Replacement Insteon Switches for ISY994i

[johnstewart]

I've got an ISY994i that's been running fine for a decade... but it looks like at least two (now) of my Insteon switches have died. The first one I can live without. The second is kind of critical.

 

I deployed 2466SW and 2466DW switches before.

 

I see there are Decora style (meh, not a fan; I like the plain toggle ones, but this will do) 2477D and 2477S models available at https://www.insteon.com/wall-switches#buynow - I guess Insteon went away, and now they're back. 

 

Will these work okay with the ISY994i? Is there a "better" alternative? I see people talking zwave but I don't want to deploy completely new tech if I can just drop in different switches.

[Brian H]

The original privately owned management sold to Richardson Capital Partners.

Then Richardson Capital Partners did shut down everything abruptly.

Former employees and management has restarted the Insteon line and more items are becoming available now.

The 2466SW and 2466DW where power line only and discontinued years ago. The 2477D and 2477S should be fine for an ISY994i. They are also Dual Band so you also get RF communications over just the power line. You may want to check the physical dimensions as I believe the 2477S has a larger rated capacity and maybe thicker with the heavier internal relay and power lead gauge.

 

[Brian H]

You may also want to check your firmware and if real old. Update to the latest released for the now discontinued ISY994i.

The needed Z Wave boards for the ISY994i are also gone but sometimes one shows up on a site like Ebay.

[mango]

I have some hardly used new appearance 2466SW toggle switches at the cottage. If you're interested, hit me up. Shipping would be from Canada.

[johnstewart]

@mango I'll definitely take you up on that; thanks. I'll send a PM.

 

Just got a couple of the 2477S switches; working on adding one now. Gonna be some work to reset all my scenes, I think, but it can turn on/off from the ISY, yay!

 

This scared me from doing a firmware upgrade:

 

Quote

-      Upgrading to this version may require a lot of manual intervention including verifying scenes, programs and program settings are correct.  In some cases it will be easier to rebuild your network.

 

[johnstewart]

New switch is working!

 

I see there's a "new" motion sensor:

https://www.insteon.com/motion-sensor

 

Does this work with the ISY994i?

 

I wish there was a motion sensor that didn't rely on batteries.

[Techman]

The MSII is the only Insteon motion sensor available. It's not that new, it has been out for several years. It works with the ISY but has some limitations. It runs on either batteries or 5v USB power.

Currently the only other viable option is Zwave motion sensors.

[johnstewart]

Oooo; I missed that it could be USB powered; thanks. I can make that work; thanks! Better than adding another mouth to feed, battery-wise.

[Brian H]

One thing to check with USB power.

To get the back cover on. They sold a USB charger and a 90 degree connector on the cable. There where some that got a 90 degree style cable but it didn't fit. It seems there are two variations. Cable up or down exiting the connector.

Edited August 6, 2023 by Brian H
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[Geddy]

On 8/5/2023 at 3:24 PM, johnstewart said:

This scared me from doing a firmware upgrade:

Quote

-      Upgrading to this version may require a lot of manual intervention including verifying scenes, programs and program settings are correct.  In some cases it will be easier to rebuild your network.

@johnstewart what firmware are you running? And are you running any z-wave currently? If what you're running is working then I'd stay with it for the ISY994 since it's no longer supported by UDI without paid support. 

The primary warning is from 4.x to 5.x firmware on the ISY994. It's been out so long and I did the upgrade so long ago that I can't remember all the pitfalls, but the main ones are any programs that used "adjust scene". Due to a major overhaul of how scenes were handled in 5.x (due mostly to the introduction of Z-wave..IIRC) the programs need to be updated. Sometimes that's as simple as just selecting the program confirming the scenes and saving all programs again.

If you're on a firmware pre-4.9 then you should at least update to 4.9. Going up to 5.3.4 is advised as long as you don't have/use z-wave or have a z-wave 500 series board. There's a post in the z-wave area for the 994 that describes how to tell the difference between the 300 and 500 series.

In all, the key steps to going to the 5.3.4 firmware would be make sure you make a good backup. Save programs to a text file (right click on the root program folder, last option is "copy folder to clipboard" then paste in a plain text editor (i.e. notepad in Windows - DO NOT USE WORD or other word processing type file as it might auto correct/format and you don't want that!). After you run the update clear java cache, download a new start.jnlp (IoX Launcher) file from UDI and you should be up and running.

If you do update and run into problems please start a new thread for help with that issue as many might not read this post if you start posting about firmware upgrade issues.

Good luck!

PS: Note that if you wanted to upgrade to the eisy and wanted to migrate from the ISY994 to the eisy you would need to get to Firmware 5.3.4 as that is the only migration path option.