SwitchLinc Dimmer Inadvertently Turned On A Bunch Of Other Devices!

[CalPolyME]

I recently added a SwitchLinc Dimmer to control my hall lights.  I just experienced an incident when the dimmer was turned on and many other devices in the house turned on as well.  None of the devices that turned on were linked to the dimmer.  They include a FanLinc, other dimmers, and most concerning, an I/O Linc that caused my garage door to open.  This has only happened once since installing the dimmer about 3 weeks ago.  

Has anyone experienced anything like this before or have any suggestions to fix it?

 

[lilyoyo1]

If it only happened once it could be an errant signal. You could factory reset the switch and restore it to be safe

[CalPolyME]

14 minutes ago, lilyoyo1 said:

If it only happened once it could be an errant signal. You could factory reset the switch and restore it to be safe

I will try the reset and restore.  Any idea what the "errant signal" would be to turn on some devices, but not all?  

[lilyoyo1]

4 minutes ago, CalPolyME said:

I will try the reset and restore.  Any idea what the "errant signal" would be to turn on some devices, but not all?  

No. It's like anything that happens once and disappears. It could be anything. 

[larryllix]

I will try the reset and restore.  Any idea what the "errant signal" would be to turn on some devices, but not all?  

I had an onoffLinc plugin send out random scene on codes instead of an ack a few years ago. It took me about a year to find ir due to known light patterns used in my few Insteon scenes.

After searching my programs for some king of bug I created unsuccessfully for about a year every few weeks, I found some bad codes in my ISY error logs. Then I related the occurrence times with commands I sent to my humidifier. It didn't happen every time just randomly and random scene patterns.

From that experience, I conclude that not only do Insteon Scenes not send any confirmation of status, they also have no data integrity checks and I now avoid as many scene usages as I conveniently can. The protocol is a bad one and was never improved by Smarthome. This reflects the rest of SHs poor technical attitude and why they will go bankrupt soon. They are complete morons.

The fix at the time was just to unplug the OnOffLinc and plug it back in again. This never happened again for a few years until about two weeks ago. Lately I have found a few random lights on and traced it to the same module. This time the module will go into the garbage.

Note on Polisy the errors appear in the Log and the error log does not show any errors at this version and time, so the errors are found differently.

Sent from my SM-G781W using Tapatalk

[lilyoyo1]

9 hours ago, larryllix said:

I had an onoffLinc plugin send out random scene on codes instead of an ack a few years ago. It took me about a year to find ir due to known light patterns used in my few Insteon scenes.

After searching my programs for some king of bug I created unsuccessfully for about a year every few weeks, I found some bad codes in my ISY error logs. Then I related the occurrence times with commands I sent to my humidifier. It didn't happen every time just randomly and random scene patterns.

From that experience, I conclude that not only do Insteon Scenes not send any confirmation of status, they also have no data integrity checks and I now avoid as many scene usages as I conveniently can. The protocol is a bad one and was never improved by Smarthome. This reflects the rest of SHs poor technical attitude and why they will go bankrupt soon. They are complete morons.

The fix at the time was just to unplug the OnOffLinc and plug it back in again. This never happened again for a few years until about two weeks ago. Lately I have found a few random lights on and traced it to the same module. This time the module will go into the garbage.

Note on Polisy the errors appear in the Log and the error log does not show any errors at this version and time, so the errors are found differently.

Sent from my SM-G781W using Tapatalk
 

Let's get this right, you have an issue with 1 errant device and that makes the protocol bad and the people are morons. Yet tens of thousands use scenes every day without experiencing the same thing. 

Insteon devices actually does send confirmation status to each other. That's why you'll see the red light blink on a device when it doesn't get an acknowledgement. The isy assumes the device state when it processes scenes. 

Regardless, scenes are much much more efficient and faster than programs. But to each their own. 

[oberkc]

3 hours ago, lilyoyo1 said:

Insteon devices actually does send confirmation status to each other.

This is consistent with my understanding regarding direct commands (device-to-device) but I understand this not to be the case with scenes.  I suspect that is the point being made by larryllix.

[lilyoyo1]

16 minutes ago, oberkc said:

This is consistent with my understanding regarding direct commands (device-to-device) but I understand this not to be the case with scenes.  I suspect that is the point being made by larryllix.

There are 2 different worlds we're dealing with. The insteon world which is all device to device (whether a single device or group of devices) and the ISY. The ISY doesnt status scenes but Insteon devices does. Factory reset a responder switch and see what happens with the controlling switch led. You'll see it flash red due to not receiving an acknowledgment.

The reason I separate the 2 is if you are having problems with devices not turning on/off via scenes, watching the controlling switch itself can help provide information about whats going on since linked devices are updating their statuses properly.

My only issue with his statement is telling a newbie a less than ideal way of interacting with his devices due to him having an experience with a single bad device when there are countless thousands of others using scene capabilities without any issues like this.

Scenes are a powerful tool in an installers arsenal (look at how many struggle with zwave). Trying to get someone to steer clear of them is a disservice to the user. This is made even worse when you can increase the retry count (if needed) between controller and responder

[oberkc]

1 hour ago, lilyoyo1 said:

Scenes are a powerful tool

I know I use them a LOT.  I get a few misfires from time-to-time, but not anywhere near enough to be a problem.