Annex Reliability

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EasyRider
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Annex Reliability

Post by EasyRider »

I have started looking at Annex more seriously for extensive "Home Automation" control system.
Annex has numerous practically attractive functionality that All other ESP platforms lack, great achievement and huge thanks to the developer.

However, I would like to ask experienced users for their opinion regarding long term reliability for similar applications.
This relates to reliable uptime of both ESp8266 and ESP32 without crashing, memory leaks, etc. I know that lot of this relative to the application software.
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Electroguard
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Re: Annex Reliability

Post by Electroguard »

I have many Annex devices which run 24/7 continuously, both ESP8266 and ESP32, and I find Annex to be very stable.
Continuous browser connections are the problem, cos things like websockets, browser caches, javascript threads etc, can get clogged up and fail.
I think of it like winding up a rubber-band aeroplane... there is a limit to how long you can keep twisting it before it will snap.
Therefore I don't keep browser connection to my devices, but re-connect to them on an as-needed basis, then disconnect again after.
I don't need an overall control panel because I use a drop-down dock bar with quick access icons to launch all my main devices in a secondary web browser, which keeps them separate from my internet browsing.

My Sentry alarm keeps sensor event trigger locations plus time/date info in a text log, causing available memory to decrease as the text grows, therefore I periodically clear the log, which recovers the available memory without loss or leakage. I'm still using the version Annex32 WiFi 1.38 beta RC5 which I developed it on probably 4 or 5 years ago, and although it has a reboot button in its web control page, it doesn't suffer memory leakage so I don't need to bother rebooting it.

I have 2 Sonoff B1 colour-changing lamps which provide continuous slow colour changing combinations to backlight the wall behind my monitor, and they just keep on going forever. I reboot my Central Heating controller nightly, but only for the peace of mind, not cos it needs it.

I have a Sonoff S20 which reboots itself nightly to control my CCTV Gate Cam and keep the auto-tracking position re-calibrated to its home position.

Speaking from my own experiences, memory leaks are usually caused by my own bad programming, such as forgetting to reset variables etc, particularly when keep sending lots of info to the browser... and of course disconnecting and re-connecting to the browser when needed starts it with a clean slate.

Once ironing out all the bugs in a program I have never had a program hang no matter how long it has been left unattended, but what can happen is that the device might no longer accept browser connections even though it is is still working locally ok. You could monitor for available free mem and trigger a reboot when dropping below a preset threshold, but a simple solution is just to schedule the device to reboot itself nightly during the early hours.

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rmsta
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Re: Annex Reliability

Post by rmsta »

Hi,
have an esp8266 NodeMcu with some peripherals (ADS1115, BME280, SIM800) for battery monitoring and control running in my RV. Meanwhile there is a continous operation 24/7 for approx 14 months without any known reboot or interruption. Annex is Ver 1.39. I am always very inspired when monitoring the data via Thingspeak. Thanks to ciccocb for his great work !
Regards Rainer
EasyRider
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Re: Annex Reliability

Post by EasyRider »

Thank You,

That is exactly the type of user experience information that I was looking for.

Best Regards
Easy
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