Admin Console not “Writing Changes” to Insteon Devices

[peekay]

I can’t seem to write changes to my Insteon devices (switches, dimmers, motion sensors).  I try with the bottom button on the device page, as well as right-clicking on the device.  I’m trying to modify the on-level and the ramp rate for the dimmers right now, but I have had zero luck on the motion sensors and there was something with the on/off switches at one point as well.

I have no problems controlling from the ISY to command the device to a state, and status is updated immediately.  I have the same behavior with devices on the other side of the wall from the PLM as well as devices about 100’ away.  I’m running 5.3 with about 20 devices currently.  Just to say it, I did clear my java cache...

Any idea what to try next?

[larryllix]

10 hours ago, peekay said:

I can’t seem to write changes to my Insteon devices (switches, dimmers, motion sensors).  I try with the bottom button on the device page, as well as right-clicking on the device.  I’m trying to modify the on-level and the ramp rate for the dimmers right now, but I have had zero luck on the motion sensors and there was something with the on/off switches at one point as well.

I have no problems controlling from the ISY to command the device to a state, and status is updated immediately.  I have the same behavior with devices on the other side of the wall from the PLM as well as devices about 100’ away.  I’m running 5.3 with about 20 devices currently.  Just to say it, I did clear my java cache...

Any idea what to try next?

Battery operated Insteon devices must be in linking mode before they will accept any updates or settings.

I am also finding some SwitchLinc Dimmers need to be in linking mode now or ISY will not update them. I think this is new. In seven years that has never happened to me before. The battery write options seem to need some debugging perhaps.

Edited January 13, 2021 by larryllix

[lilyoyo1]

9 hours ago, peekay said:

I can’t seem to write changes to my Insteon devices (switches, dimmers, motion sensors).  I try with the bottom button on the device page, as well as right-clicking on the device.  I’m trying to modify the on-level and the ramp rate for the dimmers right now, but I have had zero luck on the motion sensors and there was something with the on/off switches at one point as well.

I have no problems controlling from the ISY to command the device to a state, and status is updated immediately.  I have the same behavior with devices on the other side of the wall from the PLM as well as devices about 100’ away.  I’m running 5.3 with about 20 devices currently.  Just to say it, I did clear my java cache...

Any idea what to try next?

I believe you must click the button on the node that you're changing for it to take place. Ie: click the ramp rate button after you change the ramp rate

Edited January 13, 2021 by lilyoyo1

[peekay]

16 hours ago, lilyoyo1 said:

I believe you must click the button on the node that you're changing for it to take place. Ie: click the ramp rate button after you change the ramp rate

Doh... you are correct!  Working fine now with the wired devices.

 

On 1/12/2021 at 6:48 PM, larryllix said:

Battery operated Insteon devices must be in linking mode before they will accept any updates or settings.

I will trust you are correct.  I thought I had made changes without linking before, but I will play with them tomorrow.

[Bumbershoot]

9 hours ago, peekay said:

I will trust you are correct.  I thought I had made changes without linking before, but I will play with them tomorrow.

At least with Insteon motion sensors (battery powered), you don't have to put them in linking mode to write changes, you can do it with a program.  There's a short period after motion is sensed that you can either write updates or query the device.  Sample program below:

MSIIQueryDriveway - [ID 010A][Parent 0004]

If
        'Devices / dirExterior / Driveway MS II.1 Motion' is switched On
 
Then
        Set 'Devices / dirExterior / Driveway MS II.1 Motion' Write Changes
        Set 'Devices / dirExterior / Driveway MS II.1 Motion' Query
 
Else
   - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action')
 

 

[larryllix]

1 hour ago, Bumbershoot said:

At least with Insteon motion sensors (battery powered), you don't have to put them in linking mode to write changes, you can do it with a program.  There's a short period after motion is sensed that you can either write updates or query the device.  Sample program below:

MSIIQueryDriveway - [ID 010A][Parent 0004]

If
        'Devices / dirExterior / Driveway MS II.1 Motion' is switched On
 
Then
        Set 'Devices / dirExterior / Driveway MS II.1 Motion' Write Changes
        Set 'Devices / dirExterior / Driveway MS II.1 Motion' Query
 
Else
   - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action')
 

 

That fails on most of my devices and the ISY caching builds up to cripple all Insteon communications eventually.
When ISY reboots, it will turn on the battery write option and your ISY system will grind to a halt.

[Bumbershoot]

15 minutes ago, larryllix said:

That fails on most of my devices and the ISY caching builds up to cripple all Insteon communications eventually.
When ISY reboots, it will turn on the battery write option and your ISY system will grind to a halt.

I use this technique on Insteon motion sensors, both the original type and the MS II type.  I works reliably for me, though I only use it on two of the six of them left in my installation.  I employ the "adjust scene" functionality to fiddle with on levels at various times of the day, so that's when writes to the motion sensors occur.

[larryllix]

1 hour ago, Bumbershoot said:

I use this technique on Insteon motion sensors, both the original type and the MS II type.  I works reliably for me, though I only use it on two of the six of them left in my installation.  I employ the "adjust scene" functionality to fiddle with on levels at various times of the day, so that's when writes to the motion sensors occur.

I also use the adjust scene to modify lamp levels during various times of the day but ISY now tries to modify the scene settings inside the MS 1 devices. This a logical error and is what causes the problems. If you turn off "battery writes", it appears to solve the problem temporarily but ISY then caches all the updates and if the battery writes ever gets enabled, as it does upon ISY reboot, and a few other triggers I haven;t figured out yet, ISY will attempt to update the MS 1 devices continuously and you can expect Insteon device responses up to 2 and 3 minutes of delay. I have about 15 MS Is and 3 MS IIs so this impacts my system to the point I have no HA at times.

When this happens loading the admin console will show the busy box, forever as it can never clear the caches. The only way out is to put each device into linking mode and write the updates, if you can get enough control of your ISY to accomplish it, one device at a time. Now I have found many of mt SwitchLincs will not update without being in linking mode also.

This is not how ISY ever worked formerly and Scene updates were not a problem until the "battery write" option was incorporated and useless scene updates were added to change MS devices.  Also, in 7 years of using ISY, I have never had to put an AC powered SwitchLincs into linking mode to write any updates.

Since UDI seems to be ignoring the reports of this for the last few versions, I may return to a much earlier version, until this bug is fixed. The quality of the ISY firmware has gone downhill, for me, with new Insteon bugs that never happened before about v5.0.12?.

Edited January 14, 2021 by larryllix

[Michel Kohanim]

@larryllix,

Not ignoring ... the last few builds were Z-Wave Plus certification specific.

With kind regards,
Michel

[Michel Kohanim]

@larryllix,

This has already been fixed in the next build.

With kind regards,
Michel