terschen

First let me say that the ISY is fantastic! What an awesome combination of hard/software for Insteon. I'm very impressed, not only by the hard/software but also by the customer support UD provides here. Truly fantastic. I would like to understand more about how the "retries" capability functions for both the PLM ( Advanced / PLM Communication) and devices ( Show Advanced Properties / Device Communication) setting options for the ISY 994. The ISY manual does not go into detail of how these settings compare to the "native retries" of an Insteon network without an ISY in it, nor how they affect the "native retries" of an Insteon network with an ISY in it. There does however seem to be a fairly strong warning about using a retries setting other than 0 (ISY defaults this value to zero. Please note that excessive group cleanup signals degrade performance and may cause interference and unwanted behavior. As such, extreme care should be taken when deciding to change this value.) My network consists of ~125 Insteon devices. I am using an ISY 994i/IR Pro, firmware v4.0.5, UI v4.0.11. All of my devices have been "restored" via ISY so their internal link tables match ISY yet I always run my network with the ISY online as well. All of my PLM and scenes are set to 0 retries in ISY. I also use legacy X10 reliably throughout (filters/couplers/XTB-II etc...all the stuff needed to make X10 "reliable"...yuck) so every Insteon device/button also has an X10 address. I would say my Insteon network scene capability, when executed by a keypad button press, currently functions with about 95% reliability. Prior to introducing the ISY and the device restores I would have said it was 100% reliable. The 5% difference seems to be that previously the 5% (say 1 out of 20 scene executions) would have 1 or 2 devices on a large scene (say 50 devices) that might not respond immediately to the scene, but then respond a second or so later as native Insteon device "clean-up" took place. I'm not sure, but I don't think that native Insteon clean-up occurs any longer in my network because I have all my scene devices set to 0 retries (and restored devices), thus if some device doesn't receive the command the first time around, it doesn't respond to the scene. A subsequent press of the scene button on the keypad typically resolves "the slackers". So, I'm thinking I should likely set all of my scene devices in ISY to something like 1-3 retries (leaving the PLM retries at 0), but I'm not sure if that will do what I'm thinking it will or not...basically re-implement the same native Insteon "clean-up" that seemed to exist before I added in the ISY and restore device activities into my network. I don't want to "...degrade performance and may cause interference and unwanted behavior.", yet I want to get back to saying my network is 100% reliable with the ISY online. Can someone please advise me on the proper retries settings for my network (if that's possible), and/or provide a more detailed explanation of how the retries settings in ISY affect both devices AND scenes activated from within ISY AND locally at the device? Thanks a bunch!

Thanks Michel. I'll contact Smarthome tomorrow for a replacement PLM. Wow, failure after 1 week of use...not good! Based on many other posts regarding the 2413S, it sure seems like the PLM device has a very poor durability track record. I am really pleased with the ISY-994i/IR Pro and what I was able to do with it in a matter of days for my fairly complex Insteon network, but I'm afraid of the week link in the chain being the 2413S. Do you know if there are any other options other than the 2413S available or being planned? It's like I have a rock solid implementation with the ISY, yet a fragile implementation with the 2413S. Thanks again Michel.

After only two weeks in service, my new ISY and PLM (2413S v1. will not communicate with each other any longer. I had my config complete and working fine for about the last week, but today I decided to carefully move both devices to a separate outlet by my breaker panel (they were about 15' away and on a "busy" circuit next to my NAS drives) and I have not been able to get them to work together since. After boot, the Power and Rx lights are on constant for the ISY, LED is green constant for the PLM. When I moved them I think I disconnected the network cable, then the PLM and then power, which may have not been the proper sequence to follow, but I think I have tried everything possible since then to get them to work together again (checked cable/pins, different PLM cables...OEM and others all very short, reset PLM, reset ISY, different outlets, with/without network cable attached, correct connection sequence...PLM power then ISY power, etc.). The admin console comes up, shows ISY in Safe Mode since the ISY/PLM are not communicating. I also tried an ISY restore from a good backup, but still no luck (didn't restore devices since the ISY and PLM need to communicate with each other first). Any thoughts on what might be going on or things I can still try...or replace the ISY, PLM or both?