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And MORE information for those that might find this down the road.... Replacing the PLM DID "appear" to fix the problem but in a few weeks, the problem came back! So, I suspect the PLM was NOT bad but rather, rebooting the ISY had fixed it (temporarily) earlier. When it came back this time, I started troubleshooting and could find NO reason for the issue however, after reading several posts about the SD card becoming unreliable, I removed and reinstalled it several times, rebooted the ISY and it has now been running for several weeks with NO issue. At this point, I would have to say I suspect the contacts on the SD card were becoming faulty and removing and reinstalling appears to have fixed it. I DO have a second card to try if it comes back. Hope this helps someone in the future.

Well, to answer my own question... YES that IS a symptom of a failing (or failed) PLM. I replace it with my spare and all the problems disappeared. Hope this helps somebody in the future.... Steve

I'm a long-time user of an isy994i. I have been running 5.3.4 firmware for some time. I have a number of Insteon leak detectors in my home that are all monitored and have been working well for a number of years. The system generates a report every night of the heartbeat verification and emails it to me so I know all the detectors are on line and working. A few days ago, the report showed that about 8 of the leak detectors had not reported. Assuming it was some kind of bug, I ignored it but the next day, the report showed ALL the detectors to be off line and has every day since. Since then, I have restored the ISY to my latest (good) backup and rebooted it. It made no difference. If I manually FORCE a heartbeat from a detector, the LED indicates it was sent but the variables data is not incremented. If I run the THEN portion of the heartbeat detection program, it DOES increment the stored data. I was originally thinking maybe a bad SD card but since running the program DOES store the data, it would appear the ISY is not seeing the report from the leak detector. My PLM is several years old so maybe that's dying? Is this a symptom of a failing PLM? I have a spare but it's a bit laborious to replace with all the leak detectors so I didn't want to undertake that without consulting the "experts". So, any ideas? Thanks, Steve

I agree with your opinion however there are still quite a number of services that aren't charging at least, at this time. The YoLink temperature sensors and the remote open/close sensor work VERY well with their hub and obviously, their server. Honeywell and Nest and of course, Amazon with their Alexia are three more better known ones. Wouldn't surprise me if they started charging after some time but I think that's risky on their part since so many people are using their devices "for free". I was hoping the YoLink integration on the eisy might not require their server but perhaps I was mistaken. I'm planning to bring up my second ISY as a stand alone device to test out the Z-wave link. If that goes well, I'll have more incentive to figure out a more permanent Z-wave implementation .

Thanks for the info! BTW, the YoLink sensor arrived and works VERY well at least when hand held AT the gate. Very reliably reports the gate is open or closed. So with that, I will at least now be notified if the gate is opened or closed. Now to get it to control some lights etc. Thanks for the help! Did that work??? Steve

@MrBill said... "Also when referencing someone else in the forum you should either quote all or part of their post, and/or type there name preceded by an @ sign." I wasn't aware of that. Thanks! The YoLink device(s) do require a cloud server to work with THEIR hub (free at this time) but I had assumed (I know, very dangerous) that if the device was being addressed from the eisy, no cloud server would be required, just as if it was an Insteon device, no?

I'm looking forward to trying the YoLink device. I have the YoLink freezer monitors in three freezers and they report very reliably even through the metal box of the freezer. MrBill, Can you elaborate a little on how a YoLink device (for example) appears in the eisy? Can you name it like you could with Insteon? I'm not familiar with setting up a node server as I understand is required but I'm sure there is help here if (when) I get lost. Also, I read in one of the eisy documents that the new Insteon devices will not work with eisy. Assuming I didn't misunderstand, that makes it even more compelling to find replacements for my existing Insteon stuff. I use several 2450 I/O Links around here so the gate is kind of a trial case. If I can get that to work, I have no doubt I can get the other things to work.

Geddy, Thanks VERY much for your insightful reply. Let me clarify a few things in case I have confused you. By integrated, I meant that when the gate opens (or closes), the ISY presently (well, before the last 2450 failed) sends me a text telling me the gate had opened or closed. Also, through the magic of Insteon, I could open or close the gate from anywhere and since we travel a fair bit, often used that capability for deliveries, maintenance people, etc. The integration I was referring to was the gate controls were integrated into my ISY and at the time, I didn't think the YoLink device could be integrated into esiy so it could take advantage of its capabilities to send emails, turn on outside lights etc. If I understand the eisy/YoLink capability correctly, it CAN be "integrated" into the eisy so that the signal from the YoLink device CAN be used to trigger other events. Hope that helps.... AND that I haven't misunderstood. As for my second ISY99i (with Z-wave); I'd LIKE to set that up as a Z-wave only test device to prove out the Z-wave capability to communicate with the gate. I'd like to NOT disturb the working ISY/PLM at all if I can. I have ordered one of the Z-wave relay modules to test/modify. I suspect I'll have to open it up and configure it for a remote antenna since it will be housed in a metal box at the gate. I suspect I'll have to add a "repeater" or two in between to get it working but if it's successful, I'll definitely go to an eisy and migrate all my Insteon stuff over as well as incorporate the z-wave and YoLink stuff to (hopefully) make the system more reliable long term and hopefully. robust. Does that all make sense and do you see any holes in my thought process or or understanding? Thanks again for the help!! Steve

Looks like I was wrong. Apparently the eisy DOES support YoLink. I'll order one to try. Thanks for the suggestion! Steve

I have some YoLink devices and like them a lot. I'd like to stay with something that will work with the UDI equipment since it's all integrated.... when the gate opens, it turns on outside lights, sends an email and a text that the gate is opened (or closed) and logs the time and date. I don't think there is a way to integrate the YoLink stuff into that unless I'm mistaken. Thanks for the suggestion though. Their stuff does work well.

Geddy, Thanks for the inputs. This ISY came directly from UDI in July of 2021 so it SHOULD have the board. If I understand correctly, I SHOULD be able to bring it up as stand-alone device and do my testing without taking my existing Insteon network down, correct? I really would rather not mess with marrying it to my PLM if I don't have to. If I get the Z-wave to work acceptably, THEN I could install the backup of my existing ISY and go through that. Am I correct?

I may have a (testing) solution at hand... I have a back-up ISY994i that I have had on the shelf and it turns out it is the ISY994i ZW+ PRO. If I read it correctly, that already has the Z-Wave capability on board. If that's correct, I guess replacing my old controller with this one SHOULD get me a testing environment. Anybody know if I am reading this correctly?

In my experience, they typically stop working after a storm so I suspect it has to do with a lightning pulse. I've had them work for a year or two and I've had them die in a few months. Sometimes, they simply stop working but a more typical failure is the sensor circuit fails and will no longer read the open/close signal. Because of that unreliability, I'd really like to engineer another solution. I understand the mesh requirement for the Z-wave to work but given it is NOT a direct power line connected device, I think that might be better in my application. I have a 12 volt battery backed supply in the gate so I can probably use that for a power supply, potentially minimizing the pulse effect from the power line. If I had a Z-wave hub to test with, I'd probably re-engineer one of the devices for an external antenna and install a "repeater" about half way from the hub and give it a try. I'm an old HAM so playing with RF is no concern to me at all. If I thought Insteon was going to be around and make the 2450 more robust, I'd simply wait a while but I really need to get the remote capability of the gate restored so it might necessitate some engineering on my part. Anybody have an old Z-wave hub they'd be willing to "rent" me to try out?

Thanks for the input!!

I might be forced to go that way. I hate to buy an eisy and the dongle and then find it doesn't do the job. Do you know of a CHEAP Z-wave controller to try it. As MrBill says, Insteon has been fine other than the reliability but I think its long-term availability is yet to be determined.

TSinclair, Thanks for the input. That's exactly what I wanted to learn. Do you think a device at that distance with an external antenna might be better?

The problem I have had is NOT a communication problem but rater one of the device dying. The only thing I can think of is voltage spikes, that's why I put the peak arrestor on it. When I first installed the device in the gate, I had no arrestor and I had a couple of the 2450's die. That's why I put the peak locking device in. It made no difference. My thought is that the 150 feet or so of power line wire is eventually an antenna and a lightning pulse is PROBABLY inducing a pretty good spike into the power line.

How's that? It's a peak clamping device that limits the voltage spikes. How's that a problem?

There's no Ethernet there. If there were, this whole thing would be easier but at this point, it'd be VERY difficult to add a line. Wish I'd thought about it when I built the place but that never crossed my mind. It's probably 100 feet or so from the WiFi router and it's in a metal enclosure so I'd say WiFi is "iffy" I do have some Kasa devices so I might put one in the box just to see if it will work. Additionally, the 2450's have been somewhat unreliable or "fragile" in that environment. I don't know if power surges have killed them or what but I have lost several in the gate while I have two others that monitor sump pumps and have worked fine for several years. In the gate, the device is on a surge arrestor as well but they still die. That's another reason to consider another solution. I wasn't aware that Insteon had started to produce the 2450's again so I wasn't confident it the long term availability of the device. Have you heard different?

Greetings all, My house has a gated driveway. That led me to Insteon about 10 years ago and the 2450 IO Link to monitor the open/close status of the gate and the relay output to actually open or close the gate remotely. Of course, it didn't take long to realize the limitations of the Insteon Hub so a 994i was added to the mix. That led to the proliferation of Insteon devices all over the house along with Portal integration so the Amazon Dot(s) could be used for various commands. With the unknown unavailability of Insteon devices, it's looking like it's time to make a change. I'm about ready to convert to the eisy with a Z-Wave dongle but I'd really like some opinions before I do that. The capability of controlling and monitoring the gate is of high importance in my home automation scheme. The gate is about 150 "wire feet" from the house and about 100 "line of site" feet from the location of the 994i and the router, both of which are located on the second floor of the house. I mention that because I've never been sure how the Insteon device gets its commands but since it's located in the metal box that contains the gate controller electronics, I suspect it's been over the power line. All that is by way of setting up the question I have..... Is a Z-wave device the best choice for this job or is there a better alternative out there? Before I spring for an eisy and the Z-wave dongle, I'd like to have some level of confidence that it will work for this job. If it doesn't, a large part of the reason to upgrade to the eisy is gone for me. I'm not against purchasing a Z-wave device like the Zooz 700 Series Relay ZEN17 to see if it will work but obviously I'll need some kind of controller to give it a try. Any suggestions for that as well? I'm not against installing an antenna on the outside of the controller enclosure if that's necessary to improve "range". I appreciate any suggestions you might have. Steve

As kind of closure to this thread, after getting everything working again, I did the upgrade to 5.3.4 as suggested rather painlessly. There were a few programs that came back ENABLED when they were supposed to be DISABLED but thanks to the suggestion to make a text copy of my programs, (I never realized that was possible) it was easy to go through and disable those that should be disabled. I did have to load a new version of Java and clear the cache a couple of times and then reload the launcher program to get it all working but I suspect I was rushing it and the ISY was not fully rebooted and running when I tried the first time or two. Overall, the upgrade was fairly easy and all programs and links appear to be working well. I did not have any Z-Wave (yet...) so that probably made it easier. Now I'm ready to make the eisy change when they get more in stock. Thanks to all to assisted in this effort. The customer support from Michel at UDI and the user forum are a large part of the usability and satisfaction of owning a Universal Devices controller. Steve

I found that on my laptop, I had to delete the launcher and download a new one for it to work. Now it works fine. Great response from Michal at UDI... as usual! Steve

http://IP.OF.THE.ISY/admin.jnlp works every time for me. Go figure. Also, got a response to my ticket. The problem was apparently server cache and in my case, the launcher is working now. Steve

Bill, http://IP.OF.THE.ISY/admin.jnlp got me back in. I'll probably wait until the launcher is working to upgrade but at least I have access again. Thanks!! Steve

Thanks Bill. Guess I'll wait until the launcher works again and do it all then. Appreciate your help! Steve