Questions about moving my ISY994 to a new home ...

[gweempose]

I recently moved and would like to set up the 994 in my new home. I moved many of my Insteon and Z-Wave devices from my old house to my new one, plus, I installed some new devices. I was running 4.9 at my old house, but I'm thinking this may be a good opportunity to upgrade to 5.x. Before I do something rash, I have a few questions:

1) How do I factory reset the 994 so that I can start from scratch with a fresh install and re-add all my devices?

2) If I upgrade to 5.x, will I lose the ability to control my Z-Wave devices? I thought I read somewhere that this may be the case.

3) Since my 994 and PLM are both working perfectly, is there any compelling reason to upgrade to an eisy? I'd really hate to spend a lot of money if I don't have to.

Thanks!

 

[tlightne]

Since the 994 is no longer supported by UDI now would be a great time to upgrade to Eisy.. 

[Brian H]

Z-Wave may depend on the board installed in it. 300 or 500 series.

https://wiki.universal-devices.com/index.php?title=Resetting_Your_ISY

I am like you. My ISY994i is still 100%. If I can get answers from users here. It will be fine for me. I updated mine and its backup to the latest firmware and added a few options to the backup. Before they where discontinued.

Now if you wanted to use some of the latest I3 Insteon Products or third party programs. Then an EISY would be needed.

Edited September 27, 2023 by Brian H
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[DennisC]

One possibly good reason to upgrade to an eisy is the ability to incorporate node servers in to your automation. These include weather, device from different manufacturers, alarm systems, enhanced time/date programing, and a whole lot more.

[Goose66]

My concern at this point if I still had a 994 would be the SD card. I went through at least one SD card failure on my 994 and was dependent on UD support to get it back running. 

Especially since you are “starting from scratch” I would take this opportunity to upgrade to eISY and know you have support for the next 10+’years.

[gweempose]

7 hours ago, Brian H said:

Z-Wave may depend on the board installed in it. 300 or 500 series.

It's a 300, unfortunately.

[Brian H]

There may still be a firmware update but limited to the last one supporting a 300.

[gweempose]

Thanks for responses! I think I'm just going to bite the bullet and upgrade to the eisy. At least that way I know everything will be fully supported for the foreseeable future. 

I noticed on the eisy page on the UD store that it says, "Want a discount? Become a member!". What exactly does this mean? How much is the discount, and how do you become a member?

[Geddy]

2 hours ago, gweempose said:

I noticed on the eisy page on the UD store that it says, "Want a discount? Become a member!". What exactly does this mean? How much is the discount, and how do you become a member?

That's for developers only. Unless there's a current discount for ISY users there aren't discounts available. Looks like the most recent discounts expired yesterday - https://www.universal-devices.com/zmatter-usb-is-back-923/

With the 300 series board you're limited to updating to 5.0.16C version: 

 

If you're setting up the system as "new" then I would certainly upgrade before you add anything. There were a few pitfalls in the update process when dealing with scenes and programs. 

It would at least get you up to the 5.x level. However, if 4.9 worked for the equipment you had at the time you're probably fine keeping it as it is. When you mention installing "new" devices are they recently purchased devices or first time you're installing them? There is a new product line from Insteon that will not be entirely supported in the ISY994 line as it requires new firmware that UDI is still developing (only for the Polisy and eisy). But if you stay with the older style product they should probably work just fine as I have not seen people mentioning that anything major has changed.

Just know if you take the time to setup the ISY994 now and are using the Z-Wave on that there's no migration path from 4.9 or 5.0.16C to the eisy so you will need to set everything up again once you get your eisy. Additionally, the eisy only has USB ports for the PLM so you either need a serial to USB kit (that UDI sells) or you need to get a USB PLM from Insteon.