In a tale that has been told many times in this forum, I am selling a house with a lot of Insteon switches.  I will be pulling most of them and replacing them with regular light switches.  However, there are some switches that will need to be left behind because they are programmed  as virtual n-way light switches.

I want to remove the eISY and PLM from the equation, but preserve the scenes that implement the n-way configuration in the switches.  I could just pull the eISY and PLM, but then the LED on light switches will likely flash red when the switches are pressed because they are unable to communicate with the PLM.  I fear if I delete the switches from the eISY, it will un-program the switches and the n-way configuration will no longer work.

Has anyone done something like this and have any suggestions?  I suppose I could just leave the PLM and take the eISY if nothing else works. 

@mapeter I think all you have to do is follow the switch instructions to associate the switches directly with each other, no PLM or hub necessary.

Depending how many, you delete all of the scenes, and then the switches from the ISY. Use the set button method to manually link them... that's the complete/sure way.

FWIW I sold my house last summer with the same concern. I left the ISY... removing the more complex integrations. Left a google doc with the basics... brands, logins etc. I created a "house" gmail account that the portal, rainmachine, Venstar thermostats used for their online account; that was turned over with the doc as well.

Edited June 13, 20241 yr by paulbates

Both of the previous responses are correct - you can reset the devices and manually link them.  That is the safe method. 

There may be another method.  Whether it's easier or not depends on your installation. 

The old ISY994 had a option to "delete modem" (file\delete modem).  This purportedly removed the PLM links from all your installed devices.  I have never tried it.  I am also not sure this still exists in the EISY.

IF you try this, you will still need to plan out your removal process.  Since you will be removing some devices, you'll want to make sure they are not part of the scene that your N-way devices are controlling.  You would need to remove these devices from any scenes that include your N-way devices.  Again, the safe method would be to delete these devices from the ISY entirely.   

Once you have the system operating correctly with ONLY the N-way devices and the PLM, then you can try the "delete modem".    If it works, it should leave your "N-ways" intact with no connection to the PLM. 

...if it doesn't work you'll need to factory reset and link manually. 

The one thing I would NOT do is leave the PLM.  It's an unnecessary piece of hardware that has a higher failure rate than the devices themselves.  If it dies, gets removed, or just has poor communication, you are right back to the "flashing red" N-Way.

Last thought - are you sure that you will be able to communicate between your N-Way devices when you remove ALL YOUR OTHER INSTEON devices?  My answer for my own home would be NO. 

 

 

 

Appreciate all of the suggestions. 

Manual linking is a possibility that I will keep in mind.

Good reminder about failing PLMs.  I was one of the unlucky people that happened to a few years ago.

After I posted this last night I remembered I had Fibaro LED strip light controllers that are controlled by either scheduled programs or double tapping Insteon light switches.  Looks like I will be leaving a controller behind after all.  Good suggestion to create a "house" gmail account.  I will be doing that.