I am hoping to upgrade to 5.0.15, but hope to do this with the least possible impact on my system.  I am presently using ISY 994i PRO, A10/X10 for Insteon, Portal integration - MobiLinc, Z-Wave.

To make this has trouble free as possible I would like to purchase a new replacement ISY 994i loaded with the 5.0.15, new SD card for the ISY, and a new PLM 2413S with version 2.5 if available.

Now my question is: can I load the backup from my existing system, remove my existing ISY & PLM, plug in the two new items, and just restart the system.  A bit expensive, yes, but if this works I'm thinking I can go back to 4.7.3 if problems arise.

Any advice would be most appreciated.

Ron VonDrachek 

Great question. Did you buy another ?

38 minutes ago, heardc said:

Great question. Did you buy another ?

If memory serves correct, he went ahead and upgraded his ISY over buying a new one. 

Just curious if there are fundamental improvements over the series 300 chipset vs the series 500 chipset.  If money is no object (for discussion), wouldn't be better to buy the new ISY994i ZW+ running the latest 5.0.x firmware?  This way you have a series 500 chipset in the hub and mostly series 500 chips out on the network (for my current setup).  Will I see a performance improvement or better compatibility etc?

7 minutes ago, heardc said:

Just curious if there are fundamental improvements over the series 300 chipset vs the series 500 chipset.  If money is no object (for discussion), wouldn't be better to buy the new ISY994i ZW+ running the latest 5.0.x firmware?  This way you have a series 500 chipset in the hub and mostly series 500 chips out on the network (for my current setup).  Will I see a performance improvement or better compatibility etc?

You'll only see a benefit if all devices are 500 series. If any are of a lesser series you won't notice a difference at all. 

Regardless of finances, unless I was planning on swapping out all older devices, I don't see any reason for upgrading. Unless you're buying a used system, all currently shipping ISYzw ship with the latest chipset.