MrBill

I found that email in my Junk folder Not sure why, I've received have plenty of UDI mail in my inbox. I've now added sales@universal-devices.com to the trusted senders list.

With the first experiment I want to follow the directions in the wiki and find the failure points. The point being there should be instructions that can be followed without guessing what to do next, or guessing what additional parameters need to be set or adjusted after restoring a backup. After that I can experiment further with ideas such as yours. I do actually have two new microSD cards. I suspect the reason that you did NOT have the problem with missing parameters is exactly because you placed an image on the card first.

I noted that in my Feb 6th post in this thread. I really also am still wondering what's included vs not included in the restored backup. If all else fails I'll find a block of time to set up a test... I have another new memory card, and a second ISY. This time I can be more methodical and record more observations since I know what to watch for.

I've had this problem... I bet the 0 is a D I've also had one older device that just flat out had an incorrect address label on it. It was a device with a separate address and Rev label.

Thank you Michel, Are the NLS files then installed during format? Because format was what cured that problem. Thanks you for the additinal information about logging, On smaller memory cards it does seem that would add accelerated failure, especially since nodeservers cause much more information to be logged. I don't have a small card anymore tho, so how would I determine the best value to change this to? Is timezone and mail server information included in the ISY backup that is restored? I suspect I didn't have this problem with the first memory card I robbed from the 2nd ISY because those values where already set on that system. When I repeated the process 24 hours later with a brand new card, those values where not set when the backup was restored. If that's the case are there other things in the configuration we should set or check after a memory card swap?

@Teken I agree, even the failing memory card showed no bad blocks, that must be a feature not yet implemented. I have no problem with scheduling memory card replacement. My specific complaint was and is that there is no prescribed recommendations published. 1) how to determine the frequency for replacement (I suspect this varies by system size and now number of nodeservers and how much data they write to the LOG) 2) a list of recommended memory cards to purchase. UDI doesn't sell memory cards in the store and not all memory cards are created equal. A simple list of suggestions should be published with the proceedure. 3) Lack of procedure. I admire Michel greatly, yet in another thread he is currently talking about what is "not a sustainable business model" but guess what... having him help every single user that's headed down this path also isn't a sustainable business model. He shouldn't have to get involved because I need to systematically replace my memory card, or worse I need his immediate attention because Poof it crashed and I need help putting it back online. The written instructions don't go far enough, certainly I had the basic idea... install new card, upload firmware, restore backup. The wiki is also wrong... it says the max mem size is 16gb, and we know from your experience that it's at least 32gb. It's harder to find smaller memory cards these days, bigger is actually less expensive than older smaller sized cards. Also on the topic of lack of procedure, I believe the following is missing a) check and reset times zone b) check and reset mail server information c) check and reset ?????? The only reason I had a better experience the first day was because the memory card I installed came out of another working ISY, there for time and mail sever didn't need to be adjusted. Adding more space to the file doesn't add more writes to the card. What added more writes to the card was node servers! It used to be the main LOG would hold months worth of Insteon switch traffic and state variable changes. Then came nodeservers! now my 64,000 (or whatever number) rows of logfile are used up and re-written in less than 24 hours. I don't know how sectors are allocated and/or reallocated on that card but if the files stays in the same spot on the card then increasing its size would actually decrease the number of time specific bytes that are being constantly re-written. If that card is as smart as they say it is tho, then it may no matter because the whole card should be used as part of the wear leveling algorithm. AND if it is that smart that wear leveling is using up all parts of the card more or less equally then we should buy the biggest card the hardware can handle. We however can't make any of these decisions because there isn't enough information available (without asking Michel to hold our individual hands, which is not a sustainable business model). to add to your list: Log file out of order date-wise, or possibly it was in the write order with wrong dates (no way to tell which) A program clearing displaying in the admin console IF condition_1 AND condition_2 was clearly running as IF condition_1 OR condition_2. in the finally hour the program tree vanished entirely from the admin console however program were clearly still running [LIB_403] errors when trying to start the admin console. An error not mentioned in the UDI wiki, reading threads in the forum it seems to boil down to replacing or reformatting the SD card. To sum it up, for the price of an SD card I really don't mind having to schedule annual preventive replacement, the problem is lack of guidance and procedure unless we request Michel to come hold our individual hand, a business practice that is not sustainable.

I should perhaps add that I really don't have problems with manual procedures during these once in a few years events, but I find it difficult that the wiki page doesn't better document the steps to follow, including the needs to reset certain parameters and there isn't a better recommendation for what memory card to buy. I also wonder and will ask support in the days to come about increasing the log size since I see that appears to be a telnet selectable parameter and i have a much bigger memory card. (and it's usage doesn't seem to be discussed anywhere).

@hart2hart Today my comments are less rosey. Yesterday the new 16GB SanDisk Ultra cards arrived (I didn't even know about the Industrial line linked by @Teken and I thought I had done my homework, as this has been a topic RE: a Pi that I have running Home Assistant). After getting the ISY back up rather quickly the day before I realized that LOGS are an item being written to the card. This absolutely hammers the card in my case--there was a time that Tools > Log covered literally months, however since Nodeservers the log recycles quickly... 18-24 hours depending. So that file is just constantly being re-written. Because of this I decided to install the new SanDisk Ultra card in the main ISY. Based on my experience the day before, I thought it would be easy.... however the new experience is not as straight forward. Leading me to wonder about your idea of copying the card. Since @Teken states that you can unzip a backup on to a card, but then he later restored it from a backup also I'm wondering if there is a better way. Anyway comments from my experience yesterday: The wiki states that if the microSD card is new, that it's possible to skip the formatting step. I found this to be false. I made a brand new fresh backup and shut the ISY down, I popped the new 16GB card into the ISY and powered back up. Opening the Admin console produced LIB-403 error's, I couldn't get to the point of being able to reload the firmware and restore a new backup. I followed the standard instructions to clear the java cache and re-install The Launcher. No change. Searching and reading around the forum, I was about to decide the new card was bad. I had another new one to try but before I did that I decided to give formatting a try (the step the wiki says to skip if the card is new). Telenet into the ISY and issued the FS command at which point you have to answer the "are you sure?" prompt with an upper case Y as documented in the wiki. The wiki then states "You will see the "Goodbye" prompt confirming that the format is complete and that the has ISY rebooted". That never happens, upon typing the upper Case Y the terminal session appears to lock up, after a period of several minutes the window simply goes to the (inactive) state, your cursor is still blinking next to the capital Y that was typed. No goodbye and No indication the ISY is rebooting.... The ISY did reboot and I tried to fire up the admin console. This time success. First place I went was Tools > Diagnostics > System Status Interesting! the ISY is recognizing the card as 16gb. Seems like I've read plenty of places in the forum that the ISY only used 4gb of a memory card. I proceeded to restore the backup.... all appeared to go well at that point. and before too long we were back in business. BUT Not so fast...... The first thing I noticed was that a scheduled event at 1PM didn't occur.... Check time... Hmmm, the time zone parameters didn't restore. Looked up the custom Longitude and Latitude values I use and set that up again. all good? Nope... next thing I notice is a missing notification..... investigate... OH there's no email server settings.... reset those.... ("Use default" was checked, and I thought that the default mail server was fixed but apparently not.... "use default" didn't work either.) Put the settings back to the mail server I normally use, test, back in business... Until..... something else didn't happen. I quickly discover a program that should always "running then" isn't running. (i.e has turned to , when it should always be Solid Green). Scope out my heartbeat programs and they aren't running either... After some sleuthing I realize that this is likely because I reset the time (two paragraphs ago). That's all I've found and so far we appear to be back in business. I'll be certain to report back if there are other items that didn't properly restore. On another note: I have popped the cards that came out of the ISY's into a card reader and opened them via a Win10 file explorer. There is readable directory structure, making it appear that it might be possible to format a new card (I'd use the ISY to do that, that way the ISY can lay down whatever boot record it wants). and then move the card to a computer and copy the file structure..... I don't know tho, I'm just guessing.... I don't know where the things that were not restored via backup are stored.

<<-- Red means the IF last evaluated to False and the Else section last ran. Green means the IF last evaluated to True and the Then section ran last. and mean the same as above for color, but when the color is solid it means the program is currently running (most likely because there is a wait that is waiting).

@blueman2 is the controller for those devices an Insteon Wireless device? If so, you may need to put the device into programming mode and let instructions that are currently in queue be written, after which new won't accumulate. If not, ignore this.

Thank You for clarifying your thoughts about Insteon. This is a much better prognosis than your original statement, "INSTEON: we are debating whether or not we want to support it at all." Which left me wondering when (now or later) I should start evaluating other platforms. I'm too invested in Insteon to change course on switching at this point, plus the fact I don't particularity care for the way scene's don't work simultaneously in z-wave. Z-wave signal strength also scares me, although if I "went all in" that shouldn't be a concern. In my prior post I was just spit balling suggestions to keep Insteon rolling for those of us invested in Insteon, although even I saw the huge fallacy that my thought really only works for those that already own a 994, it's not a path forward for new UDI customers.

Needless to say I'm in the camp that hopes you continue to support Insteon. At least already already existing hardware. I assume the problem is figuring out how to connect the PLM to new hardware, or perhaps switching to the other USB PLM. If nothing else, perhaps UDI could create a hybrid system... let the ISY controller software upgrade to the new hardware platform, disable much of the current firmware in the 994 and make it a network slave to the new ISY controller.

Wow, I wonder what got in there. or if a capacitor exploded? good you found the problem!

Today was my day for SD card failure. I started to notice odd things over the weekend and wondered again if it was time, but didn't have time to work on that. This morning the admin console failed to open, then opened with a lib-403 error with no programs showing in the program tree. I thought I'd come back and post some more info, while I still can't definitively answer @hart2hart's question about using a win32 imager the answer is probably not, but more importantly I wouldn't bother, It's also not hard or time consuming to do it as UDI suggests in the wiki. 1) replace card, 2) load ISY firmware, 3) restore backup. I will note however that there are many things about the process that are unclear. The Wiki page indicates suggests the maximum size SD card compatible is 16gb. In another recent thread another user stated that 32gb cards are compatible. However, no matter what size the card is the ISY only uses a portion of it. Which is the exact reason I think you might get in trouble using a 3rd party imager. Another BIG problem for those planning ahead, is way back last JUNE, I decided I should have another memory card on hand. I opened the Wiki and placed an amazon order for what the wiki called for a "16gb SD card". The wiki however is missing an important word micro as in microSD card. So in June I ordered an SD card, never opened the package, plopped it down near the ISY only to discover today I needed a microSD card. The funny part is I actually knew that what was in the ISY was a microSD card because I cleaned the contacts when I changed the Z-wave board.... all the while the full size SD card still in it's package was staring me in the face!??? (for those that want the rest of the story, awhile back I bought a second ISY for messing around. testing etc... I stole the microSD card from that unit and ordered a 3-pack of 16gb cards that will be here tomorrow. Main ISY had a factory installed 4gb card, second ISY had an 8gb card that still claims it's size as 3956MB when it's in the ISY.) If preventative changing the microSD card I think the best bet is to just follow the SIMPLE process outlined. 1) Backup, 2) Pop the new card in, 2) load the firmware and 3) restore a backup... the entire process was painless and doesn't introduce incompatibilities possibly created by 3rd party software.

If you have a 500 series board yes, by all means where you should end up is v5.3.2 BUT Don't do that until you get the root cause of your z-wave problem. it should be working in 5.0.16C just fine.... if it's not upgrading again could just add to your problems. Like others have suggested since your post quoted above, I would open a ticket with udi by emailing support@universal-devices.com and/or try a different power supply. The ISY accepts a wide variety of power supplies, from the wiki: You can try any power supply that outputs anywhere between 5 volt and 30 volts,center positive, 2mm barrel connector.

@jacmathYou must use the two program approach that @oberkc suggests. If the single program that you suggest in the first post is used the lights will also turn on for 30 minutes at sunset if you are home at that time. The two program approach says "if the first then happens, then run a second program and check some more conditions."

Was the ISY recently rebooted? If you open the node in the admin console does it show the status as ON/Off, Open/close or is the status box blank? which indicates the ISY doesn't know the status, if this is the case try to open and close the door and then ask again. If that's not helpful then please tell us what hardware the front door sensor is.... there are lots of choices from Insteon door sensors to z-wave locks to ELK Alarm sensors, etc etc....

the confusing issue is the disabled (grayed out) DST box on the screen before ? that exists because it used to be different before they changed to the current timezone library.

Log into the ISY Portal and click the "My Profile" tab in the upper right hand corner of the screen. Check which is your "preferred" ISY, and how the dialog box below that is set.

Have you tried selecting the device in the device dropdown? Fortunately the mini-remotes are all near the top of the list.

I have a handful of those, they do add. I suspect @lilyoyo nailed your issue. You do have the switch on as well? blinking green LED when you try to link?

1) You may already know this but, close the admin console when your not using it, it's not meant to be a 24/7 system monitor. Anytime something doesn't make sense to me the first thing i do is close the admin console and re-open it. 2) A good exercise to help troubleshoot your counts being off is to click on "my programs" at the top of the program tree, then right click and choose "Find/Replace" use Find to "step-thru" all uses of your variable $S.FH.Zone.Count and just step thru each place it's used to see if you've accidentally done something like used = where you meant += or -= or used += or -= in both then Then and Else of some program. I find it helps to step through each usage of the variable using that method rather than clicking between programs staring at each one. You might also find an entirely unrelated program where you accidentally selected the wrong variable. Another trick you can use to "log" every time a state variable changes for debugging is to create a temporary program using a condition that will always be true and then either email the change or send it to pushover. the program below will run THEN each time the count changes. If $S.FH.Zone.Count > -9999 then Resource send_count If you create a second application token at pushover to use with this program only the app will organize these all together in a separate folder. Of course send the value of the variable. You could also include not only the value of the variable but have separate lines with the state of each node that changes it.

The reason for all those questions is because the Z-wave dongle had a hardware change. V5.0.16C is the final version that works with the original 300 series board. The newer 500 series board is required for ISY firmware versions beyond 5.0.16C. So this puts you in the category of "it seems like you shouldn't be having this problem". Since you stated "I cannot check my Z-wave version because nothing happens when I click on "Z-Wave Dongle not responding" I think you should open a ticket with UDI support, you can do that by emailing support@universal-devices.com For what its worth: had the Z-wave | Z-wave version check worked.... Series 300 board reply version 4.55.00, series 500 boards reply with version 6.81.00. Another way to identify a 300 series board is to look at the back of your ISY, if you see a round circle next to Port A then shine your phones flashlight at that and see if it's really a blue LED (assuming the blue LED not lit up which of course makes it obvious)...If you have a blue LED next to port A then that is a series 300 board.

@jblackst5000 What version of ISY 5.0 firmware are you using? (Help | About) Does the UI version match? What version is reported when you select Z-Wave | Z-wave version? Did you also upgrade the ISY's firmware at any point during the PLM change?

Same here.... I was skipping this sub-forum and only scanning it every few days because i don't own anything android and I wasn't expecting an iOS announcement, by the time I found the post it was already full. I hope new slots open soon, making sure to check the new posts here everyday again.