Polisy Pickles

[vbPhil]

I'm most bewildered when on the Forum I read about problems users have with Polisy/ISY. I guess I should count my lucky stars that my system runs so clean.

Any thoughts about why some users have issues and others don't? Is it product related or pilot errors?

[MrBill]

I think the vast majority of the problem is some users don't stay up to date with updates then when they do update they don't follow directions and or don't read the correct directors for their specific situation.  Then there are those that get impatient because they don't know what it's doing and pull the plug at a bad time.  Personally I haven't had any issues either, but I don't really like the current user interface for updates.  It would be much better if we didn't need to go to the physical location of the device and listen for beeps (that I can't hear anyway).  The last time i just started it and did something unrelated away from the keyboard and a few hours later determined that it worked correctly.  The time before I took my wife to the basement to listen for beeps but we never heard them because my wife can't stand still and listen instead she was talking and cleaning out boxes of junk.  I hope that its sometime soon on the priority list to have a status display somewhere, like another port.   I also hope that very soon backups become consolidated and automated and stored in the cloud, but that's never even been mentioned.  

[vbPhil]

I concur with @MrBill . My Polisy is in the garage so the PLM is closer to the distribution panel and I never hear the beeps. I just wait awhile and then log back in. I long for a more modern ISY Admin program and improved User experience.  

[upstatemike]

3 hours ago, MrBill said:

I think the vast majority of the problem is some users don't stay up to date with updates ... 

To be fair I think a lot of users like me treat automation systems as appliances and don't expect to do anything to them until we need to change something. I expect once I get IoP configured it could easily be a couple of years until the next time I log in to look at updates and such. My Polisy was purchased as a pre-order before the release and once I had Hue configured I haven't had any reason to log back in until recently when I wanted to migrate to IoP. 

If you want to do constant updates you should look into Home Assistant.

[MrBill]

2 minutes ago, upstatemike said:

To be fair I think a lot of users like me treat automation systems as appliances and don't expect to do anything to them until we need to change something. I expect once I get IoP configured it could easily be a couple of years until the next time I log in to look at updates and such. My Polisy was purchased as a pre-order before the release and once I had Hue configured I haven't had any reason to log back in until recently when I wanted to migrate to IoP. 

If you want to do constant updates you should look into Home Assistant.

I have Home Assistant lol.. but there are users on that platform that don't do updates because everything works for their installation..  but then it doesn't for some reason, or they want to add something that requires them to be current.  and then they whine and moan because of all the work they had to do to get current.  I'd rather update every month and break something small than spends weeks rebuilding and/or debugging because there were 100's of breaking changes since my last update.

I generally stay up to date with ISY/polisy ... but at times won't be exactly current.  But even then there are reasons that you need to stay up to date.... we constantly have some coming in to say I'm on 5.3.0 and my notifications no longer work.... surprise to those people but they've been broken for a year now if they're using 5.3.0 with the default mail server.  It's a chore, but we do need to at least somewhat keep up with releases.

[Illusion]

@MrBill While I agree with you, there are clearly two schools of thought on this. I am closer to upstatemike than you. Maybe really alinged with upstatemike as it has been right at 2 years since I did any updating on the system. And to your point, when I did everything broke. Also, not staying up to date on the forums has a cost in education. So it ended up being a 40 hour endeavor for me. (that includes the re-education time) There were also a list of modifications I have needed to make to the system that just got added to a list, so that was also some of the time.

But on the other side of that is that if you have to stay super current on every connected thing all the time, it is going to be tough for this home automation thing to ever be anything but a hobby and enthusiast pursuit. I have gotten at least 5 friends on the ISY band wagon. Not one of them wants to administer their system. They want to set it up and leave it. The other day one of them was complaining to me about the loss of the climate module! I think some of them may still be on 3.x ISY firmware...

While it is kinda a hobby for me, it is hard to justify going around and updating stuff when everything is working just the way I want it. And I accept the consequences that when one thing stops working that I was counting on, there may be a mountain of work for me...

[MrBill]

@Illusion I don't disagree with you.   At the same time you can't expect the product to remain at a standstill either.  If you choose to be hands off, use the system as is, that's all good.  You also can't expect the product to not progress over time.   At this point in the game your either a user that stays current (which has its cost), or have a  different cost of time and/or product at upgrade time.  The other option is pay a pro to maintain the system for you.  Unfortunately there are very few pro's that maintain at the ISY level, you can find pro's these days at other levels in the market such as Crestron, Lutron, etc., those systems tho actually don't have as much flexibility and extensibility as ISY/Home Assistant.

[Michel Kohanim]

I totally agree with @upstatemike. Once Polisy is configured for your purposes, it should work and should not require any updates. We had mastered this paradigm for 994, alas, it's taken us a lot longer to master it for Polisy. But, I assure you that a) that's our #1 goal and 2) we are getting there. I do apologize for the inconvenience.

With kind regards,
Michel

[Geddy]

On 10/30/2022 at 11:39 AM, MrBill said:

I also hope that very soon backups become consolidated and automated and stored in the cloud, but that's never even been mentioned.  

@MrBill a little lost gem in that reply here. I 100% agree wish this (automated + cloud backups) would become an option in future development. I'm sure it's got some issues trying to program, but it would 100% make things a lot easier on the rare occasion that something does go bad. Not having to rely on a good/recent local backup for the old ISY994 method in the new fangled Polisy/eisy devices.

 

@upstatemike and @Illusion I can understand your thoughts and hopes of having a system to "set it and forget it". That is if it truly is considered an "appliance" device. However, my view of it is a working computer system. Much like Windows (or macOS) there are updates that are needed along the way. Either feature, safety, or stability. Since being an ISY user I see the ecosystem being a living computer that requires some monitoring and upkeep. It's very minimal (for the most part), but also during the ISY994 5.x firmware development there were endless updates and releases. Same seems to be true for the Polisy as PG3 is fleshed out and development of the interaction with the Node Servers changes and continues to evolve. 

For those reasons I think it's too simple to just consider this system to be a "set it and forget it". It does appear to be a desire to get there (as @Michel Kohanim posts), but even then, updates and features are always welcomed additions that some users might look for. Especially as new users come into the ecosystem of the ISY/IoP. 

 

[larryllix]

I totally agree with @upstatemike. Once Polisy is configured for your purposes, it should work and should not require any updates. We had mastered this paradigm for 994, alas, it's taken us a lot longer to master it for Polisy. But, I assure you that a) that's our #1 goal and 2) we are getting there. I do apologize for the inconvenience.
With kind regards,
Michel

I don't agree with that, depending on the person. For me ISY is a very handy tool and a terrific hobby.

While it can get tedious and boring after several years of tinkering, I am now in a new environment and starting over. Just when I think I have had enough of automation, every few days I wake up thinking of some new trick I can make ISY do inside my smaller apartment environment. With my last few years of experience I think of better and simpler ways of creating algorithms in ISY to do them..

On that note, I just had another neighbour comment on my RGBW bulbs in the hallway doing Halloween effects after the management has gone home each night. Thanks to ISY, they will resume the warm white at 78 percent that perfectly matches the other hallway bulbs and I have no idea what they are talking about.

These same bulbs will Start Christmas colours in mid December, and do New Years colours at the correct timing, along with some sequential white flashing right around midnight.

Is ISY just a tool for me? You decide.

Sent from my SM-G781W using Tapatalk

[vbPhil]

2 hours ago, larryllix said:

depending on the person. For me ISY is a very handy tool and a terrific hobby

Ditto that!

[vbPhil]

2 hours ago, Geddy said:

updates and features are always welcomed additions that some users might look for.

I’m looking for them all the time!

[ShawnW]

On 10/30/2022 at 3:08 PM, MrBill said:

I have Home Assistant lol.. but there are users on that platform that don't do updates because everything works for their installation..  but then it doesn't for some reason, or they want to add something that requires them to be current.  and then they whine and moan because of all the work they had to do to get current.  I'd rather update every month and break something small than spends weeks rebuilding and/or debugging because there were 100's of breaking changes since my last update.

I generally stay up to date with ISY/polisy ... but at times won't be exactly current.  But even then there are reasons that you need to stay up to date.... we constantly have some coming in to say I'm on 5.3.0 and my notifications no longer work.... surprise to those people but they've been broken for a year now if they're using 5.3.0 with the default mail server.  It's a chore, but we do need to at least somewhat keep up with releases.

LOL - I once went 5 years without checking into my ISY - damn thing just worked. Hell, I practically had to re-learn the interface it had been so long.