whywork

Hi, Uninstalled UD Mobile on Pixel 4a. Reinstalled UD Mobile on Pixel 4a. All seems good. No worries

Hi, I use and enjoy ISY every day; think forum and tech support are best in class. But - Geofencing is frustrating me. Can't get it to work, broke my UDImobile sync and don't understand "architecture/framework" to fix it. Running ISY 5.3.3 and UD Mobile 0.63 on Pixel 4a. UDI Mobile was working well for weeks, connected through portal and syncing/controlling devices remote and local. Good. Thought - let's try Geofencing. Looked at wiki instructions https://wiki.universal-devices.com/index.php?title=ISY_Portal_Node_Server_Occupancy_V2_%26_UDI_Mobile_app_Instructions Last updated - This page was last modified on 27 August 2018, at 23:51. This seems like a recipe/list - but did not help me understand what was happening in the background (architecture). Tried to add geofence, kept getting error that plugin had not been installed? No mention on instruction page that magic plugin needed to be installed first. OK - installed plugin. Added geofence - Home. Added device - Pixel4a. HAH now have TWO Geofence locations listed 1) Home (no key) 2) Home/Pixel4a with two long string key identifiers. OK lets move on. Time to link my Pixel4a - Reading instructions inside help of UDmobile - In order to configure "UDI Mobile" in your mobile device, choose a "Mobile Device" in ISY Portal list and click on in "Linked" column. This will give you a 6-digit Pin that you have to enter the first time you open "UDI Mobile" in order to Link your mobile device with ISY Portal, then the app will obtain all geofences assigned for this mobile device and (if allowed) let you edit geofence data. From this point, the app will report to ISY portal each time mobile device enters "o" (typo) leaves each geofence. I generate 6 digit pin on portal. Open UDI mobile on my Pixel4a; search and search for place to put pin. Close UDI mobile. Open UDI mobile. Look in settings, look under Dashboard Manage modules, Configuration Portals - Nowhere could I find a place to put in a six digit pin. Maybe I need to logout UDI Mobile from portal. Find logout from Portal and logout. Close UDI Mobile and reopen UDI Mobile BIG MISTAKE! Try to log back in - use my portal email and password. Get prompted to sync with portal BUT it wants me to name the ISY device. My ISY in the portal is named, "MyHome." I try MyHome but get told that "database error" and after a few more attempts I give the name MyHome2. Seems to connect and sync all devices and programs. Wait - wasn't the whole idea to get prompted for a 6 digit pin to enable geofence? Never asked for 6 digit pin. Worse - I now have TWO "locations" on home screen of "MyHome" and "MyHome2" - OK lets move along. No, I now receive repeated popup error messages - UD Subscription Status - MyHome ERROR: No Portal is linked to system System Name:... So: No geofence Two instances of my ISY device 1) MyHome 2)MyHome2 and MyHome seems unlinked and unhappy No clue as to what the overarching architecture/framework is to try understand to fix the situation I think that ISY is great, but this challenge in annoying me. Suggestions?

I use and enjoy my ISY devices every day. Thank you for the iOS and android apps. They are working great for me. One comment on my initial did-not-read-the-instructions setup: While I do have an active portal account, I first tried connecting via local fixed ip and also non-certified external domain name. Both failed with cryptic messages about java and ssl certs. When I switched to using my ISY portal, everything was smooth and fast. I did some cursory forum investigating and it seems like certs are required and java has its own issues. Bottom line - better warnings/error messages could have steered me to ISY portal settings first. I am more than happy to continue my portal subscription - point out how it helps me so I won't waste time with local/remote settings. Another though about "syncing" - Downloading ISY information was pretty fast but took around 45 seconds. Refreshing information took another 45 seconds. I use the now retired MobilincPro apps. They have a "sync all" and a "sync new/updated" mode. Sync all downloads everything from scratch, sync new just downloads updated ISY information and is really, really fast - 5 seconds. Hope ISY apps could have a sync updated mode for faster syncs. Again, great work on the apps. Thanks

5.2.0 RC3 - broke my z wave Yale locks - looking for help with finding "simple" fix. I use and enjoy my ISY Pro with 500 Zwave every day. Have about 20 insteon and 10 zwave devices in long stable system/network. Updated to 5.2.0 RC3 (from 5.16) and my zwave Yale locks started working differently - no longer giving status updates in admin console, no longer accepting changes to parameters (for example setting user keypad codes) and generating error messages like "can't communicate." Other z wave devices seem OK. Weird Yale lock behavior - Yale locks DO unlock/lock by admin console direct command AND Yale locks DO unlock/lock by programs (like lock all doors at 11PM). However, Admin console may or may not reflect status even after query of device. So the Yale locks sort-of-work. Tried to heal z wave network(find/update neighbors) and tried syncing nodes. No changes in weird yale lock behavior. I have no other "simple" ideas. I guess that excluding and re-including yale locks will fix the problem - at the cost of creating yet another new zwave device with incremental "magic" number and having to find and fix all programs and references to "old" yale locks. Life is short and not sure I want to have to revisit iSY programs I wrote years ago. Any suggestions on simpler fixes? Thanks

Hi, Thanks for reply. Ah! Have to select one particular z wave device first, then can heal entire network.

Hi, I use and enjoy my ISY every day. After upgrading to 5.2.0 (RC3) Z Wave "heal network" option is missing from Z Wave menu. Cleared Java cash, UI and firmware 5.2. Cold boot of ISY 994i Pro. No change. Also can't find shift primary z wave controller or upgrade z wave firmware. Did "heal" get moved? Suggestions?

Hi 144kHz North America Enphase PLC is what I am dealing with - Installation is in New Hampshire The "110kHz communication signal (144kHz in North America)" was quoted from an Enphase Communication Troubleshooting PDF Funny you mention The Energy Detective {TED}. I have TED at the same location and needed to isolate the circuit with the TED Hub using an X10 PRO Wired-In Noise Filter, 20A, 3-Wire. Hope this is helpful

Hi, This is an FYI about my experience with resolving Enphase Power Line Communication and Insteon interference Short story: Installed Enphase Solar Panels and could never get energy reporting through Enphase equipment to work - Installed PZZ01 X-10 Passive Blocking Filter in Enphase circuit panel and all (Enphase and Insteon) now working Long story: ISY controlling Insteon and Z wave devices. Detached garage with Insteon and Z wave. Added 24 Panel Enphase Solar Energy System on roof of garage. Solar panels produced electricity but individual micro inverters never communicated to Enphase controller in circuit panel. Unable to record/view solar production via Enphase App and Website. ISY, Insteon and Z wave were still working OK. "The Enphase Envoy™ communicates with Enphase Microinverters over the AC electrical conductors using a 110kHz communication signal (144kHz in North America). This technology is known as Power Line Communication, or PLC. It is widely used in networking (Ethernet bridges or HomePlugs) and home automation applications (X10 for example)." Local Solar installer had never dealt with Insteon. Enphase head office gave sparse advice. Recommended Legrand 003609 Phase Filter 63A 400 V seems unavailable. Toroid filters - (Ferrite) Ring Products: R 41.8 × 26.2 × 12.5 – EPCOS/TDK B64290L0022X087 or EPCOS/TDK B64290L0022X830 , R 50.0 × 30.0 × 20.0 – EPCOS/TDK B64290L0082X087 or EPCOS/TDK B64290L0082X830 equally hard to find. Months of inaction. I purchased one PZZ01 X-10 Passive Blocking Filter new old stock on ebay for approximately $20 shipped. Installed inside Enphase circuit panel according to instructions. All working Related information on ISY forums Enphase M250 micro inverters and insteon Hope this is helpful. (Sorry, I thought I was posting this to INSTEON Communications Issues subforum)

My Zwave dongle upgrade to 500.x went well. Cold booted ISY (belt and suspenders) 5.0.13A Backed up ISY and Zwave - 40 minutes Installed new Zwave Dongle. Restored All insteon and zwave devices recognized (including two yale and one kwikset secure locks). One bug/anomaly - Z wave version reports: Library Static Controller z-Wave Version 6.81.00 Bootloader Version 0.0 Zero.Zero??? I use and enjoy my ISY every day.

Meh! /rant on Only ONE harmony hub can be linked. (I have one upstairs and one downstairs). Talk about NOT making it a no-brainer to buy more harmony hubs. Can only control one SCENE/ACTIVITY at a time. Want to turn on the TV and then decide to lower the shades - can't unless the activity has shades closing automatically anyway. Not granular enough. I had already ditched the included harmony remotes and just use the Logitech Harmony app on my iPad, etc. to issue individual commands. I see no way to do this with voice control without manually creating lots and lots of individual activities. (power on, power off, switch to input 2, volume up, volume down) Worst still. The logitech support site recently (a couple of months ago) changed from a standard web forum site, to a new-and-improved social networking site - there is no ability to see/find threads from the past, when you back out of a particular discussion, you are sent back to the "home page" showing the last five "discussions". If I were cynical, I would say Logitech implemented this change to make it harder for users to request and get support. /rant off Lots of promise. Could have been great. I can't see Logitech being successful here - anybody remember the Logitech Revue; another instance where Logitech was dependent on a third party? I hope I am misconstruing/misunderstanding how limited it currently is.

Hi Michel, Aha! I had not seen that post. Thanks.

Hi, I use and enjoy my ISY every day. Now that UDI has added the portal, echo integration and cloud access, I have even more to enjoy every day. I'd like to make a suggestion. Please have a "pinned" message on the forum (or some other constant location) that gives some details about the current portal version, what changes have been made, and if the portal is 'up." I am careful to choose when to upgrade/update my ISY firmware when I can monitor and potentially detect changes im my ISY system behavior. Michel does a great job of documenting firmware versions, and what has changed. The other day, my ISY with Echo integration was working, and the next it was not. It turns out that changes to the portal had broken some things. While it was easy to fix, and I got great help from the forum and Michel, I had no idea that the portal had changed, Nor did I know in any documented way, what had changed util I asked on the forum. While the cloud offers the ability to rapidly roll out improvements to end users, without great documentation, challenges can arise. I really like the echo integration. Please think about providing version information, release notes and availability status. This information is a great selling point to end users who depend on ISY 24hr functionality. Thanks

Hi, Thanks. Everything is working now. I appreciate the input from forum members and of course the great support from Michel. This begs the question of Portal/Echo release notes, versioning, and availability status. (see my other post)

Hi, I use and enjoy my ISY every day. Running 4.3.26 with ISY Portal/Echo. All was working OK for a week or two. Suddenly, when I told Echo to turn off "living room," Echo complained that I had more than one device named "living room." Well, I have a scene, living room, with some devices named like living room floor light, living room sconce light, etc. But that had always worked before, and it turned off all the devices. Now Echo won't obey me. The plot thickens, I had just moved out an old appliancelinc and replaced it with a lamplinc in the living room scene. I had run "re-discover" devices, Echo found 80, and tried again. Still Echo complained about more than one device living room. I opened the Echo app on my iPad and noticed that there were 160 devices, each device was duplicated, and the duplicates were listed as "offline.". I decided to use the app function to "delete all devices." showed 0 and then rediscover. Now there were 80 devices, but under their name, in echo, it also says "undefined." Tried to turn off living room, and Echo still complains I have more than one living room device. So, I renamed each device to remove living room, thus living room floor light was renamed LR light, etc. The only "living room" on the ISY is the living room scene. I cold booted ISY and checked to make sure the LR name change had stuck Now with only a Living Room scene, and a freshly booted ISY, I used the echo app to delete all devices, shows 0, and re-discover. 80 devices found, but all the LR devices had their OLD Living Room name. YIKES! Also, while I have never entered, "spoken name," as I recall, the device name would show up and some message in the line below, now that line below says "undefined." I have rechecked and re-rebooted ISY. LR names are on the ISY. I have cold booted Amazon Echo, and re-re-deleted all devices via the app and then re-re-discoverd. Still the Echo finds devices with the OLD living room name, but not the new LR name. I waited a day and tried again. Still can't get the Echo to recognize the new names. How do the changed device names get propagated to Echo? AND I can' t turn off my living room via Echo because Echo thinks I have more than one living room device. Any suggestion? Thanks

I know ISY is GRRReat, but shouldn't the title of this sub forum be "ISY Portal," not "ISY Porrtal"?

Hi, I use and enjoy my ISY every day. Just installed ISY Portal and linked to Amazon Echo Alexa skill. Some observations and questions: 1) Same problem mentioned above: Single word vs Multi (space) words - Izzy turn on Living Room Light fails, "what device"- Rename Living Room to Main and Izzy turn on Main Light works = also renaming to LR, Izzy turn on "el" "ar" light works. Echo sometimes stumbles on Downstairs - Echo says "I can't find device "stairs"" 2) Does Echo/Izzy understand/use SCENES? I have scenes with names like Bedroom that turn on a couple of insteon devices - Izzy does not seem to ever respond to Bedroom, only individual devices in the Bedroom scene. It would be great to have IZZY work with scenes If scenes aren't supported - please give some generic examples of "workaround" programs that IZZY can use to turn on/off multiple devices and not require total re-write of existing programs. 3) Thanks for creating this sub forum just for IZZY - how about some stickies at the top with IZZY directions/setup/syntax for reference/noobies I have confidence this will be improved.

Thread Hijack - Anyone know why the micro on/off has both a yellow and purple sense wire? I haven't taken one apart, but it looks like both yellow and purple wire are connected together inside the micro on/off. Maybe they (yellow and purple) are to make it easier for a singe micro on/off to "insteonify"/automate a three way light bulb circuit with two standard three way wall switches?

Hi, I use and enjoy my ISY994i Pro every day. ISY support, and the members of this forum are great. I wanted to share my experience with integrating an Insteon Micro On/Off 2443-222 with a new “Outdoor High Power LED Motion-activated Security Light” Item #767697 from Costco. I had read several posts on the Internet, about how older incandescent motion/security lights worked OK but LED lights seemed to fail . When I wired up my LED fixture with a Micro On/Off, I encountered the problem that I could not get the LED’s to stay on – they flashed on and off every second or so. I read the informative post of m5bigdog, “Quest for a better Outdoor Motion Sensor.”http://forum.universal-devices.com/topic/12527-quest-for-a-better-outdoor-motion-sensor I then installed an inexpensive RC snubber/arc suppressor (purchased on ebay) in series across the motion sensor output/ yellow sense wire to neutral. This fixed the problem. Thanks m5bigdog! My LED motion security light is now both automatic and controllable via Insteon and in addition reports its motion sensor status to my ISY. Just what I was looking for. (I wonder if this “fix” might also work for the problematic Heath Zenith DualBrite Motion Security Lights – your mileage may vary).

Hi, Thanks. Yes - restore from backup solved problem. Wanting belt and suspenders, I did a device restore, too. Maybe not such a good idea. Now ISY complains that it can't write to my wireless smoke bridge; 1) any quick solutions to stopping ISY trying to write to the smoke bridge? 2) any way, in the future, to do device restore without writing to wireless devices Thanks

Hi, I use and enjoy my ISY 99i pro every day. I also appreciate both the great support from ISY and forum members. My system has worked fine until, today I had a problem backing it up with the "unable to read xxx.rec" file problem. I am looking for the best way forward. Running 4.1.0. Everything working OK. Had a few thunderstorms/loss of power in the last week but everything seemed to resume OK. I have a fairly recent ISY backup. Today I added a new Insteon dualband outdoorlinc. When I added the device (add and with delete links), ISY complained about not being able to read something (can't remember what). However, the device seemed added OK and I can turn it on and off via ISY. Here comes the problem. Then I tried to back up my ISY. It starts but then gets to 1ABF5D.REC and hangs. Finally complains can't read the .REC file and stops the backup. 1ABF5D is my 220V linc for controlling my hot water heater. I tried and can turn on and off the 1ABF5D via ISY. However, when I try to query to "show device link table" or "show ISY link table" both fail with unable to read /CONF/1ABF5D.REC. I removed/returned power to 1ABF5D, power cycled PLM and ISY and still no joy. Looking for help in fixing this problem with the fewest number of steps. Thanks,

Hi, FWIW - I found that my Wireless Thermostat 2441ZTH actually worked pretty well inside my 15 year old refrigerator, both the main compartment and freezer compartment. When I was troubleshooting intermittent results with a program to alert me to "low temps," I put my 2441ZTH in my refrigerator (and freezer) to create rapid temperature changes and force updates to my ISY. http://www.forum.universal-devices.com/ ... 22&start=0 I was surprised to find that the thermostat NEVER lost communication with my ISY/PLM even in when it was in the refrigerator. My refrigerator is about 5 feet from the nearest dual band insteon device and I can't tell if the front door is ALL Metal or some really hard plastic (not a true Faraday cage). Anyway, my thermostat was happy to record/report interior temperatures of my refrigerator for days on end. One final note: The Wireless Thermostat 2441ZTH stops displaying temperature on its front LCD at around 40 deg F and then shows a dash (I don't remember exact temp, may be 30, but as some point a dash appears). However, at the same time, the 2441ZTH was happy continue to send my ISY temperatures down to at least 0 deg F (inside the freezer compartment). Not an endorsement as a "freezer monitor", but the 2441ZTH communicates reliably from inside my 15 year old refrigerator.

Hi, I'd like some more programming lessons/advice, please. I want to (when it is dark outside) to turn on my kitchen light to 25% when motion is detected in my kitchen and then turn the light off, after a few minutes (for when I get up to sneak some desert from the refrigerator late at night). However, if the kitchen light is already on (at any brightness) I don' t want the motion detection, to change the light (leave it alone, don't brighten or dim, or turn off). I have an ISY994i with a 2474DWH dimmer and a 2842-222 motion detector. Here are the programs I have created: Kitchen Motion Detection If From Sunset To Sunrise (next day) And Control '3 Motion-Sensor Kit' is switched On And Control 'Kitchen Island Light' is not switched On Then Run Program 'KitchenIslandTimer' (Then Path) Else - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action') KitchenIslandTimer If Status 'Kitchen Island Light' < 1% Then Set 'Kitchen Island Light' 25% Wait 2 minutes Set 'Kitchen Island Light' Off Else - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action') This works great to: 1) Turn on Light to 25% when I walk in the kitchen 2) Turn off Light two minutes after I leave. However – there is a problem; since I usually walk into the kitchen to turn on the light 1) The motion detector turns on the light, first/before I can touch the dimmer switch 2) And I then physically turn on the light to a different brightness 3) After two minutes, the light gets turned off I see why this happens because of my poor programming, but how can I get what I want, to avoid the shutoff after two minutes? Any thoughts appreciated.

DOH! I should have been able to see that. Thanks.

Hi, I have a "simple" program that does not behave the way I expected. I have a Hot Water heater controlled by a 2477SA2 /ISY 4.05 in a "cabin" that is mostly OFF. I wanted use even less electricity, by having a program that made sure the hot water was off at night. If Status 'Hot Water' is On And Time is 1:00:00AM Then Set 'Hot Water' Off Wait 3 hours and 30 minutes Set 'Hot Water' On Else - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action') What I expected - If I had turned on the hot water heater, it would turn off at 1 AM and then turn on at 4:30 AM. Also if the hot water heater was not ON, then nothing would change. What happens - The hot water heater turns off at 1 AM and does NOT turn on at 4:30 AM My questions: 1) Why does my program "not work"? 2) Is there a better way to accomplish my goal. Thanks for your help and my education.

Hi, After some weeks away, I returned to my ISY installation. RF COMMUNICATION Before I took a look at the wireless thermostat "non reporting" issues, I installed a new dual band switchlinc 2477D in a room approximately 50 feet from the wireless thermostat. I added the switchlinc to my ISY and just for fun, cold booted my ISY. MAGIC - (or something like magic) - It works; the Wireless Thermostat reported its complete status almost immediately to ISY. So - it seems like my wireless thermostat to ISY communication problems were related to poor RF communications all along. Thanks for all the help - LeeG in particular. (I never did examine the LEVEL 3 Insteon messages because everything is working well now).