state variable announcements simply stopped working

[carteriii]

For years I have used Alexa to announce changes in state variables, but last week it simply stopped working. I'm assuming the problem is somewhere between my ISY and ISY Portal, or between ISY Portal and Amazon.

I tried disabling and re-enabling the Alexa skill, but that didn't change anything. I will say that it didn't discover any new devices, but still showed the "devices" that were still there from years ago.

When I login to ISY Portal, it shows my ISY994 online. I looked at the ISY Portal Error log and will paste below the contents from the past few days, since I don't know what the error messages mean. The -5011 and -140000 codes exist in the log for many times going back a long time, so at a minimum it doesn't seem like anything unusual.

I looked at the ISY Portal Event log, and I see my ELK area & zone events coming through just fine, and although I expected to see state variables changes in the log, I don't see any, even going back days to when the announcements were working, implying ISY Portal doesn't log state variable changes. This seems like something that's just lacking in ISY Portal that would be beneficial. Maybe it's worth adding that to the ISY Portal event log????

At a minimum, since I'm getting events from my ELK alarm, it seems that the connection from my ISY to ISY Portal is working. So the problem would seem to be in the Alexa connection, and obviously there's an earlier thread here about that which suggests disabling and re-enabling the skill, but I tried that.

What else can I try? How else can I debug this? I can't help but wonder if Amazon changed something about the integration that might break this for everyone, but at a minimum, I'm the first person posting here about this so perhaps it's just me. Any tips would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

2024/02/21 23:57:53  System    -140000	my.isy.io
2024/02/22 00:01:44  System    -140000	my.isy.io
2024/02/22 00:51:45  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/22 02:51:45  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/22 04:51:47  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/22 05:05:38  System    -100	[DHCP] state=RENEW
2024/02/22 06:51:46  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/22 07:52:04  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/22 09:51:50  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/22 11:51:49  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/22 13:51:50  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/22 15:51:52  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/22 17:52:37  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/22 18:51:58  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/22 20:51:47  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/22 22:36:31  System    -5	Start
2024/02/22 22:36:32  System    -110022	/CONF/INSTENG.OPT
2024/02/22 22:36:32  System    -110012	/CONF/INSTENG.OPT
2024/02/22 22:36:36  System    -110022	/DEF/F6/I1/NLS/EN_US.TXT
2024/02/22 22:36:43  System    -170001	UDQ:Queue Full: IPOLLWAKEUP : Task[11] SOCK SOCK-PROC pty=27
2024/02/22 22:36:41  System    -110022	/CONF/ELKXPRT.XML
2024/02/22 22:36:42  System    -7123	ID 002F :err=0, tag='status', num=44, nest=4, o
2024/02/22 22:36:43  System    -110022	/CONF/UZWNDKEY.TXT
2024/02/22 22:36:43  System    -110012	/CONF/UZWNDKEY.TXT
2024/02/22 22:38:34  System    -170001	UDQ: Queue(s) Full, message ignored
2024/02/22 22:38:34  System    -170001	UDQ: Queue(s) Full, message ignored
2024/02/22 22:38:45  System    -170001	UDQ: Queue(s) Full, message ignored
2024/02/22 22:38:55  System    -170001	UDQ: Queue(s) Full, message ignored
2024/02/22 22:39:05  System    -170001	UDQ: Queue(s) Full, message ignored
2024/02/22 22:39:05  System    -170001	UDQ: Queue(s) Full, message ignored
2024/02/22 22:39:18  System    -170001	UDQ: Queue(s) Full, message ignored
2024/02/22 22:39:28  System    -170001	UDQ: Queue(s) Full, message ignored
2024/02/22 22:36:43  System    -170001	[Network] Established
2024/02/22 22:39:08  System    -10011	n/a
2024/02/22 22:51:44  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/23 00:51:43  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/23 01:00:08  System    -170001	[TCP-Conn] -1/-140002, Net Module Rule: 6
2024/02/23 02:51:45  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/23 04:51:47  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/23 06:51:51  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/23 08:51:45  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/23 09:37:30  System    -50001	-5
2024/02/23 09:42:47  System    -140000	my.isy.io
2024/02/23 09:43:22  System    -140000	my.isy.io
2024/02/23 10:36:45  System    -100	[DHCP] state=RENEW
2024/02/23 10:43:57  System    -140000	my.isy.io
2024/02/23 10:44:32  System    -140000	my.isy.io
2024/02/23 10:51:34  System    -140000	my.isy.io
2024/02/23 10:52:04  System    -140000	my.isy.io
2024/02/23 10:52:39  System    -140000	my.isy.io
2024/02/23 11:49:54  System    -140000	my.isy.io
2024/02/23 11:50:24  System    -140000	my.isy.io
2024/02/23 11:58:45  System    -140000	my.isy.io
2024/02/23 11:59:39  System    -140000	my.isy.io
2024/02/23 12:00:14  System    -140000	my.isy.io
2024/02/23 12:00:49  System    -140000	my.isy.io
2024/02/23 12:51:56  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/23 14:15:35  System    -170001	[TCP-Conn] -1/-140002, Portal
2024/02/23 14:51:51  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/23 16:51:46  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/23 18:51:49  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/23 20:51:47  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/23 22:51:42  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/24 00:51:41  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/24 02:51:41  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/24 04:51:46  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/24 06:51:48  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/24 07:36:51  System    -100	[DHCP] state=RENEW
2024/02/24 08:51:46  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/24 09:02:03  System    -5011	uuid:0

 

[bmercier]

1 hour ago, carteriii said:

For years I have used Alexa to announce changes in state variables, but last week it simply stopped working. I'm assuming the problem is somewhere between my ISY and ISY Portal, or between ISY Portal and Amazon.

I tried disabling and re-enabling the Alexa skill, but that didn't change anything. I will say that it didn't discover any new devices, but still showed the "devices" that were still there from years ago.

When I login to ISY Portal, it shows my ISY994 online. I looked at the ISY Portal Error log and will paste below the contents from the past few days, since I don't know what the error messages mean. The -5011 and -140000 codes exist in the log for many times going back a long time, so at a minimum it doesn't seem like anything unusual.

I looked at the ISY Portal Event log, and I see my ELK area & zone events coming through just fine, and although I expected to see state variables changes in the log, I don't see any, even going back days to when the announcements were working, implying ISY Portal doesn't log state variable changes. This seems like something that's just lacking in ISY Portal that would be beneficial. Maybe it's worth adding that to the ISY Portal event log????

At a minimum, since I'm getting events from my ELK alarm, it seems that the connection from my ISY to ISY Portal is working. So the problem would seem to be in the Alexa connection, and obviously there's an earlier thread here about that which suggests disabling and re-enabling the skill, but I tried that.

What else can I try? How else can I debug this? I can't help but wonder if Amazon changed something about the integration that might break this for everyone, but at a minimum, I'm the first person posting here about this so perhaps it's just me. Any tips would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

2024/02/21 23:57:53  System    -140000	my.isy.io
2024/02/22 00:01:44  System    -140000	my.isy.io
2024/02/22 00:51:45  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/22 02:51:45  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/22 04:51:47  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/22 05:05:38  System    -100	[DHCP] state=RENEW
2024/02/22 06:51:46  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/22 07:52:04  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/22 09:51:50  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/22 11:51:49  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/22 13:51:50  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/22 15:51:52  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/22 17:52:37  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/22 18:51:58  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/22 20:51:47  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/22 22:36:31  System    -5	Start
2024/02/22 22:36:32  System    -110022	/CONF/INSTENG.OPT
2024/02/22 22:36:32  System    -110012	/CONF/INSTENG.OPT
2024/02/22 22:36:36  System    -110022	/DEF/F6/I1/NLS/EN_US.TXT
2024/02/22 22:36:43  System    -170001	UDQ:Queue Full: IPOLLWAKEUP : Task[11] SOCK SOCK-PROC pty=27
2024/02/22 22:36:41  System    -110022	/CONF/ELKXPRT.XML
2024/02/22 22:36:42  System    -7123	ID 002F :err=0, tag='status', num=44, nest=4, o
2024/02/22 22:36:43  System    -110022	/CONF/UZWNDKEY.TXT
2024/02/22 22:36:43  System    -110012	/CONF/UZWNDKEY.TXT
2024/02/22 22:38:34  System    -170001	UDQ: Queue(s) Full, message ignored
2024/02/22 22:38:34  System    -170001	UDQ: Queue(s) Full, message ignored
2024/02/22 22:38:45  System    -170001	UDQ: Queue(s) Full, message ignored
2024/02/22 22:38:55  System    -170001	UDQ: Queue(s) Full, message ignored
2024/02/22 22:39:05  System    -170001	UDQ: Queue(s) Full, message ignored
2024/02/22 22:39:05  System    -170001	UDQ: Queue(s) Full, message ignored
2024/02/22 22:39:18  System    -170001	UDQ: Queue(s) Full, message ignored
2024/02/22 22:39:28  System    -170001	UDQ: Queue(s) Full, message ignored
2024/02/22 22:36:43  System    -170001	[Network] Established
2024/02/22 22:39:08  System    -10011	n/a
2024/02/22 22:51:44  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/23 00:51:43  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/23 01:00:08  System    -170001	[TCP-Conn] -1/-140002, Net Module Rule: 6
2024/02/23 02:51:45  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/23 04:51:47  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/23 06:51:51  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/23 08:51:45  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/23 09:37:30  System    -50001	-5
2024/02/23 09:42:47  System    -140000	my.isy.io
2024/02/23 09:43:22  System    -140000	my.isy.io
2024/02/23 10:36:45  System    -100	[DHCP] state=RENEW
2024/02/23 10:43:57  System    -140000	my.isy.io
2024/02/23 10:44:32  System    -140000	my.isy.io
2024/02/23 10:51:34  System    -140000	my.isy.io
2024/02/23 10:52:04  System    -140000	my.isy.io
2024/02/23 10:52:39  System    -140000	my.isy.io
2024/02/23 11:49:54  System    -140000	my.isy.io
2024/02/23 11:50:24  System    -140000	my.isy.io
2024/02/23 11:58:45  System    -140000	my.isy.io
2024/02/23 11:59:39  System    -140000	my.isy.io
2024/02/23 12:00:14  System    -140000	my.isy.io
2024/02/23 12:00:49  System    -140000	my.isy.io
2024/02/23 12:51:56  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/23 14:15:35  System    -170001	[TCP-Conn] -1/-140002, Portal
2024/02/23 14:51:51  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/23 16:51:46  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/23 18:51:49  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/23 20:51:47  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/23 22:51:42  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/24 00:51:41  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/24 02:51:41  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/24 04:51:46  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/24 06:51:48  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/24 07:36:51  System    -100	[DHCP] state=RENEW
2024/02/24 08:51:46  System    -5011	uuid:0
2024/02/24 09:02:03  System    -5011	uuid:0

 

In my opinion, either your 994 is not sending events, or Alexa is not processing them.

Let's take the Alexa side first. You did not mention how you exposed your state variable to Alexa. Could be as a light, a contact sensor, etc. But regardless, I'm assuming that you are using said Alexa device to trigger an Alexa routine which does not work. My suggestion would be to delete the routine and re-create it. I have seen cases where a routine would stop working and it had to be recreated.

On the ISY side, I do now know what the problem would be, but I would say that the messages -170001 UDQ: Queue(s) full is suspicious.I think something might be overloaded. Are you able to login to the Admin console? Does it show your 994 as busy?

[carteriii]

I am able to login to the 994 console just fine. Having said that, the launcher ("IoX Finder" window title) first shows two "Not Found" dialogs, while my ISY is shown, and once I click through the two alerts, everything runs fine. It feels like it's still looking for an old URL (???) so I've simply ignored the alerts.

As for how I exposed things, everything is a Device/Contact Sensor to Alexa, using only using the state variables for announcements. Attached is an image of a page of my ISY Portal devices. I don't think it's relevant, but for full context, in the 994, all the ELK zones for doors set specific state variables when a door opens. I did that, rather than using the Elk zone directly, so that I could "silence" the announcements with a separate variable (effectively a boolean flag) within the 994. I can confirm that the state variables are definitely being set & unset properly within the 994.

I think I'll try disabling the skill again and even removing the devices before re-enabling the skill so that it is equivalent to a fresh install and see what happens.

 

[carteriii]

I just disabled the skill again, then manually deleted one of the Alexa contact sensor devices, re-enabled/linked the skill, and the skill did discover the contact sensor again and re-add it. But still no announcement for a change in the state variable.

Am I correct that there is no ISY Portal event log entry to show that state variables are properly being synchronized with ISY Portal (like the ELK events that I do see in the event log)? I am inclined to agree with you that it's likely something to do with Alexa, but it would also be nice just to completely rule out that possibility.

[bmercier]

1 minute ago, carteriii said:

I just disabled the skill again, then manually deleted one of the Alexa contact sensor devices, re-enabled/linked the skill, and the skill did discover the contact sensor again and re-add it. But still no announcement for a change in the state variable.

Am I correct that there is no ISY Portal event log entry to show that state variables are properly being synchronized with ISY Portal (like the ELK events that I do see in the event log)? I am inclined to agree with you that it's likely something to do with Alexa, but it would also be nice just to completely rule out that possibility.

First of all, there is no "ISY Portal Event log" or "ISY Portal Error log". Those are the ISY Error log and ISY event log. They are just accessible from ISY Portal. There is nothing in there that relates to Alexa.

Please try what I suggested: Delete the Alexa routine and re-create it.

 

[carteriii]

Ooops. I'm sorry. I forgot to say that I did that. I deleted the routine for one (not all, if that makes a difference) of the contact sensor announcements, then created an entirely new one, and did not get any announcement. I also edited the one routine of the device I deleted to re-add the device (not entirely deleting the full routine) and it also did not result in the normal announcement.

[bmercier]

1 minute ago, carteriii said:

Ooops. I'm sorry. I forgot to say that I did that. I deleted the routine for one (not all, if that makes a difference) of the contact sensor announcements, then created an entirely new one, and did not get any announcement. I also edited the one routine of the device I deleted to re-add the device (not entirely deleting the full routine) and it also did not result in the normal announcement.

Please open a ticket and write your uuid and a reference to this thread. I will take a look at the server logs.

The 994 is no longer supported, but I will take a look for you.

[carteriii]

Thanks. For what it's worth, I did purchase and have a Polisy set up, but I have simply been a combination of scared to make the move and busy, wanting to make sure I had an entire weekend in case I had any problems.

[tazman]

@carteriii if you look in your Alexa app does the device trigger when the variable changes?

[carteriii]

Yes! I now see the state change. Having said that, it seems to be new behavior. Did you change anything?

 

I'll include a screenshot below that shows one door status had not been updated for 3 days (Feb 21 in the screenshot and it's now Feb 24), but when I just manually updated the state variable, it changed, and now when I open the door, it also changes (as it should).

I'm still not hearing the announcement, but I'll try deleting the routines that do the announcements and re-create them again to see if things now work.

[carteriii]

I just deleted a routine and re-created a routine from scratch, but it still doesn't play the announcement even when I open the door AND I do see the status change in the app. That seems to clearly imply it's now an Alexa problem. The announcement does work when I press the routine "play" icon in the app, but the routine doesn't seem to fire when the door itself opens, even when I am looking at the door contact status in the app and it shows the change.

I'll now keep playing with Alexa, and maybe it needs some time for the routine to truly become active with it's "when" evaluation. At a minimum, I do feel whatever was previously NOT updating the device state in Alexa is now working. I'm assuming you saw or did something to get it going and would love to know what you saw. Thank you!

I'll post an update after I keep playing with Alexa more and see why the routine isn't firing.

[carteriii]

My routines are still not triggering "when" the ISY "contact sensor" is opened. I even created an entirely new variable, new device contact sensor on the ISY Portal, and it all shows and updates properly according to the Alexa app. Ironically a Google search returned a link back to this forum which I missed when searching here. It seems others may have experienced a similar problem in the past with Amazon simply not properly triggering the "when" condition of a routine. I clearly cannot be certain, but it sure feels like this now. For future reference, I thought it would be useful to include a link to the previous discussion.

https://forum.universal-devices.com/topic/38947-alexa-motion-sensors-not-triggering-routines/

https://forum.universal-devices.com/topic/42386-routines-not-working/

 

Edited February 24 by carteriii

[n_sievers]

I have been facing the issue of my Alexa routine indicating that "mail is in" just stopped working.  I have not made any changes to Alexa app or routines settings and only routine ISY firmware updates are being completed on my Polisy (currently running 5.8.0) so possibly it has to do with more recent versions of the ISY firmware?  This started in November of last year where it just stopped announcing that mail is in and started to work on its own a couple weeks later, again without any changes/modifications occurring on my end.  It again stopped working in December and has not worked since.  I also have it set up to send UD push notifications and that has worked consistently without issue.  I have the Insteon open/close sensor properly exposed in the portal as an open/close sensor and have tried numerous times by deleting the device and routine from Alexa and rediscovering (always finds the appropriate mailbox sensor and adds to Alexa) and creating a new routing without any success.  It I look at the sensor's state in Alexa, it never changes from "Closed" but as previously mentioned, the state does properly change and the UD push notifications come through without any issue.  I am at a loss and have just put it on the back burner for the time being.

[Geddy]

22 hours ago, carteriii said:

Having said that, the launcher ("IoX Finder" window title) first shows two "Not Found" dialogs, while my ISY is shown, and once I click through the two alerts, everything runs fine. It feels like it's still looking for an old URL (???) so I've simply ignored the alerts.

@carteriii this issue is an issue with the IoX Launcher shortcut from last summer.

First, what version of Java are you on? What computer OS are you using? (Win 10/11, macOS, other)

• Confirm Java is up to date (As of today from java.com: Version 8 Update 401) 
  • Don't run any other "fancy" versions or higher version numbers. Admin Console is designed to run on standard Java Runtime Environment (JRE) downloaded directly from java.com. 
• Please clear your Java Cache (be sure to check all 3 boxes in this process),
• Delete any old start.jnlp and/or admin.jnlp files on your system, 
• Download a new file from the UD Site (link to the start.jnlp), 
• Run newly downloaded file 

This "not found" issue should be resolved. 

Hopefully you've opened a support ticket as @bmercier mentioned. Even though ISY994 is no longer supported he was offering to help review for this specific issue. 

Otherwise, you can see what the errors are from this section of the wiki:

https://wiki.universal-devices.com/ISY-99i/ISY-26_INSTEON:Errors_And_Error_Messages

Looking at some of the error messages it seems that it could be a corrupt SD card on the ISY994. Also, do you know if you have any programs stuck in a loop or could be stuck in a loop? That might be causing the "Queue(s) Full, message ignored" message. Typically error "-170001" is considered an information code, but if there's an error following it that's key. (Couple of posts related to this error: Link 1 & Link 2 - using Google Site Search to find archived posts like these)

Have you changed anything locally on your network recently? New router, new extender(s), new connected devices? 

Is the ISY994 set for automatic DHCP (IP address)? In the past it was common for people to set the static IP at the device level, but more recently it's been strongly encouraged to rather handle IP reservations at the router/gateway level and allow the device to auto connect to DHCP. 

Since one of your errors is "System    -140000    my.isy.io" I wonder if you're having network interruptions. 

Also, please make sure that your Portal License is still active! 

 

If you did open a support ticket and got this issue resolved please post the fix so that it might help others should they have this issue and search the forums for help.

 

[Geddy]

2 hours ago, n_sievers said:

 I have not made any changes to Alexa app or routines settings and only routine ISY firmware updates are being completed on my Polisy

Evidence that reliance on cloud services means things in the cloud could change and break stuff even without doing anything. Probably the same issue @carteriii, but not certain. Just seems that if your notifications are working each time and the setup with Alexa isn't then perhaps something at the Alexa level has broken the routine process.

I know some have posted that if you disable the ISY skill it's possible a routine becomes broken (i.e. it drops the ISY devices) and therefore has to be rebuilt. But if you and OP have rebuilt the routines then does seem to point to an Alexa (cloud) issue of not doing what once worked in the past. 

Sadly, OP is still using ISY994 so doesn't have the notification plugin ability. They do have a Polisy, but it's not setup. That's a whole different set of issues depending on how old that device is. Lots of updates to apply to that thing.

[carteriii]

The java update and updated start.jnlp eliminated the "Not Found" error. My JRE install was only a few updates old, but my previous start.jnlp appears to be about 2 years old so I went through the full process you outlined. Thank you.

I have not made any network changes in a long time, BUT I live in California where the recent rains caused MANY outages of my internet service provider (Cox, who gets their hardware & software from Comcast, so they don't even have experts to know what is happening, and whose support is even more useless than you'd expect). In the past month, I've had at least 5 or 6 extended outages, and at least twice last week which could coincide with when everything stopped. Unfortunately that didn't occur to me at the time I started debugging. It's still purely a guess on my part, but that likely caused the problems.

As you pointed out, I have disabled & re-enabled the skill, re-created a few Alexa routines (not all), and I even defined an entirely new state variable with an entirely new Alexa routine, yet the routine does not fire even though the state of the contact sensor is clearly getting updated from/through ISY Portal. This now appears to be 100% an Amazon problem, and I fought through their support system to get a ticket logged because of course the phone support person wasn't able to do much more than help people. Maybe things will magically start working again in another week or two as it has for many some other users in the past.

I did just check my Portal license and it's good now, but looks like I need to update in the next month. My licenses imply that I've had all this running very stable for about 4 years now. Nice! Now I just need to get un-lazy and upgrade off the ISY994.

[carteriii]

Update. This morning is two weeks after I posted here, and "magically" the announcements started working again. Based on another thread in these forums, I did call Amazon (2 weeks ago) and go through the pain of getting to a human and "filing a case", but I cannot know whether they finally got around to it or if something else on their end simply refreshed. I guess it's good confirmation that there was never a problem with the ISY Portal or my ISY, but it's also frustrating that this could happen at all.

Thanks to everyone who helped me here, contributed to previous discussions, and even read this thread!