Guy Lavoie

In a large lot of devices that I bought last year, I got two of these, IRlinc Transmitter. I did some searching and found the discussions below on the forum, from 2017. The two units that I have are also release 4A. Now here's the interesting part: The guy I got them from (and a bunch of other Insteon devices) had a ISY994i, and he told me that these IR transmitters worked with it. The sticky tape on the ends of the emitters has been torn away, so these have clearly been used. Yet the discussions I see, including the discussion below, say that they need firmware 1.3 to work (with the ISY994i at the time). I'm trying it out on a test Polisy. I can link the module just fine, using either link method, and learning a IR command seems to go through ok, but the device nodes never appear. Seeing that the discussion from 2017 includes a few still active members here ( @Brian H and @larryllix ) , I thought I'd ask whatever became of it? Even more tantalizing is that @Chris Jahn and @stusviews say they got it working with v4A, though that was with a ISY994i. But all the prompts are there and look the same, even in 6.0.4 on the Polisy.

Yup, this has become an expensive sport.

You mean emails sent by your programs? Working fine here. I'm using the default email settings (using UDI's mail server).

I was just browsing the aartech site (official distributor for UDI products in Canada). The price really shot up with the new eisy r2. It's $589 in Canadian dollars. Ouch.

I was just experimenting a bit more with the Ping plugin. You can use it to make a graduated approach, to find out where your IP chain seems to be broken and take appropriate action. Ping the loopback address (127.0.0.1), and reboot the eisy if needed. Ping the router, restart if needed. If possible ping the modem's public address and restart that if needed. Ping outside destinations, both specific needed ones and general sites, to distinguish if it's the internet of a specific destination. Looks like there are many possibilities.

Just to add more detail, a failed ping will give a "In Fault", but 5 missed pings will then change the status to "Off Network". This can help avoid temporary hiccups. You could ping both a common site like the cnn site I tested with, and a site you depend on, such as the portal, and determine (using an "And" condition) if it's just the portal that's down, or your actual internet access. I'd increase the poll interval to something like every 10 minutes.

I have a suggestion for that: there is a free plugin called Ping, which does exactly what you need. You define a device name, and a URL to ping (you can define several). It pings it every ShortPoll time (default every 60 seconds). The status of the device will either be "On Network" or "In Fault". I just tested it with www.cnn.com as an address that should respond, and a jibberish url to get a fault response. Works great.

Because that will open polyglot instead... 😄

I always "save" the list of controllers in IoX finder. Then whenever a java update or whatever causes something to go missing, I reload the IoX file I saved earlier, and I'm back in business. I also list the controllers by IP address, not by name. Also (in regards to the discussion above about multicast DNS), what happens if you have two or more eisys on your network? They can't both be eisy.local.

I did things the old fashioned way, adding my controllers to my PC's local hosts file. There is never any confusion as to which one is eisy, polisy, polisy2

Yes, that's exactly what I do too. One button for the ground floor, another one for the basement. I actually have two programs: one that turns on the button if any light is on (or, or, or), and a second program that turns it off if they're all off (and, and, and).

I don't see a way to sort them in any other way than in alphabetical (ASCII) order in the main list. You can arrange favorites in any way you like. You can decide to hide nodes, and unhide them from a menu option.

Yes, UD Mobile supports turning devices on and off, etc. You can also create a "favorites" folder for the most often used ones. You can view and edit variable values. There is some limited program editing supported. You can have devices display different icons and colors based on status. You can set up geofencing, to trigger commands or set variables based on entering or leaving defined geographical areas. You can add devices of all types (Insteon, zwave, zigbee, Matter) to your controller. You can access your controller through local network and also remotely if you have a portal subscription.

I have a program that watches the status of the light(s) in question, and have the program turn on the KPL appropriate LED.

Maybe they meant editing variables, vs displaying them. One can hope they'll add them, the dashboard being a new feature. The best suggestions come from actual users 🙂

Thing is, eisy-ui only displays nodes.Variables aren't nodes. It would be a nice addition to eisy-ui if it could display individual veriables on the dashboard (hint hint UDI...). Just the variable name and the value.

Virtual offers several types of virtual devices, but "virtual variable" isn't among them. The closest thing might be a dimmer, where you can see the On level. But that limits you to a range of 0 to 100 which may or may not suit your purpose. To create one, add a custom parameter with the desired node number as the key, and a value of "dimmer". Save your changes, and exit end log back into admin console. Have a program set the On Level to the value of the variable you want to see.

That illustrates the benefit of the Insteon peer to peer commands through links. Otherwise the eisy has to receive a command, process it, and issue another command to the device. So scenes are always preferable for this reason.

I think he means by holding in the reset button. So it needs to be held in continuously for some 11 or 12 seconds, until the LED sequence appears as described. I've reset a few ISY99i units that way.

With the isy994i, you can still download and install older versions, "downgrading" if needed. Just make sure you have backups before installing new versions. With newer devices like the eisy, older versions aren't necessarily available. That's why I personally back up the entire contents of the SSD (unix and all) before any major updates.

Rest assured, none of the Insteon administration features have been removed.

Another thing is that the preconfigured SSD isn't available to us here in Canada (UDI doesn't ship to Canada, and their distributor here doesn't carry it) so we're grateful for the DIY option of flashing the SSD. But even if I had the choice, I'd still prefer flashing it myself. It makes any future recovery readily available. Another benefit is that once we upgrade our system and it's working well, we can then take the SSD out again and create our own recovery image file, as an ultimate backup.

Looks like you'll need to take out the SSD and reflash it. That's what I've done. You can obtain either a new ready to go flash drive for it from UDI, or get a recovery image file and reflash it yourself. I bought an inexpensive mSata to USB adapter from amazon to do this. https://www.amazon.ca/Adapter-Portable-Transfer-Backups-Transmission/dp/B0FCC3T7XY/ref=sr_1_26?crid=J4R6E3OY4OCN&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.38zq3IsIBN1-mu64sSndwPiAnCkdc2zoPE_xVqJZeY8ci7yg3pfUey05P_ypb7OZwyt_NUnyKzxta9zwa6OVLif9MVEXcXBLzMaMUlens9-_U5h9ox_g6_UU8IFFAgGMHrQ0-nujUHjAiebTNhAIk8VfLWybk5Ikc18kZtOaxAcnps5MND6mGxXNQbGNUkp98cOkMlKXeCsGXE-ziz-lieboPtWFqH953BGbCQQLd3GXimBNoLkfJ5lCgf_dzkdLJIhdNebglXK27J_z_FRfpUnkM0W9ceRn607cWbB-yBw.3EpO_kxRmJkzE0EQzQcpwYfMZrVwyJDU1fsHiLccLYU&dib_tag=se&keywords=eluteng+usb+to+msata+eluteng&qid=1768681721&sprefix=eluteng+usb+to+msata+eluteng%2Caps%2C98&sr=8-26 new SSD from UDI: Universal DevicesPolisy OS SSDUpdate your Polisy to the latest OS and software effortlessly! Just swap in this upgraded internal SSD, restore your backup, and you’re all set: quick, easy, and hassle-free.

I always do them from admin console, but either method should be equivalent.

You might have Alexa+. You could ask her to cancel that and go back to the regular one. Alexa+ is known to cause issues with automation.