jrainey

Update ... I did some checking and decided to purchase the Eufy E340. It is currently available on Amazon (Canada) at 30% discount (CA$ 159.95), a black Friday deal. -dual camera - sees faces and doorstep -battery or wired. -motion activated LEDs for color image at night.

Looking into this myself. I checked out Eufy, and chatted with their support (bot?). Their Dual model has 8gig of memory on board, able to store 'events'. They also have a hub they call a HomeBase which has 16 gig of memory. The HomeBase integrates multiple Eufy devices. They estimate that the system with HomBase can record about 2 months worth of events, nosubscription required. Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be any capability to record continuous video, as my Nest Hello does with the subscription service. The reason I am looking into this is Nest has upped the price of their subscription service by about 300%.

Thanks Peter, I feel the same, especially given that my existing devices are dual power.

Thanks Peter, I will check it out. The features of the Nest Protect that interest me are the voice messaging, co detection and emergency lighting. Haven't seen these features together yet in my so far cursory searching. I installed the Kidde detectors about nine years ago. I was disappointed at the time that I was unable to find any models by Kidde or first alert that had either z-wave or Zigbee comms. Hopefully, this capability has been added. Thanks Jack

Thank you for your response. I am not so much interested in matter itself, but I do find the thread protocol very interesting. It appears to me that it is (will be?) very robust and responsive, even more so then either Z-wave or Zigbee. Also, given the support that many major companies have announced for it (and Matter) I believe that a lot of devices will be coming on the market in the future. The reason for the questions is that I am sort of at a crossroads here. I have experienced a number of failures of Insteon devices, and will be looking to replace them. So I am wondering if I should replace them with Insteon, Z-wave (i already have a robust Z-wave installation) try out Zigbee, or go into Thread. I also ask because I love to tinker. What got me started on this particular line of thought is that I will soon be due to replace my smoke detectors. I have been admiring the Nest Protect line, and there has been speculation that it may become available with Thread compatibility. I would love to be able to integrate these (or similar) devices into ISY at some point it the future. Again, thanks for the response, Jack

Hi all Just completed replacement of my Zooz dongle with zmatter dongle. Only glitch was that I had to remove and re-add my three Zooz ZSE29 motion sensors. No problems elsewhere. I have since done a little reading on Thread and Matter, (only scratched the surface really) and I am interested in the future of this ecosystem. Which leads me to the question: Where is UDI planning to go with Thread and Matter? I understand from one of Michel's posts that they have successfully added Thread devices, but this has hurt the performance of the Zigbee network. Not to worry, I am sure it will be resolved. I am wondering, though, where polisy/eisy will fit in this architecture. Questions I have are as follows: -will zmatter act as a thread router? -will zmatter act as a leader? -will zmatter act as a border router -will I be able to share polisy/eisy controlled devices on the thread network? I will likely have more questions as I dig deeper. Just thought I would post this and start a discussion thread. (pun intended). One more question: Where would you like to see UDI go with this new landscaoe? Thanks Jack Rainey

Hi all. Been a long time since I have posted. I am posting because I believe that I am finally ready to migrate from my ISY994i to my Polisy. Current state is as follows: Current: -ISY994i @ 5.0.16c ... 300 series Zwave controller, 2413s PLM -16 z-wave devices, including 4 Yale door locks New: -Polisy @ 5.6.2 (thanks Michel) ... Zooz 700 S2 dongle, 2413s PLM (new-out of the box) I have spent quite a few hours going over as many posts and advice I could find concerning this migration. (special thanks to @dbwarner5 for the excellent guide) I have a number of questions that I expect I can resolve during and/or after migrating, but there is one I would like to clarify a little before I start. This advice comes from the eisy/polisy user guide: "Preparing for Migration from ISY-994 On your ISY-994 Make sure the ISY-994 is upgraded to 5.3.4, If you are migrating your Z-Wave network You must be using a 500 Series Board in the ISY-994" My question is this: Is this correct? Does the migration process actually require 5.3.4 and a 500 series board to be successful? Follow up question is what will happen if I try to migrate from v5.0.26C with the 300 series? Would appreciate any and all advice or hints you may have. Thanks Jack

I have been pondering the same issue for some time now. Finally decided to go with ISY on Polisy. The clincher for me was that our supplier (in Canada) is offering Polisy bundled with a PLM. Noticed this over the weekend, called this morning and yes, they have 10 PLM's in stocks, which they are only selling in the bundle. Sales rep says they are going like hotcakes. My plan is to migrate my existing ISY to IoP, then start to slowly (over years) replace what I can with z-wave devices. I have been unable to source some items, like the irrigation controller and a 240v load controller, but am sure other solutions will become available if it becomes absolutely necessary. (when my last PLM fails) That is my path, fwiw. Jack

Was looking into this topic earlier today. Seems that Mobilinc has switched from (abandoned?) their Mobilinc Pro product for a newer subcsription based product called Mobilinc X. Checked out reviews in the play store, and found that the subscription prices ranged from $9 and change per month, to something over $200 that might have been a lifetime subscription. Average rating was 3 stars, with a lot of 1 star ratings. Most of the low ratings appeared to be objections to the price, many of which had an answer from the company saying that there were a number of payment options available. For my part, I was unable to easily see how much it would cost by looking around the website, so I quickly lost interest.... Jack

Thanks Larry, Any idea where people are turning? Am considering getting rid of the whole works if there is no change. I have been disappointed for a while now, considering issues such as PLM lack of reliability, and other issues like intermittent scene failures etc. I have for a long time thought that the reliability of communication in this system comes nowhere near what is required of an industrial system such as a DCS or PLC.

Darn, I was hoping that maybe The Bahamas or Trinidad would buy us up!

Hi people, Just visited Aartech's website for the first time in a long time. Aartech is the official Canadian distributor for Insteon and Universal Devices products. I found inventory for products from these suppliers did not exist, and where the products were listed there was a note saying "NO ETA". Took a quick look around this forum, and couldn't find any info, so I thought I'd start a topic to find out. So what is happening? Are any of these companies going out of business? Are semiconductor supply shortages causing the issue? Are there any other Canadian suppliers around? It's got me a little worried as my entire house is equipped with Insteon devices. Comments? Thanks, Jack Rainey

Most routers have the ability to reset to factory default settings built into them. My suggestion is that once you have the new router up and running reset the old one to factory default before returning it.

Check out the topic "Strange problem - looking for ideas". This was PLM failure that progressed over many weeks. My suggestion would be to try a factory reset on the PLM, and go through the PM replacement procedure. I was finally convinced that my PLM had failed when it would not reset. Jack

Good point oberkc. There were two differences between the original program and my suggestion though. The first was, as you noted, the use of a scene. The second was moving the timing from the program into the built in timeout function in the motion sensor. I am not sure how aware people are of this feature, and wanted to point it out. Jack

Not sure if this would work, but you can give it a try. 1) Go into the motion sensor options and set timeout to 10 minutes. (from Universal Devices wiki -> linking a motion sensor) Timeout (minutes) - Defines the period of inactivity before the Motion Sensor will send an Off. Default = 1 minute. Range = 0.5 - 120 minutes in 30 second increments. 2) Add a program as follows: if status (motion sensor) is OFF then set scene MasterBathroomAllLightsOff OFF else Create the scene MasterBathroomAllLightsOff with all of the switches as responders I edited this post after I looked more closely at your original post and belatedly noted that you had three separate lights in the bathroom, not three switches controlling a single bank of lights. If you create the scene with the switches as controllers, then you will turn all of the lights on with any switch, which may not be what you want. Jack

Hi all, Well, the new PLM has been in place for one complete day, and I can report that the system is up and running without issue during that entire time. I have pretty high confidence that the issue has finally been discovered and fixed, and that this will be the last post on this topic. (meanwhile keeping my fingers crossed just in case) Thanks to all who have read the topic and offered troubleshooting suggestions I have learned a lot. I will add a edit to the first post noting that the 'strange problem' was a result of a slow motion failure of an old PLM. Again, thanks to all, Jack

Thanks Paul -- will watch for it. Jack

Hi All Received my new PLM today, installed it, restored and everything went without a hitch. System is up and running with no apparent glitches. The test will be tomorrow, when the kitchen sink light should turn off. If anyone is interested, the PLM info is as follows: Firmware Rev. 9E Hardware Rev. 2.4 Manufacture date 2917 Thanks Jack

Thanks for the suggestions larryllix. I have tried many combinations of waits and scene mods, but always ended up with some failures. At several points it was a single device within a scene that wa not responding. For the motion sensors, I splurged and got the pro version, which allows turning off automatic writes to these devices. In my case, the main reason is I'd rather not dig my way through several feet of snow to put these things into linking mode. Hoping that the new motion sensors will not require physical intervention to allow this. (which rasies the question - when will version 5 firmware be ready?) Thanks Jack

Thanks oberkc. One of my first purchases (and installations) with this system was a passive phase coupler, along with a couple of RF range extenders. Up until now I haven't had any comm problems, and I have many devices installed on both legs of the electrical system. If there is a specific procedure to confirm communication between the legs other than this, I am unaware of it, and have not performed it. Issues with the system increased over the past several days, to the point where few of the programs worked, and few devices would operate remotely. Today I finally pulled out an extension cord and prepared to 'move' the PLM. The first observation I made was the the PLM was loose in the outlet, and I immediately thought that this could be the root of the problem. I proceeded anyway to plug the PLM into the extension cord, reset the system, and watched through the admin console as the system restored itself. There were many 'cannot communicate with device' messages, and only a few devices came up good. After several tires, I am now at the point that the only devices that are visible to the ISY are the few z-wave devices that I have. I have concluded that my PLM has failed, although I am puzzled that it lasted seven years, and seemed to fail gradually over a number of weeks, starting with minor, but consistent comm issues that occurred only when programs were run, progressing to a total failure. I was under the impression that these devices tended to fail catastrophically after a couple of years due to low quality capacitors used in the manufacture. I have ordered a replacement for the PLM, which should arrive in four or five days. We'll see if the issues continue with the new device. Again, thanks to all for your help with this problem. Jack

Hi Guys (and Gals if applicable) Back home from my holiday travels, and still struggling with system problems. While away, the system was erratic in a number of ways. Sometimes the Christmas lights didn't turn on .. as observed by my next door neighbour. Was able to turn them on with a struggle through Mobilinc. Status of devices in Mobilinc were (at random) sometimes correct, sometimes incorrect and frequently unknown. All in all, while I was away the system that was first set up in 2010 and has been running steadily ever since was a bit of a headache while I was away. When I returned, I did a hard reset, and things seemed to straighten out .... for a while. In the last few days issues re-appeared. Certain lights did not turn on, others did not turn off. One of my simple bathroom fan programs stopped working. Hard reset again about a half hour ago. Have yet to try the PLM move item. but will do that tomorrow. In the meantime, my frustration level has reached the point that I am researching Homeseer controllers. I also noticed that my problems bear some resemblance to what smokegrub is describing in 'The PLM Saga continues' topic Thoughts anyone? Thanks Jack

Merry Christmas guys. stusviews - yes a dedicated breaker - absolutely nothing on it except the PLM and the ISY power supply. Installed for that purpose when the basement was remodelled. oberkc - great suggestion - did not think of that at all! btw .. the light was off this morning. thanks Jack

Again, thanks for the feedback. I will be away over Christmas, so will not be doing any updates for a while. In the mean time, here is what has happened since my last update. 1) The worsening of the situation appears to have been the result of a Restore Devices and/or Restore Modem (PLM) procedure that did not complete cleanly. I upgraded my ISY to PRO, gathered in my outdoor motion sensors (had to fight my way through several feet of snow) and redid the procedures, all the time watching and ensuring that each and every device was restored properly. The next morning everything had executed normally with the exception of that pesky kitchen sink light. 2) Created a support ticket with UDI. Michel got back to me and suggested that I move the PLM to another outlet. Unfortunately easier said than done, as the PLM/ISY combo is mounted behind an access panel in my basement ceiling, connected to a dedicated outlet. setting up the necessary network connection and plugging the PLM into a convenient outlet will take some effort. Will attempt that after the holidays if the situation is still not resolved. 3) I added and additional program to turn off the kitchen light 20 or 30 minutes after the sunrise program. The next day the light was still on. (aaarghh) 4) Did nothing, and the next day, the light was off in the morning as it should have been. (yay!!! ... i think). Was totally puzzled by this until my wife informed me that the previous evening she had noticed that the light was on, but showing as off in mobilinc. She exercised the light several times through mobilinc several times and then left things alone. Now instead of being totally puzzled I am only completely puzzled. She claims she didn't want to disturb me as I was re-watching The Force Awakens in preparation for going to The Last Jedi with my son-in-law and the grandsons. Again, thanks for the suggestions. stusviews .. if the problem re-emerges I will absolutely go back to square one and start troubleshooting. oberkc .... I have soft-reset the ISY many times during this struggle, but so far I have not power cycled the system .. will do that in the new year. ScottAvery .. I actually did delete the device before the factory reset and added it back in after. It was also deleted and re-added when I changed it out for a new device. In both cases the behavior continued. Thanks for that note though. Merry Christmas everyone, and if there are any amazing spoilers for The Last Jedi - I don't want to hear about them. Thanks again, Jack

Thought I had identified and resolved the problem. Nope. Actually it is worse now. Multiple devices are not responding to program initiated scene changes, when that program is run on a time schedule. The devices show incorrect status in console, and when queried will show the correct status. When the programs are run manually, everything works fine. At this point, I am not sure what next steps to take. Any suggestions would be eagerly welcomed.