gatchel

Thanks guys. It was not my meter but PECO acknowledged it is their issue as a surge event occurred in a bunch of the houses around me too both last night and other times in the past few months. They are currently working to resolve the issue and suggested that I refrain from replacing any more Insteon switches until they do so. Once this is all settled I absolutely plan to go over all of my electronics and appliances before submitting my claim to PECO which they told me will be approved due to the nature of the issue. Whew... makes me feel better that my and Bob's work wasn't to blame. I had a hunch that it wasn't an internal problem after last night but hearing it from the lineman was gratifying. Makes me hungry to learn more about this stuff. No wonder it fascinated Bob so. It's kinda weird that problems with our house are kinda bringing me closer to him. Alright... enough mushy stuff. Thanks again. Oh... and Techman... I have a circuit tester. Or should I say Bob has a circuit tester and meters, and other doo dads that I know nothing about. For now anyway. Something to work on. -Leslie

Ah... the things I am learning. Apparently surge supression is useless if you have an open ground as they use ground to move the surge away. FML.

So after losing a few more devices I am being told that I may have a loose ground and my power company is dispatching emergency. I wish I knew more about this. Wouldn't my Ditek have protected me from loose ground issues? The green indicator light is on damn it. Ugh. I also have an electrician coming tommorow cause I only know enough about the panel to get myself in trouble. Tonight all of the lights got super bright then bam... 3 more Insteon controls went bye bye. One was even plugged into a surge supressor strip. A good one at that. Bob didn't mess around with this stuff. All of this is tracing back to when PECO replaced my meter in October. I already had a smart meter but apparently it wasn't smart enough. Gosh I hope that ends up being the solution. I am getting tired of this and it scares me that I have a potentially dangerous situation on my hands. Ugh again.

I have a whole house supressor. I don't know much about it but I know it's down there. It's a Ditek 120/ 240.

Just an update in case any of you were wondering... I had to replace (3) Togglelinc switches and (2) Switchlinc switches due to the power issues I had last month. They just died. I wasn't even able to factory reset. Basically everything on a particular breaker went bye bye. Of course it had to be the breaker for most my outdoor lighting. Because now that it gets dark early why on Earth would I want the outside lights to work? Ugh. I did call Insteon and they had me ship back one of each switch so maybe I'll get an answer as to what happened. In the meantime, I have been study, study, studying and practicing and am starting to feel like I am getting closer to controlling my ISY instead of my ISY controlling me. Thank you all once again for all of the support and suggestions.

They have been working on the power in my neighborhood. This breaker trip is the 1st one we've ever had in this house and we've lived there 12 years. The restaurant down the street lost all of their computers. IDK why they wouldn't have protected them but whatever. I am in keypad hell right now but really... I don't care because in an hour I'm leaving for Aruba. It'll be here when I get back right? Thanks again all.

I can control the light from the switchlinc and a number of my scenes work but some of the keypad buttons aren't responding. Some are though. Something else I have to work through I guess.

Alright... I replaced the switch/ dimmer and the breaker stopped tripping. I have repaired almost all of the functions but am having a smidge of trouble getting the keypads to respond. I am feeling awfully proud and appreciative of all your help. Hopefully I'll get the keypads sorted out soon and be back to 100%. Then... drink time.

It seems that the device is dead. No pulling or pushing of the tab has yielded any results. I do have a replacement in stock. Perhaps I will try to install it. Wish me luck and thanks again for all of your assistance.

Thank you Stu. Proper terminology lessons are obviously much needed here. So the switchlinc seems to be hating life right now. I pulled the tab and it doesn't seem to work at the switch or at the ISY at this point.

So the light goes to a switch linc dimmer v 27. I'm getting the manual now so I can re establish the link. Woo hoo.

Awwww shoot... I think I just figured it out. Stand by...

I see that there is a "restore devices" option in the menu but it scares me quite frankly. Right now only one thing isn't working a day before I'm leaving the country. I don't really want to make more issues but it sucks that my housesitters won't have a light in the driveway. Ugh. These are the days I really, really miss my husband.

Forgive my ignorance but if the device is linked then how do I get ISY to recognize it again now that power has been restored. When I had issues before it seems like I had to put the controller/ device into a learning mode (I'm sure not the proper term) so that I could reestablish the broken link.

I am not aware of a switch per se. Just the Smarthome controllers.

Hi all. This is Mrs. Gatchel. Since Bob passed 6 months ago I've been slowly but surely learning more and more about how to use and manage our ISY. Some of you have helped and for that I am most appreciative. I unfortunately have run into a problem that I am having issues solving and I'd really like to get it fixed by tomorrow as I am about to go away on vacation. Here goes... Today the breaker for my outdoor spot light tripped and now for the life of me I can't get the device re-linked. I think the "controller" for this device lives in the housing of the actual fixture itself. Of course the light is mounted at the top of our house. Before I wrestle the extension ladder out I just wanted to check and see if that sounds right to you guys. Any help is most appreciated. Leslie

Awesome. Thanks! Now that things have settled down a bit I need to put some more effort into this.

Thank you all for the kind words and also the assistance. Powering the switch down seems to have done the trick. I was unfamiliar as to how far to pull the tab and also wasn't 100% sure what would happen when I did. I am sure you all will be hearing from me more going forward as I am in the process of learning the system so that I can control the house and not the other way around.

This is Leslie Gatchel. My husband Bob was a contributor to this website and sadly died unexpectedly on 05/03/14. I am here to ask a question in his absence. One of my main keypads of course stopped working today. It is not lit up or functioning in any way. Of course I know very little about the ISY or it's functionality at this point so I would greatly appreciate some assistance. I know it is a lot to ask but if anyone out there can help me to repair this issue I would be most appreciative. I am in the process of learning this software/ equipment and am honestly not to that point yet. Thank you.

Sort of on topic and sort of off topic.... If anyone is interested in monitoring a garage door position, and you have an Elk M1 along with an ISY, this may be another option for monitoring. http://cocoontech.com/forums/page/artic ... onitor-r46

Without actual facts in front of me, I can only say I have had good luck with both technologies when they are implemented properly as far as range is concerned.

Insteon will probably be the best option right now since insteon uses wireless and powerline to communicate. But, as I said, I would begin my Z-wave build out now. That way when you want to add more devices you will already have other devices to act as repeaters if needed. Just my $0.02. Insteon wireless devices do nothing for z-wave range. Since Z-wave is still technically in beta, and if you are looking for a better chance of having perfect results, then go with insteon. Z-wave would be more of an investment right now.

Crawlspace...Is it moist under there? I would use the Outdoor Z-wave (GE 45604) device for two reasons. 1. It's hardened for environments that are "not indoors" 2. It's not an Insteon device. Edit: What is the distance from your ISY to the crawlspace area? If it is close to the range limit you might want to have another z-wave device in between to help with the signal. If you plan on adding more z-wave it will only benefit you in the future.

+1 for keeping DDNS out of the ISY. There is no need to duplicate efforts and waste developer time on this when there are lots of other options, a good few of which are free.

This is where I have to disagree. I would much rather have an average interface and have better than average performance or capabilities. Something that looks good and does very little is useless. Anyway, if UDI does migrate to a newer interface or "Skin" I would vote to have a classic view option. Then again I mostly use the Admin console and not much else...