someguy Posted October 2, 2022 Posted October 2, 2022 Over the past year or so, I have had my PLM lose all of its links. It just stops responding to things happening in the house and I have to “restore” the PLM. right now, I’m out of town and don’t have a computer (just my iPad and iPhone). Is there a way to “restore” it with one Of these? I normally use the admin console. more importantly, for long-term, is there a way to fix this? My PLM is only about a year old… and I’m on ISYonPolisy. I was kind of figuring that this was a symptom of an aging PLM but this one isn’t that old. also of note, this used to happen to me on an older PLM and on my old ISY occasionally. Odd. Makes me wonder if there is a bug in my programming but I suspect someone will (hopefully) tell me that there is no way for any ISY (or ISY on Polisy) to delete the PLMs links?!? I appreciate any help,
Techman Posted October 2, 2022 Posted October 2, 2022 When you get home do a PLM link count. If the count is usually low, then it's most likely a PLM problem. You can also try doing a restore PLM which will write all the links stored in the ISY to the PLM. About how many Insteon devices do you have installed, that will determine what the approximate PLM link count should be.
someguy Posted October 2, 2022 Author Posted October 2, 2022 @Techman: I’ve done this before and when it forgets the links, the PLM has no links. None. when I restore the links, it has over 200 links.
kzboray Posted October 2, 2022 Posted October 2, 2022 I'm sorry to say it really sounds like a HW issue. If you are comfortable with component level repair, you can try replacing all the capacitors. If not there is nilachidatasystems on Ebay that offers to repair PLM's. nilachidatasystems 2
MrBill Posted October 2, 2022 Posted October 2, 2022 Also it should be noted that ANY Insteon traffic during a link count will throw the link count off. People seems to give the command "DO A LINK COUNT" without mentioning this. This means No switch flips, no motion and no battery device heartbeats can occur during the link count. If any traffic occurs the pointer will move to whatever that address is in the order and the link count can be very high or very low as a result. If any battery devices exist in the system, you almost need to do multiple link counts until the same number occurs twice or you determine there is a hardware fault. The advice to "Do a link count" is not valid without understanding how link counts work and why they might be invalid. 1
ronvond Posted October 2, 2022 Posted October 2, 2022 1 hour ago, MrBill said: Also it should be noted that ANY Insteon traffic during a link count will throw the link count off. People seems to give the command "DO A LINK COUNT" without mentioning this. This means No switch flips, no motion and no battery device heartbeats can occur during the link count. If any traffic occurs the pointer will move to whatever that address is in the order and the link count can be very high or very low as a result. If any battery devices exist in the system, you almost need to do multiple link counts until the same number occurs twice or you determine there is a hardware fault. The advice to "Do a link count" is not valid without understanding how link counts work and why they might be invalid. Mr. Bill. Thank you for the advice on Insteon traffic during a link count. I never knew that. I tried it and you're right. I went from 232 to 82 after tripping a motion sensor. 2
MrBill Posted October 2, 2022 Posted October 2, 2022 5 minutes ago, ronvond said: Mr. Bill. Thank you for the advice on Insteon traffic during a link count. I never knew that. I tried it and you're right. I went from 232 to 82 after tripping a motion sensor. Its very hard to get an accurate link count on a large system with multiple battery powered AND/OR motion sensors. Yet continually the instruction is given to check link count with no regard to that.
Geddy Posted October 2, 2022 Posted October 2, 2022 13 minutes ago, ronvond said: Mr. Bill. Thank you for the advice on Insteon traffic during a link count. I never knew that. @MrBill usually is accurate with his additional information on the link count info. It's crucial to understand what it is exactly that you're trying to accomplish with a "link count". And it's interesting...what's considered "low"? It's all relative to the size of your system. And as you mention it can change from moment to moment if there's traffic. Here are some of the instructions that @MrBill references in the wiki (maybe not entirely accurate, but is the first place seen to mention link count in troubleshooting capacity). 7 hours ago, someguy said: I was kind of figuring that this was a symptom of an aging PLM but this one isn’t that old. @someguy Even though you might not have been using the PLM for long it probably isn't exactly new. Sure, that shouldn't explain your issues, but it's also a false assumption to make that simply because it hasn't been in use long that it shouldn't be failing. When you get home take a look at the sticker on the back of the PLM and make note of the date code. I'd doubt there were many PLM produced/sold in 2019-2021 timeframe. So I'd say most PLM in the market are probably from mid 2010-2019 timeframe. 7 hours ago, someguy said: right now, I’m out of town and don’t have a computer (just my iPad and iPhone). Is there a way to “restore” it with one Of these? I normally use the admin console. I think the answer here is sadly, no. If you have any friends/neighbors near you that would let you borrow their computer to try to access admin console on that for a temporary fix that might be the best thing to do. I don't think UD Mobile is yet able to perform link counts. I know @Javi has said the hope is that UD Mobile would be able to do everything Admin Console cane, but I don't think checking link counts is something it can do yet.
Javi Posted October 3, 2022 Posted October 3, 2022 17 hours ago, Geddy said: I think the answer here is sadly, no. If you have any friends/neighbors near you that would let you borrow their computer to try to access admin console on that for a temporary fix that might be the best thing to do. I don't think UD Mobile is yet able to perform link counts. I know @Javi has said the hope is that UD Mobile would be able to do everything Admin Console cane, but I don't think checking link counts is something it can do yet. Restore PLM not yet available on Mobile. Also recommend this is done on site for battery powered devices. On 10/2/2022 at 7:19 AM, someguy said: Over the past year or so, I have had my PLM lose all of its links. It just stops responding to things happening in the house and I have to “restore” the PLM. My guess is it is a defective PLM, link loss and status loss starts happening before compete failure. Sometimes PLM power cycle fixes the issue, but when we need to do it frequently the PLM usually fails completely within a year. I have a few test systems running and had a few extra PLMs in 2020. I estimate my PLM failure rate to be 20% before a year and over 30% before two years. Most of the defective PLMs were tossed with the assumption we could purchase another, so it's hard to say if a cap replacement fixes the issues. 2
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