db2ace2 Posted October 24, 2014 Posted October 24, 2014 I have an older Motion Sensor that was originally tied to a failing ISY994 that I can no longer connect to.. Unfortunately while I do have Backups of that device, I did not save a Topology Listing. When I went to add the Sensor to my second ISY device I have found that the Insteon Address has faded and is unreadable. Is there any way you are aware of to determine the Insteon Address of the Motion Sensor? I don't want to have to restore one of the backups and then restore back just to find out the address of the device. With Switches, etc you can Start Linking and hold the Set Button and it will auto identify, but I don't seem to find any Auto Identification technique for a Sensor? Help! Thanks Charles Seiler
Teken Posted October 24, 2014 Posted October 24, 2014 I have an older Motion Sensor that was originally tied to a failing ISY994 that I can no longer connect to.. Unfortunately while I do have Backups of that device, I did not save a Topology Listing. When I went to add the Sensor to my second ISY device I have found that the Insteon Address has faded and is unreadable. Is there any way you are aware of to determine the Insteon Address of the Motion Sensor? I don't want to have to restore one of the backups and then restore back just to find out the address of the device. With Switches, etc you can Start Linking and hold the Set Button and it will auto identify, but I don't seem to find any Auto Identification technique for a Sensor? Help! Thanks Charles Seiler Hello Charles, Does adding the old MS via the *Start Linking* not allow you to enroll the old device? The *Start Linking* is the two colored whirling arrows next to the New Insteon (Light Bulb) icon.
db2ace2 Posted October 24, 2014 Author Posted October 24, 2014 Start Linking does not allow you to Link a Motion Sensor (At least I have never been able to?) . You have to specify Link Sensor instead, and that does not Autolink so that does not work. Like I said Start Linking works for Switches, etc when you press and hold the switch for 5 seconds it auto discovers but since a MS is not allowed to be added under Start linking nothing is Auto Detected. Nothing I try seems to work to determine the address of the MS.
db2ace2 Posted October 24, 2014 Author Posted October 24, 2014 Good news is I think I can read the first two address groups of the address, its the last two bytes I cannot see, so I am probably only about X'FF' away from finding it if I am lucky? 256 possibilities I believe?
shannong Posted October 24, 2014 Posted October 24, 2014 Good news is I think I can read the first two address groups of the address, its the last two bytes I cannot see, so I am probably only about X'FF' away from finding it if I am lucky? 256 possibilities I believe? Yep. 256.
db2ace2 Posted October 24, 2014 Author Posted October 24, 2014 Hello All, I was able to find the Insteon Address of the MS, unfortunately I had to use an INSTEON HUB to do so. The HUB Auto Identified the MS for me. I Still do not like the HUB compared to the ISY as there is no real comparison between what the ISY can do vs a HUB, but this is the first thing I have been able to successfully use the HUB for that I could not seem to accomplish with the ISY. Thanks Charles Seiler
Teken Posted October 24, 2014 Posted October 24, 2014 Hello All, I was able to find the Insteon Address of the MS, unfortunately I had to use an INSTEON HUB to do so. The HUB Auto Identified the MS for me. I Still do not like the HUB compared to the ISY as there is no real comparison between what the ISY can do vs a HUB, but this is the first thing I have been able to successfully use the HUB for that I could not seem to accomplish with the ISY. Thanks Charles Seiler I believe that is still one of the strengths of the HL and HUB. Both software and controller are able to update programming and be enrolled with out actually pressing the set button. I don't recall off the top of my head why this critical feature can not be incorporated into the ISY Series Controller but that is truly one of the lacking features for the ISY.
LeeG Posted October 24, 2014 Posted October 24, 2014 (edited) If familiar with the Event Trace you can use Start Linking which puts the PLM into linking mode. Then press the Set button on the Motion Sensor for about 5 seconds so that it generates Broadcast message which has the MS device address. The ISY will not establish the MS this way but the event trace will have MS device address. Edited October 24, 2014 by LeeG
LeeG Posted October 24, 2014 Posted October 24, 2014 Teken Battery devices go to sleep normally. It is necessary to issue special commands to keep a battery powered device from sleeping so that link records and configuration data can be written to the device. The command to keep the battery device from going to sleep is very time constrained, not working if the small time slot is missed. HL function was withdrawn for a time because HL was not sending the "don't sleep" command soon enough. Even now HL can miss that time slot and has to put the updates on a pending queue until another message is received from the battery device. So far UDI has not ventured into that area as it can be messy.
Teken Posted October 24, 2014 Posted October 24, 2014 (edited) Teken Battery devices go to sleep normally. It is necessary to issue special commands to keep a battery powered device from sleeping so that link records and configuration data can be written to the device. The command to keep the battery device from going to sleep is very time constrained, not working if the small time slot is missed. HL function was withdrawn for a time because HL was not sending the "don't sleep" command soon enough. Even now HL can miss that time slot and has to put the updates on a pending queue until another message is received from the battery device. So far UDI has not ventured into that area as it can be messy. LeeG, Understood, but I believe the option should be given to the end user to decide. A simple caveat pop up message is all that is needed for the masses I believe. The worst case scenario is you drain a battery and leave a set of lights on. Regardless, thank you for the insight. Encrypted By: Phoenix Security Solutions Edited October 24, 2014 by Teken
db2ace2 Posted October 24, 2014 Author Posted October 24, 2014 Thanks again guys. Again, I still prefer ISY to HUB but it would be nice to at least see the ID of the device even if the Start Linking cannot Add it. Link Sensor will add it but only if you know the address to add. These Device Labels and even a Sharpie Pen do not last so its easy to lose the ID especially on a MS that may be Outdoors in the Sun. If it cannot be done then I understand but if there is a way to Auto Detect the Device ID of a MS that would be a great feature for the ISY to support. Thanks Charles Seiler
Teken Posted October 24, 2014 Posted October 24, 2014 One of several things I do out of course is first track each device with their Insteon ID on a Excel spread sheet. That same information is also written down on a users manual. Next I then tape over the ID with clear tape. Any device that is outside or mission critical has a separate label inserted to the inside of the MS with a label maker. Encrypted By: Phoenix Security Solutions
Techman Posted October 25, 2014 Posted October 25, 2014 Another option is to run the ISY topology report each time you add a new device. Not only does the report include the device type and its address, but it also includes any notes that you may have attached to the device such as its location etc.
Xathros Posted October 27, 2014 Posted October 27, 2014 (edited) And yet another trick is to pick an already installed device like a switchlink, display the device links table and make note of the ID's in the list then manually link the device with an unknown ID to the switchlink and display the switchlinc's links table again, the new extra link record will contain the unknown ID. Once recorded, simply 'Restore Device' on the switchlinc to remove the extra unwanted link. -Xathros Edited October 27, 2014 by Xathros
Brian H Posted October 27, 2014 Posted October 27, 2014 I did that with a Smarthome short lived X10SC503. Was sold as an X10 controller but was a 2430 ControLinc with all the Insteon labels removed. Added a spare ApplianceLinc to my ISY994i. Then manually linked the 2430 to the ApplianceLinc. Read back its link table and got its ID.
Teken Posted October 28, 2014 Posted October 28, 2014 And yet another trick is to pick an already installed device like a switchlink, display the device links table and make note of the ID's in the list then manually link the device with an unknown ID to the switchlink and display the switchlinc's links table again, the new extra link record will contain the unknown ID. Once recorded, simply 'Restore Device' on the switchlinc to remove the extra unwanted link. -Xathros Totally forgot that little nugget thank you! Encrypted By: Phoenix Security Solutions
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