franzmetcalf

Good idea: I'll tape the toggles. And I love your last phrase: it's so 21st century. It almost sounds like a spiritual aspiration.

lilyoyo1, as it turns out, I went back into the basement today for unrelated reasons, and I noticed a couple of previously ignored toggle switches in the box in which my new device sits. Just for fun I decided to toggle them the opposite way and use the new switch to try to turn on the lights. Darned if they didn't come on! What the heck those toggles are doing there, I don't know. And why I have this giant box I don't know, either. I reckon the installer put it there for future-proofing ten years ago. Oh, and why were the toggles toggled off? Again, no idea, but I'm pretty confident the lights will come on at sunset +10 minutes, this evening. Bottom line: simplest possible fix, ignored until every other possibility was exhausted. Typical! Franz

Sorry to rudely be bumping my own thread, but does perhaps sound like a hardware issues to you all? Hardware or software, I'd love a point toward a solution. Thanks, Franz

Thanks, lilyoyo1, I have a very simple setup with my PLM connecting to two exterior lighting areas. "East Yard Down Lights" is controlled by one dimmer switch. "Stairs, Landing, and Pergola" is controlled by the new switch I just installed, which is, in turn, controlled by "Front Keypad" with six buttons, which I also just installed. There is only one program. To be clear, "East Yard Down Lights" does come on; "Stairs, Landing, Pergola" does not. But perhaps a couple of pictures are worth a couple thousand words...

Hi all, I recently replaced a six button controller (seemingly successfully) and a responding simple non-dimming switch (also seemingly successfully). Everything seems to check out fine using the admin console. I can query the system and it looks good. All the links check out and communication between my PLM and all the devices, including the new ones, seems fine. The console even tells me I can successfully use the program to turn my exterior lights on and off. But...in reality, only some scenes in my system turn on at night. The scenes associated with my new switch (2477s) do not turn on, neither by the program, nor manually. I'm stumped and I have this feeling I'm neglecting something crushingly obvious. Can anyone suggest what that might be or some way to further diagnose the situation? Thanks, Franz

An update: I just went to the basement to check the device and found out to my embarrassment that it's a 2476S, yes S, not D. So it's a non-dimming switch. Sheesh, I am an idiot. Don't know why it reports as a 2876S, but it doesn't matter. I bought the wrong device and have no dimming on that part of my landscape lighting. Fine. I shall try to embrace EricK's viewpoint!

LeeG, I can add the device in the way you mention, but it adds as a 2876S. I did save the log when attempting to do so. I've searched it for 2476, 2876, 0x01, 0x02, and so on. None of those strings appear in the log, so I can't figure out how to interpret what device type is reporting in the log. The Insteon address is correct. That said, the "new" 2476D is not new. Bought it from eBay, pulled from a home. I believe I'll have to contact the seller. Should have forked over the $50 and bought a new one, it seems.

Hi all, Success! My new PLM arrived and it was pretty much plug and play, immediately communicating with my devices. So the old PLM died during the process of installing and setting up the new 2476D dimmer. Two simultaneous problems were what led to my confusion. Okay, honestly only partial success. I still have one problem: the new dimmer is being recognized by the ISY as a 2876S Icon On/Off Switch v.2C. I've deleted the device and added it back several times. Same result. I've been adding it via the "New Device" method. Even when I specify the device type as a 2476D, the app immediately relabels it a 2876S and refuses to implement dimming. To be clear, the device works, but just as a switch, not a dimmer. I've attempted to use its paddle to dim the lights manually, but this just turns the lights off. I suspect it's a bad 2476D that has lost its dimming function and thus defaults in the system to a simple on/off switch. Does that make sense? If so, I'll perhaps replace it. Either that or take EricK's advice and just let it switch on the lights at full.

The 99i supports the new 2476D that is replacing the old 2476D, so that doesn't explain the problem. But it is clear that I'm going to have to upgrade, eventually, to a 994. Still, with my very simple system, I'd prefer to keep the 99i as long as it's functioning, which I think it is as the Admin console tells me. It seems more likely it's the PLM that's gone down. It's statistically unlikely that it failed right when I was replacing and trying to link a dimmer, but it's certainly possible that that proved too much for its venerable circuitry. I'll let it sit and plug it in tomorrow and see if things have changed. Is the upgrade price to the 994 a really great deal? Meanwhile, my own venerable circuitry needs dinner. It's carnitas tostadas and the Oscars! (Very Angeleno.) Thanks for all your help in this troublshooting. I'll update things tomorrow. Oh, and EricK, I'm not sure why the installer put in the dimming function for landscape lighting, but now that's it's in, I find that I like the downlights at about 60% while the porch lights and pergola lights are at 100%, so for me it's worth getting this thing working again. Otherwise, to dim the downlights I'd have to go to the basement and the side yard every night. And I'd have to remember to turn them on at night and off in the morning. As I say, I'm too venerable for that!

@Brian: It's a 99i. Let me see if I can test as you suggest... Okay, we have a failed test. It's in a loop, returning the same failure notice. I quit it. What does this tell us? @Stu: Ah, I see you're in LA. So am I. That explains the rain—and thank goodness for it, blessed rain from heaven! Okay, back to my little troubles: the PLM is way past two years. Let's see, it says 2413S V1.0 0931 And my two Access Points say 2443 V2.1 1005 But the thing is that all these seemed to be functioning fine, yesterday. The chance that the whole network gave out at exactly the same time I messed with my ISY settings while installing a new SwitchLinc seems vanishingly small. I think I broke the network via software. I perhaps need to review the PLM manuals (thus far I've been looking at the ISY and SwitchLinc manuals). One bit of information: the ISY, with the PLM disconnected from both the network and power, still just has its power light on. According to the manual, it should have its RX light on. I will plug the PLM back in, as the manual suggests. Hmm, the PLM's LED light flashes just briefly as I plug in the PLM, then goes out and stays out. This does not seem right, contrary to my intuition that the problem is software related. Plugging and unplugging, the ISY lights do not change. Something is clearly wrong with one or both of the ISY and the PLM.

I have only these three devices; they run landscape lighting. It is a very modest little system. The devices are all seemingly working in terms of allowing the lights to work, but not in communicating with the ISY through the PLM network. "Write Updates to Device" goes through its progress bars, but nothing changes. This is so for all three devices. Yet the devices are functioning. I can turn all the lights on using the KeypadLinc (meaning those associated directly with it and those associated with the two SwitchLinc dimmers). I say this because it's now raining and I'm reluctant to go outside and test the wiring if the lights are clearly working. To me it seems as if the trouble is not in the three exterior devices, themselves, but in the PLM communication. I can't seem to find a way to test the PLM network, itself.

Stu, I did not do anything physically to the two existing devices (one KeypadLinc, one SwitchLinc); the third device I replaced. I've checked and the IDs for the first two devices are correct. The ID on the new SwitchLinc needs to change to the new SwitchLinc's ID. I've tried entering the IDs using the "New Insteon Device" function. On the existing two devices, the program simply flashes back to the Ready screen, possibly because those device are already linked. On the new device, the program slowly goes through the first 6% of a progress bar of adding the device, then gives me the error "Cannot determine Insteon engine." Here is some information from Diagnostics: • The PLM status shows "13.26.77 v92 / Connected" • PLM links table goes through a progress bar to 14% then stops and show a blank window. • For the two existing devices, "Show Device Links Table" returns "Failed reading device link" • For the new SwitchLinc the same test returns "Subscriber didn't reply to event" and "Failed reading device link" • Show ISY Links Table reuturns information I can share if it's important. The two existing devices' IDs appear. That's the latest.

Strange to me that the dimmer works upstream of the transformer. But that explains why you need the transformer to be designed to work in that manner. Anyway, in my case it is. Stu, yes, there are ! marks next to the devices. Sounds like that means something to you, which sounds good to me. The system was installed while we owned the home, but I had little to do with it and, at the time, my computer could not run the ISY Admin app, so I wasn't trained on it and am having to figure it out, now. Thus my ignorance.

Stu, thanks for the explanation of the relationship of the KeypadLinc and the SwitchLinc. I've just tested from the KeypadLinc and it does, indeed, control the whole scene. Which is nice because it can now be on when my wife comes home. Always good to please the wife! Starting up the ISY Admin utility, I get error windows for each of the three devices: "Cannot communicate with "[Device name here]" Then it gives the address of the device. Then it tells me to check connection. If I choose a device, go to Diagnostics, and click "Device Links Table," I get another error: "Failed reading device link" [-200000/-5]" and "Subscriber didn't reply to event: 1 [28]" On the other hand, choosing "Show Device Links Table" returns a table. And "Query Insteon Engine" just clicks back to the main page in less than a second. "Checking PLM Communication" returns a failure stating "This device does not support PLM communication settings." Does that clarify anything?

Stu, as I'm not home I can't do this now, but I promise I will. I really don't think the receptacle for the transformer is switched, though. I think I just misled you. But if it's not switched, I don't know how the KeypadLinc turns off all the landscape lights. The "scene of concern" is now all the scenes, as the ISY no longer is communicating with any of the three devices. I clearly created this situation while trying to link the new 2476D. I reckon I'll put the ISY into linking mode and go out and press the power on the three devices and see if that restores the links.