watson524 Posted December 5, 2020 Posted December 5, 2020 Not really a newbie but I'm having trouble so... Have various insteon switches, an X10 plug in unit for the front door wreath, a Z wave plug in unit for an inside display and then outside goes into one of 2 outdoor insteon plug in units. This has been fine all week, no issues. Came home tonite, only half the outside is on, the Z wave and the X10. Light switches not on, 1 outside plug in unit not on. Reload in agave, they're not giving the right status. Tried switches NOT on the christmas program, they don't work either from agave. Looked at the ISY as I was sending signals from agave. ISY Tx and Rx blink once for each insteon/X10 signal sent, about 6 times on Z wave. PLM light green as expected, unplugged, replugged same behavior. Went through launcher to admin console, throws errors that it can't communicate with ANY of the insteon devices. Nothing new has changed as far as what's plugged in tonite vs what was plugged in/running yesterday (confirmed my husband's xBox isn't on since we know that's a suck). Already have the phase coupler in the panel and have for years. Again, all was fine until we came home tonite. Any guesses? This is why insteon kind of annoys me, I feel like it's very finicky.
watson524 Posted December 5, 2020 Author Posted December 5, 2020 well I can safely say I think I found the issue, the *&^%$#! PLM died. I happened to have a spare from our old house so I followed these instructions: ---------- To replace a PLM: i. Unplug ISY from the power outlet ii. Unplug the PLM from ISY and power outlet iii. Connect ISY’s port A to the new PLM iv. Plug the new PLM into a power outlet v. Plug ISY into a power outlet vi. Open the browser to ISY’s GUI and wait for system initialization to complete vii. Click on the Restore Modem (PLM) menu option --------------- And suddenly all is working again. I noticed before I did this that the lights on the ISY when sending a signal would just be very quickly the Rx and Tx at the same time. Now with the "new" PLM, on sending signal it's Rx/Tx basically at the same time, but then the Rx flashes again right after. Does that help confirm the first PLM bit the dust? Given that z wave and x 10 were working ok, it would seem like it. This is the second PLM I've had that has died randomly. There's no way around using them is there? 1
lilyoyo1 Posted December 5, 2020 Posted December 5, 2020 2 hours ago, watson524 said: well I can safely say I think I found the issue, the *&^%$#! PLM died. I happened to have a spare from our old house so I followed these instructions: ---------- To replace a PLM: i. Unplug ISY from the power outlet ii. Unplug the PLM from ISY and power outlet iii. Connect ISY’s port A to the new PLM iv. Plug the new PLM into a power outlet v. Plug ISY into a power outlet vi. Open the browser to ISY’s GUI and wait for system initialization to complete vii. Click on the Restore Modem (PLM) menu option --------------- And suddenly all is working again. I noticed before I did this that the lights on the ISY when sending a signal would just be very quickly the Rx and Tx at the same time. Now with the "new" PLM, on sending signal it's Rx/Tx basically at the same time, but then the Rx flashes again right after. Does that help confirm the first PLM bit the dust? Given that z wave and x 10 were working ok, it would seem like it. This is the second PLM I've had that has died randomly. There's no way around using them is there? I'm surprised your x10 worked if the plm went bad seeing that x10 needs the Plm too
larryllix Posted December 5, 2020 Posted December 5, 2020 (edited) 2 hours ago, watson524 said: well I can safely say I think I found the issue, the *&^%$#! PLM died. I happened to have a spare from our old house so I followed these instructions: ---------- To replace a PLM: i. Unplug ISY from the power outlet ii. Unplug the PLM from ISY and power outlet iii. Connect ISY’s port A to the new PLM iv. Plug the new PLM into a power outlet v. Plug ISY into a power outlet vi. Open the browser to ISY’s GUI and wait for system initialization to complete vii. Click on the Restore Modem (PLM) menu option --------------- And suddenly all is working again. I noticed before I did this that the lights on the ISY when sending a signal would just be very quickly the Rx and Tx at the same time. Now with the "new" PLM, on sending signal it's Rx/Tx basically at the same time, but then the Rx flashes again right after. Does that help confirm the first PLM bit the dust? Given that z wave and x 10 were working ok, it would seem like it. This is the second PLM I've had that has died randomly. There's no way around using them is there? I found I had to go around and place each battery device into the linking mode and do a "write updates" to each device. Then I discovered the PLM restore doesn't work for almost half my dual band plug-in devices either. I had to put many of them into linking mode also, as they would not take an update without being in linking mode first. Until you completely update all your devices ISY will be close to being crippled at times with attempts to write constantly devices that won't take them. ISY V5.3.0 It never goes away after months of slow ISY operations until you manully update each device. About half my LampLincs and a few SwitchLinc Dimmers needed to be in linking mode first to clear out the ISY cache. I even found one OnOff module needed to be in linking mode and it resolved the constant "can't connect" errors for the last two years after my last temporary trial of a spare PLM. Query of status always works even without a proper Write Update procedure. Self update and controls do not usually work. Edited December 5, 2020 by larryllix
tmorse305 Posted December 5, 2020 Posted December 5, 2020 (edited) 11 hours ago, watson524 said: This is the second PLM I've had that has died randomly. There's no way around using them is there? PLM's have a poor power supply design that all but guarantees premature failure. Right now there is no other option but the PLM. I would hang on to the failed unit. You cannot buy a replacement right now, out of stock. They have been for sometime. The broken unit can be repaired. Edited December 5, 2020 by tmorse305
watson524 Posted December 7, 2020 Author Posted December 7, 2020 On 12/5/2020 at 12:20 AM, lilyoyo1 said: I'm surprised your x10 worked if the plm went bad seeing that x10 needs the Plm too I thought the same too and had to double check that I wasn't nuts but I stood there and watched 3 X10 devices work while nothing on insteon would. On 12/5/2020 at 12:21 AM, larryllix said: I found I had to go around and place each battery device into the linking mode and do a "write updates" to each device. Then I discovered the PLM restore doesn't work for almost half my dual band plug-in devices either. I had to put many of them into linking mode also, as they would not take an update without being in linking mode first. Until you completely update all your devices ISY will be close to being crippled at times with attempts to write constantly devices that won't take them. ISY V5.3.0 It never goes away after months of slow ISY operations until you manully update each device. About half my LampLincs and a few SwitchLinc Dimmers needed to be in linking mode first to clear out the ISY cache. I even found one OnOff module needed to be in linking mode and it resolved the constant "can't connect" errors for the last two years after my last temporary trial of a spare PLM. Query of status always works even without a proper Write Update procedure. Self update and controls do not usually work. I don't have any battery devices but it looks like the steps I took worked ok. On 12/5/2020 at 9:16 AM, tmorse305 said: PLM's have a poor power supply design that all but guarantees premature failure. Right now there is no other option but the PLM. I would hang on to the failed unit. You cannot buy a replacement right now, out of stock. They have been for sometime. The broken unit can be repaired. I have an ISY listed for sale and said I wasn't selling the PLM because of the failure I've already had on one a few years ago. Will take a look at your "repaired" thread more closely but one thing to note from a brief skim is that my green light never went out or dimmed on the "bad" PLM. Which that, plus the fact that x10 worked, really makes me wonder if there was suddenly something else going on but I can't imagine what.
lilyoyo1 Posted December 7, 2020 Posted December 7, 2020 Try plugging it into a different outlet. Is there any9else plugged in near the plm
watson524 Posted December 7, 2020 Author Posted December 7, 2020 22 minutes ago, lilyoyo1 said: Try plugging it into a different outlet. Is there any9else plugged in near the plm I had tried that off the get go. That wall of the office has 3 sets of outlets, we'll call them 1 - 2 - 3 left to right. The PLM always was plugged into 1 when my mom was here and up until about 2 months ago. Then I decided to try to consolidate wires and clean it up so I moved PLM from 1 to 2 and UPS with laptop/etc from 3 to 2. It worked fine for at least a few weeks AND was fine even when Christmas lights were added. Then for no reason crapped out. So I thought along the lines you are and figured must have too much going on, so I moved PLM back to outlet 1 and saw no change in behavior. Solid green, Z wave and X10 working fine, just no insteon.
lilyoyo1 Posted December 7, 2020 Posted December 7, 2020 The ups can kill the insteon signal which probably didn't help. Try unplugging that and see what happens
watson524 Posted December 7, 2020 Author Posted December 7, 2020 35 minutes ago, lilyoyo1 said: The ups can kill the insteon signal which probably didn't help. Try unplugging that and see what happens As a new thing since there's been an UPS in this house on the same plug it's on for years? I'm not debating, just trying to learn. I'll try that later tonite once I'm done with work and can reconfigure cords. Would the suggestion be to use a filter linc or something on the UPS since I can't go without the UPS.
lilyoyo1 Posted December 7, 2020 Posted December 7, 2020 44 minutes ago, watson524 said: As a new thing since there's been an UPS in this house on the same plug it's on for years? I'm not debating, just trying to learn. I'll try that later tonite once I'm done with work and can reconfigure cords. Would the suggestion be to use a filter linc or something on the UPS since I can't go without the UPS. It's widely known that certain pieces of equipment can interfere with insteon signals. Your original locations may have allowed things to work (you just didn't notice the system wasnt running optimally). A filter Linc can help if that is the cause
larryllix Posted December 7, 2020 Posted December 7, 2020 3 hours ago, watson524 said: <snipped> I don't have any battery devices but it looks like the steps I took worked ok. <snipped> That was the point. Many of my non-battery, plug-in, devices were a problem also and will not update without the linking mode enabled. IIRC that didn't happen before but during the PLM restore. I know there are different types of update signals and queries from ISY though. When initial linking was done with these devices, none of them required linking mode. 1
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