How long does it take?

[MarkJames]

As the only Insteon installation I'm familiar with is my own I have no way to gauge how well my system is communicating. I was wondering how long, typically, it takes for some of you to have a link successfully write to an insteon device.

 

Obviously the more responders and controllers within a scene the longer it will take for that scene to be created. But if you were to create a blank scene and add one device to it as a responder how long does it take the ISY to successfully write that link.

 

In my case it takes about 13 seconds. I understand that some of the newer switches accept extended messages and write faster.

 

Just curious.

 

Mark

[Sub-Routine]

Hello Mark,

 

It should only take 2-3 seconds to write a link. When it takes an excessive amount of time for a link to be written that is usually a sign of poor communication with the device resulting in command retries. You can see what is happening by opening the Event Viewer and setting it to level 3.

 

If this happens with all your devices you should consider changing the location of the PLM. If it only happens with a few devices then perhaps an additional Access Point could improve the comms to those devices.

 

Rand

[MarkJames]

I thought 13 seconds seemed a bit much... I have a LOT of insteon in my house - 13 KPLs and 65 other devices. The problem that I think I'm experiencing is that I have a weird electrical system.

 

I have something called E-plus. The power comes in to my main panel and then feeds off to a sub panel that provides heating/cooling to the house. The feed to that sub panel goes through a separate meter as I get charged less for the electricity I use for heating than I do for regular power. Unfortunately some other devices are on the heating side as well and the insteon signal has a hard time getting past the meter.

 

I'd hoped that the RF portion of insteon would prevent that problem and it's certainly much more reliable than X-10 ever was (I've had a large x-10 install for 15 or so years) but it's still a bit quirky.

 

I've got 2 of the older insteon access points (the ones with antennas) installed on both legs of the panel as well as a couple of other newer 2443 access points in other areas of the house. I've ordered two more 2443's in the hopes that this might improve matters.

 

Oddly... when I install the access points I can't get the newer style to communicate properly across both phases - only the older ones. I'm not sure what that means - perhaps you have some insight into this?

 

At the moment I'm linking an 'every light in the house off' scene which turns off 92 lights and KPL LED's. It's been running for nearly half an hour and is not quite done yet. This seems ungodly long!

 

Mark

[Sub-Routine]

The old SignalLincs don't communicate with the new AccessPoints so installing two more AccessPoints should definitely help. I'm not sure why the APs don't want to confirm comms for you.. Note that there are two revisions and each has different indicators for the 'linking'.

 

I have heard nothing but good about the hardwired SignaLinc, especially from those with more than one panel.

 

Usually when creating large scenes I only add 5-6 devices at a time. This makes it easier to tell which ones have trouble. With the upcoming firmware for the ISY-99i/Pro it will be much easier to deal with creating large scenes and failed writes.

 

Rand