Tango

I found USB PLMs in stock. Serial ones - not so much. I know Aeotec is having supply issues as well. Zooz, apparently, has enough stuff in stock for now. I'm just wondering about Z-Wave, Insteon, and even Zigbee. It seems like Z-Wave can be frustrating to deal with in some ways and I'm just wondering how the others out there compare. That'll be about midnight or so. We got hit with a major flood last year (a 700 year storm) and I got it all fixed up and then, exactly a year later, got hit with TWO floods, both topping the 100 year floodplain (we have markers on our lot for that) in ONE day. So I've been working like mad to get that taken care of, since it's during 'cane season. I have to get my spreadsheet to a county engineer (along with an explanation, so he can check the high points and be sure I'm doing it all correctly without having to take too much time on it) and get drain designs to a subcontractor. Found out about both today and need to get those docs out ASAP - as in tonight, so they can see them in the morning! When those are done, if I'm still awake... But, seriously, I'm so caught up dealing with the flood stuff, I am glad you reminded me to do that! Thanks!

Maybe they don't, but I haven't run into this before. I consider it a warning, now, to watch for all those Amazon vendors that have names like "Brand: GoControl." I'm seeing that more and more. At this point, I'd like to just do a factory reset on this but, guess what? That's not in the manual and I'm SOL with nobody to call to find out how to do that, since GoControl won't even offer basic information about their product. I removed that first thermostat, that worked, although not as it should and I did upgrade the firmware before that. I'll try healing the network. Is Insteon this much of a pain to deal with? I've been finding Z-Wave frustrating. When it works, it works, but it's like dealing with a witch doctor when something goes wrong. I can't Google and get under the hood to find out how to fix it.

That's what I thought should happen - I wondered why I was getting a list of what looked like ALL my devices. It didn't make sense to me. My understanding is that, for security, a Z-Wave node must be added or removed at both ends. The problem is I go through that step ("Remove/Disable") and the ISY doesn't seem to get any communication from the Part of what I'm considering (didn't think this would matter) is that I'm thinking of selling some of the devices I've removed from the network over the past year. I know some devices (like the locks I've removed) will delete the network with a factory reset. If I knew a factory reset would do that with this thermostat, I'd do it. I bought this through Amazon, where the seller is "Brand: GoControl." Turns out they're not the official reseller, so GoControl/Nortel won't even let me ask a basic question like that. They just keep saying, "We can't answer any questions. Your authorized dealer that sold it to you needs to do that for you." (Which is why I will NEVER buy this brand again!)

I have four GoControl GC-TBZ48 Z-Wave thermostats. (And I will never buy another - GoControl/Nortel refused to answer any questions after a power flicker damaged one! They hung up on me, so I've had to replace that thermostat and I'm doing the same to all of them.) Two are in the house and two in our renovated barn. Right now I'm trying to deal with one in the house and I can't remove it from the network. I'm going to present this in chronological order to avoid confusion. I removed one thermostat in the house and I'm stuck on the 2nd one. So here it is, in order: I tried to remove the 1st one and, without taking time to read all the directions, I went to the 1st thermostat and, in the Z-Wave menu, picked "Remove." It'd flash "Remove" and "Waiting," then it would end with "Failed." I tried that a few times. It was late, I gave up. The next day I looked over things, went to the Admin panel for my ISY994i, and picked "Remove/Exclude a Z-Wave device." I got the "Listening for Z-Wave devices to remove from the network" message and, soon after, it gave me a list of what I think is all my Z-Wave devices and I picked the 1st thermostat. It successfully removed it. Then I did the stuff I had to do with that one for replacement and so on. Okay, good, now we get into trouble. Time to do the 2nd thermostat. On the ISY Admin console, I go to "Remove/Exclude..." again and pick that. I get the Exclude window and the "Listening for Z-Wave devices" message. That's it. That window stays that way. No list of devices like I got previously. I go to the 2nd thermostat and go to the Z-Wave menu and pick "Remove." (My only choice!) I get the same message as before: It flashes between "Remove" and "Waiting." Finally I get "Failed." I check my Admin console - still on the "Listening for..." message. I've tried this in different orders - picking remove on the thermostat first, then on the console. I tried just using the Remove option by itself on the thermostat several times (since that worked the day before) and it didn't work. First, I'd like to know what's supposed to happen when I use Remove /Exclude on the ISY Admin console. Is it supposed to give me a list of all devices like it did that one time? Or is it supposed to only listen for a device being removed? Second, If I turn off the ISY (or, say, it died), how do I remove my devices from that dead network? I assume if a device dies, I can remove it as a failed node, but I'm wondering about the other end - if the ISY or any Z-Wave hub dies, how do I get a device to forget that network so I can add it to another?

@Javi: I get the firmware upgrades are free, but this unit is from 2017. From the chart I saw (on costs for the Z board upgrade), it looks like I can pretty much assume my board is outdated and needs replacing. Oh, with the new webstart file, I will say that the interface looks much better than the old admin panel that is so kludgy!

Not saying this to whine or to jump on anyone, but, well, first, thanks for all that and for clarifying it all. I'm guessing there's a good chance I'd have to upgrade and even the hardware is still old. Sounds like I'm better off going with Home Assistant at this point, since I can get a Z-Stick for under $50 and I can use two Pis (I have several extra right now) and two Z-sticks and it'll cost notably less than upgrading an ISY. I'll check on what I can find about my hardware, though, and see what I can go up to without upgrading hardware at this point.

First, I'm on an iMac. I haven't had to get into anything with my ISY in a while and I've been using MobiLincHD, but I saw that UD has an app and downloaded it... ...and promptly hit a brick wall. While MobiLinc lets me in without a fuss, I can't log in or set anything up with UD's app unless I have a certificate. (And I think it's a major pain in the rear that I can't opt out of that if I decide to. I'm in a remote location, out of wifi range of anyone else and have a good firewall. But thank you for taking the choice from me. I've Googled and found this topic and another one or two, but Google didn't show me anything dated after 2015. And in that topic, there is this link to instructions. Okay, I tried to follow that, but from the start, when the first window opens with both my ISY devices listed, it craps out. I right click, as shown in the instructions, to get a menu so I can pick Admin Console or Dashboard. Guess what? No menu. No Dashboard. No way to get to it. So I went to the documentation and see how to get the Admin Console - which I have. But Dashboard instructions? Nope. Nothing to download. Does the Dashboard still exist or was it rolled into the Admin console? I keep looking and, under Help is, supposedly, information about certificates. I pick that menu item and nothing happens. Try again. Nothing. Nada. Zip. I downloaded and updated to the latest Admin Console version and that menu item still does nothing. So it seems instructions for certificates are outdated and when I try to use the Help function, I get nothing. There are no recent posts on this topic, which leads me to wonder if things have been updated in many places, but that the whole issue of documentation on certificates was left out and is just OBE (Overcome By Events). How do I get a certificate so I can check out the UD app and see if I prefer it over MobiLinc? I might add that even though I have two buildings (we have a renovated barn), and I have a number of Z-Wave switches, dimmers, and fan controls in the barn, I've never set up my ISY down there. My wife is picky about what software goes on her laptop and I don't have a laptop, so it's been a big pain to try to go down and set everything up down there. I can't set it up through MobiLinc, so I've been SOL in adding devices in the barn. I'm hoping I can do that with the UD app, but at this point I'm also looking into Home Assistant and considering running that on a spare Raspberry Pi I have and disconnecting and selling my ISYs. I'm not saying this as a threat, but, at this point, just looking over the HA app and web control panel, it seems that, as an open source program, it's got a better design for the UI and that the Admin Console has always felt kludgy. I don't need flash and spritz on a UI, but I do want to be able to easily do what I want and this certificate issue and the problems with adding on devices in a 2nd building have been frustrating. One of them, alone, was not good, but both - that's what's got me looking elsewhere for a solution. I'm not saying that to be mean or to try to use that point to wheedle help out of someone, but I think it's a point that UD admin needs to be aware of.

I haven't used Remote Desktop, but I guess that's what I'll have to use. I don't have a laptop.

So is there a way to get the Admin Console to work on an iPad? This means having to be at the house and the barn at the same time or running back and forth a lot.

I've posted a couple threads about dealing with a 2nd ISY. ISY1 is in my house and works fine with the devices in my house. ISY2 is in the barn (a guest house now). The barn is on the same LAN as the house, but it's too far to have the same wifi. I use a 500' fiber optic cable to connect the switch in the barn with the house and so it's all on the same LAN. So ISY2 is on the same subnet as ISY1, but since there's no wifi linking the two locations, I got ISY2 so it could handle the devices in the barn. (Also worth noting at this time that ISY2 is only working with Z-Wave devices only.) I have an iMac in the house and have the Admin Console on that computer and I use that and MobileLinc to operate devices through ISY1. I need to add devices to ISY2 now. Unless I pull my Mac out of its setup (I'm a desktop user and really don't like messing up my work environment unless it's necessary), I need a way to access ISY2 from within the barn. (So I don't have to run back and forth or talk to someone on a phone while we're setting things up and I'm in the house and they're in the barn. What app is good on an iPad for setup and adding devices to my ISY? I can't find anything on MobileLinc that actually adds devices, just ways to control devices.

I had thought about that. I know sometimes when you change IP addresses for various reasons, that sometimes the old configuration gets buffered in some devices. I've seen a few cases where a device does not start listening on the new IP address until it's rebooted. I don't know why, but I'm wondering if that's what happened here. I disconnected it and brought it up to the house and plugged it in and had it just a few feet from me and my computer. This time it showed up in Chrome and in the admin panel on the first try. I made sure it was there and would remember that after a reboot. Then I took it down to the barn, set it up, and opened that IP address in my iPad. It worked. I can now connect to both ISY devices whether I'm in the barn or in the house. I have not tested it with HDLinc yet, but it'll also be a while before I have any Z-Wave devices added to the ISY in the barn. While we have most of the wiring done, there are temporary cheap toggle switches in the wall boxes so we can just make sure everything works. Since the electrician is MIA (tied up in another job for a bit), I may go through and swap out the old switches for the Z-Wave ones myself, so it'll be done and out of the way. I'm chalking this up as some kind of buffering issue or something like that, since other devices are working fine across the void between the buildings and I know this ISY was originally given a different IP address.

Going along with what has been already suggested, I'll be checking on that this afternoon, when I'll have time to get down to the barn. I'm going to bring it up to the house and plug it in up here, where I can have it next to the computer when I troubleshoot. I'll definitely be watching the reboot process from here. I haven't been able to access this ISY at all yet, so I have every reason to suspect that it is using a factory default setting. I've set up the address for it in the DHCP server and only in that location. I haven't yet checked the device to see if the MAC address is listed on it, but the DHCP server does say, under leases, that the ISY is at the address and something at that address responds to a ping. I'll know more this afternoon.

Good thoughts. From everything I've heard, and from what I can tell, the subnet is the same and the fiber connection should be "transparent." I have a HDHomeRun TV tuner in the house and I can connect to it from the barn when I use an iPad and can watch TV on it. I know that wouldn't be possible unless it were all on the same subnet, but there could be another issue that's causing the problem.

House ISY IP Address:172.16.7.243 Barn ISY IP Address: 172.16.7.244 Computer IP Address: 172.16.7.10 (ethernet) and 172.16.7.198 (wifi) So they're all on the same subnet. (I specified the DHCP server use those two specific addresses for the ISY connections. The computer address is also permanent.)

This a follow-up to my question about if I needed a 2nd ISY. I went on and bought a 2nd ISY994iZW+/IR-PRO and hooked it up. According to my DHCP server, it has an IP address. The blue status light on the ISY is on, but when I try to open a browser tab to that IP address, there's no response. I also tried to add the device to the Java ISY control panel on my iMac. When I did that, I got an error message: "Socket Open Failed java.net_SocketTimeoutException." After that, I get "XML Parse Error: http<myipaddy>/desc." Then, nothing. If I try to go to Universal Devices URL to let me find a device, I get an error that my browser needs Java 2. (Yeah, that's an issue with browsers on a Mac.) So I know it's there, I know it's hooked up and getting the IP address, but from there, I can't communicate with my ISY. Also, there's a bit of other info that may be necessary. I have a DHCP server in my house and all the wired devices are attached through a switch near the DHCP server (and firewall). One CAT5e cable comes out of that switch, connects to a converter that converts the signals for the fiber optic cable connected on the other end of the converter. From there, the cable is about 500' to the barn. In the barn, there's another converter, then a CAT5e to the ethernet switch down there and one cable comes out of there to the ISY. That 2nd ISY (ISY-B for Barn) has an address assigned from my DHCP server. Also down there is a wifi router set up as an access point for wifi down there. I doubt this wireless access point should have any impact on the issue, but I'm mentioning it just in case. As I said, it's an access point so it does not do any work as a DHCP server, it lets my DHCP server in the house handle that. I doubt any of that is an issue, but, again, I'm mentioning it "just in case." The one thing to consider in terms of troubleshooting is that the buildings are a several minute walk apart, so making changes and going to the barn, coming back to the house for any reason, and going back is not something I want to have to do a lot of when troubleshooting.