cmidgley

LeeG - Thanks for the info on generators. Makes sense. I'm stuck with what I have - C'est la vie. I'll try a level-3 diagnostic and see what is causing the messages. If it is my programs, then that would be easy to disable. Thanks for that suggestion! madcodger - I think my flickering lights may be due to a bunch of very old Insteon's - many are six+ years old when flickering was an issue. When I do the next generator test, I'll see what happens on the newer switches as well - if they don't flicker, maybe I need to consider upgrading some of my more important switches just to reduce that. I take it you leave your PLM running, since it doesn't have any side effects for you? Thanks all! - Chris

Thanks all... here is a bit more background. Basically all lights in the house flicker when insteon messages are going around when I'm on generator (all is fine during street power). If I click a switch, all lights flicker for a little bit (and no messages work). The generator is a Briggs and Stratton 40243 autmatic generator with automatic transfer switch. In theory, it is "Computer-Friendly Power: Advanced alternator technology provides safe and stable power for computers and other sensitive electronics". It is an alternator based generator, which implies sine wave output - but clearly there is substantial noise in the generated power and I've found nothing in the service manuals to help me diagnose/correct it. All of my primary electronics are on double-conversion UPS systems - so the ISY, ELK, computers, etc. all stay up during a power outage. Of course the PLM plugs directly into the house power (not through the UPS) in order to communicate with the house. When the house kicks into generator power, the PLM will have lost power for maybe 15 seconds and then will gain power again when the generator flips on. At this point, all lights in the house will flicker continuously (endlessly) until I unplug either the ISY or the PLM. I have a ton of Insteon - I've lost count now. So much so that I've reached my limits on the PLM slots with all my scenes. Something like 90-100 devices. From the sounds of it, unless I can figure out why the generator causes such noise problems (I'm at a loss there, and my electrician is as well - though we've not brought in a generator specialist) - it seems like my best answer is to leave the ISY on the UPS but let the PLM get powered down during the generated power periods. The only debate there is how to shut down the PLM - by a relay between it and the power line, or move the PLM to the sub-panel that has street power ... but that places it two sub-panels (street + transfer switch) away from where the rest of the Insteon circuits are located. Any other creative ideas out there? Thanks! - Chris

Hi Michael - Yes, I have many programs doing just that - receiving events from the ELK and doing ISY specific actions. My problem is that what I need to do in that program is to disable all communications with the PLM (because the PLM is causing the lights to go crazy during the generator usage). Is there any way to tell the ISY to suspend all PLM communications, and then resume them later upon another program execution? If not, then I'll likely head down the route of disconnecting the PLM from the ISY via some relays... - Chris

Hi all, I have found that when our house generator kicks on, our Insteon lights flicker whenever Insteon messages are sent, and the messages never work. We have been unsuccessful in getting the generator to avoid this problem (it's a Briggs and Stratton 10KVA LPG generator with automatic switchover). We can live with the flicker during power outages (unless somebody has an idea to fix it!) ... but we find that the ISY communicates with the PLM continuously (likely due to the error recovery) and causes a non-stop flicker unless we unplug the PLM manually. Our ISY is connected to an ELK M1G and the ELK is aware of when the house is on power generation. I was hoping to be able to disable the PLM when the ELK says we have no power, but I don't see a way to do this from the ISY. Anybody know otherwise? My other ideas here are to either add a relay (controlled by the ELK) between the PLM and it's power (so I can disable the PLM during generator time) - but I'd hate to reduce the reliability of the PLM communications. Would it? The other idea would be to place a relay on the communications line between the ISY and the PLM. Of course the ISY wouldn't be very happy with losing the PLM, but I would think it would work. I could just power off the ISY (again, a relay controlled by the ELK), but it does provide other functions for me that continue to work during the generator operation (such as sending email messages, and controlling our Sonos system) - so I thought I'd ask for advice before designing a solution. Thanks in advance for any creative idea here! - Chris

I did a PLM restore as you suggested and a substanial amount of space was freed up. Now the motion sensors correctly show up in the event log, and the programs operate as expected. Thank you very much for your guidance!

Impressive! You nailed it - there are exactly 992 links. Besides trying to reducing my usage of links, is there any other way to address this? Add another PLM? Or is it get a second ISY and then somehow manage the links and messages between them? Thanks!!!

Hi all, I've got a fairly large Insteon network w/isy994 (something like 80 devices + Elk M1) but just added the 2842-222 motion sensors for first time (five of them). The short version of the problem is that I can program and link device just fine, but the ISY never sees the motion events. I can use the ISY just fine to add the device, link to other devices, bring up and set the Options on the device, etc. All of these are seen clearly in the Event Log. But when motion occurs (either real motion, or manually when pressing the button for on/off), there is no entry in the event log, and therefore no programs execute. Whe I configure the motion sensor to turn on/off a device (by linking, using the ISY to do that link) - it works 100%. So motion to devices are working and communicating just fine ... even with the PLM ... but for some odd reason the PLM doesn't see the on/off events (even though the other devices do). When I look at the device table, I do see the PLM configured in there (19.74.99 is my PLM): 1 : 0FF0 : E2 01 19.74.99 04 00 01 2 : 0FE8 : 62 01 22.90.51 FF 00 01 3 : 0FE0 : E2 02 19.74.99 FF 00 02 4 : 0FD8 : E2 03 19.74.99 06 00 03 5 : 0FD0 : 00 00 00.00.00 00 00 00 Here is an extract of the event log (level 3) of both the successful usage of the Options button (showing communication with the device at 23.24.d1) - plus at the end I clicked the motion button on/off several times (not that you could tell, because nothing appears in the log for that): Sun 06/23/2013 11:27:05 AM : [iNST-TX-I2CS] 02 62 23 24 D1 1F 2F 00 00 00 00 07 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 C9 Sun 06/23/2013 11:27:05 AM : [iNST-ACK ] 02 62 23.24.D1 1F 2F 00 00 00 00 07 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 C9 06 (00) Sun 06/23/2013 11:27:05 AM : [iNST-SRX ] 02 50 23.24.D1 19.74.99 2B 2F 00 (00) Sun 06/23/2013 11:27:05 AM : [std-Direct Ack] 23.24.D1-->ISY/PLM Group=0, Max Hops=3, Hops Left=2 Sun 06/23/2013 11:27:05 AM : [iNST-ERX ] 02 51 23 24 D1 19 74 99 11 2F 00 00 01 00 07 01 50 10 01 41 0E 64 00 80 34 Sun 06/23/2013 11:27:05 AM : [Ext-Direct ] 23.24.D1-->ISY/PLM Group=0, Max Hops=1, Hops Left=0 Sun 06/23/2013 11:27:05 AM : [All ] Writing 0 bytes to devices When I link the device into a scene to turn on/off a light, I do not see anything in the event log when I trigger motion. The light goes on/off just fine - but nothing at all in the logs. The motion sensor is a 2842-222 Rev 2.3. I've tried this so far with two of my devices. I do have three more in box that I could try, but thought before I opened those I'd ask here for advice! Thanks... - Chris