Eisy and Insteon Documentation

schda12 · March 24

I just migrated to Eisy with a new PLM. The migration is a partial success. My Insteon network continues to function independently without known damage from the migration. There are no nodes other than Insteon.

I need to improve my knowledge of Eisy and Insteon.

My programs with time-based events (e.g. select lights on at dusk) suffer from a non-ideal PLM location (including the old ISY/PLM location). Eisy is not communicating with some Insteon devices but that does not matter until I need to change their configuration in the network. With ISY I had to search for a temporary PLM location when making some network configuration changes.

Thanks to those who helped me understand the importance of attempting this migration.

I'm suspicious that I have carried over some unwanted garbage from my ISY backup. For example, I get empty message pop-ups reporting a communication error but not device/node ID).

Is there comprehensive documentation for Eisy anywhere? The Wiki (https://wiki.universal-devices.com/Eisy:User_Guide) is bare-bones at best. For example, what is the purpose and behavior of "Refresh Device Status" in the file menu? I appreciate the challenge and expense of providing excellent technical documentation. I’m not trying to complain about the limitations of the Universal Devices budget.

How can I learn about the Insteon communications protocol and how it interacts with Eisy and the PLM? That would help me diagnose issues and answer questions like:

Why is there a PLM links table and a Device Links table?
What is the command / acknowledge protocol?
Why are frequent Time messages sent when (as far as I know) Insteon devices don't know anything about time?
Why does EISY try to establish contact with many (all?) nodes/devices each time it restarts even though Insteon seems designed to function independently from a central controller like EISY (as my Insteon network usually does)?
How do I determine the optimal location for EISY and the PLM?
Why is EISY so dependent on perfect (or at least good) Insteon communication with every Insteon node instead of providing improved communication of essential commands (like device configuration changes) using multiple PLM's connected via the more reliable WIFI network (which might be overloaded by routine Insteon messages)?
Why doesn't EISY discover the Insteon network instead of starting with a network definition from a backup that includes data from past failed PLM's?

I want to be able to ask well-informed questions based on an improved understanding of the system I’m trying to use.

Thanks,

David

Techman · March 24

@schda12

Hi David

You're asking for a 6 month course to be narrowed down to 30 minutes.

A good place for you to start is the ISY Cookbook. It's not completely up to date but should contain answers to a lot of your questions. Here's the link:

The ISY-994i Home Automation Cookbook (universal-devices.com)

The troubleshooting section of the UDI Wiki should also prove helpful, i.e.

INSTEON: Troubleshooting Communications Errors - Universal Devices, Inc. Wiki (universal-devices.com)