MarkJames

Well, I'm sorry to say Michel that all is not flawless. I've installed 2.7.10 hard reset the kpl in question - 2486 v5.1 reconfigured it to 6 button operation restored it from ISY ran diagnostics->read device links->compare there are 2 record mismatches and 3 'missing this record' in the kpl It's better than 2.7.9a was but it's not all the way there yet. Any info I can send to help troubleshoot? mark

And using tools -> diagnostics -> read device links on the devices that are turning on/off that shouldn't and then using the compare feature to compare what's there to the ISY record is also helpful. I've found many links that I'd created manually or with other s/w that were still present when I switched to ISY. Once you know if there are some 'extra' links in the device you can hard reset it and then restore it from ISY. mark

If I may add my two bits to the email issue. In my case I had to be particularly careful with my mail server settings. I'm on Shaw in Canada and their mail server - which I assumed would be smtp.shaw.ca was actually gv.vi.shawcable.net. The other thing that is significant is that some ISP's will require a user id/password from within their own network in order to use their SMTP server - in other words you don't have to use their email address for incoming mail - but you have to HAVE an email address with them that you can use to authenticate for their SMTP server to allow you to use it for outgoing mail. For instance - in my case - being on Shaw I don't use their email service - I use gmail. But in order to have ISY send email I opted to just create a shaw email address and use that to authenticate. You can use the gmail SMTP server as well but it requires changing ports and setting up TLS - too much fuss for something so simple. If you're setting up your own static IP make sure you have the settings configured properly. The IP obviously must be right or you wouldn't be able to access your ISY. the subnet mask is usually 255.255.255.0 for most users. THe gateway should be the address of your wrt54gs - usually 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1. The DNS Server is key - as ntp.pool.org won't resolve unless your ISY can find a DNS server. You can usually put in the same port as your gateway here as your router will usually forward DNS requests outside of the internal network to the WAN DNS server it obtained by DHCP. If that doesn't work then simply go to one of your machines that got an IP by DHCP, run the command prompt and type ipconfig/all. It will give you both a primary and secondary DNS server address that was assigned to you by your ISP. You can use the primary DNS server address in the ISY and it should be fine. Anyways - long story short - you MUST fix your DNS issue first. If pool.ntp.org is not working then you have an issue with DNS - after all - pool.ntp.org IS there and there are no other settings required. Not seeing it is an indication that you are not resolving pool.ntp.org to its physical IP address. On the wrt54gs the status screen will tell you the IP of your DNS servers (usually 2 of them). Usually the router will be set up so that DHCP will assign all the correct settings for devices that are configured by them but not necessarily. To make life really simple just set up your ISY like this note the IP it's assigned to unclick automatic (dhcp) put in the IP it already had in the IP address put 255.255.255.0 in the subnet mask put the address of the wrt54gs in the gateway field (192.168.0.1?) put the DNS server address that you got from the status screen of the wrt54gs into the DNS field http port is 80 https port is 443 Once your ntp is working you know your DNS is working and THEN you can work on the potentially more complex issue of your mail - though it'll probably start to work too then. Oh.. and the wrt54gs is a great router but the firmware sucks. Check out the Tomato firmware for it - it's a WORLD better and it's free. http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato Hope this helps, mark

I upgraded to 2.7.10 as you suggested. It does seem to have made a significant difference. I have a couple of record mismatches but the long series of missing links is gone. I'll play with it tomorrow and make sure all is well. As usual, thanks for the absolutely first-rate service! I don't mind bugs in alpha versions one bit when I know the people behind the scenese are working on it to make a good product even better! mark

lol - I love cooking. We came back from Thailand recently and I went straight out and bought a 100,000BTU burner for outdoor use - it sits on my propane tank. That and a plain carbon steel wok. It's amazing the difference it makes having that much heat! Anyways - I confirmed it's not the number of links as I removed that large scene from the device, hard reset it, changed it back to kpl6, and hit restore but I still get all the missing links. I wasn't aware 2.7.10 was available - I'll go look for it. Thank you very much, Mark

Actually, as I was cooking dinner I was wondering if perhaps the problem is that there are simply too many links in this device - that perhaps I'm overflowing it. I have an 'every light in the house off' button on this KPL and that scene alone has 96 links. Could that be part of the problem? mark

Hi, Michel, The firmware is 2.7.9a This is what the links look like. There are quite a number more lines saying 'missing this record' - maybe 50 more. Mark

Sorry for the delayed reply. This is what I did Removed an older kpl6 that was controlled via ISY Replaced it with a 2486dwh8 v5.1 Added it to ISY Manually configured it to be a kpl6 Ran replace from ISY from the old device to the new It didn't work properly Ran diagnostics and compare - many missing links Ran restore Still not working right Ran diagnostics and compare - many missing links Hard reset the switch, put it back to 6 button mode and ran restore Still not working right Ran diagnostics and compare - many missing links I'm not sure which way to go now - try another kpl or manually configure it or remove it from all scenes then add it all back Thanks, Mark

To the best of my knowledge ISY doesn't configure 6 vs 8 - though I expect it will at some point as some other products do. In my case I did manually configure it to the correct number of buttons before doing the replace or the restore.

Well... I'm a bit confused. I have a KPL that was acting up. So I got a new one and used it to replace the old one. The new one is a 2486dwh8 version 5.1 I added the new one as a new insteon device. Then I moved the original device out of its folder (you can't replace a device in anything but the root folder in case you didn't know). Once it was in the root folder I did a replace device with the new one. The first time I tried this it gave me the prompt about the application closing after it was done and I hit OK. Nothing happened, though. I closed and reopened the browser and admin console and did it again. This time it went through the whole routine and supposedly restored the device. I closed my session and browser and restarted. The links are absolutely not correct. Nor is the button toggle mode settings. I did a tools->diagnostic->device links which ran successfully. The compare, however, has a boatload of missing records. I then did a restore device and ran the compare again - same result. I then hard-reset the KPL and ran a restore device followed by a compare - same result yet again. Any idea why I can't get this device to restore properly? Oh.. and while I'm at it, shouldn't the 'restore device' feature restore the button toggle mode and 6 vs 8 button mode - it doesn't seem to? mark

This isn't technically a bug and perhaps you want it this way. If you have a device in a folder and disable it then you can remove it from the folder in which case it will move to the root folder But you can't remove it from ISY when it's disabled. A disabled device cannot be removed - it must be enabled first. This may be by design. I had a device which I removed from a folder and then was able to remove from the root folder. This made the device disappear from the entire left pane though it remained in the right pane 'my lighting' screen. I can't reproduce this behavior, though. mark

hahahaha my personal favorite is the look on her face when yet another box arrives from smarthome!

Actually, OberKc, If you are still using some X-10 I may have some components you might want. I've got a produce box full of x-10 that I've taken out of the house some of which you may find useful. You're welcome to whatever you want - all I ask is that you cover the postage. I have Leviton transmitters model 16400 with four on/off/dim switches, Boosterlincs (not insteon compatible unfortunately but OK at terminal runs for X-10 with no noticeable impact on insteon) Leviton inline dimming modules Leviton inline relay modules X-10 remote controls (the ones with 8 buttons you switch from 1-8/9-16 a few appliance modules a Leviton HCA02 intellisense phase coupler I think I have a couple of 220v switches kicking about... I'm not really sure what's in the box anymore. Anyways - if you want some of it just say so - it's sitting there looking for a good home. I was going to put it on eBay but don't want to mess around selling it piecemeal - it's just not worth the headache boxing it and shipping it.

Not at all.... sorry if I sounded flip. I've just sat there sullenly facing the prospect of 'starting over' so many times now that I'd almost rather speak in public than do it. I started with just x-10 back in the early '90s and got a JDS Stargate when that came available. It's a brilliant controller with a robust programming language but - as you no doubt have found - as you go along with programming your HA it tends to 'get away from you'. I found I was adding bits of code for things I'd added that contradicted the code I'd written for previous devices. Like having the driveway lights turn on when a car comes in and turning them off once you enter the house - but opening the door to the house going out is the same as coming in so when I interfaced with door contacts later and had the lights turn on as I left the house I'd turn the lights on at either end.... I'm sure you've banged your head against the wall with these scenarios too... it's enough to give you a headache. The worst part is that when you try to explain it to your spouse they just kinda smile and nod and hope you'll shut up soon. Anyways - the point being that every year or so I'd have to rewrite the 4000 odd lines of code for the Stargate. Then Insteon came out and I had the Stargate run the insteon through X-10 addressing but that didn't use the full potential of Insteon. So I rewrote the code so that the Stargate could talk to Insteon through an RS-232 interface. This proved to be a lot more than 4000 lines of code and the Stargate memory started getting full. So I made the jump to Houselinc to manage the straightforward non-programmatic stuff. So I entered all my devices into Houselinc and started playing with it. I had a system crash meanwhile and lost all the Houselinc info. So I reentered it all yet again. Then I found that Houselinc is a seriously lackluster product and I quickly abandoned it in favor of Powerhome. So on to Powerhome and reentering all my devices yet again. Well Powerhome is a pretty nice product but it has two big flaws - one is it's not 100% stable so it would crash the PC it was on sometimes leaving the automation system dead and two the programming language is about as cryptic as it gets. Support for it is basically 2 guys in the forum and the logic to it is highly convoluted. The guy who wrote it is very nice and very knowledgeable but he really needs some help as he's rapidly fallihg behind as smarthome evolves. For instance - his linking methods don't allow peeking and poking within a device - so you can't link, say button 8 on a kpl to button 1 on the same KPL. Onwards to ISY. I tried to let ISY spider my links. It ran 2 days after which I named everything only to find it was a big ugly mess. So I reset the PLM and started over again - this time not spidering but erasing links. Finally I'm where I want to be (kinda). Anyways.... again, sorry if I was flip.. it's just that 'starting over' brings back some less-than-fond memories. Doesn't HA just make our lives oh-so-much easier?!?!?!?

lol That made me grin. I have, at this moment.... 5500 sqft in 3 buildings 4 signalincs hardwired into the panels 8 access points 19 keypadlincs 65 switchlincs 9 inlinelincs 8 motion sensors 5 iolincs - 2 of them with photobeams 8 appliancelincs - 3 of them outdoor, the rest indoor Elk M1G with M1XEP interface connected to the ISY 1 serialinc to interface with my Stargate for phone integration and irrigation using legacy X10 1 usb plm (legacy) to interface with powerhome on a standalone PC for HA - this is for TTS primarily and I just ordered 3 of the BK2440 remote controls - 2 for the cars and 5 more motion sensors. 'Starting over' has happened a few times now... I'm realllllly not willing to do it again. It's no big deal anyways... the only time it shows up is if one of the switches needs to be restored and then it doesn't do what I thought it should because the scenes aren't doing it all - some of it is left over from before. You're right, though... when things aren't seeming 'OK' - I simply hard reset the device, restore it from ISY and then confirm that it's all working properly. Since installing the signalincs and the extra ap's everything is pretty solid. Thanks for that... I didn't know that was available. I'm gonna do that today - well worth the time, I think. I only have to do the ones that were 'original'. Some of the insteon has been there for a couple of years while I overlapped with X-10. I've tried to take out all the X-10 responses but I find them once in a while. Those and links I created manually, with powerhome, or with Houselinc as things evolved. Thanks! Mark

hmmm..... That was how I assumed it should be but hasn't been my experience. I'll have to be more careful and see if I'm inadvertently creating both links or if the links are pre-existing. I totally agree with you about making it a three way in that manner being easier. I'm just trying to set up certain scenes where there are multiple responders to a single controller but don't want the relationship reciprocal - like where one kpl turns on 2 lights but I don't want either light switch to turn on or off the kpl - rather I use a programmatic control so that when BOTH of the lights are on the kpl button gets turned on and when BOTH of the lights get turned off the kpl button gets turned off. This was just kinda the way you did things in powerhome - in ISY the 'scene' is everything - not the controller-responder links which are somewhat hidden from the end user. Using scenes certainly makes it more apparent what you're doing and makes it easier to reuse your link tables - it just takes away the nitty-gritty control that I'm used to. Anyways - thanks for your answer - It makes perfect sense that it's like that. It just seemed to me that ISY was automatically creating a responder link in the controller in order to 'complete the n-way'. It's likely that I have some remaining links that are causing the confusion. mark

Hi, Prior to ISY I was manually linking my switches. Then I switched to HouseLinc2, then to PowerHome, and finally to ISY. Just fyi - so far I'm happiest - by a long shot - with ISY. There's an aspect to ISY that I don't understand though and perhaps you could clarify for me. Let's assume I'm linking a KPL to a switchlinc. I can make the KPL control the switchlinc - so the KPL is a controller and the switchlinc is the responder. This will have the effect of the KPL button turning on and off the switchlinc. The switchlinc will seem to 'follow' the LED on the KPL button. If I then turn the switchlinc on or off the KPL button will NOT turn on and off to follow the switchlinc unless I FIRST make the switchlinc a controller of that KPL button. In other words - I must deliberately create the controller - responder relationship both ways. This relationship is true in manual linking and in powerhome software. In ISY, though, the creation of scenes seems to automatically create the '3 way link' - where the KPL LED will follow the switchlinc and the switchlinc will follow the KPL. This is, of course, not true in devices like a motion sensor or iolinc where turning it 'on or off' is meaningless. So how does one create a one-way relationship in ISY - where the KPL button can turn on the switchlinc - but the switchlinc does NOT turn on the KPL button? Thanks, Mark In many cases this is fine - but in some it's not.

ahhh.. doubleclicking the line made it appear again in the left hand pane. I can now replace it. I'd left and right clicked it but not double-clicked. Thanks, Michel.

Unfortunately that's not an option. The switch no longer appears in the lefthand pane where you would normally select it to add it to scenes or replace it or what have you. It only appears in the rightside list when I bring up the my lighting choice - you know, the screen that shows all the devices with state, address, and type in alphabetical order. On that side it shows with an address and type but the state is blank. Somehow it's gotten 'misplaced' mark

I have a switchlinc relay which hasn't been working properly. I think it's defective. I removed it from all the scenes it was a member of and then I removed it from the folder it was in. It now no longer exists in the left pane of the administrative console. It still exists under the 'my lighting' list, though. I don't seem to be able to do anything with it from there. I can't delete it or reenable it or anything and I get errmsgs from the isy saying it can't communicate with it. Any suggestions on how to 'get rid' of it? The firmware is 2.7.9a Thanks, mark

lol... yes - button. For some reason Insteon refers to the buttons on a kpl as groups. Groups 1-8 on an 8 button kpl, and group 1,3,4,5,6,8 on a 6 button kpl. Thanks for the reply! mark

Hi, Just to clarify something... When you do a restore device to a KPL does it matter which group of the KPL you have selected? What I mean is does restore device rewrite the entire database for all groups on the KPL or does it only rewrite the portion related to the group you have selected? Thanks, Mark

Thanks, Michael. I'll check the access point location as you suggest.

Once again - I'm a relatively new user so if this is not a bug forgive my ignorance. I have several motion sensors (2420M) in my installation. They are linked to the ISY. I am getting reports from the ISY that it is 'unable to communicate with the sensor'. I wouldn't expect it to be able to communicate unless the sensor is in linking mode. Is this normal behavior? Mark

[edited] - changed my mind but couldn't delete the post