larryllix

Well I got my GH minis working again. They still suck due to any duplicated words activating all of them but.... In a last ditch effort before scrapping the GH minis, I.... deleted everything google from the ISY Portal. deleted all my GH Minis from the GH app. deleted my Google account from the GH app. deleted the GH app from my Android mobile factory reset all the GH minis reloaded the GH app and connected to my google account setup one GH mini linked the GH app to UDI ISY Portal. It refused as there was no Google components installed. built a Google Home vocal table in ISY Portal with just a few devices to test linked GH app to UDI ISY Portal - success again. attempted to download vocals from ISY Portal to GH and received the same "No permission for this account", as before. devices appeared in the GH app!! Now I can actually download the vocal table changes from the ISY Portal despite the GH "permission denied" message every time. This must be a a bug in the ISY Portal. There is no other explanation for this but why me? ISY Portal accepts the connection and allows every vocal command through from GH, downloads all vocals back into GH successfully, but incorrectly messages "permission failure" each time.

That kind of disproves any theory of the PLM going bad then. It seems to point fault back to the closet dual band device that was handling the RF conversion.

I would order a spare PLM later due to constant tech improvements. Also you want to swap in the replacement so that you have a tested spare. Nothing worse than holding on to something for a few years only to find it is defective after the warranty is up and you are in desperate need at that moment.

Sounds like a failing PLM.

Weird! Something jamming the RF signals? Get an AM radio and see if there is lots of radio noise on it. Try an FM radio between stations too.

Welcome to the forums!! Some things to try - Power cycle your ISY and PLM making sure the PLM is well powered up before powering up ISY - Try the linking button on any MS to see if you can force an update. Try seven rapid taps on the linking button to force a Dark/Light update. - Try plugging in a dual and device in the same receptacle or next one in the chain to the PLM. Change it's position On/Of to see if the PLM receives it. - In admin console try the PLM link count a few times and see if it is consistent with no interrupting Insteon traffic. - Turn off a l breakers at the panel except the one with ISY and PLM and repeat the close device items above. Looking for electrical noise Do all of your 120Vac devices report statuses OK? Can you control them from the admin console? How old is your PLM? Have you tried to factory rest any of the devices and restore them from the admin console?

A/C is usually a 240 Vac load so the bad neutral connections doesn't apply for this research.

Have you checked the voltage balance between your phase legs of you service? This should be done with a heavy load on one phase only. In the utility we found bad neutral connections frequently and the bad thing is the ground carries the neutral current sometimes quite well. Other times it allows the voltage to vary all over the place. On top of that it can introduce nasty noises in the lines as arcing and induction from other house/businesses load also travel through the ground. As a simplified test I would measure the voltage to neutral on one phase and then plug a 1200-1500 watt 120vac heater on the other phase and see if the first voltage rises. Another slippery trick is to place a clamp-on ammeter around the copper pipe from the water heater / meter going out to the street. If you get more than a very slight current you likely have a bad neutral connection and that can make noise and may give you pokes in the tub. Another indicator is some lights usually brighten or dim when other loads are turned on.

I use this one along with a CAI Webcontrol 8 board, with it's built in counter. It's Rest output registers transmits directly transmit into ISY registers or you could use a NodelInk bridging software on a RPi. After setup I tossed the electronics supplied with it. I mounted it at the top of a 3" CPVC pipe strapped to the gable end of my shop and ran the cable inside the pipe to the bottom. The WC8 board also has 1-wire interface that can supply temperatures to ISY. https://www.amazon.ca/Pole-Mount-Anemometer-by-Inspeed/dp/B0034ULB74/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1526348111&sr=8-10&keywords=anemometer

Yup. 1.5V. I just confirmed mine. I didn't know there was such a thing as 1.5v lithium cells. My bad.

IS will not parse a response so depending on what you mean by a "webcall" it isn't going to happen. You can send various TCP and UDP protocols but other than recieveing a 200 or 400 style code, no.

IIRC the lithium batteries were 3 volts. Alkaline and zinc carbon are 1.5v. Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk

Did you measure the voltage of the new battery before installation? What does a new battery measure at? Where did you get the batteries for the LDs?

No idea there. I do not have one (yet?). but I see the Molex connector pins and they just pull straight out. Pry one end with a plastic tool until it moves slightly. The danger here, is you pull straight up and one end lets go, bending the pins on the opposite end. Crack the bond at both ends first and then pull straight up. Actually, to prove the problem you can just left each end 1/32" and then push back down, wiping the contact surfaces. If it works, this is the problem. Less risk and should prove the process before getting too technical. Keep your body and hands static discharged, without wool or nylon clothing. I usually ignore that advice and use equipotential techniques. That means one hand is kept in contact with the PCB ground plane at all times. No differences in voltage can be present = no static zaps of the electronics. Then let go of the big PCB foil on the edge last. I assume you are somewhat electronics experienced.

Bad Zwave board or even those Molex connectors I saw on the edge of the board oxidising? People using SS-50 bus (SWTP) computers years ago, would lose their stuff seeing those used again. If the firmware constantly tries to access the Zwave board unsuccessfully this may explain the sluggishness. Take the board out, wipe the pins down with good alcohol or contact cleaner, and plug back in. EDIT: LOL. I just noticed your location...salt water atmosphere? If the above works, wipe a very fine thin silicone grease (spray on a clean rag) on the pins before re-insertion EDIT2: Do NOT hot plug or unplug this board!!

Also, as a troubleshooting tool, the admin console has a search function you can use on your programs to search for a particular device, variable, or even a raw piece of text. This can assist with finding the usage of a device in some old progam from ages ago, you may have forgotten about.

What type of dimming / switching mechanism is controlling them? IIRC Insteon bulbs will turn on with every power blink. Many other controllers do this as well. This was to accommodate the people that want to be able to switch the bulb on from the wall switch by power cycling at the switch. My Hue bulbs do that (grrrrrrrr..) but I have programs in ISY to shut them down upon booting up. You just have to stare into a room with a few hundred watts of LED white light for a few minutes in the middle of the night after each power failure.... frequently in the rural. Some bulb types are now user-programmable for what they will do in a power blink. EDIT: I see you are using a KPL and this probably doesn't apply. Have you checked your programs looking for ones that are set to "Run at Startup"?

ahhhhh..Good point! Never thought of it that way.

UDI reported they investigated using an RPi for ISY in the future but there are some licensing concerns that inhibited the idea from developing any further. It seems RPi isn't as open as people think.

It was announced over your Amazon devices a few days ago. Perhaps you were not there to hear it?

An easy remember could be based on one hour. The percent is a bit of a turnoff but...... Alexa turn on sprinkler to 20% = 20% x 60 minutes = 12 minutes.

We always tried to keep the design EEs in the closet. Usually two different coloured pencils could keep them out of trouble, Everytime they got out there was trouble and we had to call the EE control to net them again. To be fair, troubleshooting is not their training or experience, typically and we relied on some of them to haggle with management financial types over what colour RAM should be installed in the new systems. (Hint! The blue ones have slipperier electrons, making them much higher speed) IIRC Insteon was designed around dimmer noise. Based on X10 they changed the signal from the front porch after the powerline zero crossing to the back porch. This was to avoid the dimmer noise on the voltage rise up where dimmer switches switch, and onto the voltage drop down just before the zero crossing where most powerline waveforms are quieter. This has it's own challenges. ie. The sinewave frequency has to be known (N.Am. vs Oz. and Euro, accent dependant :)) and it has to be timed from the previous zero crossing. 2nd harmonics can shift the zero crossing making timing problems. These are huge in HID lighting (sodium vapour, mercury vapour). 3rd harmonics can do the same but can't remember where you would get them anymore, except from electronic powers supplies. Switching powers supplies can produce all different problems depending on how they rough control the higher voltage input. In the end the simulcast broadcast repeat has it's own problems. They all have to be synchronised to not cause cancellations and if each Insteon repeating device has a different zero crossing distortion device near it, they can make their own problems with each other. ahhh new feature! Mesh lock. When you get one that worked, press the button is an S-O-S pattern.

OP stated "incandescent" but Yes. LEDs can be a huge problem with dimmers. I think we are hearing less and less of that with newer bulbs here though.

Just reading your OP and this sounds like you have a tuned circuit on that leg that the noise being generated (somewhere) causes a resonance at that tuned frequency. I worked in metering for years and we found certain customers at the end of 14kV lines would blow high voltage fuses on the metering transformers twice per year. Once a new high-voltage customer was added to the end of the line the problem would typically go away. Some electrical noise will resonate in certain length of line and load combinations that tend to amplify the noise and it will focus on one spot as seen by standing wave demo tanks where the reflected waves synchronise in one particular place. ie. where the amplitudes become additive. As an experiment you could try adding a temporary piece of NMD 14/2 cable onto the end of the circuit (hanging in the air or on the floor) to see if you can change the tuning of this circuit. Alternatively plug in a heavy load on a receptacle in the same circuit and see if you can change the whole dynamic. Good luck. It sounds like your troubleshooting is better than your EE and electrician.

I believe Benoit, writer of the ISY Portal here, opened a ticket with GH a month ago or longer, , and has heard nothing back either. My GH app accepts the account and connects to my ISY Portal and sends through my vocal commands (as best as two words out of each vocal can function) but the reciprocal direction doesn't work for me. I believe GH has to reset my permission between ISY Portal and GH. GH seems to be refusing my ISY Portal (one direction only) and so far GH support is being stupid about it. Yeah, now that Alexa units are acting as smart as GH units, without ISY access, they are mostly useless now. After a week of trying to reset everything and start over a dozen times I gave up. I may try some more again using a new account. I am planning to give them away to somebody that uses their direct cloud connections only to home devices.