Scene Link Creation Troubleshooting

[matapan]

Can anyone recommend the best way to troubleshoot link creation when one creates a scene?

I have many scenes where there are multiple devices which act as as controllers for one device which acts as a responder. Once I have created the scene, I noticed that some of the controlling devices don't reflect the state of the scene.

For example, if I have a Switchlinc dimmer which acts as a controller and responder in a scene, with a button on two Keypadlincs which act as controllers, I expect that when the Keypadlinc button is turned on, the button on the other Keypadlinc acting as a controller is also turned on, as well as the Switchlinc dimmer. With recently created scenes, I noticed that the state of the button or paddle which is not pressed is not updated with the current scene state. Older scenes I have created are correctly updated.

Any thoughts on the best way to troubleshoot this? Thanks!

[Techman]

You can start wirh scene diagnostics, right click on the scene then click on Diagnostics | Scene test

Post a screenshot of the results

[matapan]

Here are some screenshots of results:

[Techman]

@matapan

Either you have a communication issue between the devices and your PLM, i.e. noise on the powerline, or the link tables in your devices are corrupted.

First thing to try is right clicking on each of those devices and then click on restore device. That will rewrite the link tables that are stored in your controller to the devices. After the device restore run the scene test again to see if the issue has been corrected.

Post the results

 

[matapan]

How reliable is the scene test feature? I tested a scene twice and received back two completely different results. One where all devices in the scene failed, and one where all devices in the same scene succeeded.

I did find that installing more Filterlincs for some other circuits helped rectify communication issues. How can one tell between a failing PLM with communication problems caused by a noisy line? Thanks!

[Techman]

The scene test is very reliable. It appears that your problem is/was caused by noise on the powerline.  How old is your PLM, the date code is the 4 digets on the plm sticker. Based on what you've described, It doesn't appear to be a PLM problem. If the PLM was failing it would effect more than just your scenes.

A UPS or other electronic devices can wreak havoc with the Insteon powerline signals. A good start is the Fillterlinc.

Take a look at these two articles:

INSTEON Signal / Noise Troubleshooting - Universal Devices, Inc. Wiki

INSTEON: Troubleshooting Communications Errors - Universal Devices, Inc. Wiki

[paulbates]

To @Techman's point: flaky, inconsistent behavior is one of the symptoms of a dying plm

[Techman]

The scene data resides in the devices of the scene, as well as the controller and PLM

You could turn off the controller, unplug the plm and the scene will still work, assuming there's no powerline issues. i.e. if you disconnect the controlller and plm and then manually turn on one of the switches in the scene, the rest of the devices in the scene will respond accordingly.

[kclenden]

On 8/28/2025 at 2:46 PM, matapan said:

How can one tell between a failing PLM with communication problems caused by a noisy line?

A little late to the conversation, but as Techman says, scene data resides within all the controllers and all the devices.  So let's say that you've created a scene on the ISY that has a SwitchLinc as a responder to the A button on two different KeypadLincs.  What you've actually done is create three controllers, and one responder.  The controllers are the ISY, and each of the A buttons on the KeypadLincs.  The scene command is sent from whichever controller is activated.  So if you turn the scene on from the ISY Admin Console (or a program), the scene command is sent from the PLM.  If you push one of the A buttons then the scene command is sent from that A button device.

That means if the scene fails when you turn it on from the ISY but works when you turn it on from the A buttons, then the PLM might be suspected of failing.  But if the scene fails when you press either of the A buttons, the PLM is not suspect since it didn't actually send out the command.  Instead, you'd suspect line noise or an incomplete path between devices (maybe wired only devices that are on different phase of the power line).

It's also possible that a Links Table in the one or more of the devices has become corrupt.  You'd need to do a "Show Devices Links Table" for each device in the scene, and after the links are shown, click "Compare" which will compare to a list of links the ISY thinks should be there showing any differences.