lilyoyo1

The 500 series is a suitable replacement for the 300 series. While you may need the external antenna with your current situation, you could also purchase a plastic door for your cabinet instead of using metal. That would allow you to use the internal board. When one is going through issues, problems seem bigger than what they really are and the grass seems greener on the other side....until you get to the other side. Sometimes though you have to jump the fence to find out for yourself. As someone who has used multiple hubs (and still continue to test from time to time), the ISY is still my go to hub. It's obviously far from perfect but once you get down to the nitty gritty, there's a reason why so many here haven't jumped ship to hubitat, HA, Smartthings, homeseer, and whatever else is out there. If anything, they'll use other systems to supplement what they are doing with the isy but overall the isy is still king for them. Regardless of what you use (in general, not you personally), all products have an EOL. I don't think UDI tries to be supportive due to shortcomings. I think they truly believe they have something great to offer and want to support those who have been willing to support them in their endeavors by purchasing and continuing to use their products. I say this often, had this been any other system, you would be stuck at 5.0.16 at the max with the 300 board. Most companies will force you to upgrade your whole system just to take advantage of UDI is doing for the cost of a board swap. Look at how many versions of homeseer, indigo, Smartthings, etc people has had to buy just to keep up with changing times! We complain because we are living through the changes as they happen at a minimal to no cost to us at all. UDI left alot of money on the table in support of it's users. They could've continued to sell the 300 series as is (up to 5.0.16c, certified the 500, change the pins slightly on the boards so it couldn't be backwards compatible and forced you into a new system (for full certification). That's how some companies operate. They could've released polisy with the isy (along with the 700 stick), and forced users to buy that outright. Instead, polyglot is free (without having to completely hack it) vs needing to make small payment for the rights to use it. I dont know if this changed your mind but hopefully the different perspective helps makes staying or fighting this battle a little bit easier to manage

I don't see the heavy lifting being reduced. If anything it's gotten heavier (due to the change out). 4.0 and 5.0 are simply that different

That's how alot of us got to where we are now with our choices

I agree with the Philips warm glow. While not perfect, I haven't seen the consistency across a product line like theirs. I wouldn't use hue for standard lighting. Besides the cost of retrofitting a whole house for them, it's not worth it overall for what you'll end up with once the novelty of changing colors wears off

@larryllix I guess another trying to get their post count up by copying you

Both. When using the insteon firmware, it doesn't matter whether the plm is disconnected, dead, or unplugged the Isy goes into safe mode

I've noticed this too after a reboot of either the router or ISY (mostly with Harmony). I think there's a handshake issue when the systems reconnect to one another

I've been using this node servers for a long time without having any issues with it (knock on wood)

I found out on accident once. I was pleasantly surprised. Subsequently Michel confirmed this in a post sometime later

The firmware doesn't impact insteon at all in regards to general use. Insteon would still work like normal while the plm is connected. The only thing the zwave only firmware did is prevents the isy from going into safe mode when the plm is unplugged. This would allow you to move your isy closer temporarily and add devices and move the isy back and hook up your plm like normal

Probably not. The issues you're reading about are with existing systems vs newer devices

Don't worry about topics causing debates. For me, debates are an exchange of ideas. Despite disagreements, both have pertinent points and the contradicting ideas only helps by given you multiple avenues to pursue a resolution. I generally look at any device more than 5 years to be older. Whole the protocol itself remains unchanged overall, there has been some enhancements added. Over the years, these enhancements add up enough to where the variables for operation can be different for the overall system. I wouldn't upgrade if things are working great for you (if everything is dual band). Minor issues can pop up with new and old alike. However, if you're using 10 year old devices such as the 2476, it's definitely worth upgrading. Cleaning your system is difficult and that hasn't changed much. The difference with newer devices are they are able to exist much better in a sub optimal environment. By default, I put filters on surge protectors/conditioners and power strips with multiple transformers plugged in. After that, I'll look at things on an individual basis such as microwaves and refrigerators which could potentially impact the system

You can run zwave without insteon. Simply use the zwave only firmware. Insteon will still work. Polisy has a wifi version which would allow you to carry it around. While that doesn't help you now, it will in the future once isy is ported over.

You're probably right since the 500 board isn't compatible with 4.0. I think support came around 5.0.13 or somewhere around there

The double tap is built into the protocol so that will happen regardless. With it needing to be purposeful, I wouldn't worry about it as much. The pro is the system will work without the isy should something happen. You also don't have to worry about slow downs should the isy be processing other events at that moment. I'd operate mine that way if it weren't for me being able to use the double tap feature to turn on the light and fan together with it

Whatever happened to him? Lol

Being that I've had the opportunity to work with the designers many times I'll go off what they say. What you say makes absolutely no sense. For insteon to be smart it's designers would have to be smart since they designed it. Insteon was designed first to be independent of a controller which is why things hops and so forth are built into the protocol itself. Because the RF is tied to the power line, it's more important to let insteon manage the hops because it knows a lot better than you what it sees and will manage the hops on its own. You trying to do so would only mean constantly trying to change things to improve when changes are dynamic when insteon does it on its own. As with retries, too many hops will cause more issues than it solves which is why they limit it. A controller constantly retrying things wouldn't help as it would simply cause unnecessary communication which probably wouldn't help. As most people on here say, a clean system is the best system regardless.

That's the firmware version. The bootloader is 0.00

Theres always going to be differences of opinion in the best way to maximize one's system. Lessening hops could lead to system instability and long term problems while lessening retries improves things. As I stated earlier, the white papers explains it all so I wont go into details here. The problem starts when we think we know more about whats going on than the system that was designed to operate a certain way. Insteon devices are smart enough to know what it needs to ensure proper communication (this is why they do not need a controller for communcication). It;'s this intelligence that allows you to look at the event viewer and see how many hops you have left. The system KNOWS when to send more or less. Trying to outsmart it by saying send only 1 hop means only 1 hop gets sent....What if you need more at any given moment? Retries on the other hand is redundant. If it doesnt work the first time, the likelihood of it working the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 100th time goes down each time. If something is stopping the signal its going to keep stopping it.

Anytime you upgrade, you must clear Java cache so that your UI and firmware matches

Hops is less of a worry with insteon due to how it works. Their white papers explains it in much better detail. The retries is the bigger issue. To cut down on communication slowing down/distrupting your network, they allow you to lessen the amount of retries that you need. For some things, a single retry may work while others may need 3. If you need 3 retries, you have comm issues that should be investigated and fixed (if possible). If you have a single retry and it works then your great.

There is no upgrade to the zwave firmware. It's been posted a few times on this forum that he'll has been removed and replaced with update neighbors

Nice write up. I do mine differently in that I leave my buttons in toggle mode and do not use a separate off button for the fans since turning the button (speed used) off will achieve the same thing. Opens up an extra button for something else. I also have an all off button which will turn off anything that's on in the room so it's redundant. I also don't make my devices controllers in the scenes itself. Everything is configured as responders. I use programs to trigger the fan speeds based off the button presses. This allows me to have a single press trigger the fan and a double press to trigger the fan and lights at the same time. The scenes themselves are still configured the same otherwise which allows app or voice control to sync and operate properly

I'd plan for the worse just in case. While your use case today is 1 thing, once set up, you may think of alot more that you may want to do with them over time.