Owner's Manual (Complete)

Chapter 16—Troubleshooter
6 The Home Control Assistant
 The historical log file is stored in a comma separated format and can be loaded into
spreadsheet and/or database programs. HCA opens the historical log file only at
midnight so you can almost always access it with other programs (for example, Microsoft
Excel or Microsoft Access) in order to view its contents.
Log Setup
Before discussing how to view the contents of the log, the first steps are to establish where the log
files reside, what information is placed in them, and how big the files can become.
These choices are made in the Troubleshooter Log Setup tab. This tab appears as:
The first option in this tab, Turn logging on, controls whether or not logging takes place at all.
Until this option is checked, nothing is placed in the log, regardless of the other settings in this tab.
Where to store the log
Once you’ve decided that you want to log HCA activities, you need to provide the path of where
the log files are to be placed. Use the Browse button to locate and specify the directory to use and
the file name for each file.
What to do with log entries
Associated with both log files are separate retain values. The operation of these two files and their
retain values is as follows.
 At midnight of each day the number of entries contained in the current log file is compared to
its retain setting. If there are fewer log entries than the setting, nothing more is done.
 If there are more entries than the retain setting, the oldest log entries are moved from the
current log file to the end of the historical log file. The number of entries moved is the
number necessary to bring the entry count of the current log file down to the retain setting. If
there is no historical log file, the excess log entries are simply deleted.
Once the current log file has been pared down to its retain value, the same operation is performed
on the historical log to reduce it, if necessary, to the number of entries in its retain value. Any
excess entries removed are simply deleted.
HCA can operate without an historical log file. Without an historical log file, only those entries in
the current log will be retained and only up to the limit specified in the “retain” value.
What to log