bdyster

Never saw any orange/red blinking on switches - definitely would have noticed that and not let the system be unmanaged for multiple years. (old PLM died back in fall of 2022). Age of devices varies - bulk of devices were purchased ~2013/2014 when moved into current house and swapped out every switch, fan controller, etc in the house. Few devices were migrated over from previous house and have had to replace ~10-15 devices over the years (all of my IO linc died and never tried re-capping them). Would say that the average age of any Insteon device in my house is > 12yrs old so cannot complain on longevity and robustness of Insteon. RESOLVED! System seems up and running! Believe all devices now have the current PLM in their link tables and completed a smoke-test of system. Ended up reverting to backup from pre-PLM switch out (dated from from Jan 2021!), Restore PLM, Restore Devices, then manually check device table vs IoX table on 100+ devices. Then walked around house with laptop and tested every switch to make sure eisy could both see events and control devices. Amazingly, still had to Restore Device on ~5 devices again as I still wasn't getting signals back to eisy. Quick run thru scenes and programs and nearly everything seems like to be working. Need to get the motion detectors and water sensors put back in place and work on Weather/other plugins. But believe 95%+ of functionality is there. Ironic thing is what finally got me to break down a dive into issue: my teenage daughter always leaving the bathroom fan running overnight -- previously had numerous programs for timers to auto turn-off lights and fans in most of the closets/bathrooms/etc and really wanted those programs back!

Really good point. I think most of my devices didn't have too many orphaned links as it really seems I likely mistakenly did a "Delete PLM" before swapping PLM and correctly did Replace Device when swapping out dead switches. Most devices didn't have links to old PLM/dead address except for some wireless devices (open/close sensors, etc). FWIW "Delete PLM" seems REALLY dangerous. However after restore from backup and "Restore PLM", it seems like many devices that have > 5 links still have mismatches, so manually going thru and compare every device and then "Restore Device" if mismatch is very tedious process and has been background task throughout the entire day....

I'm guessing I mistakenly used "Delete PLM" before "Restore PLM" when trying to swap out PLM. The PLM died back in 2022 back when Insteon was on death row and only option was to re-cap old PLM off eBay. I actually found an old backup for my ISY from 2021 and am fortunately doesn't seem too out of date (as mentioned haven't done much with home-automation in last several years other than replacing ~6 devices which died and needed replacement - most of my devices are > 10yrs old). Restored setting from 2021 backup and updated for swapped out devices. Was able to successfully get thru "Restore PLM" to update most of the devices and now have PLM in their IoX link table. Painfully going thru > 100 devices to verify Device links table vs. IoX table and "Restore Device" on those that are not matching. This still seems to be saving a lot more effort than deleting all devices and reading them. I wish there was advance way to edit IoX tables in eisy..... Next will be testing the scenes and then finally programs - then hope to have system back up and robust. Actually speaks to how impressive the whole Insteon/eisy system is that was able to have it unmanaged for years and the lights kept working..... Also I'm learning to keep more frequent backups.

Depending upon the PLM link table, most likely need to bite the bullet and do manual system rebuild. So would it be recommended to delete PLM/manual reset of PLM - to start with clean slate wrt PLM/device links before manually remove/add each device? Ideally would like to keep scenes/programs framework in place and avoid complete clean-slate rebuild from scratch.

For several years, stopped actively playing with my home-automation system and laws of increasing entropy have hit to where switches are working only based upon internal links and eisy/PLM controller wasn't doing much of anything. The eisy can query and control devices but most programs were not working etc. Realized today that all of the Insteon devices do not have the PLM in their link tables, so the eisy is not getting status updates when switches/dimmers are toggled. Not sure when this happened but probably had some issue when either migrating from 994i ISY to eisy or when a PLM died some number of years ago. (Maybe I executed a "Delete PLM" instead of "Restore PLM" when swapping out dead PLM). Since the eisy/IoT tables also don't have PLM listed in the device links, restore devices/compare links doesn't resolve the issue. Haven't dug into PLM links table yet to see if/what it's missing. I verified could remove/delete individual device and then get the PLM link back into table, but REALLY don't want to do this for every device - especially keypads with many scence/programs. I have probably ~100 Insteon devices (every light switch in the house, ceiling fans, lamps, sensors, etc) so manual rebuild would be extremely painful. I also have no idea when this problem was introduced so don't have known/good backup to restore to. Is there a way to fix the eisy/device link tables to add back in PLM link without haven't to manually remove/add back each device?

I did pull out a lead/trace on C7 between the positive cap side to the inductor L1. However I added a jumper wire and measured the voltage across the PI regulator caps at 21.5V, so think it was a success. Is the serial chip on the mainboard or the daughter? Since I tried swapping 2 different daughters, it seems like the failure is on the mainboard. Missing my double-tap, timer and other programs so need to get controller up and running. Can't rationalize spending the $350-450 for an PLM on eBay. My HomeAuto system has mostly been just running in the background as a reliable appliance should, so I haven't kept up with Polisy or any newer controller options out there. Is ISY on Polisy mainstream yet - and do I still need some sort of PLM (2413U?) or an Insteon Hub? I have a Hub new in box that i've never even unboxed as the ISY solution seemed more powerful. Just don't know what Polisy would need to send out Insteon signals. If I'm spending that kind of money to keep HA running, I'd rather upgrade than maintain.

I checked the install of daughter board couple times and didn't incorrectly socket it. Also tried to verify that all the GND of the caps were well connected in case I pulled a thru-via on the board and connected neg side of appropriate caps to gnd with small wire on backside. Also tried swapping the serial daughter board from my V1.4 but no luck. Guessing it is something wrong in the main board. Other than a fluke multi-meter, I don't have more advanced measurement equipment and measured the voltage across PI regulator caps C7/C13 is 21.5V, 163V across C3, 1.3V across C11 and 4.99V across C8. Could probably borrow an o-scope if that helped but don't know what I would be probing or looking for. Looking to track down caps and try to repair my v1.4 now. PM sent to hart2hart. Just bought a used 2413U off ebay and will try to swap daughter boards as I've read on other threads that it can work as new ones are also out of stock. . (Ebay purchase is V1.B so likely will need to be recapped at some point soon too - so need to source more caps).

Tried resetting the PLM by plugging in while holding the set button. Made the long beep sound but still no connection to the ISY. Mouser is out of stock on all of these caps w/a 48-53wk lead time! It's the end of the world as we know it but I am not feeling fine. Looks like couple people on ebay have cap kits - went ahead and ordered a couple and will see if I can get the old V1.4 resurrected. Anyone out there who has any recapped PLMs stashed in a closet and willing sell to me and arskiracer for not a king's ransom?

After repair do I need reset the PLM via the set button? Just reread all 28 pages for this post and didn't see anything about that and seems its more of a power up and pray after putting everything back together. Has anyone solved the problem of PLM not detected even when all else looks good? I've taken it apart and double checked everything multiple times. Just tried my first recap job on V2.0 that just failed. After recap, it will power up and get the green LED but ISY is still going into safe-mode saying that it cannot communicate with PLM. Thus is appears my first recap attempt wasn't a success. I reread all 28 pages of this thread and double checked all of the neg terminals on the cap. Also compared to my older V1.4 PLM that died but I never bother to recap as I bought the V2.0 to replace it. Unfortunately, in 2017 when my first V1.4 PLM died, I just ordered a new PLM and eventually bought only enough caps to fix the one PLM. Thus, I cannot try to fix the V1.4 now without ordering new caps. At this point would just buy a new PLM but seems like Insteon isn't what it used to be. Called SH yesterday and they said that due to supply chain problems they anticipated won't have more PLM stock till mid 2022! I have ~140 Insteon devices and switches still work but w/o controller or way to program this is really, really bad. Gonna try to order caps and rebuild my V1.4 but cannot imagine dumping my $1000s invested in Insteon just because I cannot get a PLM. Seems like ebay sellers are aware of supply-demand as used PLMs are going for $200-400! Any help would be greatly appreciated! I'm getting the "I told you so" from the wife who is technology adverse now that I cannot keep my HomeAutomation system running.

Glad to know PLM failure can be intermittent and not catastrophic power failure (i.e. no LED) . Beginning of week started having issues with my 4yr old PLM (v1.4 1051 date code) LED light was on but dim - guess it lasted way past the 2yr MTBF. PLM would work after rebooting PLM/ISY for about 5min then nothing. Swapped with a new V2.0 PLM yesterday. Gonna order the caps to do the repair to have a backup PLM...