Mikes Posted February 1, 2022 Posted February 1, 2022 I've had my ISY for many years running silently just fine controlling a simple handful of devices. All my devices are controlled by simple programs that just schedule outlets to come on and off at certain times. I recently noted that these controlled devices have randomly not been coming on or going off. I bring up the admin console and see a number of dialogs titled 'Failed Communicating with' and the rest of the dialog is totally empty, a couple of dialogs with same title do have details on the device that it can't communicate with. I do not that I have a couple of Insteon devices that are not currently wired in currently so would expect some f these communication errors, however, I would expect the dialogs to state what it can't communicate with. All ISY devices this evening have red exclamation points, if I right click and choose query I see a temporary 'System Busy' dialog and I sending commands, On or Off, to any of the devices does nothing. Yesterday all was the same but I was able to send commands from the admin site I've been running4.9.0 UI and firmware for many many months. Trying to trouble shoot my first thought was to look at the Tools>Log. This doesn't tell me anything useful in terms of errors, I see some entries in blue that were the scheduled programs running and sending commands, I see my manual queries and commands in red with no error information logged. I look at the Tools>Error Log and see nothing that looks like error logging. I then found Tools>Diagnostics>Event Viewer and guessed this is what I needed to see but after clicking thru the various levels I see nothing. The system status option tells me nothing about any issues. Searching for 'Failed Communicating with' in the Wiki finds nothing and in the Forum it finds nothing that helps me move forward. How do I go about troubleshooting the issue at hand.
stillwater Posted February 1, 2022 Posted February 1, 2022 Assuming these are Insteon devices it sounds to me like a failing or failed PLM, or if your lucky just a corrupted PLM links table. (Assuming you haven't connected new electrical devices that is completely clobbering insteon signalling). If a failed PLM the problem is usually the power supply capacitors and there is a thread in the forum on how to replace them. At a minimum try unplugging the PLM and letting it cool, plug it in, reboot ISY. Could also try factory reset of PLM followed by Restore Modem (PLM) from the ISY Admin Console File Menu followed by reboot or restart of ISY. (This is all from memory -- others more expert than I will have better knowledge of procedures and sources of info, or you could try searching forums and/or wiki).
Mikes Posted February 2, 2022 Author Posted February 2, 2022 Thanks stillwater I remember replacing the PLM probably 4 or 5 years ago. Searching for capacitor I found the thread you mentioned. My version is much newer than those that seem to have the problems. Sounds like they have tried to fix the older issues so I am not sure if this applies to my PLM or not. I spent more time looking around for troubleshooting info and can find nothing useful. I have decided to use this issue as the another reason to move away from the ISY and Insteon platform. My ISY has been rock solid and ran great for many years and I hate to give it up. I considered adding the Zwave interface to my ISY but the Java requirement and horridly old and buggy UI with not very good programmability was the final deciding factor for me to go ahead and move on. I don't have to many Insteon devices and can say I have gotten my money's worth from them. I think I will try the Hubitat controller with some new ZWave devices. If that doesn't work out to well then I'll probably try Home Assistant.
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