Error Discovering Nodes & Linking Failure

[dansmith]

Okay, I had a very successful initial install of my ISY andit has been functioning well over the past two weeks. Last night I decided to do a little experimenting. I wanted to see if adding a Dual Band Lamplinc to my son's room would help comm issues with a switch in his room. (That is a separate issue that I will deal with later). So, I moved one of my two DBLlinks from the dining room to his bedroom. I was able to successfully link his switch now to the ISY and I then removed the link once I had proved that it had worked.

 

During the process I noticed that the ISY was showing a loss of communication to three of my other devices in the house, two 2476 dimmers and an outlet linc. Since both of my DB Lamplincs were now on the same phase, I wasn't too surprised and assumed that once I moved the DB Lamplinc back to it's original spot, everything would be okay. Wrong!

 

1. Moved DB Lamplinc back to original spot and confirmed with the phase test that I had one DB Lamplinc on each phase.

 

2. Queried the two switches and outlet linc that had red exclamation marks. No response to the query.

 

3 Rebooted ISY, cleared my Java cache, left it for 10 minutes, and booted up the admin console. Still red exclamation marks. Put ISY into linking mode and tried linking one of the switches. ISY just not seeing the switch. Tried linking by entering the switches address and nothing.

 

4. Decided to remove the switch from the ISY and it at least disappeared from the main menu, although the process (System Busy) in the ISY took about 5 minutes.

 

5. Tried linking again both auto and manual way in the ISY and switch and ISY just weren't communicating.

 

6. Did a factory reset on one problem switch and tried to link again - now I got "Error Discovering Nodes Try Again". However many times I tried to link I still got this error message.

 

7. Unplug PLM/ISY. Left it for about 10 minutes while I had a coffee and plugged it back in. Seemed to reboot okay, but when I went to link I again got the Error Discovering Nodes.

 

8. Rebooted the ISY again and went to bed. This morning all my programs on the rest of the working switches and outlets had run correctly. Went to try and link the problem switches and got the same Error message.

 

9. I did a factory reset on the other problem switch and outlet linc. Still could not link and got the Discovering Node error. Rebooted ISY and after the reboot the linking dialogue automatically came up. I tried to link both problem switches and neither responded to either the auto discover mode or the manual mode. When I went to try it a second time I got the Error Discovering Nodes message again.

 

10. Wondering if I had a phase comm issue I tried linking the two problem switches without using the ISY. I used a remotelinc and a couple of other Insteon switches that are not linked in the ISY. The linking worked fine and I was able to control both problem switches through this manual linking. Removed the links and tried one final time with the ISY. Still not able to link to either problem switch or outlet linc.

 

10. Now I am stuck.

 

Running 2.7.13

 

Thanks for any advice.

 

Dan

[dansmith]

Not sure if important, but here is the log entries after rebooting,

 

0	/CONF/1	 	Fri 2010/03/26 12:03:07 AM	System	-110022
0	/CONF/1	 	Fri 2010/03/26 12:03:07 AM	System	-110012
0	null	 	Fri 2010/03/26 12:09:32 AM	System	-5012
0	null	 	Fri 2010/03/26 12:09:32 AM	System	-5012
0	null	 	Fri 2010/03/26 12:09:54 AM	System	-5012

 

Also entries from the log when I tried to query the two non-communicating switches.

 

12 33 F8 1	Status	Query	Thu 2010/03/25 11:34:37 PM	System	Log
12 33 F8 1	 	 	Thu 2010/03/25 11:34:59 PM	System	-2
12 30 7E 1	Status	Query	Thu 2010/03/25 11:34:59 PM	System	Log
12 30 7E 1	 	 	Thu 2010/03/25 11:35:21 PM	System	-2

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi dansmith,

 

I am so very sorry to hear about all these problems. Would you be kind enough to let me know if you have any SwitchLinc version 35 (as reported on the Admin Console)?

 

The other question I have is the difference between the state of devices when it worked (this morning) and the state of those devices when nothing worked.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[dansmith]

I do not have any switchlinc V35 - they are all V38.

 

Not sure what you about the difference between the state of the devices? Both problem switches were factory reset last night. Have been unable to link to them using the ISY. The linking that I did this morning was a direct link with the remotelinc and two other insteon switches. IE I put remotelinc into linking mode and then pressed the top paddle of the problem switchlinc for 10 seconds. The two devices linked and I was able to control the problem switch from the remotelinc. This was all done independent of the ISY.

 

I guess my biggest question is what is causing the ISY to report this Discovering Node error?

 

Thanks

 

Dan

 

Addendum

 

Came home tonight thinking that I would have to factory restore the PLM and the ISY to get things working. Much to my surprise I was now able to relink the problem switches and the outlet linc. No more errors. I watched the Event Viewer the whole time and everything programmed perfectly.

[dansmith]

Just wanted to provide a final update to the issues that I had so that if anyone else encounters problems, perhaps my solutions will help them.

 

Well, last night half of my devices stopped working again. In frustration I did a factory reset of the PLM and the ISY and started rebuilding from scratch. In the forums I have found advice that this shouldn't be necessary, but I was bullheaded and went ahead anyways. Eventually found out that in my case it was unneccesary. During the reprogramming I found that I was still not able to link to certain devices. Then I confirmed that I was not able to link to them from other working Insteon devices either. That confirmed a comm issue rather than an ISY issue. Took me about 7 hours between last night and today to figure everything out.

 

1. The main issue was a CFL that had gone bad in one of my outside pot lights. I was able to track this down as I last night I had systematically shut off breakers for all the potential "noisy" devices in the house. This didn't help at all. This morning, I was able to link and control all my devices without a problem. Thus narrowed it down to okay in the daytime, but problems in the evening. I kept testing linking and control throughout the day and it was only after my front pot lights came on that the problem started again. Replaced a CFL bulb and success - communications again.

 

2. The problems all started when I tried to move a DB Lamplinc and do some testing. I didn't realize that I had a bad CFL at that time and figured that the issue was with the ISY or the PLM. Well, I did create one problem with my testing. During testing I linked a couple of Insteon switches to the ISY , but then moved the DB Lamplinc before I unlinked them after testing. I could no longer communicate with the devices but decided to remove them from the ISY anyways. It was after doing this that the Error Discovering Nodes kept locking up the ISY. Not sure what the process is in the ISY, but I don't think that this was a good idea. From now on I will only remove devices if I can communicate with them.

 

System is back to operation and I am again a happy camper. It was frustrating, but I also learned quite a bit.

[Sub-Routine]

Hi dansmith,

 

I'm glad you found something easy to fix on your system. Hard to find, but easy to fix.

 

You should absolutely be able to remove a device you cannot communicate with. You will have to when a device dies.

 

Adding it back should work as well using option 1, remove existing links. If there was something corrupt in the device database a factory reset should fix that.

 

Rand

 

From now on I will only remove devices if I can communicate with them.

[dansmith]

So a question that hasn't been answered yet. What does "Error Discovering Nodes. Retry" mean?

[Gemineyez76]

I would like to know also. Can some pls answer?

 

thanks,

[LeeG]

That message often appears when Start Linking has been selected and the Start Linking Popup does not display because of a router/AV issue blocking the push of data from the ISY to the Admin Console. If the popup had displayed there would be a Finish button on the popup and it would be impossible to interact with any other ISY function until the Finish button is pressed. Without the Popup other ISY functions can be accessed resulting in that message because the ISY and the PLM are still in linking mode looking for device identification messages from Set button presses.

[Gemineyez76]

is there anything that i can do that can kill the linking that is currently in progress then?

Or am i at the mercy of the ISY's probe and will just have to wait?

[LeeG]

Reboot the ISY to get it out of linking mode. May take twice.

 

Then resolve the router/AV issue that created the situation to begin with. That is only one of various symptoms that will be seen if the blocking issue is not resolved. Kaspersky and Avast are common sources of interfernce. There are posts on the forum that discuss possible solutions when using these products.

[Gemineyez76]

Update:

 

LeeG is correct and if you do not see the finish button/tab, there is not much you can do. However I was able to get that finish button by unplugging my PLM for a bit and then re-plugging it back to my outlet.

 

it may be also coincidence that the link probe also had completed at the same moment. Either way I am able to link again and my TimerLinc was successfully added to my network

 

Thanks for the info LeeG