Suddenly Progams Not Working!

[stillen_i30]

My ISY and PLM have been working near-perfectly for the past two yrs. Today, I logged in to add a new device (in-line linc). It had been a while and I accidentally clicked "start linking" instead of "add new insteon device." at any rate, the new device never seemed to link (forgot the exact error message).

 

At any rate, I logged out and logged back in and subsequently kept getting messages that my ISY is now running in Safe Mode and to check my PLM. No commands could be sent from the console or MobiLinc to any of the devices. The green light on the PLM was out and I unplugged/plugged it and ISY back in numerous times until suddenly once when plugging in the PLM the green light came on solid and it made its typical beep. When I logged back into ISY it synced up for about 5 mins again and appeared to be working again.

 

Well, now the device statuses are showing up again in the console, and I can send on/off commands, however, none of my programs are working now. Statuses still showing up. Any idea of what this is all about?

[LeeG]

Start Linking puts the PLM into linking mode for 4 minutes unless Finish button is clicked. It sounds like the Finish button was not clicked and the PLM was not left powered Off long enough. Also the ISY would require a reboot to get out of Start Linking mode.

 

Is it the Programs that are triggered by device activity or based on Time that are not being triggered?

[stillen_i30]

yes, I did forget to mention that the time-triggered programs ( turn flood light on at 9pm) seem to be working, but the ones that depend on other devices are suddenly not. an example is a switch I use to turn on the shower lights trigger the switch that turns on the bathroom fan for 30 mins is not working ( shower lights manually turn on but fan doesn't start ).

[LeeG]

Bring up the Admin Console and watch the Current State column for the switch as the switch is manually operated (not thru Admin Console). If the Admin Console is not showing the On/Off state changes in real time the PLM was likely reset during the efforts to clear the Start Linking.

 

Run File | Restore Modem (PLM) to rebuild the PLM link database. Then repeat the manual switch test.

[stillen_i30]

yes the statuses update properly in the console which is why I'm so baffled

[gviliunas]

Before variables, there was an issue with ISY on nights where the time automatically changed forward or backward. I don't know if this is still an issue but it only affected people who used programs as flags. In my case, I used these as "Master Enable" flags to allow my motion sensor programs to run. Every time we experienced a time change, all of my flag programs would be reset to FALSE by ISY. This effectively disabled my motion sensor programs.

 

Last year, I changed all of my programs to use variables instead of flag programs and haven't experienced any failures since. I don't know if this problem was ever fixed by UDI.

If the OP is using programs as flags, this may be why your programs suddenly stopped working Sunday. If these are unexpectedly false you can set them to true (run Then) and everything should work again.

 

Good Luck

Greg

[LeeG]

Run Tools | Diagnostics | Event Viewer at LEVEL 3. Use the paddle to turn a switch On and Off. Post the event trace and the Program that should trigger.

[stillen_i30]

ok, tried to monitor the event viewer at level 3. Turning certain light switches on/off did not even make an event pop up its address on the viewer. I also noticed today that only certain switches are working, others are not showing their updated changes in the admin console (some switches showing updated on/off but others not). However, if I turn a device on or off using the console or mobilinc from my smart phone, THEN only does the device status change in sync with what the lights are doing. Local changes are not effecting status changes in the console.

 

I had this problem before in the past when I relocated my PLM and when plugging it into a tight spot, the "set" button must have inadvertently pressed down and this same behavior where the console and ISY were no longer recognizing device statuses anymore occurred. I think I ended up re-linking everything to eventually get it to work but that was a painstaking process at that time, now that I have tons of devices that would be unthinkable. I don't know if there would be an easier solution to this problem?

 

BTW, ISY was fully backed up today just in case.

[LeeG]

"Run File | Restore Modem (PLM) to rebuild the PLM link database. Then repeat the manual switch test."

 

From my earlier post. When multiple devices stop reporting particularly after dealing with the Start Linking it looks like the PLM has lost some of its link records. These link records are required for the PLM to recognize the paddle/button press on the device.