Intermittent program/signal failure - how to troubleshoot

[Pglaeser]

Good Afternoon, 

 

I have a daily program that runs to turn off and on exterior lights in my home.  Probably once or twice a week an individual light (there are 5 in the program) fails to turn off or on.  

 

Here is my question: 

 

What is the best method of troubleshooting?  

 

Thanks!

Phillip 

[Teken]

Hello Phillip,

 

Can you provide the program so we can see how it works. Also what kind of load is present: Incandescent, halogen, CFL, LED, ballast, other? Have you noticed any lights that turn on fine but have problems turning off? This can be seen as delayed reaction meaning you press the off position and there is a delay from half a second to more than a few seconds.

 

Lastly, are these lights in a scene vs all being controlled by a program(s)? Ideally all of the lights should be placed in a scene and those scenes are called by program(s). 

[paulbates]

To follow up on Teken's comments: If you have the devices in statements in a row in your program...

 

If

   its dusk

then

   Set A off

   Set B off

   Set C off

   Set D off

   Set E off

 

... then that is is problem. Each switch sends an acknowledgement back to each command, and that message collides on the power-line with the next program statement commanding the next switch. If this is how its setup, put the devices in a scene as Teken recommends. (You can also put a wait 2 seconds statement between each line, but the scene is a better solution)

 

Insteon switches do attempt to correct acknowledgement misses, but eventually give up and that explains the different results on different runs of the program

 

 

Paul

Edited October 27, 2017 by paulbates

[Techman]

Good Afternoon, 

 

I have a daily program that runs to turn off and on exterior lights in my home.  Probably once or twice a week an individual light (there are 5 in the program) fails to turn off or on.  

 

Here is my question: 

 

What is the best method of troubleshooting?  

 

Thanks!

Phillip 

 

 

What type of bulbs are you using in the exterior fixtures?

 

What type of switches are you using for the exterior lights, dual band or single band?

 

Here's some troubleshooting steps that may help  http://wiki.universal-devices.com/index.php?title=INSTEON:_Troubleshooting_Communications_Errors

[stusviews]

Why not put A, B, C, D and E in a scene and use the program to control the scene. First, the devices will turn off concurrently instead of sequentially, creating less "traffic." Second, if only the same devices fail to respond, it'll be easier to troubleshoot. Third, you can easily change the schedule to determine if there are certain times that response is problematic which will also help in troubleshooting.

 

And especially respond to Techman's post.

[Pglaeser]

Thank you, everyone, for the tips.  

 

All the different lights were in a single program.  This evening I will create a scene with all the lights.  The logic in this thread makes perfect sense and I suspect this is the issue.  

 

4 of the lights are LED and one is CFL (had an LED go out last week...).  

 

They are all on dual band switches (though I don't recall the exact model number.  

[Techman]

Thank you, everyone, for the tips.  

 

All the different lights were in a single program.  This evening I will create a scene with all the lights.  The logic in this thread makes perfect sense and I suspect this is the issue.  

 

4 of the lights are LED and one is CFL (had an LED go out last week...).  

 

They are all on dual band switches (though I don't recall the exact model number.  

 

CFL bulbs can be problematic. They have a built-in ballast which can sometimes create noise on the powerline which interferes with the Insteon signal.

[Brian H]

You using On/Off relay type or dimmer type switches?

Unless marked dimmable. CFL and LED bulbs should not be used on a dimmer.