Keypad making weird noise when pressing buttons

[Nakynaw]

Hi everyone,

 

Yesterday, we've had a 30 minutes shortage of electricity. It's not the first time, but it's the first time that it seems to have messed with my keypad-8.

 

Strangely, it seems to work flawlessly, both physically and by the controller. But when I press any buttons, it makes that noise which seems to indicate an error.

 

Looked in the troubleshooting part of the item's manual, and found nothing about that kind of noise.

 

Anyone has a clue about what could be happening?

Any solutions other than making an hard reset of the keypad? And if I need to, will I be able to rewrite in a simple way the many scenes that are related to the keypad?

 

Tanks in advance for any advices.

Edited December 9, 2016 by Nakynaw

[Teken]

What exactly does it do when it's making this noise? is humming, buzzing, pulsing?

 

Yes, you can hard reset the device per the full users manual by pulling out the set button and waiting 10 seconds. Then push the set button all the way in and hold until you see and hear the load beep and flash.

 

Then you can use the restore device option to recall the linked scenes and programming held in the ISY Series Controller.

 

 

=========================

 

The highest calling in life is to serve ones country faithfully - Teach others what can be. Do what is right and not what is popular.

[paulbates]

Hi

 

If its buzzing, high pitched from a few feet away, especially related to keypresses, then the clock is counting down on its demise, in my experience.

 

The factory reset may help, but I've had 3 of 3 die within a few weeks/ months of catching it doing it. 

 

For me, this problem was related to manufacturing flaws introduced around 2011/2012. The keypads I bought before and after that time have not exhibited this behavior, but 3 of 3 bought during that time did and died not long after the high pitched buzzing.

 

FWIW, if this happened to me, I would order the replacement and have it ready or proactively replace it before it happens at a bad time. Some people that are handy with electronics can fix them. 

 

Paul

[Teken]

Hi

 

If its buzzing, high pitched from a few feet away, especially related to keypresses, then the clock is counting down on its demise, in my experience.

 

The factory reset may help, but I've had 3 of 3 die within a few weeks/ months of catching it doing it. 

 

For me, this problem was related to manufacturing flaws introduced around 2011/2012. The keypads I bought before and after that time have not exhibited this behavior, but 3 of 3 bought during that time did and died not long after the high pitched buzzing.

 

FWIW, if this happened to me, I would order the replacement and have it ready or proactively replace it before it happens at a bad time. Some people that are handy with electronics can fix them. 

 

Paul

 

Paul,

 

Is it safe to say these units you heard the sound were from the relay style? I ask because the time frame you note is close to when the dual band relay KPL were released and they historically made a slight buzzing, hum, which some have noted its the relay etc.

[Nakynaw]

Thanks guys,

 

First, it's not a constant buzzing sound. It's more like a fast double beep, but not the cute one. One that seems to say : something is wrong. 

 

Then, I was about to try the hard resetting. But before I did, I updated a couple of scenes that inflicted on the settings of the Keypad. And when I went to test the keypad triggers of these scenes, I noticed that it stopped doing the weird noise...

 

Seems like I might never know what was wrong.

 

Maybe, by changing the scenes related to the keypad, the controller did a soft reset just by updating the links?

 

Also, two questions came up while updating my scenes : when you click on the scene name in the left menu, it shows every devices added to the scene. Is it not that way that you set up the scene? It's what I did first and it didn't work. I had to redo it all by clicking on the controller device in the sublist under the scene name... So, what's the first menu for?

Also, I wanted to duplicate a scene (exiting from the front door instead of exiting by the garage). To create the second scene, I wanted to copy the settings of the first one and only make one or two changes... I thought that the option "copy scenes attributes" was for that, but when I checked the box, it did nothing...

 

Can you guys tell me where to read to understand these two things?

[paulbates]

Paul,

 

Is it safe to say these units you heard the sound were from the relay style? I ask because the time frame you note is close to when the dual band relay KPL were released and they historically made a slight buzzing, hum, which some have noted its the relay etc.

 

Teken

Yes, it was. You could hear that faint hum with your ear up to it, however the diagnostic for me was from several feet away.. more specifically the family would report the noises, including the double beep that NakyNaw reported (I forgot about the double beep until now). It could be 'factory reset' away for a while, but would eventually return. Eventually one day a key is pressed, it will make an unusual high pitched beep, and that's it. Power line problems (eg brown outs / black outs) would sometime end it as well. 

 

 

Thanks guys,

 

First, it's not a constant buzzing sound. It's more like a fast double beep, but not the cute one. One that seems to say : something is wrong. 

 

 

 

Also, two questions came up while updating my scenes : when you click on the scene name in the left menu, it shows every devices added to the scene. Is it not that way that you set up the scene? It's what I did first and it didn't work. I had to redo it all by clicking on the controller device in the sublist under the scene name... So, what's the first menu for?

 

Also, I wanted to duplicate a scene (exiting from the front door instead of exiting by the garage). To create the second scene, I wanted to copy the settings of the first one and only make one or two changes... I thought that the option "copy scenes attributes" was for that, but when I checked the box, it did nothing...

 

Can you guys tell me where to read to understand these two things?

 

For scene creation, I use New Scene, under the Link Management menu. I then use "drag and drop" from the device tree.

 

You can click on multiple devices by holding down Control when clicking and drag them in to the new scence, that works fastest for me. A panel appears for all of them so you can leave them responders or make them controllers.

 

You can pick them out of another scene too, it copies them. You can hit Shift and pick a range in a row... if 10 are in a row, click the first, press and hold shift, click the 10th, then drag them over

 

[Teken]

Good to know the sound was from the dual band relay style KPL's. I've had several of these first generation KPL's fail or start to act odd where trying to write updates / restore device would continue to fail after dozens of attempts.

 

In some cases I have started down the repair process and have been very successful in restoring the same via the infamous cap replacement process. The only KPL that I failed to repair was one that needed a IC and timing crystal. At the time I didn't have source for the part but later bought a used (Insteon) part for pennies on the dollar and scavenged the part to inject it into the KPL needing it.

 

Worked out quite well and has been humming along nicely for the last 14 months.

Edited December 9, 2016 by Teken

[stusviews]

Select the KeypadLinc. Depending on the version, there'll be an Options button. Click on the Options button and deselect (or select) Key Beep.