Lights in house intermittently flash (blink)

[Old Surfer Dude]

I have quite a collection of Insteon devices and I'm using an ISY994i controller.  The controller works pretty well, though scenes sometimes don't work completely.

 

What I'm seeing quite often is that lights connected to an Insteon device blink or flash as they would when a device acknowledges getting link.)  I'd like to stop this behaviour.  Anyone have any experience like this?

 

Thanks for your help

 

OSD 

[KeviNH]

What kind of lights?   Are these retrofit LED bulbs?   Some bulbs are unusually sensitive to electrical noise and is prone to flickering when Insteon commands are transmitted on the line.

[Techman]

I have quite a collection of Insteon devices and I'm using an ISY994i controller.  The controller works pretty well, though scenes sometimes don't work completely.

 

What I'm seeing quite often is that lights connected to an Insteon device blink or flash as they would when a device acknowledges getting link.)  I'd like to stop this behaviour.  Anyone have any experience like this?

 

Thanks for your help

 

OSD 

 

In addition to KevNH question, it sounds like you may have either poor communications or noise on your powerline if your scenes are intermittent.

 

Do you have dual band devices? if so, how many.

 

Do you have TV's or UPS, if so you probably need to filer them with a Filterlinc as they are know to interfere with powerline signals.

[cgd]

I have had two similar problems.

 

1. An old i1  SwitchLinc Dimmer with a 20 ft of incandescent rope lights. It has been on at about 30% for several years with no problem.

 It is not a member of any scene. Recently it started flashing on and off as other devices were polled (Get Light Status Request, 0x19.) 

The SwitchLinc Dimmer now does not respond to any command. I have not done a factory reset on it because it is difficult to get to it.

 

2. Three SwitchLinc Dimmers have failed where they ramped up to maximum brightness over one or two seconds and then instantly went off. This repeated continuously until the devices were replaced. A factory resent had no effect. These devices had all worked fine for a year or more.

 

Perhaps unrelated but just to add to the list of failure types, I have had several SwitchLinc Dimmers fail in the maximum on state. Factory reset had not effect.

[paulbates]

I have had two similar problems.

 

1. An old i1  SwitchLinc Dimmer with a 20 ft of incandescent rope lights. It has been on at about 30% for several years with no problem.

 It is not a member of any scene. Recently it started flashing on and off as other devices were polled (Get Light Status Request, 0x19.) 

The SwitchLinc Dimmer now does not respond to any command. I have not done a factory reset on it because it is difficult to get to it.

 

2. Three SwitchLinc Dimmers have failed where they ramped up to maximum brightness over one or two seconds and then instantly went off. This repeated continuously until the devices were replaced. A factory resent had no effect. These devices had all worked fine for a year or more.

 

Perhaps unrelated but just to add to the list of failure types, I have had several SwitchLinc Dimmers fail in the maximum on state. Factory reset had not effect.

 

With this many failures and anomalies, I would wonder about lightning strikes, power spikes, brown outs  or other power line related problems. Do have reliability problems with other electronics? If yes, I would consider installing a whole house power conditioner at the panel

 

Paul

[cgd]

Thanks, Paul

 

These problems span several years. I described the problems so the information might be of help to others. I do have protection at the panels. I have had almost no problems with other electronics and I have lots of them. A wall oven has to be reset after some momentary power outages, but not very often.

A few Modbus devices were damaged along with about 30 Insteon devices when lightning struck just outside the house. Oh, by the way, all my heavy current appliances are on a separate 200 amp panel. Lightning further away sometimes causes a few lights to come on.