JacktheRipper

I have two ISY994i's, #1 running 5.3.4 and #2 running 5.3.0. Both are running normally, and I can log into the Admin console on both if I do it correctly. I have downloaded the zip for 5.3.4, and when I try to manually upgrade #2, I get to 95%, and then get an error "Upgrade Failed: Failed uploading file(reported written size is invalid)". This happens while it's loading udi.css. Windows 10, current Java, cleared the cache, etc., etc., etc. Any thoughts?

No, sir, I did not. My MS II gradually lost range to just a few feet over a period of a few months, and I ultimately removed it from my installation and did not replace it. I have followed this thread with interest, though. I do most home automation things now with Arduinos, specifically ESP32s. That way I'm in complete control of things. Here is an excellent tutorial on how to use a HC-SR501 PIR motion sensor in a simple Arduino program. In particular, read the "Advanced Uses" section at the bottom of the tutorial for insights on how these sensors work.: https://arduinogetstarted.com/tutorials/arduino-motion-sensor In that advanced section, there's a good discussion on two sensor adjustment pots (range and time delay) and a jumper that controls single event vs. repeated event signal outputs from the sensors.

idkayaker... Precisely my original intent when I started the thread, so I would be glad to help. There's a lot of insights sprinkled in the exchanges above, and boiling all that down to a coherent document would be great. Please feel free to make a draft and circulate it for community comment. lilyoyo1... I wish it were simple to first understand, and then correct, communications issues that interfere with Insteon operation, but it is not. While Insteon and ISY were a vast improvement over X10 when I first got into using them (circa 2004 or so), I have found them to be far from perfect. Modems seem to gradually lose robustness (I'm on my third one, just for my own house), Motion sensor sensitivity seems to degrade over time too, for both MS 1 and MS 2 sensors. Switch reliability has been a problem for me as well. I have two at the moment that occasionally report back that they have toggled state, but in fact they have not done so. That is not a communications issue, it's a device reliability issue. Sending repeated commands has helped. Some lessons I've learned over the years include... (1) Get rid of 100% of your fluorescent devices, particularly the bulbs with built-in mini-ballasts. They simple put too much junk out on your wiring, which kills that avenue of Insteon robustness. I discovered this (duh) when I had some porch lights that could be turned on by an Insteon switch, but could not be turned off. (2) Lamplincs don't operate very well with smaller led loads, such as small Christmas light strings. When the load is very small, it confuses the Lamplinc sense feature. Use on/off (relay-based) devices instead. (3) Don't use LAN devices that transmit their traffic over your power lines. When I had solar put in a few years ago, the installer snuck of those systems in on me, and it killed my Insteon operation. (3) Don't use (non-Insteon) three-way switches that communicate over your power lines. Begs for a list that might be titled "The Top Ten Things You Can Do to Improve Insteon Reliability"...

Boomerang... I just installed 5.0.16, and my MS I here in my home works fine. My MS II is on a remote ISY in my son's home in another state, and I have 5.0.14A running there. His MS II works fine with that software version. I won't be upgrading his ISY to 5.0.16 until Thanksgiving, when I'll be there. The only thing I can suggest is to uninstall the MS II from your ISY, then reinstall it. If that doesn't work, there may be a way to do a factory reset on it. I haven't researched that....

I have my MS II set to 255, and it seems to work fine. I would think a higher sensitivity setting would mean it's more sensitive. Don't know what value a motion detector with zero sensitivity would have.

Be glad to. In my garage I have an Insteon wall switch near the door into the house, a wireless contact sensor on my garage door and a MS II. I have a scene (Gr Lights) that has the wall switch as a controller/responder, and the MS II that is a controller (although listed as a controller/responder, as noted above). The MS II is configured to turn the lights on, but not off (done in its config settings). Note that the contact sensor is not in the scene, because I don’t want the lights to be turned off when the door closes. I have a program “Gr Lights Timed Off” that is normally disabled when the lights are off, but is enabled by the following program below when any on command is received. It has the following code: Gr Lts Timed Off - [ID 000D][Parent 0010][Not Enabled] If - No Conditions - (To add one, press 'Schedule' or 'Condition') Then Wait 20 minutes Set 'Gr Lights Scene' Off Disable Program 'Gr Lts Timed Off' Else - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action') I have a second program that turns the lights on and enables the above program, with the following code: Gr Lights On Command - [ID 000B][Parent 0010] If 'Garage Light Switch' is switched On Or 'Gr. Door Sensor-Opened' is switched On Or 'Gr MS II.Motion' is switched On Then Set 'Gr Lights Scene' On Disable Program 'Gr Lts Timed Off' Wait 5 seconds Enable Program 'Gr Lts Timed Off' Run Program 'Gr Lts Timed Off' (Then Path) Else - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action') You have to noodle this a bit, but the lights only turn off if either the wall light switch is turned off (it’s in the scene), or if the timer program times out. The timer program is enabled, or re-enabled, for every ON command issued, including possibly multiple ON commands from the MS II if I’m in the garage for an extended period (it’s my woodshop). So while I’m in the shop, the lights never turn off. One final detail: If the MS II senses motion, but it thinks it's already on, it does not issue an on command, so set the timer to a very short value to make it work consistently.

mwester... I did write such a program, and the temp and luminance values do seem to be updated with each motion detected. Battery level did not change, but that might be correct, given the short time span of my testing. Is there a way to get these variables available to a program? I don't have a need to do this, but others might. For instance, a freeze alert message might be of use. I'm an Arduino guy, so I already have notifications of freeze alerts from the garage at my second home in Oregon (where my MS II is located) issued by an Arduino derivative that has a temp and humidity sensor connected to the internet.

See next corrected post

I just verified that when a Motion Sensor I is added to a scene, the only option that is offered is for it to be a Controller. The MS II came up as a Controller/Responder as the default, as I remember it. That led to my confusion. I'm aware that the only way to make the MS II "respond" to anything sent to it is to put it in linking mode (although mwester suggested (here) that a program could be written to sneak in commands immediately after a motion detected event happened. I haven't tried to do this. Might be a way to do a Query and get that temperature updated.). The solution I outlined above using programs works both with and without the MS II being in the scene to be controlled. I leave it in because the light turns on immediately, whereas when the program issues the on command, there is a slight delay. So, relative to my goal stated at the top of this thread, of having a coherent user manual/tutorial for the 2244-222, I've learned a few things from the MS I user manual (traditional Insteon manual with good explanations), the MS II user manual (new style written for the hub and light on details), and this and other Forum threads I've participated in. Thanks to all of you for helping me learn about this.

Lily... Yeah, I finally figured that out. As a newbie, I was confused by the Admin Console listing the MS II as a "Controller/Responder" for my garage scene. Perhaps that misrepresentation ought to be corrected, don't you think? Relative to what I want, I did the following: I included the MS II in the Insteon Scene with the garage light switch that is a true controller/responder for the scene. I set the MS II to issue on commands only. I wrote a timer program, normally disabled, that turns the lights off after a time-out, set at 10 minutes. If the light switch or the MS II turns on the scene, the timer program is enabled and starts the timer. If the MS II detects subsequent motion, it triggers a second program that (1) sends an on command for the scene, (2) disables the timer program, (3) waits 5 seconds, then (4) re-enables the timer program and runs it. This refreshes the timer program to always time out 10 minutes after the last detected motion. When the timer program reaches the time-out, it turns the scene off, then disables itself. This works fine for all use-cases, but is rather complicated. I was just looking for a simpler implementation that could have been possible if the MS II could be configured to always issues on commands if it detected motion, whether or not it thought the lights were already on. I guess it can't, so I'll stick with my solution. Thanks...Jack

Hey, thanks for replying. What I did initially was to configure the MS II to issue on commands only, and I had a "timer-off" program that was normally disabled, but was enabled and run by virtue of the lights coming on (from either switch or MS II). After it timed out (10 minutes), it issued a scene off command, and then disabled itself. A second program was triggered by the MS II's On commands to (1) wait 5 seconds, (2) disable the time-off program, then (3) re-enable it, to get a fresh timer going. Seems like it should have worked, but it proved unreliable for some reason. I'll go back and give it another try. Thanks again...Jack

I have a scene called Garage Lights that has a 2477S On-Off switch as a controller/responder, and a Motion Sensor II as a controller/responder. I don't really think the MS II is acting like a responder at all, at least the way I have it configured. Here's the problem: If the motion sensor detects motion, it issues an On command for the lights, then waits for no motion detected within a timeout value, and then issues an Off command if the timeout is reached. All that is good and expected. However, if the lights are turned off by the 2744S while the MS II is still waiting to issue its Off command, the MS never issues another On command if motion is subsequently detected, thinking the lights are already on. Is there any way to configure the MS II so that it always issues an On command if it detects motion, even it it thinks the lights are already on? Can it be done if it's powered by a USB cable?

kclenden... I've determined that removing the battery cover turns the Tamper node to ON status with a long beep in protest. Replacing the cover turns it to OFF silently. Perhaps you never have removed the cover after linking to ISY. I had done so, so I was showing a NO status. I posted some additional learning in my other thread on the MS II here

I've learned a few more things: (1) The MS II Tamper Node status is normally OFF or blank if the battery cover is in place. If the battery case is removed, the Tamper status turns to ON, and the MS II sensor gives one long beep in protest. Replacing the cover turns the Tamper Node status to OFF with no beep. (2) I have the MS II in a scene with an Insteon wall switch for garage lights. Both the wall switch and the MS II are designated as Controller/Responders. However, if the wall switch is turned ON, but the sensor has not detected motion, the MS II does not go to ON status, even though it's in the scene just turned ON by the switch. (3) Similarly, if the wall switch is turned OFF, the scene turns off, but the MS II does not change status (remains ON if it was ON, and OFF if it was OFF). In particular, if it was ON it will not turn the lights back on if motion is detected after the lights were turned off by the wall switch. It must time out and send its OFF command before resetting to detect motion and turns lights on. This was driving me nuts until I figured out what was going on by looking at the Tools>>Diagnostics>>Event Viewer.

So Dave, I have made a little progress in understanding some of the items I mentioned above: (1) To do a factory reset, remove the battery, push down and hold the Set button, and reinsert the battery, continuing to hold the Set button down for ten seconds until you see the leds blinking differently. (edit: to add the sensor to the ISY, you must use the menu item Link Management>>Link a Sensor>>Motion Sensor II. The "Start Linking" option does not work with this wireless device, or any other perhaps.) (2) The Timeout value in the Motion section is used only when you have configured the sensor to Report: ON/OFF. When the sensor detects motion it sends an ON command immediately. If the sensor detects no motion for "Timeout" seconds, it sends an OFF command. I still don't know what the "Off Button Timeout" value in the Misc section does. (4) Apparently "Nodes" are the entries you see in ISY devices screen. There are three nodes for the MS II: Motion, Tamper and Enabled. I added the Motion node to my lighting scene as a Controller/Responder configured to Report: ON/OFF. Works as I have described in Item (2) above. Any change you make to the Config Screen above, or pushing the "Calibrate Temperature" or "Beep" or Query buttons on the Motion node screen requires you to put the MS II in linking mode. To do that, push and hold the Set button for five seconds (beeps and starts green blinking on two second intervals). You may have to right click the node and select "Write updates to Device" to actually get changes installed in the sensor. Then, to go back to operational status, push the set button once (MS double blinks every 2 seconds), then push the Set button again (no blinking unless motion is detected). You may want to review another thread I started here: https://forum.universal-devices.com/topic/25915-configuring-a-wireless-sensor-via-portal-access/?tab=comments#comment-259246 kclenden helped me understand a lot of this.