Has anyone experienced communication/performance differences or reliability issues between using a Serial PLM vs. a USB PLM attached to the same IoX hardware?  Or does anyone think one is better than the other and for what reason?  You can skip anything about burnt out capacitors, that's not what I'm asking about.  I know a lot of people have had issues in areas with flaky power.  Fortunately I've never fried a PLM in 12 years, not one (knock on wood).

For the eisy and polisy, the serial PLM requires a serial to USB convertor. 

The USB PLM is more versatile as you use a stock USB cable

There shouldn't be any noticeable difference in performance between the two

6 hours ago, Techman said:

For the eisy and polisy, the serial PLM requires a serial to USB convertor. 

The USB PLM is more versatile as you use a stock USB cable

There shouldn't be any noticeable difference in performance between the two

That’s the same thing I’m thinking but I’m seeing some funky comms I didn’t see with my old serial PLM.  Not sure what it is but I’m looking at all the possibilities.

16 hours ago, Techman said:

There shouldn't be any noticeable difference in performance between the two

To techman's point, it's really where the serial to USB conversation happens:

• In the converter you add to support a serial PLM
• In the USB PLM itself

The world has moved away (mostly) from direct rs232 connections so I went with a USB PLM to not buy another special converter/cable that might have to be replaced later. I have a standard usb cable from eISY to USB PLM. I can't think of a material difference/advantage other than that. Insteon keeps making the serial PLM because there ISY and other serial based users out there somewhere.

FWIW the performance of either PLM to the eISY is half (19.k baud) of the speed of wireless devices between themselves (38.4K baud). The point being you'll notice a slight difference in the eisy activating any Insteon device vs Insteon activating another Insteon device via scene (wireless or dualband). 

Edited February 6, 20241 yr by paulbates

In the 2413U. The daughter board has the USB interface chip on it. Along with the link memory.

After conversion. The same signals are used to and from the main board.

@Brian H

Does the PLM's firmware reside on the main board or the daughter board?

In theory, could you swap a serial daughter board with a USB daughter board?

Main Board has the firmware in the main processor and firmware for the separate RF controller.

Daughter board the link memory and USB or Serial interface chip.

Only thing that may cause an issue. Is if the device connected to the PLM checks the Category and Subcategory reported by the PLM. There is a different Subcategory for a USB or Serial Port PLM. A USB daughter board in a Serial PLM would report it was a Serial Port PLM. Though I don't know if too many programs accessing a PLM check.

On 2/6/2024 at 12:50 AM, theitprofessor said:

That’s the same thing I’m thinking but I’m seeing some funky comms I didn’t see with my old serial PLM.  Not sure what it is but I’m looking at all the possibilities.

     One difference to be considered is cable length between PLM and ISY.    Not usually a concern for most,  however some have stretched their RS232 cable to near recommended maximums.   If so, USB comms.  has a recommended maximum length approx. 3 times less than that of RS232.  ( of course data rates etc. affect this... just as a rough comparison).

 

You can disregard any of these weird PLM issues as they turned out to be the same cause and solution as this other issue I posted and solved.

https://forum.universal-devices.com/topic/43050-iox-and-i3-insteon/