johnjces

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

Thanks guys! I have everything on UPSes and do have generator backup. I will, without a doubt, put my ISY on the UPS and play around with the PLM on it as well. I do have a couple dual band switches within 20 feet. Maybe the PLM will last longer than 2 years!!! (Doubt it tho). WOOPS. Forgot that I have a couple X10 devices still operational so PLM will have to stay where it is. John

Somewhere, and I am not certain where, I thought I read that the ISY should not be plugged into a UPS, (uninterruptible power supply). I have followed this advice and maybe to a fault. I just recently read in another thread on this forum the advice to plug the ISY into a UPS so I STFed and found nothing helpful regarding the ISY. It was my belief that if you had a power failure it was best to have the ISY reboot and theefore re-read the tables after the PLM restarted and of course the ISY. You always plug the PLM in first then start the ISY! Obviously we do not want to put a PLM on a UPS but what about the ISY? What is best practice? John

I was an IT director at a casino for 11 years. I can count a number of short and long run Cat5 and 6 network cables that just sit. Don't move... they are just there and plugged in. They would fail! I could never quite figure out why a cable that just sits there might open a wire or two for no reason or a plug end loosen its crimp. Try a new Cat 5 straight through cable between your PLM and ISY... who knows... you've tried everything else!

Please keep us posted on your results with another PLM.

Bad PLM?

Just a follow up for anyone interested, once I got onsite, it auto updated just fine. Thanks everyone for the suggestions. John

Hi Michael, When I first tried to update the remote site, both the firmware and the console were 4.5.4. I did not update the console until after it failed and after I updated the local ISY as far as I can recall. In hindsight, I may have updated the console to 4.6.2 because I updated the local ISY then the console then tried the remote. Not certain now that I am thinking about it. So at the present moment, my remote site is firmware 4.5.4 and the console is 4.6.2 since the console is on my local PC. My local site is 4.62 and 4.6.2.

Hi Michel, I did. Same results. Anxious to get there physically. Will the difference in the Java Admin console and the older firmware cause me an issue?

Good day! I own two ISY994i controllers one local and one remote. Today I upgraded my local ISY from the 4.5.4 firmware to the latest stable 4.6.2 firmware. No issues doing the automatic upgrade locally. Cleared my Java cache, installed the latest admin console and dashboard. I then logged into my remote ISY using the admin console Internet IP and went through the steps of auto upgrading and it failed stating it couldn't download the firmware and had a socket error. Tried this a few times and the same thing, So, I then VPNed into my remote site and went into the admin console choosing the local LAN address of my remote ISY and had the same problem. I am worried that the upgraded admin console on my PC might be an issue. Will there be one? Using the upgraded Java Admin Console to make changes to my remote 4.5.4 ISY, will I have any problems? Or try it and see? Just trying to be prepared. And/or when I get to my remote site, will the upgraded Java admin console cause me grief with 4.5.4 firmware? As far as doing an auto update remotely that fails, Is there a way around this or does anyone have any ideas on why this might be happening? When I get to my remote site, will the upgraded Java admin console cause me grief with 4.5.4 firmware? I won't try a manual install remotely since the firmware has to reside on my PC and many things can get trashed when doing that kind of update. Thanks for any hints or tips. John

I had a similar problem when I purchased a "refurbished" PLM from the 'gitgo' when I moved up to an ISY. It failed pretty quickly, an old model with original capacitors inside. Anyway, I did a lot of research online and was pretty prepared to replace the PLM as there were some horror stories out there about replacing the device. In any event, like you all went well except for one swithclink, a 6 button. I did a manual factory reset of the device, which cleared it. I did not delete the device from ISY. I then did a restore device in the ISY. Wall Switches & Keypads Disconnect your Wall Switch or Keypad from power by pulling the set button out Press and hold the set button Continue holding the set button until the beep stops If your device does not beep, hold the set button for ten seconds Release the set button. You should hear two beeps confirming that your Wall Switch or Keypad has been reset It worked! Ya know, I would like to learn more about the PLM with a pass through and how a cut in half extension cord can help!! John

I was wondering about this too coming from HouseLinc and had yet to start my search! Found it and thanks for the info!!! John

In my programming that did not work, I just sent one X10 command and then did a repeat two times and neither made any difference whatsoever. The repeat was a later try and didn't remove it form my sample programs. Oberkc, I have tried all combinations in trying to get things to work using direct X10 commands. Weird and I hope the developers of this device might be following along and chime in on what may have been happening. It is working great now after using the X10 module and assigning it a name and using just like an Insteon device.