Red !?

[Kentinada]

What does it mean in admin panel if a dimmer switch has a red ! In front of it? Is the switch dead?

 

 

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[mwester]

It means that the ISY cannot communicate with the switch.

It could be that the switch has failed -- or it could mean that the switch has no power (e.g. the circuit breaker tripped), or that there's too much noise on the power line and the ISY comms aren't working, or that the PLM has failed, etc, etc.

[Kentinada]

The switch has worked fine until just recently. I guess that means the switch died.


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[paulbates]

To add to mwester's assessment... here are a couple of things to try

• Query it
• Factory reset it, click on it in the admin console, and pick "Restore Device"

A good percentage of the time that works. If it does, keep an eye on it. It may be a "one off". If it keeps it up,  putting a dualband device nearby might help, or tweaking the Advanced/PLM communications setting.

If that doesn't help, its probably dead. 

Paul

[Kentinada]

Does it matter if it works manually? Can it still be dead from an ISY perspective?


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[mwester]

Yep -- it's quite possible to work locally but not communicate with the ISY.

Before you replace it, try power-cycling the device itself -- pull out the little tab at the bottom of the switch paddle (you don't even need to remove the faceplate for that).  Push it in.  See if that gets it working.

If not, try (as paulbates suggests) a factory reset -- usually this is done by pulling out that same tab, then pushing it ALL the way in, and holding it in until the switchlinc unit beeps, and letting go after that beep stops.  Go to the ISY and see if you can do a "restore" operation on the switch (factory reset like this will erase its links table, so you need to restore the links from the ISY before you can do anything.

If that doesn't work, then try to remove the light bulbs that the device is controlling -- sometimes an LED or CFL bulb will fail in such a way that it causes the Insteon switchlinc to "go deaf".  This is unlikely, but it's easier and cheaper to try than replacing the switchlinc!  After removing the loads (lights), try to restore the device again from the ISY.

If nothing has worked, stop, and let it go for a while... and think about what sorts of Christmas gifts or other things have arrived recently that may have been plugged in somewhere.  Could be anything -- I had serious comms issues in my kitchen, and it took me forever before I finally tried unplugging a tiny little cell phone charger from one of the kitchen outlets.  Believe it -- a tiny cheap knock-off Chinese cell phone charger was able to kill the Insteon comms for all the devices in my kitchen, just by virtue of being plugged in.  So look around, unplug, and keep trying... it's cheaper and easier than pulling out a switchlinc and replacing it!

Finally, if all else fails, it's time to find a replacement.  When you do, use the ISY "replace" mechanism to update all the links table for the PLM, and other devices with the unique address of the new device -- much easier than manually adding the device to all the scenes, etc.

[Kentinada]

Thanks for all the great ideas but it looks like the ISY communications is dead. Boo. These switches are not cheap. I will have to replace it.


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[carealtor]

I see this from time to time.  Usually a query will fix it.  Seriously, if you haven't already tried this, right click the device and hit Query.  It may work!  It usually does for me.

[larryllix]

2 hours ago, Kentinada said:

Thanks for all the great ideas but it looks like the ISY communications is dead. Boo. These switches are not cheap. I will have to replace it.


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Did you do the factory reset and ISY restore (as Paul suggested but no response or acknowledgement was seen.)?  I wouldn't give up so easily yet. Try it again as they can be tricky to not let the tab slip back into the connected position before depressing for the long hold, and the factory reset will not happen, then.

As you said these things are expensive, a PITA to replace and patch all your programs to work again, without mistakes that crop up later.

[Kentinada]

I did try those things but I’ll keep trying for a while.


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[Kentinada]

Here’s another data point on this. I have a motion sensor on my front door that turns on this switch I’m having trouble with when it senses motion near our front door. And this still works! Does that make any sense?


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[mwester]

Yes, that does -- it implies that the device may be working just fine, but the problem is one of the other things noted earlier -- noise on the electrical line, or a failing PLM.

[Kentinada]

Well I'm throwing in the towel on this switch. It is an older 2476 anyway.  I am pulling a working 2477 dimmer, replacing it with a new 2477 on/off switch and then I'll move the working dimmer switch to replace the no longer fully working 2476.  But I can't see where in the admin console I can delete a defined device.  I must be blind but can someone point me to that please?  

[Kentinada]

Well I just found the delete menu.  Whew!