Can I degrade my KPLs by writing backlight changes too often?

[CalPolyME]

I have some programs to manage the LED backlights on KPLs installed in my bedrooms. I prefer to have the backlights off at night to keep the room darker while we sleep. In the evening hours, I have the backlights set to follow overhead lighting.  Backlights are on when the lights are on and off when the lights are off.  I've noticed some of my older KPLs take a bit longer to write the changes than my new ones, and it got me thinking, does writing these changes several times a day lead to some degradation of the KPL overtime?  Can memory become corrupted from too many writes?  Should I try to be more strategic with my programs to minimize the number of writes?  

[Techman]

The Eproms in the KPLs have a limit as to how many writes until they fail, unfortunately I don't know what that number is.

I have KPLs that are 10 years old, I change the backlight settings twice a day and haven't had an issue.

You might try a factory reset, restore device to see if that speeds things up.

 

[oskrypuch]

I have seen this anecdotally reported, and of course this is potentially a much larger concern now.

That said, I routinely dim/extinguish four sets of keylincs in my bedroom. I have had failures in the past with keylincs I dim, and with ones I don't, but none recently in the newer version of these switches.

Happily I have two in inventory, because there are no replacements for these in Z-Wave that I can find yet.

Personally, I'm going to continue dimming them. YMMV

* Orest

[PinchRoller]

18 minutes ago, Techman said:

The Eproms in the KPLs have a limit as to how many writes until they fail, unfortunately I don't know what that number is.

The KeypadLinc models have used two EEPROM over the years; Microchip Technology 24LC32AT-I/SN with an endurance of 1,000,000 writes or STMicroelectronics M24C32-FMN6TP with an endurance of endurance of 1,200,000 to 4,000,000 writes depending on the temperature (the higher the temps, the fewer max. writes).

If the Microchip EEPROM is written to 20 times a day, it should last ~137 years.

-Pinch 

[CalPolyME]

2 hours ago, PinchRoller said:

The KeypadLinc models have used two EEPROM over the years; Microchip Technology 24LC32AT-I/SN with an endurance of 1,000,000 writes or STMicroelectronics M24C32-FMN6TP with an endurance of endurance of 1,200,000 to 4,000,000 writes depending on the temperature (the higher the temps, the fewer max. writes).

If the Microchip EEPROM is written to 20 times a day, it should last ~137 years.

-Pinch 

Thanks for that explanation and the math to support it.  I tightened up my programming a bit before I saw your reply.  If anything, having fewer writes may ease up some potential communication congestion. Every now and then it seems like some command gets delayed waiting for a write to complete.