mozman

Brian H, I do "Show Device Links" and "Compare" a lot, and I see this behavior all the time (on any device with about 30 or more links). As they now say, "Welcome to my world." With many thanks, Moz

Michel, The "Extra Records" indications are not occurring because of fragmentation. These erroneous indications occur even after Restoring Device, and when I verify by (tedious!) manual inspection that the link table is fine. The Extra Record indications, when they occur, are always for a group of records at the end of the link table (but still before the end of file record beginning with "00"). Furthermore, the exact starting point of the incorrect Extra Record indications sometimes changes if I immediately hit the Compare button again. I have noticed that the bogus Extra Record shows up only on devices with many links (> 30?). I saved screen shots of the Device Links Table window, one of which shows Identical for all records, and one of which shows Extra Record for the last 40 or so records. All I did was re-hit the Compare button. I don't know how to post GIF images to this forum; if you would like to see them, let me know (how to post here or if I should email them to you. Finally, as for the reason for random bad links, I think they are caused by communication errors. My Insteon communication reliability is > 99%, but not > 99.99%, so with several thousand links in all of the KPLs around the house, a few are incorrect. FYI, I saw nothing in the event viewer window which indicated a problem during the Restore Device - I saw the expected "Device xx.xx.xx Restored" message at the end of the restore.

Is there anyway to have the ISY restore just a single link in a device? I have a device with 94 links (KPL). It was not functioning correctly, so I used the Tools/Diagnostics/Show Device Links command to verify its link table. Sure enough, there were a few bad links. (I re-tried the command polling just these addresses to make sure the problem was not caused by a bad read of the device links.) Since I had link errors, I used "Restore Device" to restore the links. Just to be sure, I used Tools/Diagnostics/Show Device Links again to verify that all the links were correct, but now just a single solitary link was bad. Is there any option but to have the ISY crank for another 15 minutes rewriting the entire set of 94 links? BTW, I use the "Compare" button on the Device Links Table (created by the Show Device Links command). "Compare" seems to have a bug in it - it often lists many of the Device Links as "Extra Record", even though the links are valid and correct. All of the incorrectly categorized links are at the end of the table, although the address at which they begin sometimes varies when I re-hit the "Compare" button. With many thanks, Moz

Michel, As usual, thank you for your kind offer to try to recover my previous file structure. However, I am well on my way to recreating the work I lost. (As you may have experienced, it takes less time to recreate your work (esp. if the work was recently done) than it took to do it the first time.) Also, I was able to recover all of my recent program changes by copying the folder CONF\D2D from my faulty SD card to the replacement SD card. (Although devices and scenes created since the last backup were now listed as 'not specified', I could easily tell from the context what the correct device/scene should be.) One other data item for you to ponder - I had an admin console open when the power went out. Although the computer running the console was on a battery backup and therefore continued to operate, the PLM lost power immediately (since I can't have the PLM on a battery backup). My hypothesis is that some of the files on the SD card were open at the time the power was lost - there were several file fragments on the SD card when I examined it. This would also explain why there was no corruption in the D2D folder - I was not modifying any programs at the time of the power loss. Although the PLM cannot be put on a battery backup, an external power supply for the ISY certainly could be. Would this protect against the voltage surge the PLM might create in a power loss situation? (I.e., does the use of an external power supply disconnect the power feed from the PLM?) In any case, a external power supply for the ISY seems like a no-brainer must-do. As for deciding when to backup, couldn't you set a flag in the ISY whenever a program is changed or a change to the link database is made? Then, at 4 AM, the ISY checks the status of this flag, and if set, the ISY does the backup (both a direct file backup to a secondary location on the SD card and a regular zipped backup to a user prespecified folder). With many thanks, Moz

The power went out in our house today, and when it came back on, my ISY was dead, with the same symptoms - blinking red error light, unresolved by power cycling. From what I have read on this and other threads, this seems to be a corrupt file structure problem on the SD Card. Luckily, I had another ISY unit that I was about to return to SmartHome. (I did an RMA for an issue that resolved itself before the replacement unit arrived.) So, I was able to use the SD card from that unit to boot my unit. Unfortunately, although I had been backing up my ISY configuration regularly (sometimes several times a day) when I first began to configure my network to the ISY unit, my last backup was almost a week old. (I'm about 90% of the way porting my network into the ISY.) So, I now have to redo all the configuration work I had done in the last week - frustrating. Michel, From what I have read, this is an uncommon, but not a rare problem. Therefore, I strongly recommend that you upgrade the backup features of the ISY. Specifically, I think you should store a second copy (or more) of the data structure on the SD card. (I have a large setup, and my files total only 4MB.) It may be too much of a performance cost to keep a mirror copy in realtime, but what about writing a duplicate copy at 4 AM every day? (Perhaps keeping the last few copies as extra insurance.) Then, if there is a problem with the file structure on bootup, the ISY should revert to a previous backup copy (and alert the user next time the admin console is launched). Additionally, I would like an option to Auto-Backup the ISY everyday, preferably only on days where some change is made (to the network or programs), and with the option to keep a fixed number of backups (with the oldest being deleted when new backups are written). With many thanks, Moz

Jeff, You could create a program such as the following, and name it "No School". If On Sat, Sun From 12:00:01PM For 23 hours and 58 minutes Or From 12:00:01PM on 2009/10/12 For 23 hours and 58 minutes Or From 12:00:01PM on 2009/11/11 For 23 hours and 58 minutes Or From 12:00:01PM on 2009/12/21 For 335 hours and 58 minutes Then - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action') Else - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action') BTW, I start the No School status at 12:01 AM and end it at 11:59 PM. My guess is that you could start it at midnight sharp with a duration of 24 hours, but I've seen things hiccup when the trigger time is precisely midnight (on other timer programs, not ISY, but I haven't really tested ISY on this). There are no actions in this program, but the status of the program will be true on Saturdays and Sundays, on 10/12/09 and 11/11/09 (Columbus and Veteran's Days), and two weeks for winter break; otherwise (i.e., school days), the program status will be false. We can then use this status in other programs. If you want something to happen (say an X-10 signal to a chime on H6) at 7:30 AM only on school days, you would use the following program: If Time is 7:30:00AM And Program 'No School' is False Then Send X10 'H6/On (3)' Else - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action') Hope that helps. Moz

I just learned something by reading another post on this subject. (I could have just read Michel's post right here a little more carefully. I thought he was pointing out that you can uncheck the "All" button to get individual day of the week flexibility. Sorry - it's too late in the day for me....) You can use an actual calendar to schedule events on specific days. In the schedule option for a program if clause, if you check "All" and uncheck "Daily", you can pick a specific date for the action. So, I can load each school holiday into a program (linked by "or") and use it to turn off my school day status KPL button automatically. (Alternatively, this could be part of the if clause for the program folder with the school day programs.)

Jeff, If you are looking for the ability to set up a full calendar (with the bus chime ringing most, but not all Mon- Fri), the basic programming for the ISY does not quite accomplish this. [WRONG- my bad. See next post.] I dealt with this issue (wanting to have certain programs run only on school days, not just every Mon-Fri) by installing an eight button Keypad which doesn't directly control anything, but whose buttons are used to indicate various house statuses. For example, one indicates a school day. If this button is lit, then certain programs run on that day. I have a program that sets this button on each Mon-Fri, but I can simply press the button to turn it off for school holidays. (Actually, the button turns on every Sun-Thurs evening at 8 PM to indicate that the following day is a school day, and I turn it off manually the night before a school holiday.) Another button is used to indicate that we are away on vacation. Another is used to indicate a party, so that my Entire House Lights Off Program runs later than usual. Etc. Hope this helps your decision making.

I haven't yet received my replacement ISY-99i PRO from SH, but I decided to let the existing ISY spider my network overnight. (I used "Add new INSTEON device" with the "Add linked devices and preserve existing links" option, and selected a device that I knew would lead the ISY to about 40% of the house network.) When I checked out its progress in the morning, I noticed that the incidence of SocketTimeoutExceptions was much reduced. So, I continued to add more devices and rename scenes and generally set up my network on the ISY. Sure enough, SocketTimeoutExceptions continued to decline as the network got bigger. They have not gone completely away (and occasionally the admin console just completely shuts down and vanishes), but I only get these maybe once every two hours of using the admin console. Weird, huh? Seems like my ISY, like INSTEON networks, gets more robust with more devices.

First, I presume that you have NOT linked the motion detector directly to your entry light (KPL), but are using the ISY to effect the desired light changes. (Otherwise, the motion detector will normally send an OFF command after a certain period of no motion.) I think your code will have the following issue: Say you turn the entry light on manually. Later, when the motion detector senses motion, the Door Motion program runs, even though it doesn't do anything (the If clause is false since one of the lights is on). Nevertheless, this updates the Last Run Time for this program, which will then cause the Door Timeout program to run in 5 minutes, turning off the Entry light. However, this can be fixed pretty easily. Even though the Door Motion program ran, its Status will be False (the If clause evaluated to false). So, just add another And Condition to your Door Timeout If clause: And Program Door Motion Is True. This will cause Door Timeout to run only if the Door Motion program actually turned on the entry light. BTW, as you have it set up, if the porch light is on, the motion detector will do nothing.

I am in the process of setting up all the links to my devices and KPLs (can't wait to get to programming!), and I'm look for ways to speed up the process. Each time I create a scene and add a bunch of devices to it, the admin console pretty much becomes unresponsive while it writes all of the links to the network devices. I have another computer, so I opened up a second admin console on that computer. I waited until the first console was quiet, and changed the name of a device on the second console. Sure enough, the change was immediately reflected on the first console. So, is it OK to use 2 admin consoles at the same time? (With the usual precautions - backup your work frequently, and don't work on the same devices at the same time.) This could be a great time saver.

FWIW, I have always seen the same issue - you can't have the load button on a KPL be part of a mutually exclusive group. I have just started using the ISY, and haven't tried to set mutually exclusive using ISY; rather, my experience comes from using HouseLinc2 to set up mutually exclusive groups. (I have never taken the time to try to set up mutually exclusive buttons with tap-tap programming, so I can't say if that would work.) My work around was to write an event that set the load off on the KPL (which I was using solely for scenes) whenever any of the other buttons in the mutually exclusive group were pressed.

Michel, Thanks for considering my issue. I will be calling tech support tomorrow. Given that the SocketTimeouts occur even when doing things that don't seem to involve the PLM (changing the time in a program If clause, renaming a device, creating a folder for devices, saving program changes....), I think explanation 1 is unlikely. I am on a fully wired network, with each computer wired, including one with firewall disabled, so nix 2, 3, and 4 as well. Seems like I have a bad ISY unit....

I am using the basic Windows XP Firewall. Turning the firewall off has no effect on this problem, I still get "Socket Open Fail java.net.SocketTimeoutException" errors about every 2nd or 3rd action I take in the admin console. The ISY seems to reboot itself now after each crash (I don't have to power cycle it), but this still takes about 5-10 minutes. I have over 150 devices to add - I was willing to spend a day getting them loaded, but not several weeks!

ISY still crashing repeatedly. I power cycle the device, which does seem to restore it to life, but at cost of 2 minutes (boot up) each crash. Although I am salivating over the wonderful power and flexibility of the ISY programming, my first impression is that the error trapping and recovery of the ISY is pretty rusty, esp. considering that the device has to work with INSTEON devices (where failure is a constant that has to be expected). I first thought the crashes only occurred when reading/writing links/status to INSTEON devices (possibly pointing to a problem with the PLM), but I've started to write programs for the ISY, and I have crashed the admin console by simply trying to save a one line change to a program. [The error message was "Socket Open Fail java.net.SocketTimeoutException".] Is it possible I have a bad ISY-99 unit?