Should I go from 4.8.0 to 4.9.0 or perhaps straight to 5.x ?

[tome]

My ISY994 is on 4.8.0 and it's been a long while since I've done anything with it.  It is telling me that 4.9.0 is available to upgrade to.  Should I do that?  I see that 5.3.4 (I think) is out and just wondering if I should just skip 4.9.0 and go to 5.x?  I see that upgrading to 5.x will require some tweaking of programs and things so I will put it off until I have time to fully understand the steps and be able to fix things that break.  I don't have z-wave and am not really doing anything new but I usually don't like to get too far behind the latest release.

-Tom

 

[MrBill]

4.8 to 4.9 is an easy upgrade.  There should be a button in the admin console, it will probably take you all of 5 minutes for that upgrade. 

You're correct going from 4.9 to 5.3.4 is more complicated.  First question to ask, is do you have the Z-wave Option?  If yes, the second question is whether it's 300 series or 500 series, and my guess is that if you're on version 4.x that it's a 300 series.   To find out from the admin console, to to Z-wave at the top, then Z-wave version.  4.55.00 is 300 series, 6.81.00 is 500 series.   If 300, don't upgrade to 5.3.4... instead the furthest you can upgrade is v5.0.16C

The Second question to ask is do the Programs in your ISY use "Adjust scene"?  If so each of those programs will need a manual repair after upgrade.

Third question is do you have programs that are intentionally "disabled", if so make note of those programs because they will become enabled during the upgrade and will need to be manually disabled again.  (Reminder: sometimes disabled programs exist because they aren't entirely disabled, they do run when another program runs them.  Disabled really just means the IF statement won't automatically detect conditions.)

Last, the undocumented best practice is to make a text copy of your programs before upgrading.  This is very easy to do and will take less than 1 minute.  In the Admin Console navigate to the Programs tab then click the top level folder in the tree (usually it's named "My Programs" but might be different).  Once "My Programs" is highlighted right click it.. on the context menu at the bottom choose "Copy Folder to Clipboard".  Now open Notepad (windows built in program) and Paste the clipboard (click in the window and press Ctrl-V), then File > Save As and give it a name with a .txt extension.   This will come in handy if a program doesn't update correctly (see "Second Question" above), you can use this file to see how it was before the upgrade.

Finally after you upgrade to 5.0.16C or 5.3.4 the first stop in the Admin Console should be Help > About to make certain that the Firmware and UI version numbers match exactly. If they don't deal with that before proceeding.  The second stop in the Admin Console after upgrade should be the Programs tab > Summary sub-tab.  Look for the color YELLOW on that page.  If you see any, that program didn't convert correctly and needs manually attention.

All in all upgrades from 4.x to 5.x go much better today than they once did.  Just follow the detailed upgrade instructions, plus the points I added above and you should be good. 

Good luck.

Edited September 29, 2022 by MrBill

[tome]

26 minutes ago, MrBill said:

4.8 to 4.9 is an easy upgrade.  There should be a button in the admin console, it will probably take you all of 5 minutes for that upgrade. 

You're correct going from 4.9 to 5.3.4 is more complicated.  First question to ask, is do you have the Z-wave Option?  If yes, the second question is whether it's 300 series or 500 series, and my guess is that if you're on version 4.x that it's a 300 series.   To find out from the admin console, to to Z-wave at the top, then Z-wave version.  4.55.00 is 300 series, 6.81.00 is 500 series.   If 300, don't upgrade to 5.3.4... instead the furthest you can upgrade is v5.0.16C

The Second question to ask is do the Programs in your ISY use "Adjust scene"?  If so each of those programs will need a manual repair after upgrade.

Third question is do you have programs that are intentionally "disabled", if so make note of those programs because they will become enabled during the upgrade and will need to be manually disabled again.  (Reminder: sometimes disabled programs exist because they aren't entirely disabled, they do run when another program runs them.  Disabled really just means the IF statement won't automatically detect conditions.)

Last, the undocumented best practice is to make a text copy of your programs before upgrading.  This is very easy to do and will take less than 1 minute.  In the Admin Console navigate to the Programs tab then click the top level folder in the tree (usually it's named "My Programs" but might be different).  Once "My Programs" is highlighted right click it.. on the context menu at the bottom choose "Copy Folder to Clipboard".  Now open Notepad (windows built in program) and Paste the clipboard (click in the window and press Ctrl-V), then File > Save As and give it a name with a .txt extension.   This will come in handy if a program doesn't update correctly (see "Second Question" above), you can use this file to see how it was before the upgrade.

Finally after you upgrade to 5.0.16C or 5.3.4 the first stop in the Admin Console should be Help > About to make certain that the Firmware and UI version numbers match exactly.  The second stop in the Admin Console after upgrade should be the Programs tab > Summary sub-tab.  Look for the color YELLOW on that page.  If you see any, that program didn't convert correctly and needs manually attention.

All in all upgrades from 4.x to 5.x go much better today than they once did.  Just follow the detailed upgrade instructions, plus the points I added above and you should be good. 

Good luck.

Many thanks for the reply!  I do not have any Z-wave and don't see a Z-wave menu item.  I updated to the 994 when they first came out and were discontinuing the older hardware.  I don't think Z-wave was an option at the time, or I didn't want to use it so didn't get that option anyway.  So do I go to 5.3.4 or to 5.0.16C?  I don't think I am using "Adjust scene" in any of my programs, but I did copy all the programs so I have them and will take a look.

-Tom

 

[MrBill]

14 minutes ago, tome said:

I do not have any Z-wave and don't see a Z-wave menu item.

Proceed directly from 4.9 to 5.3.4.   Be sure to make a backup before upgrading from  4.9 (File > Backup ISY).

If you don't have Z-wave or any "adjust scene" it shouldn't be much of effort to upgrade to v5.3.4

[tome]

4.9 was indeed uneventful.  Will do the next step when I have time to troubleshoot any issues (just in case any arise).

Thanks again,

-Tom

 

[lilyoyo1]

25 minutes ago, tome said:

4.9 was indeed uneventful.  Will do the next step when I have time to troubleshoot any issues (just in case any arise).

Thanks again,

-Tom

 

Its possible but not guaranteed. If you read and follow the directions completely, you'll minimize the chances for issues as well as know how to fix them if some should arise.