intellihome

Thank you for taking the time to comment and explain your advise/opinion. Over the last hour I was documenting my current setup and reading all the commentary I could find to start the upgrade. Meanwhile, my gut was telling me, you're about to break your smooth ISY automation. I will heed your advise and just wait until I get the eisy. If it's still on sale, I think I'll get it today. The only reason I wanted to try the upgrade is because my Insteon devices no longer show up in Alexa routines. Alexa sees the devices but not for triggering routines. I saw a couple posts about needing to be in v5. Anyway, this issue is for another thread. Thanks Geddy!

Agreed, thanks!

Thank you. I will start exploring the features in v5. I remember I was going to do this years ago but ran into a problem or limitation. I'll have to research it and continue onward.

I really appreciate everyone's comments. In the end, I decided to keep my ISY994 for another year and pay for the Portal license. I'll make the planned switch to EISY next year. I've really had my ISY running on cruise control for the last several years and have not been keeping up with the latest news and firmware. Now that I am active again, I see that the community is still strong and UDi is still very much in the game. The plugins to incorporate non insteon devices is why I am staying the course with UDi. I am still on version 4.9, wondering if it makes any sense to move to the latest version, work out the bugs so I have a smooth transfer to EISY sometime in 2025. Thoughts?

I agree, the plugins give me a reason to keep investing into a platform I love. Insteon is expensive and not as reliable IMO. However the plugins seem to come with risk? I see most of them are designed and licensed by a single person. As new devices come out, updates are dependent on that person still being around and interested to keep it going.

Thanks Geddy. You make a lot of good points. I did not know about the plugins to work with Yolink ($20) and Kasa. ($30). I could see myself making the switch due to the plugins. I assume I'd have better control of those devices with the eisy (Conditions and if/then logic). I just wonder if and when eisy will go bust and we'll have to invest another $300 bucks or more for the next device. Or when the cost of the portal starts climbing again. I realize technology gets outdated but the other option is to rely on the bigger brands that basically give you controller apps for free. Alexa app controls most of the new devices that are released every year. I understand it's a personal decision based on every user's individual needs and wants. I do appreciate the dialogue to help me make my next move. BTW I agree that support from UDi and the forum support is amazing.

Thanks Guy, I do like the if/then logic of the isy. I really like controlling my devices through Alexa and need the portal to have that ability with insteon. Most of the new Alexa compatible OEM devices have their own automation apps as well as Alexa. They update new features and it's always free. They still cannot compete with UDI's if/then control but they keep getting better. If I lose the portal, than my Insteon devices will no longer play nice with Alexa.

Well, my trusty ISY994 is still running strong but it's time to renew my ISYPortal license ($44 for one year) for a discontinued unsupported device. This was my third ISY over the years. I am now faced with buying yet another device (eisy at $290) to continue operating my outdated Insteon devices (about 40 devices). As the Insteon devices fail, I've replaced them with all sorts of reliable Alexa compatible devices (YoLink, Kasa, TP Link etc). Is eisy worth the upgrade? The links to upgrade to eisy are outdated with old sale information that's been expired for some time. Do I just phase out Insteon and UD? I don't have Z-Wave, Zigbee or anything else that eisy will control. Why not just use the free Alexa app to control all things that are Alexa compatible? I'm hoping somebody can talk me off the cliff from ending my time with my beloved ISY and amazing support from UD and this great forum.

Thank You! The wipe of old firmware and write with the new gives me a much better confidence that my ISY is trouble free. I completely agree with your comments on the PLM and signal suckers. I cannot thank you guys enough for all your help over the years.

Thanks Teken. I will complete the 4.6.2 firmware upgrade before I start the rebuild. In yours or others experience, have you ever seen an ISY cause the symptoms I mentioned? Other then a hard failure, can it cause problems due to a corrupted up upgrade? I don't expect my ISY to have an issue. I only ask because the devices will be factory reset, the PLM will be new but the ISY will retain the current firmware so I'm unsure what a factory reset actually does other then remove all devices.. If I upgrade the firmware does that patch the existing firmware or write all new firmware to the eprom?

Due to many communication and stability problems over the last couple of years, I want to factory reset every device including ISY and rebuild from scratch. PLM appears deaf Intermittent sluggish response to scenes and programs At times, scene(s) have to be triggered twice to complete all actions All I my experience with X10 and Insteon tells me it's a Insteon communication issue. The forum and technical support agree...however it used to be rock solid for a decade with no major changes in the house other then a handful of new devices. Wired a second dedicated circuit for the PLM and ISY Installed filters on most electronic devices Added more Dual Band devices Replaced PLM several times Replaced devices that seem to have issues more then others Bottom line the system is still not Robust so I want to start from scratch I have a brand new 2413S as part of the rebuild. My Question is, after the ISY Factory reset, What version firmware will it come back on? If it comes back on the latest version I upgraded to, how do I know some of the issues I have are not related to a corrupt upgrade somewhere along the line? I also do not trust my backups. I figure the best plan is to take the time and rebuild the entire system to remove all doubt. Factory reset all Insteon devices Factory reset the ISY Install the new PLM - Power the ISY Start adding devices a handful at a time Verify performance for a few days, build a few scenes and programs for the devices. Continue adding devices in increments over a couple of weeks, if an issue occurs delete the last device(s) and see if system recovers Model: ISY 994i 1024 Platform: ISY-C-994 Version: 4.5.4 Build Timestamp: 2016-09-30-16:12:25 About 60 insteon devices (10 Dual band 2413S PLM/ISY on dedicated circuit from panel box

Welcome back to ISY I also had issues with my ISY seeing any insteon traffic from my devices. However I was using a 2413S. I reloaded an older backup and had the same issues. A manual tap of a switch or motion detection did not show up in my event viewer level 3. I factory reset one of my switches and restored the device with no luck. I removed the device with ISY and reinstalled and the switch traffic was restored. I did this to many of the devices and was successful about 80% of the time. Over the next 6 months I noticed I lost the incoming communication again on most of my devices. I bought a new 2413S but that did not help.

Follow up to my issue. I was unsuccessful with replacing my PLM and restoring my ISY with a backup and restoring devices. I had the same problem with the new PLM. It did not "see" any device status changes. Perhaps my "known good" backup was not so good. I deleted each device one at a time over the course of a week and reinstalled the devices and rebuilt all my scenes. I also updated each device in programs. I made back ups as I progressed so I would not have to start over if something happened. Finally my system was back and running strong for about a month.

Hi Michel, Thanks very much. Yes, I do have a a good backup although it was before my upgrade to 4.5.4. (I have backups with 4.5.4 but that was after the PLM change so I probably would not want to use them). After I install a new PLM and perform a restore, could I then make a backup, reinstall the questionable PLM and try a restore on it. The reason I ask this is I think I may have screwed up the original replacement and if so, there may be nothing wrong with this PLM. If I still see problems, then go back to the "New" PLM following the instructions on the Wiki and do a another restore on that?

Thanks for all the information. I really appreciate it. The PLM is about 7 months old. Somehow I think I messed up on the installation of this new PLM 7 months ago. When I replaced it and then booted the ISY, my browser was hung up so I never saw the ISY boot, so I started unplugging things and can't recall what sequence I ended up with. So I'm suspecting the PLM is OK and I just need to get the links back in sync with the ISY