New PLM coming?

[dbwarner5]

There have been some recent posts that hit upon the capacity limitations of the existing Insteon PLM. 

As Insteon's new ownership seems to be doing "all the right things" to improve the company, I havent heard about any improvement plans for the weakest link in my home automation system;  the insteon PLM.

So I wrote this to the company: 

I have been an Insteon user for over 15 years. I use universal devices controllers. The WEAKEST link in my very sophisticated and LARGE system is your PLM.. In this day and age with memory so cheap, why does it still have a 1000 count link table limitation?

I have to work around this constantly.

I have 254 Insteon devices, 96 scenes , 1000 programs, 656 nodes, 200 variables etc..

BUT I have at least 20 scenes I CANT use because of this 20 yr old limitation in the PLM design.

In your new ownership, you could quickly sell so many replacement PLMs if you increased its capacity.

And received this positive response:

Hi,

 

Thanks for the note!  We are aware that this limitation exists and are actively looking at solutions.  Stay tuned....

 

Thank you,

Brent Carter

Insteon Support

 

Lets hope this weak link gets a massive upgrade sometime soon!!

cheers.

[larryllix]

1 hour ago, dbwarner5 said:

There have been some recent posts that hit upon the capacity limitations of the existing Insteon PLM. 

As Insteon's new ownership seems to be doing "all the right things" to improve the company, I havent heard about any improvement plans for the weakest link in my home automation system;  the insteon PLM.

So I wrote this to the company: 

I have been an Insteon user for over 15 years. I use universal devices controllers. The WEAKEST link in my very sophisticated and LARGE system is your PLM.. In this day and age with memory so cheap, why does it still have a 1000 count link table limitation?

I have to work around this constantly.

I have 254 Insteon devices, 96 scenes , 1000 programs, 656 nodes, 200 variables etc..

BUT I have at least 20 scenes I CANT use because of this 20 yr old limitation in the PLM design.

In your new ownership, you could quickly sell so many replacement PLMs if you increased its capacity.

And received this positive response:

 

Hi,

 

Thanks for the note!  We are aware that this limitation exists and are actively looking at solutions.  Stay tuned....

 

Thank you,

Brent Carter

Insteon Support

 

Lets hope this weak link gets a massive upgrade sometime soon!!

cheers.

I believe the link count was increased from 254 to 1000 links  only about 6-8 years ago. There has been some progress on this front but I can see where they never thought it would ever need more than that.

It's alive!!

[Brian H]

This is from the FCC Database files for the 2234-232 updated PLM replacement. Sounds like the present owners maybe thinking about producing it.

Expanded operation to 100-240VAC and 50/60Hz.
Increased Insteon links storage from ~1000 to ~4,000 links with faster read/writes
Uses the same communication protocol and structure to match earlier models
Updated all processors with increased memory space and speed
Beefed up electronics to reduce failures due to AC-mains electrical spikes,
noise and heat from poorly ventilated install locations
New and smaller enclosure that matches other Insteon plug-in products
Increased power line transmitting signaling levels and robustness
New RF circuit with higher sensitivity components and calibrated antenna circuit
Supplies 5VDC capable of powering single-board computers like ISY TM controllers
Added fast TVS surge suppression on the Serial port to prevent static damage 

For the Polisy and eisy users.  There was a 2234-222 USB model.

Edited November 6 by Brian H
Read again and change findings. Add USB model

[Goose66]

It’s deja vu all over again! 🤪

[larryllix]

4 hours ago, Brian H said:

This is from the FCC Database files for the 2234-232 updated PLM replacement. Sounds like the present owners maybe thinking about producing it.

Expanded operation to 100-240VAC and 50/60Hz.
Increased Insteon links storage from ~1000 to ~4,000 links with faster read/writes
Uses the same communication protocol and structure to match earlier models
Updated all processors with increased memory space and speed
Beefed up electronics to reduce failures due to AC-mains electrical spikes,
noise and heat from poorly ventilated install locations
New and smaller enclosure that matches other Insteon plug-in products
Increased power line transmitting signaling levels and robustness
New RF circuit with higher sensitivity components and calibrated antenna circuit
Supplies 5VDC capable of powering single-board computers like ISY TM controllers
Added fast TVS surge suppression on the Serial port to prevent static damage 

For the Polisy and eisy users.  There was a 2234-222 USB model.

Impressive!!

[Brian H]

The internal and external photos. Look like the AC input could be changed to match the countries standards. Of course this was back in the days when they actually had modules in other countries but the PLM was 120VAC 60Cy only.

[paulbates]

With ~50 devices, I've never approached the link limit.

One way performance by switching insteon on from iox is already very good.

I do notice performance lag with 2 way ..when having a switch turn on an iox program that sends an insteon command back out to turn other things on.... That can be several seconds and noticeable.

It's no clear to me how much that performance could be improved via plm based on current device"architecture". To me the weak link is the 19.2kb serial connection from eisy to the plm. I think the insteon white paper mentions that wireless band devices can do 38.4kb so increasing kb beyond that I don't think would be material. In other places the white paper mentions devices communicate at around 2kb - bursting at 14kb (but not what conditions qualify for bursting). So maybe a second of that *could* be shaved off on a wireless device, one hop away uping plm serial to 38.4kb.(?)

2-3 hop insteon wireless bridging will negatively impact that performance.

A long way of saying it's not clear what could be done to 2 way iox performance via a new plm talking to devices that "are what they are".

 

Edited November 6 by paulbates

[matapan]

How do you know if you reached the limit for creating links? I have a simple scene with a Keypadlinc and Switchlinc where a Keypadlinc button and Switchlinc are both controllers, but somehow toggling the Switchlinc doesn't update the state of the Keypadlinc button. Another button on the Keypadlinc works just fine in a different scene where its state is updated based on the state of all the other controllers in the scene.

[paulbates]

Insteon says 1000+ links. IT hex math says that is probably 1024.

If you look under Tools/Diagnostics in IOX, you'll find PLM info that tells you how many links you currently have.