johnjces

@ronvond I too have three IOLinc 2450 v41 in use as garage door sensors and openers. Two in a hot climate and one in a cooler climate. All have been in use three+ years with the 'cooler' one in use about 3 1/2+ years. The 'cooler' one, about 4 months into it's life, began to randomly open the garage door which is pretty disconcerting. However, the problem in that instance was the PLM. I was new to all this and purchased an alleged refurbished PLM. Once I replaced that PLM with a brand new one, I have had no issues with any of them... yet. I know it's a matter of time with those in the desert heat of a garage ceiling failing first. I "think" one thing I did at both places which 'may' help, is that I added whole house surge protection at the breaker box. Not certain if that has saved any of my devices, but have never had much fail since I installed them. The one in the mountains has been in place 8+ years. I hope this tidbit helps. John

@johnnyt Please report back and let us know how it goes! Like you, and maybe many others, I have been hesitant to upgrade due to possible issues. Thanks! John

It really isn't that difficult to set up Alexa with the ISY to control your Insteon stuff. Just follow the Wiki on how to set up the portal and set up Alexa/Echo. I found a couple "gotchas" and reported them and I am pretty sure that the suggestions I made were added. One of the nice things is the ability to use multiple words or "Spokens" to control any given device. I resisted for a long time moving from the Hub to the ISY and Portal because I am cheap and didn't want to spend the money on a recurring cost for Alexa but found it worth it. Give it a try. If you have problems there are a lot of people who can help you through it.

Somewhere I read that one can delete the PLM once all switches and other stuff are linked and of course no programs controlling that stuff. Is this true?

I have seen some of these pop up on eBay from time to time so you might save a search so eBay can notify you when they come up.

Just a followup for whatever it might be worth, but In updating to V3 of the Smart Home Skill for Alexa, all plurals and/or possessives work just fine. Bettys Bed works great!

Did you do a Java update?

You could use an Insteon Micro Dimmer or Micro On/Off module as it will probably fit inside the box behind or in your case, underneath the outlet. They are in fact quite small. Just watch your wattage as the on/off will do up to 100 watts as I recall and the dimmer only 200 watts. John

Not yet anyway! But I think some day. Wonder when that will happen; when AI becomes self aware...

One would think that "betty sped" would work. It doesn;t... Anything with betty and an 'S' just fails... Interesting.

For what it's worth, I too was using both an ISY and an Insteon Hub, using the Hub only for Alexa integration. I started having issues trying to keep things working together nicely and getting more and more red LED 'blinkys' on various switches. One reason I didn't switch from the Hub to the ISY is I am cheap and didn't want to spend $50 for 2 years of such service with the ISY Portal. I just recently pried the money from my wallet, bought the ISY Portal and went through the trouble of ridding myself of the Hub and I am most pleased! With the ISY Portal, you can add multiple "spokens" for a device, scenes and/or programs and I have to admit responses or wait times to lights on/off is much quicker. I was able to get rid of several ISY programs as well! I was worried about messing stuff up during the move from the Hub to the ISY but I didn't mess anything up. Learned a bunch too. It did take some time though. I, (my wife as well, I think), like Alexa enabled stuff and I would recommend that you reconsider keeping both and move over to the ISY. Using just the ISY is simply easier. I use on my Android smartphone the ISY Java dashboard via the web browser which is free dollars! It's kind of rough to view and use on a phone so I may pry some more money out of my pocket for one of the better Android apps to remotely control my stuff. But I have learned that some things are worth the money! My apologies for hijacking your thread and my long winded post. Lastly, all my "links" are done with scenes whereby you can easily link devices to control each other etc, if that is the kind of link you were speaking of. John

LOL! That is a good one! I will try it later today and let you know!

Thanks guys for the info and input! One other thing about the fanlinc... on fanlinc low speed with my fan, it was really slow; slower than direct connected. On fanlinc medium it was a bit faster than the fan's unmodified slow... somewhere between low and medium. High speed was a normal high speed. I guess another reason to go back to the old pull chain, but the ol' chain is rarely pulled and sure is super nice to lay in bed and say, "Alexa, bedroom fan on"! John

Thanks Teken! I knew that from the start but wanted to give it a go! About a year isn't bad in an attic. I did try and insulate it however.

I too was using both the Hub and ISY, but the hub seemed to cause me issues from time to time with red "blinkies" and REAL slow performance. The ISY is so much faster now that the HUB is removed with Alexa! Or at least it surely seems that way! And only one place to add, remove, change link and etc. I did remove Betty and all references to Betty used devices first from the hub when I started all this. I have also, several times, removed from the portal all Betty references and changed scenes and devices that had betty or bettys in the name, I changed a lot of stuff to try and simplify things Man... Again, I tried every Bedies, Beddys, etc. I could think of! I actually got it to work one time with 'bettys bed'!!!!! I thought I had it made... my heart jumped, I grinned and whooped and then I asked Alexa to turn Bettys bed off. "I cannot find bettys bed" ARGH!!! Asked a million times and nada! I have finally given up! "Desk" works great and "betty bed" works well too. Just sounds funny! John

@Stusviews To cover both improvised mounting/installations.... Originally, I simply installed the fanlinc into an electrical box in the attic right above the ceiling fan mount and box. Plenty of wire length to bring the wires back through the mounting/electrical box and wire it to the existing supply fan and light wires. My plan is to remove the fanlinc, (remove it from its box in the attic and unhook it), and replace it with the micro devices since medium fan speed stopped working. The fanlinc will be replaced by both the micro dimmer module for the lights and the micro on/off module for the fan and we will vary the fan speed when needed by the good ol' pull chain. I do believe that the micro modules will fit into the ceiling box and ceiling fan trim cone, for lack of a better description. I won't have to climb into the attic ever again to reset, or mess with the Fanlinc. Biggest reward; not ever having to get into that hot ol attic again! (I hope). John

Sorry to be bugging you guys so much lately with 50 questions, but I am seeking anyone with experience with the above dimmable micro module and dimmable LED bulbs. I have searched the web and read the manual on these devices and clearly Insteon states that the load is "Incandescent". I have checked other sites, (Home Depot being one) and it states CFL and LED compatible. I have several dimmable Insteon SwitchLincs and they work fine on dimmable LED lamps. SO... just a double check before I dump my lousy, failed in less than a year FanLinc. Medium speed has gone away. It starts and stops. AND just an FYI, a FanLinc didn't fit in my fan's ceiling sconce or trim piece so had to improvise on it's location. I have read about that on several other forums that it is pretty large and has a high failure rate. I want to use a dimmable micro module for the ceiling fan lamps, of course, and an on-off micro module for the fan and just use the pull chain speed control. Thanks again! John

@stusviews Thanks! I tried every conceivable phonetic spelling of bettys that I could think of starting with your suggestions. If I used Bet Tees and really enunciated it, and others, with a pause between bet and tees, it would work. Johns works great, Bettys doesn't so just have to use the singular! LOL. The Insteon hub and Alexa liked "Bettys" prior to my change over. All of that is gone; existing controllers and responders reset old hub removed so I don't think I have any ghosts left... and I am using the same spoken words (Alexa device names) as before. Just an interesting thing! John

In finally moving over my Insteon Hub and Alexa (Echo) integration over to just my ISY, I have run into one "weirdness" which has to do with the spokens that you enter in the ISY Portal. First, ALL of my devices are working great with my ISY and all are working through Alexa with the spokens I gave them and entered into the ISY Portal except for one word... BETTYS. I have an Insteon plug in module to which I have a desk lamp plugged into. I named this Bettys Desk. After finding devices, I see in my Alexa App that Bettys Desk has been added into the discovered devices list. When I say, "Alexa, Bettys Desk On", Alexa states she cannot find "Bettys Desk". I renamed it to just "Desk" and Alexa turns it on and off. I renamed it "Betty Desk" (non possessive) and it works just fine. I tried this on another module and another lamp for giggles and the same result. Alexa cannot find a possessive or plural Betty. Alexa repeats 'Bettys' just fine when she can't find it. I have tried: "Betties" "Bettees" and of course "Bettys". I also know that the ISY Portal does not allow apostrophes so you cannot enter Betty's. So Betty Bed or Betty Desk sounds weird but works fine. Any thoughts on this would be great... fixes even better. John

@Techman When doing a factory reset on my Insteon devices, should the device be deleted from the ISY first? OR, is it okay to factory reset the device without deleting it from the ISY and then just add the device again in the ISY? Other forum posts i read just mention the factory reset then re-add; nothing about deleting the device from the ISY. John

@Stu The network module and the ISY portal are in fact modules, software modules and one must purchase them and it must be installed and/or activated on the ISY. The portal is the module that needs to be purchased and installed for Alexa integration and therefore the reason why I was being cheap... And... I am not certain how I misguided anyone in my writing to say or infer that the ISY is a module so that it needed clarification! I have read and reread my post and I don't understand where or how you got that out of my text. I am not trying to be a jerk. I am honestly trying to post clear, concise and proper questions. Please advise. Maybe I should have stated, "before I order up the Portal module..." instead of "order up the module". Dunno. John

Because I have been "cheap" I have kept my Insteon Hub connected to Amazon's Echo (Alexa), but the forum posts have been correct. It has been a PITA to keep things synchronized and working properly having both the ISY and the Hub and the ISY works so much better, is easier and just a neat piece of electronic equipment! The hub might be causing some of my ghost problems as well. So, before I order up the the Portal Integration Module, what are the things I should be cautious of or take care of? Any order in doing things? I thought that I should... (in my perceived order) 1). delete all scenes from the Hub 2). delete all devices from the Hub 3). disable the Insteon/Echo integration. 4). purchase and install the ISY Portal Module 5). follow the instructions in the wiki for Alexa integration. Any thoughts, comments, hints etc are welcome! Am I missing anything? Thanks!! John

@ oberkc and Brian H, Great things to check out if it happens again. The restore fixed the issues so I just have to wait and see if it does it again then play around a bit. And yes, the PLM is on the same circuit as the UPS but I have a lot of dual band devices within 20 feet of one another so "theoretically" the RF should be getting passed. We will see. Thanks! John

@Stu.. I think you misread.... the ISY was put on a UPS, not the PLM. The PLM was already powered up and not on a UPS, but again, that was the only change putting the ISY on a new UPS.. Thanks for the insight! John

In STFing, I found a bit of info regarding my "issue". That is, all of my scenes are working perfectly. ISY controls everything just fine, no problems. All of a sudden today I had four (4) switchlincs, 2 dimmers, 2 on-off, flash red after switching them on manually. I checked all members of the scene visually and all was in a state that they should be. I did a device compare and there were no errors but several duplicates, ignored. I saw no issues other than the duplicates. In any event, I did a device restore on each switch and the red LED blinking stopped when any of them were switched on manually. Another post stated error message telling you it did not receive a signal confirmation from one of the linked responders to the scene. Seems to make sense, but then why would a restore fix the blinky red problem? And have had no issues before and other Insteon switchs in the same box work as expected with no red LED problems. Any insight as to what caused this minor issue? I did put the ISY on a new UPS and didn't start up the PLM first before the ISY, but that is about the only thing that "changed" or was done differently. Thanks for the thoughts! John