Keypad locked up and scenes not behaving = frustrated.

[delston]

I've recently done a partial installation of a second shipment of Insteon Switchlincs and KPLs bringing my total device count to about 15 or so. I have two 8KPLS sitting at opposite ends of the 2nd story of my house both with "party" buttons that are both controllers in a "party" scene. I set both buttons them to non-toggle on and they are in a mutually exclusive set with other various buttons like 'movie' and 'good night' etc.

 

I copied this macro from the wiki to use as a starting point to learn more complex programming for the ISY99i:

 

http://www.universal-devices.com/mwiki/index.php?title=ISY-99i/ISY-26_INSTEON:Comparative_Study_using_Run_If

 

I spent the better part of the evening last night linking the new devices and adding them to scenes. While the ISY GUI showed that the changes were being written to the devices, some buttons are not behaving as intended. when party is pressed, most lights would come on, but some would not. What's more frustrating is I believe that the code presented on the above URL is creating an infinite loop in my system, thus when i press movie, my house is in movie mode and won't stop. When I get home tonight, this macro will be scrapped b/c it's not working.

 

The MOST frustrating part is when i walked downstairs this morning, one program I use to schedule ramp rates in the morning that worked before all this updating works great...while the same program code used for a different set of lights (newly installed) doesn't work...the SAME scheduling program. It's almost like my ISY is faking the writing of data, like it's not REALLY writing it to the devices. Finally my KPL in the kitchen is stuck in permanent party; NO buttons NOT EVEN THE LOAD will respond, however if I press 'party' from the other KPL, the load in the kitchen responds. I just replaced a defective KPL in the kitchen and now this.

 

Someone PLEASE help me not regret my ISY purchase decision..or Insteon altogether. I'm spending more time walking around turning off lights now than before I had a 'smart home' due to scenes and programs that work half way and locked up keypads!

 

PS. The programs NEED a way to debug them line by line...to step through them so I can see what is causing a problem as opposed to running around guessing all night.

[tahoe]

I almost hate to make this suggestion but ...

 

... having learned Insteon before installing my ISY, I learned how to program everything directly. I got pretty fast on my KPL's, 8 button to a 6 button various exclusive combos, half links on the same pairing:

 

ALL on and All off on the 8 button on individual buttons

All on/off toggle from same button master bedroom 6 button kpl

Master bedroom control from bedroom but button light only at entry for indication

Kitchen from both

Porch from both

 

 

Try linking your KPL's the old fashioned way and see if you have better luck. Be sure to set them in multi-link mode to save yourself some walking effort. As you can see, anything is possible.

 

To do it, you can disable all of your fancy programs and factory reset your KPL's if you want to work from a clean slate.

[delston]

I read that when using the ISY as the main controller it's best not to link things without using the ISY. I'm trying hard to avoid using the touch method to link things b/c compared to what the ISY is supposed to do it's a bit cumbersome and archaic.

 

Are you having luck with your ISY? Does it work the way you envisioned when you decided to drop the $$ on it?

 

I assumed from the beginning I would experience a learning curve and some bugs etc. but not to this extent. I'm quite tech savvy but I still am having issues. I HOPE with a bit more time I can get things ironed out and NOT have to be constantly programming and fixing things.

[oberkc]

I am not sure that I can help, but I am more sure that I cannot unless I can see your program and a description of what you are trying to achieve. The example from which you started is a pretty complex routine (certainly far more complex than I have ever used or needed). If all you are trying to achive is set levels with devices in response to a button push, I would think there are far easier ways to do things.

 

I also second the opinion that it is not good to manually program links when there is an ISY involved.

[Michel Kohanim]

delston,

 

I do apologize for the inconvenience.

 

I think it would be best to talk to our tech support so that we can help you better.

 

By reviewing your post it seems that you envision that programs and scenes are one and the same. They are NOT. If your devices do NOT respond to scenes then we have to figure out where the signal gets lost for those devices. As far as programs, these are events that are sent to INSTEON devices ... their correct operation is mostly dependent on a) the logic (which should work in your case) and the signal.

 

So, if you have intermittent responses from your devices I would guess that we are dealing with signal issues.

 

Again, you are welcome to call our support so that we can see what's going on.

 

With kind regards,

Michel