MobiLinc to ISY Portal Transition

[DavidG]

I transitioned over from the MobiLinc portal to the ISY portal and am finding some strange issues.

 

iPhone 6+ with iOS 9.2 (latest)

 

At first everything was working, now I never get device status in mobilinc.  Just a dash.

 

Mobilinc seems to timeout very quickly.  I'm on a sat internet link so ping times are 800ms+.

 

Should I have expected to lose notifications in Mobilinc?  The geofence around my house no longer works, nor do notifications when insteon devices trigger.  Is this expected and is it on the list of things to be added/fixed?

 

I tried syncing again and got a "mobilinc accepted the certificate and is now connect to the isy" message.  Tried sync again and it's now parsing addresses.

 

No change, noting shows a status, but control works.

[MWareman]

Geofencing and notifications are a feature of Mobilinc Connect. They won't work at all on ISY Portal.

 

I cannot speak to the status issue. I'm on Android, and I initially had the same issue. After a few hours it resolved itself for me.

[Drexx3]

Notifications are a feature of Mobilinc Connect but the Geofencing is not. I purchased the ISYPortal module today and have now lost my ability to have Mobilinc update the ISY variable when crossing a geofence boundary.

 

I did not previously use Mobilinc Connect, I was using plain port forwarding using a custom WAN port and secure communication from my router to the ISY. Since switching to ISYPortal today the geofencing does not work. If I reconfigure the app settings to go back to either use a local IP (since I'm at home right now and on the same network) or, if I reconfigure settings back to use the port forwarding the geofencing update works just fine again. Switch back to the ISYPortal configuration and Mobilinc itself works OK (albeit slightly slower response time) but the geofencing is a no go. It results in a communication failure error.

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi Drexx3,

 

Please make sure the host type is ISY in MobiLinc configuration and that the https URL is my.isy.io. In short, it really shouldn't matter unless there's a bug somewhere.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[DavidG]

Anyone have a solution for the notifications loss?

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi DavidG,

 

What is notification loss?

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[MWareman]

Mobilinc (IOS) when using Mobilinc Connect has support for selecting events to trigger pop-up notifications in app (delivered from the Connect Portal servers via the Apple push messaging service). It just used the incoming stream of events from the ISY connection and does not need any changes on ISY itself to work.

 

Us Android users never had this, so we are (mostly) using services like Pushover (which works on IOS as well as Android) and the networking module on ISY so deliver push notifications. The only downside is you have to configure your notifications on the ISY, you cannot do it from your mobile device.

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi MWareman,

 

Thank you. So, basically a notification that pops up on the screen (instead of text)?

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[DennisC]

If we are still talking about features we are missing from the Android version of Mobilinc, we can add Elk module and variable support.

 

Could probably add to the list, but we have done that before.......

 

Dennis

[MWareman]

Hi MWareman,

 

Thank you. So, basically a notification that pops up on the screen (instead of text)?

 

With kind regards,

Michel

Yes, but I'm not sure how it can be implemented without help from Mobilinc itself. I don't think it's possible otherwise.

 

It would be easier if you were able to figure out how people can keep both Portal modules active if they wanted to - Mobilinc Connect (for IOS users who want these additional features) and ISY Portal (for Alexa and other futures). Us Android users don't really mind (since we don't lose anything), but IOS users do lose functionality by switching, any some don't seem aware of it.

[ScottAvery]

Do I understand correctly that adding the portal access method to Mobilinc will slow down all communication, even when on local LAN?  I have never been a ML Connect customer nor used port forwarding, so this would be my first attempt at such.  Do I replace my local ISY credentials with portal credentials in the Mobilinc settings, or are there two sets of credentials?

 

Thanks!

[wojo]

Notifications are a feature of Mobilinc Connect but the Geofencing is not. I purchased the ISYPortal module today and have now lost my ability to have Mobilinc update the ISY variable when crossing a geofence boundary.

 

I did not previously use Mobilinc Connect, I was using plain port forwarding using a custom WAN port and secure communication from my router to the ISY. Since switching to ISYPortal today the geofencing does not work. If I reconfigure the app settings to go back to either use a local IP (since I'm at home right now and on the same network) or, if I reconfigure settings back to use the port forwarding the geofencing update works just fine again. Switch back to the ISYPortal configuration and Mobilinc itself works OK (albeit slightly slower response time) but the geofencing is a no go. It results in a communication failure error.

 

I also have it working (after uninstalling MobiLinc and reinstalling on iOS) but can't create/manage the ISY variable. 

 

UD, can you check the the logs to see if you see any errors regarding this? I'll also contact Wes.

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi wojo,

 

I am not sure what we will be checking for.

 

Would you please submit a ticket with your UUID?

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[Drexx3]

Hi Drexx3,Please make sure the host type is ISY in MobiLinc configuration and that the https URL is my.isy.io. In short, it really shouldn't matter unless there's a bug somewhere.With kind regards,Michel

Hi Michael,

 

Thanks, but it wouldn't have gotten it to work if I didn't have those settings correct to begin with. I think it would make sense for you to contact Wes at Mobilinc and ask him to let you use a copy of Mobilinc so you can see the issues for yourself. UDI doesn't make an app for your product so others have. It would also behoove you to realize that your portal product could have bugs or compatibility issues with supporting products.

 

For me, I have thrown away $49 in my opinion as I can't use Mobilinc fully any more and had to go back to using plain old port forwarding. The only benefit for me now having an ISY Portal license it is to be able to login to the Admin console from my work PC without using LogMeIn.

 

Oh well....

[Michel Kohanim]

Drexx3,

 

We have purchased multiple copies of MobiLinc and there are 100s of users using it now with ISY Portal. And, you have not thrown away any money. We have a money back guarantee with no questions asked so, I urge you to send an email to sales@universal-devices.com and request for a refund.

 

With regards to the variable question, MobiLinc is using cached version of the configuration. Uninstalling, rebooting, and reinstalling it fixed the issue for some but not for others.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[Drexx3]

Hi Michael,

 

I will try the uninstall, reboot routine to see if that works. I think I tried that during my research to make it work but I just can't confirm. I just got so frustrated trying to make it work. Ultimately I would like it to. I will post my results.

 

I will agree about not throwing money away, that was an overreacting comment. I actually do like being able to access the ISY from a hotel room My apologies.

 

Drexx3

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi Drexx3,

 

No worries at all. Please do keep us posted with what you find.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[srogala]

Yes, but I'm not sure how it can be implemented without help from Mobilinc itself. I don't think it's possible otherwise.

 

It would be easier if you were able to figure out how people can keep both Portal modules active if they wanted to - Mobilinc Connect (for IOS users who want these additional features) and ISY Portal (for Alexa and other futures). Us Android users don't really mind (since we don't lose anything), but IOS users do lose functionality by switching, any some don't seem aware of it.

Yeah, I can't see myself going to the portal without the Mobilinc notifications working.  Just to confirm, that doesn't work with the portal unless Mobilinc does something different on their end?

[MWareman]

Just to confirm, that doesn't work with the portal unless Mobilinc does something different on their end?

 

Correct. In order to do a cloud to device notification to be consumed by the Mobilinc application, UDI would need access to the private application keys for Mobilinc's Apple server connection. Mobilinc would have to provide UDI an API that the ISY portal could connect to to securely send a notification. I doubt that's going to happen any time soon, but I could be wrong...

[ccclapp]

Hi Drexx3,

 

Please make sure the host type is ISY in MobiLinc configuration and that the https URL is my.isy.io. In short, it really shouldn't matter unless there's a bug somewhere.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

Hi

I have the portal for 2 ISYs on the portal.  When configuring in mobilinc I set up 2 profiles, one for each ISY.  However, both populate with the same UUID.  Because both share the same portal UN/PW (because one can only have a single portal UN/PW) moblink grabs the UUID for the 1st one it sees.  As a workaround, I 1st set up the ISY #2 profile using local IP (not via portal).  That gave the correct UUID.  Then I entered the portal info as an edit, when it connected it still grabbed the UUID for ISY #1.  How do I handle 2 ISYs?

[ccclapp]

...Adding to the above (separate, but possibly related item):

 

I tried to "enable internet access" on an ISY which subscribes to the portal.  I get an error message.  Is there a reason I cannot enable internet access if I subscribe to the portal?

 

Thanks

[MWareman]

...Adding to the above (separate, but possibly related item):

 

I tried to "enable internet access" on an ISY which subscribes to the portal. I get an error message. Is there a reason I cannot enable internet access if I subscribe to the portal?

 

Thanks

You don't need to do that. All 'Enable internet access' does is map a port forward if your router supports upnp. If it doesn't, you will get an error message.

 

Those without the portal will usually manually configure a port forward (since upnp is generally not considered secure for firewalls).

 

Those with the Portal will likely use the portal for remote access, making it unnecessary to port forward at all.

[ccclapp]

HiI MWareman

 

Thanks for that info. I can port forward myself but had no idea that's what that switch was trying to do.

Yes, normally I would use the portal but as I described two posts above I am not able because I have to Isys on the portal and MobiLinc seems to connect always to the first one only. Thus, I am not able to use the portal for both Isys if I want to movie mobilinc. At least that is how it appears yo be. Having said that, I'm not sure there is a solution because I understand if I use the portal I cannot use MobiLinc connect. I may have to abandon the portal for the second ISY...

[MWareman]

You could always create programs on ISY1 to trigger ISY2 scenes via network resources and effectively control ISY2 without having to connect directly to it.

[ccclapp]

You could always create programs on ISY1 to trigger ISY2 scenes via network resources and effectively control ISY2 without having to connect directly to it.

Thanks for the thinking, but the issue is a bit different:

 

I have two separate ISYs in separate locations doing completely different things.  I like the portal but I also like the mobile UI of Mobilinc.  Portal users are supposed to be able to use mobilink, but in the event one has 2 ISYs in the portal, it seems mobilinc will always connect to only one and always the same one.  Maybe my work around is to have two portal accounts, but I am hoping there is another approach.  I had thought port forwarding would do it, but maybe that's not possible if using the portal.  I expect Michel will clarify these things when he gets a chance.

 

Thanks