Com'X 510 reboot after config, looooong time ?

[Anonymous user]

Is my unit broken or am i missing something ? Is it because i have configured meters/gateways on it that it can't see, have i missed a setting ? What are the issues that cause such long reboot times ?

Out of the box boot time seems to be around 5 mins, configure the unit with devices, change the IP and the reboot is taking an eternity, its just sits at the browser stating "Welcome to Com'X 510 The box is starting, please wait" refreshing every now and again, i have been sitting in front of it for around 20 minutes now........

If the boot time truly is this long then that is quite frankly totally unacceptable.

[Anonymous user]

Anybody have an idea on this ? This unit is taking 30+ mins to boot and when it does its dreadfully slow

What we basically have is at the moment is a £1200 white brick, no point in talking to UK tech support as they wont have the experience with it.....

[Anonymous user · Accepted solution]

Hi Richard,

Sorry to hear that the boot up time is causing you issues. The ComX boot time does increase as more devices are added. We are conscious of the boot-up time, and working hard to improve. Once your Com'X is online, you shouldn't need to reboot it frequently. Is it up and running now, or are you still having issues?

Best,

Colton Peltier

[Anonymous user]

Colton,

Its still and issue and the worst part is the board had to ship today as we couldn't wait any longer to confirm the Com'X was doing what it should.

We configured it on the bench a few weeks back with 16 devices on the RS485 port and 20 devices on an EGX150, all PM5110, its taking around 30-45 minutes to reboot when fitted to the board, when it does finally boot it takes a long time to serve the pages and is generally laggy, i expect that we may have to make changes to the IP's and/or data logging when we get to the customers site, it's going to be a little bit embarrassing to say the least if we have to wait 45 minutes to implement a change.

I really don't like critiquing devices that have obviously had a lot of time and thought put into them by individuals on the dev team but i am sorry to say that the Com'x 510 is unusable in its current state, boot times of >5 mins are just unacceptable, the pain it causes in configuration and testing are just not worth it.

Having said that it doesn't help us in this particular instance, so what are the plans to sort this issue in the short term, new firmware in development i presume, release date ?

Cheers

[Anonymous user]

Hi Richard,

Thank you for your very real feedback. We are currently putting effort into trying to mitigate this very thing. The team agrees with your assessment. I truly understand that it is a very visible issue, and appreciate your patience with us. I can only apologize at this time for this situation.

Sandra

[Daniel_Borle]

Hi guys,

It's very good to see, that we are not the only ones with this problems!

It's really very hard to explain to a customer, that he has to switch from a very well working EGX300 to a new development that takes around 45' to boot up and which also takes a rather long time to login.

Daniel

[Anonymous user]

Sandra, Hi

Is there a date for this fix ? What are you aiming to get the boot time down to ? What's causing the issue ?

The panel is currently on a boat to the destination for delivery and install, we need to send the commissioning engineer out with a new unit all configured ready to go as at the moment we have zero confidence that its working as it should, in fact with a boot time of >45 minutes we would class it as broken.

Cheers

[daniel_parker_p]

Hi,

We've got one that doesn't boot at all. After a master reset it started, although takes a long time.

Is the long boot time a feature of new firmware? We've used these quite a bit previously and have never had these issues (normally reboot takes ~10mins).

Dan

[DK-Michael]

Hi

In DK we also have these issue with long boot time. I've never seen 45 min, but everything between 8-15 min is normal and several times I've had to do master resets to get Com'Xs to work again.

We've started suggesting  the homeLYnk/spaceLYnk in some projects as the better alternative. 15 sec boot time and no lag when it's running.

Best regards, Michael

[sesa205726_brid]

Hi guys,

I share your comments about Com'X510. It's too slow in many things. If I have to compare the performance of this product with EGX300, I find the following issues:

1 - reboot time very slow: tipycally more of 10 minutes: unacceptable for a product of new generation. EGX300 took about 1 minute (very old product);

2 - configuration time very slow: I take long time to configure the same product number than EGX300;

3 - web page changind too slow: I have to wait too pending requests to have the complete page;

4 - I found products that remained in running after the customer cut the power supply to the first start (wrongly) --> Needed replace with NEW product!!!: unacceptable.

I can't do anything with this product: with EGX300 I can upgrade firmware, in FTP, to solve problems (very rare action considering the reliability of the product). With Com'X510 I need to replace product. Image the impact with the customer especcialy if it has to send the panels to other country!!!

I am seriously disappointed of this product. I worked very well with EGX300. I found EGX300 very fast and reliable

I can't tell this one of the NEW product that takes the place of an OLD product.

I hope a fast improve of the product.

Best regards

Salvo

[Daniel_Borle]

Hi Salvatore,

I fully agree with your comments above!

Cheers

Daniel

[Anonymous user]

I agree with the configuration issue too, it took me around 2 hours to setup in the first place with the lags between creating a device and the pending requests etc. etc.

It's got so much potential as a product but is currently unusable, like i said, the one have have is effectively a £1200 white brick that happens to be installed in a panel.......

This product was introduced to us in the UK as mini EMS system and we have quoted it as such, i really am not looking forward to the conversation we are going to have with our end client when he powers the unit on and tries to point his browser at it...

It's very clear that Schneider need to resolve this issue with a firmware update ASAP, like NOW.

[Anonymous user]

SANDRA PEDRO​

Colton Peltier​

Sandra/Colton

I realise this is something that you may or may not want to do but could you please contact me via PM or direct email with a statement from Schneider identifying there is an issue with the boot time of the Com'X 510 units, acknowledging that you are working on a solution and a firmware update is to be released, we can forward this to our customer as they will just not accept the boot time as is, regardless if it's a one time issue on startup or not.

Thanks

[Anonymous user]

As the new global offer manager for the Energy Servers and Gateways for Schneider Electric, I find this feedback invaluable. As a network/system device, we all know that literally every install will be unique and therefore performance and throughput of the system will be different. However an acceptable range of performance certainly needs to be met. The Com'X team is listening to this market feedback and is currently working on firmware effort to this means, starting with the reboot sequence. We are early days in this effort and I cannot provide any firm performance enhancement statistics as of yet. I can share that we intend to provide two firmware releases roughly 6 months apart and that each release will include a balance of performance enhancement effort and new feature effort. The teams focus is certainly in line with market requirements, however time is always the most difficult factor. The team is striving for a major firmware release by mid year 2017.

I appreciate the feedback and everyone patience's and understanding.

Sandra

[Anonymous user]

SANDRA PEDRO​ Colton Peltier​

Hi guys, any news on the next possible release date for firmware to improve the boot time of the Com'X ? Mid year is just going to leave the product unmarketable for us until that date,

I have already advised the internal sales team in our business that the product performance is unacceptable and to not quote any more.

[Anonymous user]

Hi Richard,

I hope you are doing well. Would you have some time for a call with our Offer Manager? If so, could you message me your contact information and a good time? colton.peltier@schneider-electric.com

Best,

Colton

[daniel_parker_p]

Looking forward to the new ComX firmware, we've had another which sat with the "rebooting" orange light for 2 hours before we gave it a factory reset.

[Anonymous user]

Agreed, we need the release date for this firmware if possible.

Any updates from the Schneider folks  ?

[Anonymous user]

Agreed with all the others, the Com'X boot up and lag time is not acceptable. I'm working on a roll out where several hundered of these will be dotted all over the place and we have to be able to support this. This issue will also be eating into our margins as we can't charge additional time to the client for an eloquently put 'white brick'! I powered up three brand spanking new ones the other day and had to reboot two...

Can Schneider at the very least issue a statement on when the next intended firmware release date will be and/or what is causing this to happen? If this has already been done, please point me in that direction. Colton Peltier​ SANDRA PEDRO​ Lee Jones​ Alan Rees​

Just another thought - is this issue hardware related as opposed to software? e.g. does it have a powerful enough processor....? If it is hardware then big whoops! Let's hope not.

[Anonymous user]

I am very sorry about your frustration with the communication on the Com'x offer. I will do my best to provide a highlevel update now. First I am pleased to share that we have released a new firmware V3.6.3 for the Com’X 210/510 recently. This version has some device corrects and has been completely validated by Facility Advisor team. You can find it on the SE website:

http://www.schneider-electric.com/en/download/document/ComX210v3-6-3_Firmware_EBX210/

http://www.schneider-electric.com/en/download/document/ComX510v3-6-3_Firmware_EBX510/

We are anticipating another firmware release V4.0 to be available by end of July. This release is bringing in more devices and some features such as emailing on events. Between both of these releases the team has addressed several issues brought from the field with eventing, device integration, publishing etc. In the second half of this year the team is working on firmware V5.0 which will focus on boot up time, robust communication and of course continued device integration. It is our understanding that we can improve boot up time in
particular via some targeted firmware effort.

I want you to know that we are listening and trying to action on your requests.

Sandra Pedro

[michael_franz]

TEAM:

Our Com'X can take some time to reboot.  For us it is not a serious issue since it is in our building and things in the power world typically happen slowly.  For field technicians with limited time and a long way from home there may be some concerns.

Overall it is a good product within its intended use.

Michael

[Anonymous user]

Yep, this is a pretty serious issue.

I waited 2 1/2 hours on site before deciding to reset to factory settings and set the whole thing up.... again. At the time I was testing a custom model that took me nearly half a day to set up properly and the custom model had to be reconfigured after the reset, this time not a half day, but still. The Com'X also only had 4 devices configured at the time, so it's not as if it was max'd out. After the hard reset and reconfig, I had a 3hr drive home and got in bed at 2am...

Also, not so long ago, I had to do a handover/witness test to a major client for 3 Com'Xs. We all stood there thumb twiddling for 20mins. Not good when big players and consultants see this happening. Eyebrows were raised and I did not have an answer when asked why.

Any ideas on what is causing this? Any updates? The project I am currently working on will end up with hundreds of Com'Xs dotted around the country and I am seriously considering saying that we cannot support this product until this is dealt with, so please come up with something.

Overall, it's a good product and does what it says on the box, except for this issue.

[michael_franz]

We did have to wait over two hours for a single reboot after applying a custom model.  For field people trying to

get it done this could be an issue.  Whenever possible we do this kind of work in our lab SandBox before going

to a customer's site.

Two advantages to this.

1. Not being embarrassed in front of customers
2. Can do something else during boot in office

Since we can't change what it does, we have learned to live with it for now.

Michael

[Anonymous user]

Just wanted to add that we are experiencing a lot of pain with similar issues.  I was hoping that the upgrade to V3.6.3 would resolve some of the boot time issues but it does not seem to be improved.

I think I might have the record though with a Com'X taking 5 hours to reboot 🙂

[Anonymous user]

Sandra, hi, any news on V4.0/5.0 of the firmware ?

[Anonymous user]

Hi Richard,

We were asked to include additional scope in our 4.0 release to support Schneider cloud applications. v4.0 is due to be released publicly in September 2017.

Best Regards,

Colton

[Anonymous user]

Colton, thanks, so still no news on a definitive fix for the boot time issue ?

[michael_franz]

Maybe a record for sure.

[Bojan]

Based on my experience with Com'X Data loggers and the fact that Com'X210 has no issues with the long boot up time like Com'X510, my conclusion is that the Web Server implementation in Com'X510 is causing the issue, as this is the only main difference between them. Any taught? Has anyone from Firmware Development group tried to reproduce the issue on the returned devices in a development environment?

[michael_franz]

Maybe it is the 510 web stuff.  Went for power and do not have a 210 in the lab.  Are the 210 and 510 the same hardware with different firm/software?  Don't know?

Michael

[Anonymous user]

I've had/have major reboot issues with both 510 and 210.

The 200, on the other hand, isn't anywhere near as "laggy" as the others!

[Bojan]

I don't know are the 210and 510 the same hardware, but I have never had a similar issue with 210 boot up time, like with 510, especially one that my colleague Adan Herrera​ and I installed in Nova Scotia and waited for 16 hours to boot up, and finally had to replace it. (Not to mention my trip back to Toronto).

[Bojan]

Hi Brahm,

I definitely think that the issue is something with Com'X510 Web Service - currently, the demo site returns Timeout Error when you are trying to open the Web interface from the browser, but the device is "pingable":

[Anonymous user]

Hi Bojan,

We are currently in the process of moving offices, so the demo unit is currently offline. As we bring up our labs in the new office space, the demo will come back online. I would expect that to be done in the coming weeks.

Best Regards,

Colton

[Bojan]

Hi Colton,

Thank you for the info.

What was a device on the IP that I "pinged"?

Best Regards,

Bojan

[Anonymous user]

Colton, Hi

Just wondering if V4.0 firmware is near release yet ?

Cheers

[Anonymous user]

SANDRA PEDRO​ Colton Peltier​

Hi guys, sorry to chase this one but the Com'X 510 is something we really want to use a lot more of but we really don't feel comfortable offering it at the moment without seeing a vast improvement in speed, any chance of an update ?

Cheers

[Anonymous user]

Hello ?

[Anonymous user]

Hi Richard,

Our version 4 will be released soon with many new features. We agree that performance needs to be a focus for the ComX, so Version 5 is on the roadmap to include performance boosts.

Best,

Colton

[Anonymous user]

Colton, Hi

So V4.0 still may potentially have the same boot lag that many of us on this thread are experiencing ?

[Bojan]

Hi Colton,

What about backward compatibility? I noticed that different firmware versions have different XML schemas, so Custom Library Export can't be sused be used between them. What is an upgrade strategy anyway? It's very importatant to us, as we have a remote site with over 50 ComX510 with framework versions ranging from 1.0 to 3.6.3 and each upgrade could be very costly.

Pleas advise.

[Anonymous user]

1h30 later and the box is still starting. I was kinda hoping to go home soon, considering a 2h30 drive home awaits me 🙂 

A new firmware release addressing startup time is very much needed if guys like me have to continue supporting the product. Eventually we’ll get fed up and go elsewhere!

Bojan Kriznar very relevant question!! The answer will be most interesting.

[Anonymous user]

You have more perseverance than me, we stopped offering it a while back.

Exploring other options as we speak.

[Anonymous user]

Hi Bojan,

Can you be more specific as to which versions had different XML schemas? All custom models on the ComX510 should be upgradeable between versions.

Best,

Colton

[Anonymous user]

Hi Brahm,

I'm really sorry to hear that the Com'X is taking this long to power on. At 1h30m I'd guess something else is wrong with the unit, outside of the slow boot performance. If you're still experiencing this issue with this Com'X would you be willing to open a support case so we could help out?

Best Regards,

Colton

[Bojan]

Hi Colton,

For example, Adan Herrera​ forwarded the following custom library model (left) to Technical Support Case ID: 43510977 and received an answer back that he custom model on the customer's Com'X has undergone a few changes (and an import). They attached a new custom model file, which apparently works on their system, and the only difference is xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" element in the XML header and Id =1 instead of Id=6

Why would the forwarded custom model work, and the old one not?

Best Regards,

[Anonymous user]

Thank you for providing this information, Bojan. I'll get you more information on this as soon as I can. The engineer who worked on this case is on vacation for the holidays until next Monday, when she returns I will sync with her and get you an explanation on the root cause.

Best Regards,

Colton

[Bojan]

Thank you. It's very important for us to understand and confirm the fix before deploy it, as we have no room for mistake on the remote 50 x ComX510 site.

Best Regards,

Bojan

[Bojan]

Hi Colton,

Can you also investigate why do we see a different real-time values from PME 8.2 MDI and ComX510 MODBUS RTU device for the same Modbus register?

[Hal_Etheridge]

The 8.2 MDI device driver and the ComX are not reading the modbus register at the same time and thus they will get different values.  How different they will be depends on how far apart in time the readings are and how fast the value is changing on the modbus slave device.

For the MDI the poll period for these registers can be controlled via the HighSpeed period in the device driver advanced settings.  Not sure how the ComX decides when it needs to read the register.

In general, if you need accurate interval measurements then using on board logging is the way to go.  SW logging in either the PME device driver or in the ComX will generally give "reasonably" close, but not perfect, interval values.