sea3pea0 Posted October 2, 2015 Share Posted October 2, 2015 I have been having issues with my insteon motion sensors, both the newer and older versions. They work fine for a while, like maybe 1-2 weeks, and then some of them stop reporting status to the ISY. As far as I can tell from my troubleshooting, the only way to get them working again is by opening them up and pressing the reset button to put them into pairing mode and then restoring them. After I do this they will work for another 1-2 weeks or so until I have to repeat the process all over again. It doesn't happen all at once either. I will lose one, then another and so on until eventually all my motion sensors will not be reporting their status to the isy. It only happens with motion sensors, not other wireless devices such as open close sensors, leak sensors or thermostat adapters. I have wireless phase couplers/range extenders around the house. Any help with trouble shooting this would be greatly appreciated. I've dealt with this for a while but I would like to get my setup working more reliably. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeeG Posted October 2, 2015 Share Posted October 2, 2015 What does Tools |,Diagnostics | PLM Info/Status show for PLM? What ISY firmware, what ISY UI? ( Help | About) With multiple devices involved the PLM could be losing link records, which the Restore Device rewrites along with the MS link database. Could also be low battery levels in the MSs. Try new battery in one MS to see if that improves that MS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sea3pea0 Posted October 2, 2015 Author Share Posted October 2, 2015 What does Tools |,Diagnostics | PLM Info/Status show for PLM? What ISY firmware, what ISY UI? ( Help | About) With multiple devices involved the PLM could be losing link records, which the Restore Device rewrites along with the MS link database. Could also be low battery levels in the MSs. Try new battery in one MS to see if that improves that MS. Tools |,Diagnostics | PLM Info/Status show for PLM -- shows 2A.A3.E2v9b/Connected ISY firmware, ISY UI -- firmware UD994 v.4.2.30, UI UD994 v.4.2.30 I don't think it's the batteries because I recently replaced the batteries in most of the affected devices and it still happened. I have the devices set to send only on commands, this time I am going to change them so they send on/off commands that way I can detect what's going on with them sooner. Right now I don't catch the problem right away because since only on status is reported in ISY admin console everything looks fine from there. It's only after a while that I notice lights aren't behaving as they should that I see something is wrong. One of the devices out of the whole bunch that isn't working shows blank, neither on nor off which makes me wonder if one device could be somehow corrupting the rest? The PLM is fairly new, about a year old and since this has been happening since the PLM was very new I'm hoping it isn't something wrong with the PLM. One other thing I've noticed is that the problem happens sooner with my devices located outside. It has happened to the 3 motion sensors I have located indoors but not so often. Thanks for your help LeeG! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeeG Posted October 2, 2015 Share Posted October 2, 2015 The PLM is old enough to have the capacitor issue but I would not expect a problem when it was first put into service. Run Tools | Diagnostics | Event Viewer at LEVEL 3. Trigger a few of the external Motion Sensors and watch the Hops Left count. Hops Left=2 is best, a Hops Left=1 is okay if the Dual Band devices receiving the motion sensor messages is on the opposite 120v leg compared to the PLM. A Hops Left=0 is poor comm with no room for any degradation. A Hops Left count that is changing frequently also indicates poor comm. You can post the LEVEL 3 event trace if you want another set of eyes to look at the trace. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sea3pea0 Posted October 3, 2015 Author Share Posted October 3, 2015 Here's some logs with the motion sensors being triggered. One thing I just noticed is that I accidentally linked a couple of the troubled motion sensors to one another, I guess when I put one in programming mode I forgot to take it out of programming mode before putting another into programming mode thus linking them together. Could that have been the cause of my problems? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larryllix Posted October 3, 2015 Share Posted October 3, 2015 Here's some logs with the motion sensors being triggered. One thing I just noticed is that I accidentally linked a couple of the troubled motion sensors to one another, I guess when I put one in programming mode I forgot to take it out of programming mode before putting another into programming mode thus linking them together. Could that have been the cause of my problems? They are individually addressed and addresses are used for comms so probably not likely but... who knows? Have you ever factory reset your MS units and then restored them? Mine mostly all did really strange things until they were factory reset. Mostly they worked fine but did things I didn't think was possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeeG Posted October 3, 2015 Share Posted October 3, 2015 There are comm issues with some of the motion sensors. Here is a case where Hops Left started at 2 (which is good) but dropped to Hops Left=0 which is as poor as it can be and still work. Fri 10/02/2015 04:10:38 PM : [iNST-SRX ] 02 50 21.44.12 00.00.01 CB 11 01 LTONRR (01) Fri 10/02/2015 04:10:38 PM : [std-Group ] 21.44.12-->Group=1, Max Hops=3, Hops Left=2 Fri 10/02/2015 04:10:39 PM : [iNST-SRX ] 02 50 21.44.12 00.00.01 C3 11 01 LTONRR (01) Fri 10/02/2015 04:10:39 PM : [std-Group ] 21.44.12-->Group=1, Max Hops=3, Hops Left=0 Here a different device started at Hops Left=2 but dropped to Hops Left=1 Fri 10/02/2015 04:11:39 PM : [iNST-SRX ] 02 50 27.EA.27 00.00.01 CB 11 01 LTONRR (01) Fri 10/02/2015 04:11:39 PM : [std-Group ] 27.EA.27-->Group=1, Max Hops=3, Hops Left=2 Fri 10/02/2015 04:11:39 PM : [iNST-SRX ] 02 50 27.EA.27 00.00.01 C7 11 01 LTONRR (01) Fri 10/02/2015 04:11:39 PM : [std-Group ] 27.EA.27-->Group=1, Max Hops=3, Hops Left=1 Linking motion sensors together is not good. The motion sensor that is the Controller will send messages to the Responder motion sensor but the Responder motion sensor will be asleep causing a failure. The Controller motion sensor will retry. but the retries will also fail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sea3pea0 Posted October 4, 2015 Author Share Posted October 4, 2015 What could cause the wireless devices to have communication issues? Interference from wifi? I have quite a bit of dual band devices as well as wireless phase couplers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stusviews Posted October 4, 2015 Share Posted October 4, 2015 WiFi is on a different band than Insteon devices. Baby monitors, 900 Mhz cordless phone and anything wireless operating close to 900Mhz can interfere. So can large metal objects (e.g., refrigerators, stoves) between the transmitting device and the receiver (e.g., dual-band device). Often installing a Range Extender can alleviate the problem. BTW, all dual-band device couple the opposite legs of the split, single-phase electric supply. Where they're located can make a difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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