Teken

Hey Paul, Can you offer some insight as to why you decided not to participate in such a program? Off the top of my head some basic reasons would be it doesn't meet your lifestyle and hence more likely it would cost you more to be on it. EDIT: Just read the link provided by you and wow $0.95 during CPP!

It should be noted that many if not all electronics over time will start to become a noise maker / signal sucker. The sad fact is we no longer live in the good old 50 - 80's where companies made things to last and were based on quality components and at the time sound engineering. So the reality is (IF) you ever find a product that is made solid and offers you more than 5 years of service. Keep buying and supporting these companies because they haven't forgotten how things should be made. NOTE: People should never confuse a product being made in China as the final indicator of over all quality and lifespan. Quality is dictated by the company who is trying to meet a defined out the door price point and profit margin. One only has to look at (generally speaking) Apple product . . . They are some of the best in class built, designed, and made hardware on the planet. Yet they are also one of the most bloated priced items known to man which cater to people who believe there is true value in the product. Tens of thousands of quality products are made in China every day. The only reason they are is because the company has decided to use the highest quality components, design, and hardware in hopes of the quality will reflect better on their name brand.

Hello fmk2, Could you share with the group what the rate was before you went on this plan? Along with what the lower rate is now with the new plan in place? All I can say is *Holy Sh^T* if I had to pay $0.60 per KWH I would be in the poor house! Just trying to better understand where you live and if you know why the rates are so high. I've read about a few places with high electrical charges like Hawaii and others but $0.60 per KWH is just wow.

LOL . . . [emoji848][emoji851][emoji847][emoji55]

I have nothing of value to add to your query but is the rate of $0.60 KWH correct?!?!

Hello, The first thing you need to do is confirm you have proper coupling / bridging via the 4 tap beacon test. The process is normally outlined in the full users manual for the various products found at the Smarthome retail site. Essentially you will tap the set button 4 times very quickly - This will cause any Insteon hardware with in the RF range to blink its LED. Keep in mind various generations of Insteon products with out dual colored LED's relied on the user to watch the single colored LED. In a general sense if the receiver is blinking or green in color both sides of the electrical feed is coupled / bridged. Any device that is doing nothing indicates its either too far away to receive the RF bridging signal or that hardware is indeed on the same electrical line as the initiator device. NOTE: All the coupling in the world will not supersede the need to identify and remove / replace noise makers - signal suckers in the home. Meaning almost anything electronic can absorb or inject noise on the power line. Remember the 2413S PLM should never be plugged into the same outlet or circuit that has a computer, cell charger, UPS, TV, A/V, etc Most if not all noise makers / signal suckers can be filtered out using a Insteon Filter Linc. Your task today is to conform you have proper bridging / coupling. Next ensure the PLM is not on the same line as any noise makers / signal suckers. A perfect example even though tedious is to take just one product that will not link and remove it from the wall and wire it to a extension cord you can sacrifice. You will then plug said hardware and modified extension cord into the same electrical outlet as the 2413S PLM. If you find the unit links fine this tells you there is noise in the install site. This can be as simple as the light bulbs in the fixtures, ballasts, transformer, etc. Ideally the most direct approach is to unplug every single device in the home that you humanely can. Once that is done and (assuming) you have solid coupling / bridging devices will link. Keep in mind if you have lots of single band devices coupling and the use of Access Points (AP) / Range Extenders (RE) are paramount to ensure a consistent and reliable Insteon network. As the home begins to use more dual band hardware the reliance of AP / RE's are less. But they do indeed offer stronger and more consistent RF to power line conversion for battery only devices like: MS, Open-Close, Leak, Hidden Door Sensors.

But, but, but, you have so many problems where does one begin?!? LOL . . .

This problem sounds very familiar and in the past the problem was identified that the geo location was thrown off because the persons ISP (Public IP address) was indicating a different hop than their actual location. Google your public IP and determine where on the map it says it thinks your connected to. This problem was supposed to be fixed in the last several firmware builds.

Ideally you should be tethered to the network and not use a WiFi connection when doing such a task. There are too many outside factors that can impact a connection or the computer from turning off etc. Case in point many computers out of the box running what ever flavor of Windows OS have power saving settings. These impact the screen, sleep, hibernate, HDD, WiFi, and power modes. If this is on a laptop and its not plugged in ensure you have it plugged in and shut off all energy star power settings etc. If its on a stand alone PC do the same thing to ensure the HDD, WiFi, NIC, is not turned off etc. Otherwise you will be doing this marry go round ten more times . . .

OK, that is good because if you were trying to do this remotely off site there are lots of moving parts to ensure success. Also, to have WAN access you need only configure your router to forward the IP address of the ISY Series Controller.

Smartlabs has attempted to resolve the issue by replacing several capacitors in the latest models. The forum indicates they are on hardware 2.0 to 2.30 as of this writing. However, several people have indicated a 2413S PLM failure under six months. Whether or not these PLM's were indeed bad no one can say but Smartlabs.

Please tell me you're doing this locally and not remotely?!?!

1. Keep in mind all you need to do is unplug the PLM. 2. Remove power from the ISY no need to remove any cords leading to the PLM. 3. Wait about 10-30 seconds and plug the PLM back into the electrical outlet. 4. Apply power to the ISY Series Controller and let it settle down. 5. Log back into the Admin Console and disable battery writes if you have a pro. 6. Perform the restore modem procedure and get a cold one and sit back and wait. 7. Assuming the restore modem is completed you will need to check how many links are in the system. 8. If all is well in step seven you can start the write updates to the battery devices one at a time. 9. If that goes well your next step is to verify that the Admin Console reflects the change of state when you manually operate any switches in your home. You will need to do the reverse using the Admin Console to ensure the controller has command and control of the related hardware in the home. 10. Keep in mind you will need to do a restore device after all of the steps above are done. This will take a considerable amount of time so plan this out when you have plenty of time to waste. 11. Last but not least assuming all of the above is done and completes as expected do a complete system back up and place several copies on a thumb drive, cloud storage, and other computers for later use.

You need to start over its locked up . . .

Like others if you're able to confirm your Insteon network is reliable and consistent using the 4 tap beacon test. Ensuring you perform the 4 tap test in all zones to validate its so. You can start removing the AP one at a time to save on energy consumption. Older Insteon hardware had a constant draw of 0.60 to 2.14 watts depending on make, model, and production year. With a Insteon site with 100 devices that's approx 100 watts consuming energy you have absolutely no control over in normal circumstances. For me energy management is top of mind which allows me to meet my consumption targets . . .

No, the LED doesn't simply flash once and turn off when it's opened / closed? [emoji848][emoji53]

Keep in mind depending upon what hardware you're talking about whether its a motion sensor, leak sensor, open-close, hidden door sensor. You have the option of using physical pressing of the device, heart beat, night mode, and control / status events to invoke a device write. Keep in mind depending on firmware that is in the hardware you may need a wait period from 0-3 seconds. Only trial and error will determine what amount of time if any is required to ensure a successful remote write. It goes with out saying a strong RF mesh must be present to ensure consistency and reliability of this feature.

Just change the query time to the current time and see what happens. No need to wait for 3:00 AM to arrive and be all tired just sitting around.

1. What type of battery is being used and did you confirm they are fresh by measuring them with a DMM? 2. How often are the devices activated? 3. Have you hard reset the device to ensure they are in a OEM state? 4. If you trip the sensor does the LED flash only once and goes out quickly? 5. What is the hardware production date, revision, and ISY firmware listed for the product?

Submit a service request using this link: http://www.universal-devices.com/contact-support/ Provide them with your UUID in Admin Console under Help -> About. Please reference this thread in your initial reply to them so they know this issue has been resolved.

Understood and appreciate the confirmation but this matter is quite strange and potentially dangerous if important systems need to be accessed. If the router had the MAC address for the ISY reserved say 110 and you verified in the list that it was. The router needs to be inspected to see if there is a fault. As the router is responsible for handling out the IP addresses along with many other attributes which you're more than aware of. The ISY can not summarily alter its IP address it can only take what is handed out to it. If using a Static IP address is the road taken now please do ensure its well outside of the DHCP IP Pool. Best practices is to use blocks of IP addresses for appliances like A/V, Security, Media, Energy, Infrastructure, Network. Next is to label and document the static IP addresses in a log book and append the very same to a rolling spread sheet kept in the cloud like Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, etc.

Speaking from more than 25 years in a related security field almost anything can be integrated. It really comes down to (IF) those systems are compliant and meet stringent national codes for fire, security, life saving devices. The simple fact you even posed the question means you are open minded and like many of us want to make our lives easier and more enjoyable. There is nothing wrong with this so long as you keep yourself grounded in the basics and what really matters. To go on a huge tangent almost all of my family members are a huge proponent of gun rights in the USA / Canada. But not one of them would ever allow a small child to hold, handle, and fire off a fire arm. You can quickly Google a most saddening video where a so called trained fire arms instructor was at the side of a small child. He was given all of the proper training, teachings, etc yet the most basics were lost on these stupid people. He was too small and the gun in his hands was too powerful and the end result is he killed the actual fire arms trainer in front of hundreds of on lookers. Again, what is my point? Yes, you can certainly teach anyone to handle and hold a fire arm. But should you really do such a thing when they are physically not capable of handling the fire arm properly? No . . . As you indicated (YOU) are aware of the system and how it operates etc. In any industry that has codes, laws, rules, procedures it is (ALWAYS) assumed anyone knows how something will operate with out for knowledge. You and I are gear heads and have our heads deep into technology - it doesn't mean your entire family is paying any attention to what you're doing and how its supposed to operate. If you are the only person in this home the risks are much less and you can do pretty much what you like. Like the millions of people who are doing the very same. I would ask you to consider a few things about the Amazon Echo and if your not aware of these facts you are now. 1. The system often times misunderstands commands. 2. The system is always in a state of flux and no maintenance warning or break fix is ever issued to the public. 3. Firmware on the system is pushed OTA (Over The Air) and you have no way to stop it. So features break, added, removed. 4. The system is completely cloud based and their is no SLA for uptime / restored service. 5. The system is not endorsed or certified to be used in a life and safety environment. Now back to a related matter, certified, tested, validated, and properly designed & installed alarm systems will never require rebooting. The only time a system will be rebooted is if the system is being worked on or firmware is being updated. You will never see a certified security alarm system require rebooting or become locked up baring a hardware failure. You will never see a ELK alarm system installed in any location outside of a residential install or those random places where the owner thought it was a good idea to install one. Meaning you won't find a ELK Security Alarm system installed in a fortune 500 business, hospital, police, bank, military, the list goes on. Having said that many find the tight integration of the ISY Series Controller and ELK to offer great value and convenience. You will need to ask yourself is something nobody else uses in any other industry really what I need that was built and designed in 1990? Other related questions are why hasn't the company strived to meet all of the relevant and stringent UL / cUL certifications? Keeping in mind the bulk of the criteria is basic programming and how it behaves when posed with a fault / alarm condition.

Firstly, my reply is geared toward security as the primary role and factor. Home automation and convenience doesn't even register in my head when talking about security. With anything in life many things are a personal choice and people have to balance security vs convenience. People also need to weigh out the risk vs benefit ratio in the things they do in life and the system around them. Having said this lots of companies and individuals offer some kind of integration to existing alarm systems. Many if not all of them are not certified to do so . . . The ISY is not a security UL / cUL certified appliance never mind the Amazon Echo. The fact you would allow something not intended to have complete command and control of your homes security system opens you to real risks. These risks are not pie in the sky make belief things people spout off or could only happen in fairy tales. If you have used the Amazon Echo long enough *Alexa* has often times misheard a phrase and done something unintended. It doesn't really matter if you never program the system to only have a *arm the house* etc. But not have *Disarm* or what ever phrase to the system. The simply fact you open the door to the system will at some point bite you in the aszz. I know its all the rage to automate ones home that's why 99% of us are here! But when I see, read, and watch people adding door locks, security alarm, fire control to appliances not endorsed, tested, certified, and field proven in their respective industry. I just have to shake my head and close my eyes knowing at some point something disastrous will happen. A perfect example was a fellow who hired a so called master plumber to install ELK main line shut off valve. One would think the home owner and the so called master plumber would know this device should not, can not, be installed at the water main! Why was this such a big deal you may ask? Because in his specific county he has a fire sprinkler system. These stupid people installed the whole house water shut off valve before the water supply that feeds the fire sprinklers! And you guessed it the home had a fire condition and his house burned down to the ground. To add insult to injury he voided any home owner insurance he had in place because it circumvented all the local laws, codes, and compliance rules that govern such a system. You will probably notice many if not all security alarm companies that monitor ones home do not allow the end user to modify the system if the hardware is being leased, or is not fully paid for. This prevents people from making changes which could impact a false alarm condition etc. Imagine you told the system via Echo control to arm the home in thinking it was but she ignored you for what ever reason. Then one night while you sleep thinking the home is fully armed when in fact it isn't and your home is broken into. You either wake up beaten, killed, or God forbid your loved ones are raped or killed. Its safe to say at this point (assuming) you had your head screwed back on and thinking straight. Would you be suing the alarm company, amazon, UDI, or God? Security is not just a thing - its a concerted lifestyle and following basic rules and procedures. Life is already too stressful why add in another layer where you have zero control over? Ultimately, this is a personal choice you need to make and you need to consider is my families life worth the (real) risks in doing this?

That is such a terrible idea I don't even know where to start . . .

Hello, There are a few specifics I will try to address so please let me know if there is anything unclear in my statement to you. 1. Network Module: In the past this module had to be purchased separately like any other module and is a one time purchase. Now UDI has bundled the network module to offer even more value to the end user. I personally don't like having to pay someone a annual fee on something I use all the time. As I indicated early on my preference and many others is to purchase the network module so you always have it. Should for what ever reason you decide the costs vs benefit of the ISY Portal is not financially possible. You will always have the native network module in the controller to do what you wish. 2. Amazon Echo: Using the portal allows a very simple and stream lined approach in integrating the two systems into one. This is essentially a plug & play approach and is fantastic for those less technically inclined or those who value their time more than money. If you have the time and knowledge you can always use the network module and follow one of several *Roll your own* middle ware (RPi) methods where it allows you to have local Amazon Echo control via the native network module. There are at least two methods in this forum which lists out the steps and procedures. The benefit of going this route would save you the two year $49.XX ISY Portal fees but all of the maintenance would fall squarely upon you. It should also be noted most recently people have indicated some changes have been made and using this method is at times spotty? Portals: You can only subscribe to one cloud based portal whether that be the UDI ISY Portal or the Mobilinc Portal. Keep in mind there are two different services for Mobilinc. One is similar to the ISY Portal where as the other was intended to allow port free connections, push notifications, etc.