Lost remote access to ISY994i

[n4bos]

I'm traveling and I've lost access to my ISY994i.  All my programs appear to still be running fine but I can't ping the ISY.  The portal says it's off line.

Several questions for the group....

I'm told that if the ISY died, the programs will still run.  Is that true?  Is the programming information stored in the PLM or is this simply not true, indicating that at least part of the ISY is still working?

I am not against replacing the ISY but if that becomes necessary, it looks like I need to get the one with Zwave but what's the advantage to the ZW/IR?

Finally, since ALL my programs at this point are for Insteon devices, will my existing backup for the straight ISY994i load and run on the new ISY?

 

Thanks for any and all help.

Steve

 

 

[MrBill]

7 minutes ago, n4bos said:

I'm told that if the ISY died, the programs will still run.  Is that true?  NO  Is the programming information stored in the PLM or is this simply not true, indicating that at least part of the ISY is still working?  If the programs are running it sounds like a problem with you Router or internet connection, or possible just the ISY needs to be rebooted.  The programs are NOT stored in the PLM.

I am not against replacing the ISY but if that becomes necessary, it looks like I need to get the one with Zwave but what's the advantage to the ZW/IR?  The problem right now is PLMs are out of stock at least for the foreseeable future.

Finally, since ALL my programs at this point are for Insteon devices, will my existing backup for the straight ISY994i load and run on the new ISY?  YES

 

See above.  Do you have access through a VPN or windows computer at home?  It's a gamble having someone pull the plug and restart it if programs are actually running?  How do you know the programs are running?

[MrBill]

To add to that:  Scene's are stored in devices and the PLM, programs are only in the ISY.

[n4bos]

Hi Bill,

Thanks for the reply.  I suspected the ISY was required for the programs to run but wasn't sure.  The programs are still running but as I mentioned, I can no longer ping the ISY.  I CAN reboot my Edgerouter remotely but I have been hesitant to do anything that might mess up the programs running in the ISY ... I need them to run when were not there.  Hard to believe the problem could be in the ER-4.  I am going to have a friend go by and reboot the ISY next week.

 

Any suggestions?

Steve

[n4bos]

I know the programs are still running because when some of the lights are turned on, the cameras are triggered and send me a notice and a picture.  I'm getting those....

Yes, I have access to the Edgerouter through my VPN.  It LOOKS normal but I could reboot it....

[MrBill]

2 minutes ago, n4bos said:

I know the programs are still running because when some of the lights are turned on, the cameras are triggered and send me a notice and a picture.  I'm getting those....

Yes, I have access to the Edgerouter through my VPN.  It LOOKS normal but I could reboot it....

I doubt it's the ER-4... my edgerouter hasn't been rebooted in over a year

bill@ubnt:~$ uptime
 15:04:50 up 435 days,  5:17,  1 user,  load average: 0.00, 0.01, 0.05

When you say you can't ping the ISY, how or where are you pinging from? 

If you can log into the edgerouter remotely, what happens if you ping from there?  Type 'ping <IP.ADDR.of.ISY>'

[n4bos]

I log into the ER-4 with the VPN and ping with a command prompt.  When I do I get the following...

Pinging 192.168.0.50 with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 10.255.255.0: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 10.255.255.0: Destination host unreachable.

If I ping other devices like cameras, I get a good reply.  I doubt it's the ER-4 either.

 

[n4bos]

Since the programs are )apparently) still running, I guess that means the ISY (and PLM) are still up and running that portion anyway.  I'm going to have a friend go by and reboot the ISY and see what happens. 

 

[MrBill]

I was hoping you were going to get a ping response from the routers command line.  If you had we could have rebooted the isy remotely.  The drawback to having your friend pull the plug is at least the programs are running now, assuming rebooting should bring things back to normal, but what if it makes it worse and the programs aren't running after that?  tough call to make.  

so what triggers the camera to send a picture when the light turns on?  I'm trying to understand if anything is getting out on the ethernet port of the ISY, or if the lights turning on because the ISY told the PLM to turn the light on, then that's trigger the camera to send the pic?  or is the ISY involved in that?

[n4bos]

The cameras are set up for motion detection.  When a light turns on (or off) the change in contrast triggers the camera to respond as if it is seeing motion.  Then it send me a notification and a picture of what it sees.  That's all working normally so I know the lights are turning on.  As you say, it might be best to leave well enough alone until we get back because at least all the lights are working. 

Since we travel, I try to have backups for everything in case of a failure.  I never considered this kind of failure and don't have a spare ISY... but I will!  I even have a spare ER-4 all programmed and sitting in the box so it could be plugged in and running in short order.

I wonder about having a second ISY and PLM (obviously with a different IP address) on the same network and all programmed.  Do you know if that's possible since that way, if I had a failure, I could simply change the IP address (or actually port number since I run a DDNS) and be back up and running?

I guess an alternative would be to get a second ISY and PLM and program them both as if they were replacements and then keep them in standby to be replaced by someone if this happens again.

Today my Septic service guy came and I couldn't open the gate for him.  Stuff like that is why I really need the capability when we aren't there.

[MrBill]

2 minutes ago, n4bos said:

The cameras are set up for motion detection.  When a light turns on (or off) the change in contrast triggers the camera to respond as if it is seeing motion.  Then it send me a notification and a picture of what it sees.  That's all working normally so I know the lights are turning on.  As you say, it might be best to leave well enough alone until we get back because at least all the lights are working. 

Since we travel, I try to have backups for everything in case of a failure.  I never considered this kind of failure and don't have a spare ISY... but I will!  I even have a spare ER-4 all programmed and sitting in the box so it could be plugged in and running in short order.

I wonder about having a second ISY and PLM (obviously with a different IP address) on the same network and all programmed.  Do you know if that's possible since that way, if I had a failure, I could simply change the IP address (or actually port number since I run a DDNS) and be back up and running?

I guess an alternative would be to get a second ISY and PLM and program them both as if they were replacements and then keep them in standby to be replaced by someone if this happens again.

Today my Septic service guy came and I couldn't open the gate for him.  Stuff like that is why I really need the capability when we aren't there.

yes you can have multiple ISY's on the network, but you probably don't need two, and remote swapover would be difficult at best, you probably just need a way to pull the plug to reboot it.  I have a cheap KMC plugstrip that used to be connected via my nextdoor neighbors wifi.  Its purpose was to reboot the modem, router, and ISY... all separate controls.    I've since switched to having a failover WAN on an LTE modem and KASA plugs for the cable modem and the ISY (since I can switch them off/on using the KASA app).  I also have a windows computer I can wake up remotely and a couple of methods for remote desktop connections to it (in case one doesn't work).  literally my only weak point is router failure.. but it seems to be a very stable workhorse, and as long as i can reach the ISY, even the router can be powercyled.. but only by running an ISY program since when you loose connection from outside the program would have to wait 30 seconds and power the module back up.

Unless you have a spare PLM that's going to be the problem right now.  They are out of stock at smarthome, amazon and pretty much all distributors.  smarthome has placed a hold on production apparently but there is confusion because some smarthome reps say they have been discontinued, there is other information around that say's that's false.

ISY is also moving to polisy at some point.  I have the alpha version running on one of my polisy's now but it's not ready for prime time and has a ways to go.  At least when we get there it's probable that it will support the USB PLM.

If I were you, what I'd order is a 4pack of these.

[n4bos]

Actually, I DO have a spare PLM and I already have a number of the KASA switches all of which are still accessible.   I also have two sets of the capacitors that fail in the PLM so I'm PROBABLY okay there.  Wish I'd put one of the KASA switches on the ISY but I never thought of it.  I will when we get home.

I think I'll order the spare ISY and have it waiting when we get back.  If I read it correctly, the one with IR capability is not necessary since it's up in my computer room and I'd never have IR capability with it anyway.  Am I right?  It looks like the ISY994i/ZW -PRO is the best replacement/backup for my existing system, would you agree?  I see the ZW/IR one will handle 1024 programs and the other is limited to 255 but I'm nowhere near that.  Probably 30 programs or so.

Any additional thoughts on my ideas?

[MrBill]

Yes you do not need IR.

The pro/non-pro is version is a soft upgrade. Meaning if you don't have it when you need it you "purchase the pro module" online and poof you get the additional nodes and programs, immediately no waiting.  Although the other thing only available on pro is these two buttons: on the admin console ribbon that allow you to delay writes to devices while you're configuring scenes.  If your insteon system is very big it save a lot of time during setup.

Do you have a polisy?

[n4bos]

No, I realize that Polisy is probably the coming thing but if the ISY is around another few years, that's probably what I need to stay with.  Any compelling reason to REPLACE an ISY with a Polisy?  I thought at this point, it worked WITH the ISY.