CoolToys

Ok so things are really looking up. My system has been stable for many many years so I don't mess with this and forget more than I know for sure. ISY to eisy migration almost completed with ELK module. I am still working on the mini remotes. 1. Elk module. I didn't understand the variables so I tried "elk all" for name and the number of the user and it's pin I programmed in ELK RP that the old elk module used to connect non secure on port 2101. I have two areas but the second one I do odd things with in elk so I changed to one area, restarted the elk Node Server with these three adjustments and within seconds everything populated and I just needed to correct the If lines in my programs where the old elk conditions were remarked out. 2. Motion Sensors II aka MS II or MSII - One at a time, I put them in multi link mode, removed them from the system and quickly re-added before they timed out and all are working well. I hope this helps someone!

@tporada Yes the MS II's load three pages when they are found. I only know what the .1 Motion tab does. The temperature and status blocks are the two that I can use in programs. I mostly use "status" as that is the "on/off" the sensor sends. All of these worked perfectly with 5.4.x before migrating to the eisy. After upgrading from the ISY to the eisy, my 5 motion sensors were listed with no errors or "write change bars" displayed, I could write updates but none displayed "status" in the console at first. After migrating to the new ELK poly and fixing all of my broken programs nothing changed but it turns out the ELK poly takes quite a bit of time to load. I was troubleshooting for over three hours and out of frustration, I left the admin console. About 15 hours later I returned and the ELK devices had loaded, and one MSII was suddenly working. No idea when that happened or what changed. This morning I got up to find a second MS II working. I have no idea why and will keep working on it today and tomorrow. As of now, two are now working correctly and sending the correct status (or the eisy is receiving the status more correctly). The MS I, isn't sending anything yet, two of the MS II don't send anything either, or the eisy isn't seeing them. I tried factory resets and reloads with no luck and yesterday evening I walked in the house and the lights in the kitchen came on. I checked the admin console and sure enough the MS II in the kitchen send "on", the scene was working as it had with the eisy. If anything else works I'll post here or in my frustration migration vent thread.

9/5 Evening Update, After I left the system for several hours, the Elk icon changed and the information populated. Not in the way I expected from the help files, but using standard ELK terminology that I understood and could use. One of the MSII's started working, no idea why. I came home and the kitchen scene worked all by itself. I tested the other three MSII's and the "activity block" is still blank. Working through it. 9/6 Morning update - A second MSII is now "sending" or being "received" by the eisy. One shows the temperature and battery status as well as "Status" in the Activity event, and on the "motion" page it shows blank. The second one only shows "Status". and "off" on the motion page. For the two that the eisy is not receiving, one shows the temperature and battery status the other is all blank. Factory reset and restore did not work. Next is to remove and start over as a new device I think.

Thanks for the updates and yes I did understand that I was going down the Poly rabbit hole. There can be a better way but that isn't going to change today or even this year. I had planned to upgrade as soon as the eisy came out but had the same frustrations so I delayed it as long as I could. The failure of Insteon and rebirth with i3 was the beginning of the end of the ISY and since the ISY support will end at some point I decided now was the time. After loading the Elk NS, and following the directions in the help section a new light bulb icon appeared in devices with two sub-devices labeled ELK Controller. I have no idea what these do and this doesn't match the help files so I am still reading everything I can find. I found on the Programs>details tab from another post that all of the "Out of Memory" programs had an elk status or zone in the If statement. I had to remove the Elk <unknown> lines and then disabled the programs so I wouldn't lose them but could start eliminating the errors. I should have mentioned that as a workaround for anyone else so they don't just delete all their work. I bet there is a way to comment out programs, I just don't know how. You are correct, The MSII's were used to set "state variables" so that lights wouldn't turn off if I sat still for 5 minutes, not as part of the ELK. I agree these are two separate issues. Using MSII's like this was the most reliable way I found to do it and then I found I could create cool scenes based on the order. Someone leaving the guest room, turned on one path to the kitchen, someone leaving the master a different set based on which MSII was triggered first before hitting the one on the stairs. You get very used to the house doing things for you and now two days of zilch. The MS II's are discovered, and I can read everything except the motion status. Thanks for the link to the MS 6. I realize it is time to upgrade away from Insteon, I was just hoping to not have to toss 10 years of systems building to upgrade my ISY to an eisy.

I finally got around to migrating from the ISY I have used for at least 12 years to the new eisy. Just about everything that could happen did. I am not writing this to beat up UDI, but I learned if you need to write a manual, there is a better way to do it..... I have been doing a lot of reading as a 10 plus year ISY/Insteon/Elk user for what is called an "eisy upgrade". After failing miserably, I wiped the eisy and started over following the wiki step by step. Sorry it is no where near complete and at the same time has way too much information that isn't needed. As of now the eisy can see every device. I can use the buttons on the admin console to turn them on or off. Most of my programs use the status of the alarm as an energy saving feature since geofencing eats my phone battery. None of the ELK information migrates. There are two main issues. First, none of the motion sensors are being read (seen) by the eisy. I can query and fill in everything but activity and status boxes. The four sensors do a lot of the heavy lifting after the elk to trigger programs and save energy. Any ideas? I can't find anything on Insteon Motion II in the forums or wiki other than press the button to activate or program. Second the Elk module. I am still working on it, out of time today. Everything below is what I am finding out, but not much progress. I found all of this digging around the forum after several hours of frustration and I still can't get the eisy to do anything but act as a button. Use caution upgrading packages, you also need to delete and download a new Start.jlnp so you get a new admin console or they are not compatible. You don't find this out until after you upgrade and can't access the admin console. None of my programs worked, and none of the motion sensors are being read by the eisy. Most programs said "not loaded" and "out of memory". These errors are misleading. After digging around the forum I found a note that said check the programs, there is a device/variable missing. Sure enough, all non loaded programs were related to the status of my ELK security system. The module did not transfer with the upgrade from backup. Every line in every program with an elk module was an error. Which there is no documentation on the Wiki for and you can not "purchase modules" in the eisy as the wiki says to do. I assumed from the reading that there is something in the polyglot. Finally got it loaded and started to configure. Another hour of reading and it still isn't set up or working.

Maybe we should put it on the wishlist that the new Elk integration module include zone battery monitoring to allow the iSY, POLiSY or the new eISY to send a notification of the sensor with the low battery. I have had mixed success with that on the insteon sensors. Sometimes they die so fast I never get a "low battery" email. I added "dead battery" and "not configured" notifications to solve that problem.

Ah, I wouldn't sell them, I was looking at it as an individual emergency replacement program. If Insteon doesn't make it out of the ER, you could get a one off unit made. I have one off items made all the time for old cars, artwork and my studio. Yes it might be $200 or $300 but that is way cheaper than swapping all of my switches and outlets to Z-Wave or something else and then the hours to reprogram my iSY. Again as long as Insteon has a heartbeat, I'll buy from them and I would also try to find used online first and hope I don't buy a lemon.

I realize this thread is almost a year old, but I will agree. Insteon is about 99.5% accurate. Sometimes going to bed and hitting the "Bedtime" scene, it takes two attempts. My landscape lights and gate relay have been moved to the elk for that reason. Given that Insteon is still in the ER, I am considering a migration to another product. Sadly X-10 and Insteon had the biggest list of built in options. I am not a fan of "Wall Warts" aka plug in modules. I also will agree that for a simple business environment the DSC costs less and is a sold alarm system. I also like the wireless failure notifications better. As you can see in other threads if you have a wireless sensor go out on Elk, you only get an annoyance "low battery" alert on the keypad. It feels like a wild goose chase until you realize the need to use RP2 in order to see which sensor is low. If it dies before you get there, then you just see "short", so you might think it is open. Otherwise, Elk is pretty straightforward programming, although there are a few areas where integrating with the iSY can get confusing because we think of alarms as "Open", "Closed" or "Fault", and the insteon wireless sensors are "on" and "off." If you mix equipment for need cost or availability like me, you may need to think a bit harder to make stuff work the way you want it.

It is interesting you had a dimmer fail. Of the hundreds I bought and sold over the years, I only had one fail, and it was under warranty within days of install. Too bad we don't have a local Fry's or Radio Shack any more.

Understood, and having a few patents and trademarks under my belt, I also know that there are people overseas that will make anything you want regardless. As long as new Insteon is around I will of course buy from them. If the 2448a7 is re-released by new insteon, maybe we can put it on the wish list for the eISY Michel teased us with. Has anyone uses a 2448a7? Reliability?

Given the failure rate of PLM modules, I wonder how much it would cost to OEM a block of them. I am still a bit confused why Insteon never created a wireless module or released the specs so someone could make a usb dongle that used the wireless side of the insteon mesh? In my 15 plus years of using insteon, I have had four PLM failures, one keypad and one light switch. Sadly I used to have a really cool X-10 tabletop remote with big lit buttons that failed just after they were discontinued. Maybe the new insteon will fix some of these issues?

Hmm, Ok Yes X-10 Pro still exists, and interestingly after a bankruptcy/shutdown/revival. So I'll agree I overstepped with that statement and retract it. I'll change it to the opinion that X-10 hasn't grown with the industry so it is not the leader it was in the 1990's when I started in the HA business. As far as the insteon announcements and blog, I hope it can pull the rabbit out of the hat and revive like X-10 appears to have done. But keep in mind X-10 did come and go more than once. I agree with several others that this isn't something that just turns on. Supply chain development took years. I'll disagree with a couple others about Ken. I think brining back an insider that might be able to rebuild those relationships faster might be a good move. As the wise man says "We'll see". Until then I am just trying to undo what I did that broke my system, and offer my apologies for appearing to "troll" the forum. Thank you for responding and keeping me in line and up to date.

That is excellent to hear, but I have not been able to contact them (or Michael). I look forward to hearing from them (him). If you want to call it trolling because I am trying to catch up on the craziness, I'll take that hit. None of the information provided is "False", some is my opinion. The phone number on the UDI website answers with "Could not validate this request". The latest update on the News section of UDI website is June 11, 2021 The latest Twitter update was the next day. Saying that I am worried there may be some trouble at UDI as well given those observations, isn't false, it is my opinion. I was in the high end AV and HA industry from 1990 - 2009, so maybe my ideas are outdated, but I'll stand by them. I believe UDI has a future regardless of Insteon. Before I posted, I did in read through several sections of the forum, went to the wiki, and the firmware update pages to get 404 errors, page not found. I admit my system has been rock solid since the last time Micheal and I talked almost two years ago. It was a failed ELK wireless window sensor sent me down this rabbit hole. Honestly I didn't even know that Smarthome/Insteon collapsed and Insteon is attempting to revive. It started out a bit exciting that there was a new possibly better version of UD Mobile v Mobilinq. I have both modules, so I swapped them and the trouble began. I am sitting here trying to undo that now.

The long run for insteon doesn't look promising, My bet is it goes the way of X-10, even though my entire home is Insteon run by an UD994 Pro. I had my fingers crossed for ReQuest. I love that thing too. The real problem is that none of these technologies crossed the chasm. Amazon and Google money insured their products did it first. I think the sad truth is you can be completely closed system minded like Crestron or it needs to be open source. Its just another version of the Mac V PC fight. Yes my insteon leaves a light on from time to time but the whole system cost less than my entry keypad from Crestron. My first "smart home" was HAI in 1999. For a few years my company was a Crestron Dealer, but all of that went away in 2009. I got lucky and made it out with my shirt. Since I have an ELK M1 Gold, I may just keep expanding that and write my own interface for automation since theirs is pretty unimpressive. Someday that may not work either. At least Home Controls is still alive. My bigger worry for the short term is that UDI web pages are starting to vanish or not be updated. The phone number no longer works and the last post I can find is June 2021 from UDI? The interesting thing is there are some 2022 copyright dates and other odd information are being updated on my icy portal page. I have two open tickets, hoping for a response.

There is a variable with options of "True" or "False" in the admin console when setting up thermostats. Both thermostats defaulted to false. I have no idea what this does and entering it verbatim into the Wiki only shows me the thermostat modes which I understand. Is there a new feature? Is this part of the electricity module for flex alert? The admin console says to manage the electricity module in the "dashboard" which I do not like as it is over simplified and not easy to use on a mac. Thank you.

Well it was nothing, at least so far. IN 5.0.14(beta) the siren was found but has four functions that appear to be tied to the alarm only. Ironically I still can't get the elk to communicate with the ISY. With 4.6.1 and older, I had it set up so when the relay closed the siren sounded a chime. I have found the chime feature, but I can't trigger it with a scene or a program that I have figured out. If I do, I'll post it.

I upgraded to 4.7.3 and the siren is not supported. A little afraid to update to a beta but since the siren is my only door bell, here goes nothing....

Anyone know why these aren't supported? I upgraded to 4.7.3 while troubleshooting a link to my ELK and suddenly my door bell stopped working. I use a relay from a button on the keypad at the gate to close the remote relay and trigger the buzzer. Other than being a bit loud it worked fine for over a year, and with the new update it shows as "unsupported device" Why would UDI drop a device that had been working?

I got bored, did a factory reset, it took about 30 minutes and it appeared in the IP scanner. I had to reboot my mac to get the ISY launcher to find it (cached data?), but the ISY came back up. I reloaded my latest back up only losing one new program, which is my fault for not backing up after I added it.

At 2 am a closet light came on that is controlled by a motion sensor. No one was in there, so I figured the battery must be low and simply closed the door. This morning I tried to connect my ISY to my ELK M1 for the first time (second house doing this), and the ISY only has the Power light on. I rebooted it and the PLM, and it appears to check in normally and after the boot sequence back to power light only, IP scanner doesn't see it, network switch indicates a 10/100 device is connected, no activity and no address assigned or being requested. I did power off and re-insert the SD card, no idea why, I just did. No change. I have put in a support ticket and if anyone has Ideas in the interim, thank you for your help.

I too added a Siren to my network, and used a horrible workaround to get it to work. The contractor didn't move my doorbell when we added on to the house. Ring, and Skybell are great but don't work with gate intercom. Since I could not hear the doorbell in the new section of the house, I bought a 2868-222 Siren and 2450 I/O link (which came up "refurbished" on my 994 Console?). The horrible workaround is that I added the Insteon Hub back to the network with the sole job of activating the chime when the I/O link "sensed" the closure of the doorbell circuit on the gate intercom. Whoever wrote the marketing lit for the Siren saying it also has a "more pleasing chime" must like the door sensor sound at 7-11. It is horrible sounding and way too loud, but I don't miss visitors at the gate. Looking forward to 5.x beta so I can take the hub back out before my wife adds alexa to it. I know, but I am too cheap to add alexa to the 994i

Might have figureed it out. 1. link to a switch. 2. "Add links" from switch 3. add device and "remove links" It didn't accept the name, it added it as an address.

Re-wrote to the "Garage" 2845-222 and it appears to be working again. Still can't re-write "front door" but I linked a switch to it and it works fine as a controller, just can't connect it to ISY.

There are dual mode controllers on both phases. The system was working just fine before a recent power outage. Now I can manually turn on a program and it works fine. i.e. "night" whch used to come on at sunset +- 21 minutes random after sunset. It did not come on automatically last night or tonight. From the admin console I can control any scene or switch and yet none of the programs are working as they did. Very confusing. I have powered down, re-booted. Hub works fine when I plug it in and use iPhone app to control it. PLM status is "connected".

Thu 03/17/2016 08:57:52 PM : [2B 0 50 ] Added to list of devices to link to ISY Thu 03/17/2016 08:57:52 PM : [iNST-TX-I1 ] 02 62 2B 00 50 0F 0D 00 Thu 03/17/2016 08:57:52 PM : [iNST-ACK ] 02 62 2B.00.50 0F 0D 00 06 (00) Thu 03/17/2016 08:58:01 PM : [iNST-TX-I1 ] 02 62 2B 00 50 0F 0D 00 Thu 03/17/2016 08:58:01 PM : [iNST-ACK ] 02 62 2B.00.50 0F 0D 00 06 (00) Thu 03/17/2016 08:58:10 PM : [iNST-TX-I1 ] 02 62 2B 00 50 0F 0D 00 Thu 03/17/2016 08:58:10 PM : [iNST-ACK ] 02 62 2B.00.50 0F 0D 00 06 (00) Thu 03/17/2016 08:58:14 PM : [2B 0 50 0 ] Failed to add device, reason 3 Thu 03/17/2016 08:58:14 PM : [All ] Writing 0 bytes to devices Thu 03/17/2016 08:58:44 PM : [ Time] 20:58:54 0(0)