mwester

As with so many things in life, the answer is a definite "It depends"... and the answer to the logical next question ("So, what is it that it depends on, then?") is "Way too many things for anyone to be able to determine without trying it". I have no issues with my z-wave devices -- 50+ feet in every direction from the ISY, with no failures that I've ever observed. I have only one secure device (a garage door opener), and I purchased the Aeon siren just in case. But the optimum routing calculated by the ISY is direct to the GDO; the siren isn't necessary. (So I'm glad I bought the siren -- not only does it work far, far better than the repeater, but it's also useful as an alert device.) As far as I can tell from the ISY, nothing in the entire house actually gets repeated by any other device; everything claims to go direct to the ISY. To be fair, I have no other 900MHz devices in this house, and my nearest neighbor is 1/8 of a mile away (and they go "mooo" -- the people are further still). So I have no RF interference to worry about, and I expect that accounts for the excellent range I get. You might try unplugging baby monitors, old cordless phones, and searching for things like remote-control-extenders, etc, that use the 900MHz band. Signal strength is also attenuated by building materials. Metal is (of course) the worst, so a door lock that's on a solid steel door in a steel door-frame is already starting from way behind in terms of signal -- try placing your siren so it is directly in front of the door (rather than off to one side or the other. To a lesser extent, masonry and old plaster can also reduce the signal -- as can drywall, although one or two layers of drywall is hardly going to matter at 900 MHz, frankly.

Alas, the way the Syncrolinc is wired internally means that if the sump pump's startup surge (or other event) blows the fuse, then the Syncrolinc itself is dead. There is no heartbeat, and trying to query it to find out if it was in a "not responding" state was unreliable -- but more importantly, even if I managed to get a message out to me that the Syncrolinc had failed, that doesn't help me much -- the pump isn't pumping, and if I'm not there to fix it, well, then the "stuff" hits the fan, so to speak... The right solution is to use a transformer-based current sensor, not a Syncrolinc.

Please make sure you have a backup sump pump if you are using the Syncrolinc. The Syncrolinc is an "intrusive" rather than non-intrusive transformer-based current-monitoring device. More specifically, rather than using a current-sensing core that simple goes around the conductor to your sump pump, it actually inserts components into that conductor -- one of which is a fuse. That sounds nice (hey, who doesn't want a fuse?) but it basically adds another failure-point for your sump pump. I know this because I tried to use a Syncrolinc for the same purpose you describe here (except my pump was a septic tank lift pump). And I know about the fuse from experience as well. (I now use a proper non-intrusive current sensor with an IOLinc.)

I use the Aeon Labs multisensors (z-wave) for this purpose.

Counter-intuitive though it might seem, a firmware upgrade does not upgrade the UI. You have to download and install that separately (though you can download the UI app from either UDI's web site or from your ISY once you've upgraded it).

To be completely accurate, that merely indicates that SmartHome cares about customer service, not that they care about quality. The two are linked, but I would agree with the sentiment of the original poster -- it's not obvious to me that SmartHome really understands that if they addressed the quality issues, they would have fewer customer service issues. As a case in point, I'd suggest taking at look at the long-standing issue with the PLM. If that's not enough, consider something that takes no hardware whatsoever -- the issue where SmartHome failed to provide UDI with the API for the alarm device. No company is perfect, but SmartHome's products are certainly below the average expectation for consumer-level devices these days in terms of longevity and reliability.

Is it fair to say, then, that the tags do not function well when attached (or very close to) large metal objects -- but they do work ok at large distances, or when shielded by masonry or plaster? Can someone try placing the tag on a non-metallic object inside said mailbox? It may be that close proximity to large amounts of metal is causing the RF transmitter (or receiver) to de-tune. Worth a try...

Alas, the syncrolinc has a few, um, "challenges". One is that with the ISY, the settings panel won't let you set current ranges beyond the very lowest end. I don't remember the exact figure, but I do recall that the problem is that the ISY truncated the value when it shouldn't have. Perhaps this is fixed with later releases, I don't know -- I retired both my syncrolincs. I was able to work around the aforementioned problem by using the "set" button technique to set the threshold instead of the ISY. Another problem is that the syncrolinc doesn't use a current transformer, but rather uses a very-low-value resistor -- and that requires that the device be fused. After my pump blew that fuse, and ceased working, I decided that was a completely unacceptable failure mode, and replaced the syncrolinc with a current-transducer and an IOLinc. The final problem is that the pump, when starting, generated a lot of electrical noise -- so until I wired in a big 20-amp X10 noise filter the ISY would only sometimes get the signal from the syncrolinc when the pump started. (I tried a filterlinc, but that is also fused - see the previous paragraph for that problem!) I'd recommend a current-operated switch, and an IOLinc instead. Use the Syncrolinc only on things that you don't care if they don't work.

Based on comments elsewhere in this thread, the newer Insteon PLMs appear to have higher value capacitors, but alas, there's no indication that they are any higher quality (same manufacturer, same type, same physical size, just higher capacitance). I, for one, am highly skeptical of their claim that the problem is fixed.

BTW, the "<>" icon in the toolbar when you post will format the selected text as code, which will make it far, far more readable.

My syncrolinc gave me similar issues -- kept losing the links table. I was actually going to write a program on my RPi to contact the ISY periodically to query and correct the links table in it. Then I decided that was fixing the symptom, and I should fix the problem instead. (Plus, I blew the fuse inside the Syncrolinc, which was a completely unacceptable failure mode for the pump it was monitoring.) So, I now use an A/C current sensor (a few bucks on eBay) and an IOLinc instead. Much nicer. (Search for "Neilsen-Kuljian D150" on eBay, or just look for "Current Operated Switch")

Y'all are just plain wrong! Electrical tape, light-dims, and all that still leave the dang thing BLUE! Power lights are green. That's the long and the short of it. Not just too intense, but wrong color! (Are ya listening, UDI?! Green! Make 'em green!)

BTW, once you complete this project, can you share your results? Specifically the resistor value you selected, and any tips for other interested folks who might like to try this? I'd like very much to get rid of the chunk of black electrical tape on mine -- which was my solution to that intense blue laser-beam emitted by the ISY. Dunno why manufacturers fell in love with those horrible blue leds; the soft green ones worked just fine and were far easier on the eyes.

Fire danger in basements is no greater than anywhere else - and egress windows/walk-out basements address exit requirements. Bronchitis? How? Proper HVAC installation ensures air quality is no different on any floor. CO2? See above. Radon? Tested, none here. Last house had a radon reduction system installed. Problem solved. SADS? How is the basement more dangerous? illegal? Say what? Is that what the Canadian government has been up to? Making laws about what floor is habitable? Good grief, talk about government overreach! Anyway, to help you stay on topic, why not just imagine that the OP wants a night light because his root cellar / freezer is down there, and it would help in those midnight snack runs!

Well, not yet. Once the 5.x release is out, cross-technology scenes will be available between Insteon, z-wave, and node-server-based devices (which would be one of the options for supporting the Hue). For now, though, you'll need programs and network resources.

There's no evidence that the capacitors are "higher rated" - just reports that they are higher capacity.

Ok, you're right -- "Enable Internet Access" is a poorly-named menu item that does not do what the name suggests. And even worse, what it DOES do is not supported by most current routers any more. And you're right about the Help/About text -- it too should not read "Internet Access Disabled", but should probably say something about your router not supporting UPNP. But since portal access has nothing whatsoever to do with either of those two items, just forget about those. The portal works in the OPPOSITE direction -- my.isy.io does NOT contact your ISY, rather it is your ISY that connects OUTWARD to the my.isy.io portal, and establishes the connection. So that message is telling you that your ISY has not contacted the portal. Which has nothing to do with the ability for you or anyone else to connect INWARD to your ISY from the internet. Since your ISY is responsible for establishing the connection to the portal, not the other way around, the error logs and information to debug this are on your ISY. The error logs, as MWareman suggested, are a good place to start. When mine refused to connect, it turned out that the problem was exactly as suggested -- the cipher set on my ISY was incorrect, and it was unable to establish a secure connection to the portal until I fixed it. The logs on your ISY tell the story.

Yes - the suggestion is to get a thermostat. It's the right tool for the job. Yes, we understand that you have a multisensor, and it has a temperature sensor in it. However, a thermostat does a lot more than just read temperatures, and that's where you're getting stuck on this thread -- all those other "bits" are hard to do. By analogy, I have several bicycle wheels in my garage. I want an automobile to drive to work this winter. But I don't want to buy one, because I already have four bicycle wheels, and all I want is to know how to put the rest of the car on top of those wheels. Clearly there's a lot more to making a car than just four wheels. And there's a lot more to a thermostat than a temperature sensor. So just buy a thermostat, and be happy! The right tool for the right job.

Er, three PLMs? Yeah, I'd agree that it's probably not the PLM. So, how about the cable? Head off to Best Buy or Walmart, and get a new network cable to use between the PLM and the ISY. And take a flashlight and check inside the female connectors for the serial cable -- might it be that there's a bit of stuff that got shoved in there that's preventing one of the pins from making contact (yes, that happens -- I'm embarrassed to say I spent an hour and disassembled much of a device a couple of weeks ago, just to find one of those little plastic "Made in Taiwan" stickers had ended up stuck in the female connector) Might it be the ISY? You haven't swapped that - and I think there's probably more debugging to do before you go there - but that's another thing in common that needs to be checked out. For that, the best thing to do is to do as stusviews suggests above - avail yourself of UDI's excellent tech support.

Generally (but not always) the green led is either dim or off when the PLM fails in the common (capacitor-failure) manner.

Expanding on Brian's excellent advice -- I use that same list to keep track of each unexpected event for each device, for example, each time I was forced to do a hardware reset on the device, or was forced to reload the links table to restore the device to operation. That's helped me identify with certainty a failing or troubled device (most useful for locations such as my kitchen, where I have multiple 3-gang switchplates full of Insteon devices, making it very difficult to remember exactly if the KPL that needs to be reset is the same one that needed resetting last spring, etc.)

Looks like the control with that one (C34) is a computer-based control -- so the wires are probably power and ground for the control unit, data-in, and data-out. There's no simple switch or relay that'll control that thing.

Er... you really do need to post manufacturer and model numbers (for both exchanger and the controller) for anyone to be able to help you out...

Awesome! Thanks!

??? What am I missing here -- what's the problem with engineered lumber?