently have installed:
Combined presence
Device Watchdog
Ecobee Suite Manager
Envisalink Integration
Homebridge
Hubigraphs
Hubitat Package Manager
InfluxDB logger
MyQ Lite
Reliable Locks
In general, when a user contacts support, disabling custom drivers and apps is one of the first steps support will ask for. Hubitat canāt support user installed apps and drivers, because they have no way to control for what effect they might be having on the hub.
But yes itās true that you should have a healthy skepticism for custom apps and drivers. They are, essentially, unknown code running on your hub, unless you know enough about programming in groovy to review the code yourself (I certainly donāt ).
So most troubleshooting of community developed apps occurs here, in the community (go figure ).
There are many popular drivers and apps that are well written, but keep in mind itās not always a problem with the code per se, it also depends what the driver or app is for or how youāre using it; some integrations can be more taxing to the hub than others, which could result in slowdowns or lockups.
Definitely this if you arenāt already using that version. I donāt think @tonesto7 has maintained the older version due to @dan.t taking it over. I have never had an issue with the Makerapi or HubConnect version of this for Homebridge.
It should be mentioned that you can crash your hub fairly easily with improperly set up Rule Machine rules.
Thanks for all the info so far! I did check my past logs this morning and there was basically nothing going on. Some temperature updates from sensors and then it just stopped logging (and apparently shut itself off, as there were no lights on it this morning). I'm currently using Homebridge v1.5.2 by Anthony Santilli. It sounds like there is a compelling reason to scrap that and use the Maker API integration instead?
Understood. And I certainly do have skepticism when installing apps. I try to find some success in the community before installing it, and I am judicious about what I install (only what I need to accomplish a goal). I do have about 40-50 rule machine rules, but they all seem to be working well and none of them are too exotic.
I'm not sure anyone's noticed problems with the "old" HomeBridge integration, but as far as I know it's not maintained anymore, and there were a few things that didn't work quite as well for me as dan.t's version (probably small oddities leftover from being a SmartThings port). If it does what you want functionally, I'm not sure anyone can guarantee it will solve any problems, but it can't hurt. (FWIW, I don't think I've seen complaints about any app on your list either, though everyone's environment is different. For example, if InfluxDB Logger might go nuts with every event on one person's hub while only logging one or two sensors on someone else's. But usually the symptoms of misbehaving apps or driers is slowdowns, not shutdowns.)
For your actual problem: is it possible your hub is overheating? That's one thing I've read that can cause spontaneous shutdowns. It's a good idea to make sure it's not tightly sandwiched between other devices regardless (give the radio antennas a fighting chance), but it could definitely hurt in this regard, too. You could also have a bad hub or bad power supply or power cable, especially if no lights were on. Switching out either or both of those latter two (any 5V*1A supply or greater will work, along with any standard micro USB charging or sync/charge cable) could at least help you eliminate that possibility. The rest aren't as easy to figure out.
Thank you both for your replies. It's good to know that there isn't a systemic issue with the older implementation of homebridge. It does seem to be working for me, so I may leave it until I have an issue with it. @tonesto7, are you planning to port your new app to HE? If so, I will definitely just wait until that happens so that I don't have to change it twice.
As far as the overheating, I'd say it's unlikely. It's actually mounted to a vertical stud in my basement, so it is basically in open air. The ambient temp in the room it's in is around 75F (it's a mechanical room). It's a C4 hub that I just got around to installing a few weeks ago, after having purchased it 2+ years ago (I was dreading the z-wave/zigbee device migration from ST). This is the only time is has crashed and it's been online for about 3 weeks. I'm going to monitor it and if it continues I will start looking at a PS or hub replacement. I really wish there was a way to monitor the hardware (cpu, ram, temp) externally.
You can use <hubIP>/hub/advanced/freeOSMemory to view free RAM in KB. I forget what the max is for a C-4 vs. C-5/C-7, or <hubIP>/hub/advanced/freeOSMemoryStatus will give you a "RED," "ORANGE," or "GREEN" status according to a best-guess by the staff member who wrote the tool. We have been told that resource constraints are rarely the cause of problems, so I'm not sure this will tell you anything useful, but it is one thing we are at least capable of monitoring.
Cool! I received a 199740 and "GREEN," so it looks like I'm good to go for now. I'm going to have something poll that URL and chart the free memory to make sure that it doesn't deplete over time and eventually crash. Even if this doesn't directly correlate to the health of the hub, this is a great start! Thanks for the info!
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(FWIW, I don't think I've seen complaints about any app on your list either, though everyone's environment is different. For example, if InfluxDB Logger might go nuts with every event on one person's hub while only logging one or two sensors on someone else's. But usually the symptoms of misbehaving apps or driers is slowdowns, not shutdowns.)
