I just acquired an ISY-26 today, and have been setting it up using a Linux desktop machine for configuration. I have a relatively large system of new Insteon controls, replacing an earlier X-10 installation. I have some inquiries and suggestions.
1. The ISY-26 interface won't work on Linux. I have had to use a copy of Windows XP running under a virtual machine in order to accomplish anything.
By "won't work", I mean a system running Fedora 8 with the current Java version (Java SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_04-b12)) and Firefox 2.0.0.10, properly linked to the JRE. After entering the URL provided by the Telnet interface (http://192.168.0.17:65532/) (I have set up a static IP), the HTML page appears and the applet tries to launch, but it only makes a very brief appearance and never fully launches. Because your interface is a Java applet, no error messages can be gotten. I tried disabling my firewall and a few other obvious things, to no effect.
2. I applied the workaround of using Windows XP. Unfortunately, while operating under Windows XP in a virtual machine (VirtualBox), I am getting "No such session, must log in again" messages about every 15-30 seconds, which makes it very difficult to write programs. I must save my work almost after each entered word in order not to have to simply retype everything.
3. Please provide the ISY-26 log file in some form other than by trying to launch Excel. Not everyone has Excel, not everyone wants it, there are many perfectly good spreadsheet programs in the world apart from Excel. Also, for maximum utility, rather than trying to launch some viewer program, the log file should be saved to disk in a plain-text, comma-separated format, so absolutely anyone can read it using absolutely any program -- including Excel.
4. I have some old X-10 remotes that I plan to use to control my Insteon interfaces by way of the ISY-26, and nearly everything is working, except that the remotes (UR19A) emit an unknown or malformed code for "all on" and "all off" (I tried matching all sorts of possible codes, but nothing worked). These particular commands worked fine under the old X-10 setup, but won't work at all now. It would be child's play to tell your software which code to watch for, except for the fact that it isn't possible to discover which code is being emitted, because your program doesn't have any debugging or monitoring facilities.
A real-time, interactive window that tells the user what is going on in the communication channel would be a godsend. Imagine Wireshark, except with a display of X10 and Insteon codes.
Apart from "all on" and "all off", the old X-10 remotes work fine by way of little X-10 trigger programs in the ISY-26 to produce the desired Insteon outputs. All but those two.
Oh, one more thing. The ISY-26 software updated itself immediately today on the first run, so I have version 2.6 of your software.
The bottom line is that the switch to Insteon controllers immediately resolved a number of longstanding reliability and communication problems that had plagued my old X-10 system. And your hardware acts as a translator so it is possible to use my old remote controls as well as a motion sensor, neither available yet in Insteon form. If only these software issues can be resolved.
Thanks for reading!
Paul Lutus
www.arachnoid.com