5-button (6-button) Insteon Kepad and EISY IOX: can't program A B C buttons

[KConover]

I have an EISY with IOX and firmware 5.8.0: the latest as I type this.

I have long had a bunch of Insteon 6-button keypads (also called "5-button" as the On and Off buttons are programmed as a single button in EISY IOX and similar programs I've had over the decades) in my house, all working the way I want them to. For example, I have long had one in the dining room and one in the adjacent kitchen, both programmed the same. The On and Off buttons (even on the dining room switch) turn off all of the kitchen lights. The A, B and C buttons turn on and off subsets of the kitchen lights: sometimes we want less light in the kitchen, for example when watching a video on a laptop screen. When you push the On button, the backlights on the A, B and C buttons turn on to indicate that you can now use those buttons to turn off a subset of the kitchen. The programming for this – I'm showing that for the dining room keypad, which is currently working fine –  is as follows:

(For now, ignore those green "need to write" icons.)

The 6-button/5-button switch in the kitchen died. I got a new one from insteon.com (EISY/IOX couldn't program an older one in the basement I put in; the new one is a 2334-2 version 45). I used IOX's "Replace" function to transfer the programming from the old switch to the new one. So far, so good.

Well, not really: the old one had the on/off rate for all of the lights at 2.0 seconds. This got dropped during the replace, so I had to manually set the on/off ramp rate for each light from 0.1 second to 2.0 seconds. Then click Update. Then go do something for a few minutes while EISY/IOX updated that light. Then, come back and do the same for the next light, and go away again for a few minutes. I had to do this six times. Oh, how I wish IOX had not just an Update button but an Update All button, so that I could change the ramp rate on all of the lights and then click Update All and go away without having to come back every few minutes six times to change the ramp rate on all of the lights! But that's not why I'm posting this.

The reason why I'm posting this is that the new 5-button/6-button switch in the kitchen, when you press the On or Off button, turns on or off all the lights in the kitchen, but pressing the A, B and C buttons will not control those lights.

I have tried the menu "Write Updates…" and "Restore Device" without fixing the problem: there still is a green icon "need to write updates." I have not had this problem with prior releases of IOX, and the previously-programmed dining room switch still controls the kitchen A, B and C lights, so I suspect this is a problem within IOX. Here is another clue. I like to have the A, B and C buttons be responders of the On/Off buttons, so that the backlights on the A, B and C buttons come on when their lights are turned on by the On button. I did this by dragging the red Kitchen Keypad A text entry to the Kitchen Keypad On-Off scene, as a responder. When I try to do this in the current IOX, this is what I see:

Note that I am dragging and dropping on the Kitchen Keypad On-Off scene, NOT the Kitchen Keypad A scene. If I say "yes" it gets added to the Kitchen Keypad On-Off scene as a responder, but still shows that green "updates need to be written" icon, and it doesn't work. What I finally end up with is as follows:

It looks as though, if I could get these changes to actually write, it might work, but none of the menu items "Write Updates to Device" or "Restore Device" or "Restore link between xxx and xxx" fix this.

Any advice welcomed.

 

Edited April 11 by KConover
version number added

[Javi]

If a device is not writable then eisy cannot communicate with the device, this can affect any scenes with the device, so likely all related.

Try air gapping the device (pulling tab out until it stays) waiting some time then reinserting the tab.  Or factory reset the device.

[KConover]

Thanks very much for your reply!

I should have said that I already did that. The fact that the current IOX cannot communicate with the Dining Room A B C and D buttons, whereas my previous version 5 could, suggests a problem with IOX and not with new and old hardware that worked with IOX 5. But I certainly don't know for sure!

On the other hand, I just pulled out the little linking button on the for the requisite time on this 6-button/5-button to factory reset, and did a Restore Device, and – lo and behold – it fixed the problem. Who knows? Maybe a cosmic ray mangled a bit somewhere.

I guess the answer to any problem like this is "factory reset and restore device at least twice before giving up on it as a fix." Thank you!

And I must say, it's a pain to have to pull off the faceplate to be able to get something into that tiny linking button at the bottom to pull it out. But that's life. Thanks again!

Edited April 11 by KConover

[Geddy]

2 hours ago, KConover said:

I guess the answer to any problem like this is "factory reset and restore device at least twice before giving up on it as a fix." Thank you!

Make sure to always review the user manual for how a factory reset should be performed. It has apparently changed somewhat from product to product over the years. The key (and sometimes most difficult part) is keeping the set button pressed through the beeping. Most will release when the beeping starts or it slips and releases before it stops. 

(Source: https://www.insteon.com/support-knowledgebase/2014/9/30/keypad-dimmer-owners-manual)

 

2 hours ago, KConover said:

And I must say, it's a pain to have to pull off the faceplate to be able to get something into that tiny linking button at the bottom to pull it out. But that's life.

I have a small screwdriver that is used in eyeglass repair that I use to pull the set button out if ever needed. That way I don't have to remove the faceplate. Have to be a bit more careful not to scratch anything, but with the right motion it pops out easy. Same screwdriver is used to keep it pressed in, but sometimes it does slip out. Thankfully, not a normal occurrence to have to repeat on a regular basis, but a process I used when originally setting up (and reconfiguring) my system.