Lightning forces upgrade; advice?

[LKO]

Lightning recently caused some damage in our house. Thought at first just the PLM was shot, along with several Insteon wall switches. Replaced the PLM, but it seems that our ISY994i was destroyed also. With the 994 at EOL, time to upgrade! But to what? Polysys or EISY? My criteria is: no dependence on "the cloud", no dependence on Windows or MAC (I use Linux), programmability (loved the ISY994 for that), flexibility (I could connect the ISY with non-Insteon devices through the network interface and ioLincs). Can I control other than Insteon devices with the upgrade? Is the EISY the latest iteration of the ISY family?

Advice on my upgrade path, please? I'd like to get my home automation stuff back up soon; we've become rather used (dependent?) to it!

[MrBill]

eisy is your only choice, unless you buy Polisy on the secondary (ebay) market.  Polisy components became unavailable.

eisy is faster and has more memory than your 994, other than that it works pretty much the same way. 

 

Also 994's rarely die...  I'd try a new wall-wart and/or new MicroSD card.    The power light can be on, and it can still be a bad power supply... You can try any power supply that outputs anywhere between 5 volt and 30 volts,center positive, 2mm barrel connector.

[LKO]

Alrighty, EISY is my only choice. That gives me something to look at and see what it can do.

As for the '994, I am willing to poke at it a bit and see if it will do anything. I know the ethernet switch it was connected to was killed in the strike, as was the 2413s. Another nearby device had its ethernet port fried, but worked otherwise.

Our 994 powers up, but the ethernet port never shows link or activity (like no cable connected). Replaced the ethernet cable to no avail. The lights on the 994 "look like normal on startup", but end up with power LED steady on, memory and error LED flashing at 1hz. I do have backups of the ISY settings. The replacement 2413s appears to be ok, except I can't get into the ISY to verify more than the PLMs LED comes on.

[Geddy]

@LKO another option is checking out the Coffee Shop area of the forums. Some people are/were selling their old ISY994 (and/or some Polisy). Perhaps they still have them available if you just wanted to stay in the ISY994 product line. 

But, agree with @MrBill that eisy is the only current upgrade path. I would try a different power supply for the current ISY994 though as it could have taken most of any surge from a hit. 

But eisy has the same interface as ISY994 for java admin console and doesn't require cloud connection (although the UD Portal does add a lot of functionality). The eisy does add the ability to run node servers to add a lot of different systems into the ISY system for control and automation with one hub. It just requires a UD Portal account, but not a ongoing subscription to be able to buy/install most node servers. (Note: Some node servers might require a portal subscription, but I'm not 100% sure which ones - I think Ring might be the only one currently.)

 

[LKO]

I will try another power supply, and pull the SDcard and see if it's bad. Probably this evening after the day job. As for upgrading, I'm fine with having to go to EISY just to modernize, and to get more programmability. I had been thinking a couple years ago about going to Polisy, but kept putting it off since everything was working fine. Now, if our 994 is really dead, I'm going to go with the latest and greatest just for additional programming capability.

[MrBill]

33 minutes ago, LKO said:

I will try another power supply, and pull the SDcard and see if it's bad. Probably this evening after the day job. As for upgrading, I'm fine with having to go to EISY just to modernize, and to get more programmability. I had been thinking a couple years ago about going to Polisy, but kept putting it off since everything was working fine. Now, if our 994 is really dead, I'm going to go with the latest and greatest just for additional programming capability.

From your post 3 posts up it sounds like your ethernet port might have taken a hit... if a 994 does die that's probably why... the ethernet port took a hit.

[LKO]

That's my thought right now, too. I had two other devices that lost their LAN ports in that hit. They otherwise worked, but the ports were dead. Still gonna check the 994's power supply and sd-card, but I do think its ethernet port is fried. Maybe not; hope for the best, plan for the worse.

 

[LKO]

Sigh, sd-card checks out fine, and the power brick reads 5.2 volts on a multimeter. Tried a different one anyway, with the same results. Acts like no lan cable present. So, looks pretty much like the ethernet port got fried.

Probably going to press "buy" on an EISY, and try to replace the six dead Insteon wall switches, after some reading...

Appreciate the advice, many thanks!

[Techman]

@LKO

The following is from the UD Wiki. Did you try plugging the ISY into a different port on your router or Switch? Also try power cycling the ISY if you haven't already done that.

 

Error light and Memory light blinking simultaneously: ISY is not able to get on the network. Please ensure:

The Network jack on the back of ISY is connected to your router

The lights on the Network jack have one steady on and the other one blinking. If not, check cable and connectivity to the router

Your router provides DHCP

There are no other devices on the network with the same IP address (IP Conflict)

If you have configured your ISY to use DHCP, then you will have to search your network for devices that might be in the same DHCP range as your router is providing

If you have configured your ISY with a static IP address, and as long as you have a good backup, you can Factory Reset your ISY and then restore a good backup (File | Restore ISY). Once prompted to change the network settings, choose No

[LKO]

2 hours ago, Techman said:

@LKO

The following is from the UD Wiki. Did you try plugging the ISY into a different port on your router or Switch? Also try power cycling the ISY if you haven't already done that.

 

Error light and Memory light blinking simultaneously: ISY is not able to get on the network. Please ensure:

The Network jack on the back of ISY is connected to your router

The lights on the Network jack have one steady on and the other one blinking. If not, check cable and connectivity to the router

Your router provides DHCP

There are no other devices on the network with the same IP address (IP Conflict)

If you have configured your ISY to use DHCP, then you will have to search your network for devices that might be in the same DHCP range as your router is providing

If you have configured your ISY with a static IP address, and as long as you have a good backup, you can Factory Reset your ISY and then restore a good backup (File | Restore ISY). Once prompted to change the network settings, choose No

Yep, swapped in known good cable, known good port; in the words of Bones, "He's dead, Jim!"

[LKO]

Now that I've made up my mind to buy eisy, it's out of stock. Looks like the last stock refresh was April, any signs of when the next batch will be in?

[MrBill]

16 minutes ago, LKO said:

Now that I've made up my mind to buy eisy, it's out of stock. Looks like the last stock refresh was April, any signs of when the next batch will be in?

for a faster and better answer email that question to sales@universal-devices.com UD never answers this type of question in the forum.

[gregf]

Had the same problem after a power event. Fried the Ethernet port. Replaced with a Polisy. Before the eisy came out.

[LKO]

My eisy and 2413s cable adapter arrived moments ago. Will set it up and restore my dead '994s backup to it after I finish "my day job".

Out of curiosity, in the eisy packaging was a tiny ziploc baggie with a swatch of pink... film? It reminds me of a piece of heat sink tape that might go on an M.2 SSD. Is that what it is? If so, thanks UD for providing one in case I do add some storage that way.

[elvisimprsntr]

7 minutes ago, LKO said:

Out of curiosity, in the eisy packaging was a tiny ziploc baggie with a swatch of pink... film? It reminds me of a piece of heat sink tape that might go on an M.2 SSD. Is that what it is?

Yes, it's a strip of thermally conductive pad for a 2280 M.2 SSD.   The OEM MeLE includes it in the box.  

Edited August 8, 2023 by elvisimprsntr