Lights switch on at random times

[jlloyd_UD]

1 hour ago, paulbates said:

It's looking to me like the PLM is in the initial stages of failing. Do you have a recent backup? 

I do, but I will make another.  I have had the same light come on three times now, but none of the others in the past 3.5 hours.  The frequency and range of the problem appear to have decreased today. Thanks.

[jlloyd_UD]

1 hour ago, Techman said:

Your config file looks normal and is up to date.  

Is the green led on your PLM on?

The restore PLM That you did which stopped at 2% is not normal. 

You could try unplugging the eisy and leave the PM plugged in to narrow the problem down to either the eisy data file or the PLM

 

 

The green light on the plm is on.  The counter on the restore plm was a system busy moving bar signal, which disappeared after progressing to 2%. There was no other indication that the restore process had run or completed properly.  I will unplug the eisy now and watch what results.  Thanks.

[jlloyd_UD]

19 hours ago, jlloyd_UD said:

Have there been any power surges that you know of, or brown outs blackouts recently?

I received my weekly Ting power quality report, and it shows no surges or brownouts in the past week, so I am ruling that as the instigator of any recent upset to the eisy or the plm

[jlloyd_UD]

I have followed everyone's proposed solutions and diagnostic procedures, and nothing has changed the performance of my Insteon products as controlled by my newly installed UD eisy and my original, 7-year-old, Smarthome PLM.   Am I at a point where I need to replace the PLM?  [It is not an inexpensive device, especially after I just purchased the eisy and the required serial RJ-45/USB cable for the serial PLM, but it will be well worth the expense if it does fix the problem].  After I replace it and the random lights continue, what then?  I would prefer to know the cause of the problem.  It worked for better than 2 weeks before I started having these unexplained anomalies.

[Techman]

Did the lights still come on with the eisy unplugged?

Did you factory reset one of the devices that was randomly coming on, if so does it still randomly come on?

Are the devices that randomly come on dual band or single band devices

Have you added any new electronic devices in your house in the last month?

[jlloyd_UD]

15 hours ago, Techman said:

Did the lights still come on with the eisy unplugged?

Did you factory reset one of the devices that was randomly coming on, if so does it still randomly come on?

Are the devices that randomly come on dual band or single band devices

Have you added any new electronic devices in your house in the last month?

With the eisy unplugged overnight, the lights behaved (no random illuminations), but I had no events set during the overnight period that would have normally commanded a light. 

I believe I have a mix of single- and dual-band devices. I factory reset (air gapped) and system restored the following:

I3 Switch v54, a Keypadlinc relay v36, and an on/off 2663-222 Outlet.  Each of these was a source of random lighting.  After the system restore, the I3 Switch exhibited random behavior again. After some time, I observed no random behavior on the other two devices, but I am not sure I waited long enough for the random behavior to return.

I did purchase a new laser printer a few days ago (Sunday afternoon) and set it up for WiFi printing.  I thought it might be adding spurious signals to the power line, so I disconnected it for a lengthy period during which the random behavior did not change. Moreover, the strange behavior began either Thursday evening or Friday, before the printer was added, so I do not think it was the source of the problems.

The only other electronic device I have changed in the past month is an upgrade of my ISY994i to the eisy.  The eisy ran perfectly for several weeks before the strange behavior started.

[paulbates]

I didn't go back and check the thread, but  another cause can be Insteon wireless devices, specifically the motion sensor. When batteries get low they can do random things... but... 

... they would still occur with the PLM unplugged. Here is the the evidence you have:

• PLM "choked" when doing a Restore modem (not normal)
• Problem goes away when PLM unplugged

Insteon can work perfectly forever and then slide into problems like this and there are not always easily resolved in a straight line diagnosis. At this point, barring any other recommendations, I would be replacing the PLM on my system

EDIT: Follow the PLM replacement procedure, its not just swapping out the cables.

Edited Wednesday at 01:06 PM by paulbates

[Techman]

@jlloyd_UD

When you did the factory reset on your devices did you folllow the procedure below:

 

Factory Reset
Factory Reset clears all user settings from the device including INSTEON scenes, on-levels, ramp rates, X10 addresses, etc.
1) With a small screwdriver or your fingernail, pull out Set button to create an air gap
2) Wait 10 seconds
3) Push in Set button and hold. Do not let go
Keypad will begin to emit a long beep
4) When the beep stops, release the Set button.
Device’s embedded software will rewrite all settings to factory defaults
A couple of seconds will pass
Device will double-beep and its LEDs will return to normal brightness
The connected load will turn on and the device will return to ready mode

[IndyMike]

2 hours ago, jlloyd_UD said:

With the eisy unplugged overnight, the lights behaved (no random illuminations), but I had no events set during the overnight period that would have normally commanded a light. 

I believe I have a mix of single- and dual-band devices. I factory reset (air gapped) and system restored the following:

I3 Switch v54, a Keypadlinc relay v36, and an on/off 2663-222 Outlet.  Each of these was a source of random lighting.  After the system restore, the I3 Switch exhibited random behavior again. After some time, I observed no random behavior on the other two devices, but I am not sure I waited long enough for the random behavior to return.

I did purchase a new laser printer a few days ago (Sunday afternoon) and set it up for WiFi printing.  I thought it might be adding spurious signals to the power line, so I disconnected it for a lengthy period during which the random behavior did not change. Moreover, the strange behavior began either Thursday evening or Friday, before the printer was added, so I do not think it was the source of the problems.

The only other electronic device I have changed in the past month is an upgrade of my ISY994i to the eisy.  The eisy ran perfectly for several weeks before the strange behavior started.

You seem to have established that unplugging either the PLM or (more importantly) the EISY eliminates the random on problem.

In my mind that eliminates noise, absorption, corrupted link tables and a host of other items.

Re-winding to your very 1st post, you had mentioned the Alexa plug in.  This and other plug-ins (Elk) are absolutely capable of activating various devices through the EISY/PLM.  

Can you try capturing a "Event Viewer" transmission when one of the random lights activates?  You'll need to have the viewer on Level 3 to see the transmission.  I understand that this may be difficult because of the randomness of the events.   The following is an event where my Home Assistant install instructs the ISY to turn off a basement light (using the Rest interface).  It's indistinguishable from a normal ISY command (I'm using a ISY994).  I'm hoping you have something similar going on - not noise, bad links, or a failing PLM.

 

If you can't seem to capture one of the events, you could try disabling your various plug-ins.  I really don't use them on my ISY994, so others will have to assist here.

[jlloyd_UD]

3 hours ago, IndyMike said:

Re-winding to your very 1st post, you had mentioned the Alexa plug in.  This and other plug-ins (Elk) are absolutely capable of activating various devices through the EISY/PLM.  

Yes, when I transitioned to the eisy from the isy994, I was able to reinstall my Alexa links for the spoken commands.  It worked as it did before.  I should mention that after I reinstated the Amazon plug-in, I had an offer to upgrade to a more capable Amazon plug-in for free due to having an Amazon Prime account.  I would not have done this had I had to pay for it, and I do not necessarily like the new version.  I would not mind reverting to the older version to see if that resolves the problem. My wife and I have enjoyed the voice control, so I could not deal with eliminating it.  I will see if disabling it for a short period makes a difference. Although I can pinpoint the exact day or time I upgraded Alexa, I'd be willing to bet the upgrade happened around the time I started having the glitches with the random lights so it is a good chance the problem started with the upgrade. I will try to capture the event viewer transmission as you have suggested.  Thanks for your suggestion.

[jlloyd_UD]

4 hours ago, Techman said:

@jlloyd_UD

When you did the factory reset on your devices did you folllow the procedure below:

 

Factory Reset
Factory Reset clears all user settings from the device including INSTEON scenes, on-levels, ramp rates, X10 addresses, etc.
1) With a small screwdriver or your fingernail, pull out Set button to create an air gap
2) Wait 10 seconds
3) Push in Set button and hold. Do not let go
Keypad will begin to emit a long beep
4) When the beep stops, release the Set button.
Device’s embedded software will rewrite all settings to factory defaults
A couple of seconds will pass
Device will double-beep and its LEDs will return to normal brightness
The connected load will turn on and the device will return to ready mode

For example, I did the following on my I3 switch (I just repeated the factory reset again).  The beeps did not occur (I have beeps set to zero on the I3) but the switch returned to normal brightness on the LED, and the controlled light turned on. Then I took an extra step to push in the set button again.  A green LED started flashing, indicating it to be awaiting instructions, I believe. At that point I did a system restore from the admin console and after it processing for 20 seconds or so, I can control the switch from the admin console again.  By the way, I followed the same procedure for the other devices, and each has experienced random actuations again. 

[jlloyd_UD]

4 hours ago, IndyMike said:

You seem to have established that unplugging either the PLM or (more importantly) the EISY eliminates the random on problem.

In my mind that eliminates noise, absorption, corrupted link tables and a host of other items.

Re-winding to your very 1st post, you had mentioned the Alexa plug in.  This and other plug-ins (Elk) are absolutely capable of activating various devices through the EISY/PLM.  

Can you try capturing a "Event Viewer" transmission when one of the random lights activates?  You'll need to have the viewer on Level 3 to see the transmission.  I understand that this may be difficult because of the randomness of the events.   The following is an event where my Home Assistant install instructs the ISY to turn off a basement light (using the Rest interface).  It's indistinguishable from a normal ISY command (I'm using a ISY994).  I'm hoping you have something similar going on - not noise, bad links, or a failing PLM.

 

If you can't seem to capture one of the events, you could try disabling your various plug-ins.  I really don't use them on my ISY994, so others will have to assist here.

Here is the event viewer capture level 3 for a recent random illumination event.

random actuation ISY-Events- Log.v6.0.0__Wed 2025.10.08 04.06.11 PM.txt

[IndyMike]

1 hour ago, jlloyd_UD said:

Here is the event viewer capture level 3 for a recent random illumination event.

random actuation ISY-Events- Log.v6.0.0__Wed 2025.10.08 04.06.11 PM.txt 677 B · 6 downloads

That appears to be rather damning.  Not sure what device 60.41.6b.1 is, but it is absolutely being turned on by a rest command (Alexa?).

I had seen other posts from users of the Eisy that showed "Rest" commands in the event viewer and was hoping yours would show the same.  My ISY994 does NOT indicate Rest commands.

Not a solution, but now you know where the command is originating from.  Hopefully you can drive to a solution with the help from others on the forum.

 

 

[comment: the following are the steps that initiated a random turn on of a light thru I3 switch 60.41.6B.1 ]

Wed 10/08/2025 03:56:57 PM : U7 Rest:  submitCmd([60 41 6B 1],[DOF],[<NULL>])

Wed 10/08/2025 04:04:15 PM : U7 Rest:  submitCmd([60 41 6B 1],[DON],[<NULL>])

Wed 10/08/2025 04:04:24 PM : [60 41 6B 1      ]            ST 255 (uom=100 prec=0)

       [comment: I initiated a "shut off light" command using Alexa plus spoken]

Wed 10/08/2025 04:05:07 PM : U7 Rest:  submitCmd([60 41 6B 1],[DOF],[<NULL>])

Wed 10/08/2025 04:05:07 PM : U7 Rest:  submitCmd([60 41 6B 1],[DOF],[<NULL>])

Wed 10/08/2025 04:05:07 PM : [60 41 6B 1      ]            ST   0 (uom=100 prec=0)

 

Edited Wednesday at 09:23 PM by IndyMike
spelling

[Techman]

@jlloyd_UD

It's down to a process of elimination:

If you log into PG3 there's an option in each node server to "stop" it

You should stop each server to see if the issue still exists, if it doesn't then start one node server at a time to narrow things down.

Do you have any insteon battey operated devices, if so what are they?

 

[jlloyd_UD]

3 hours ago, IndyMike said:

That appears to be rather damning.  Not sure what device 60.41.6b.1 is, but it is absolutely being turned on by a rest command (Alexa?).

I

[comment: the following are the steps that initiated a random turn on of a light thru I3 switch 60.41.6B.1 ]

Wed 10/08/2025 03:56:57 PM : U7 Rest:  submitCmd([60 41 6B 1],[DOF],[<NULL>])

Wed 10/08/2025 04:04:15 PM : U7 Rest:  submitCmd([60 41 6B 1],[DON],[<NULL>])

Wed 10/08/2025 04:04:24 PM : [60 41 6B 1      ]            ST 255 (uom=100 prec=0)

       [comment: I initiated a "shut off light" command using Alexa plus spoken]

Wed 10/08/2025 04:05:07 PM : U7 Rest:  submitCmd([60 41 6B 1],[DOF],[<NULL>])

Wed 10/08/2025 04:05:07 PM : U7 Rest:  submitCmd([60 41 6B 1],[DOF],[<NULL>])

Wed 10/08/2025 04:05:07 PM : [60 41 6B 1      ]            ST   0 (uom=100 prec=0)

 

60.41.6B.1 is the address of the I3 switch for the light that is randomly coming on.  I'm beginning to believe my upgrade to the Alexa plus service, which is closely coincidental with these random lights might just be the source.  I am going to try to revert back to my less capable Alexa plug-in to see if that eliminates the spurious signals.  Alexa plus is still in the advanced development stage, and it might have some bugs.  Just guessing.

[Guy Lavoie]

Others have been reporting issues with Alexa plus. Someone mentioned actually calling Amazon and canceling it, and things got back to normal.

[Athlon]

I have Alexa Plus and been having no issues. I have a Polisy with a mix of Insteon, Kasa (TP-Link), Z-Wave, Sensibo, Caseta and Ecobee devices. Over half of my devices are Insteon.

I know every environment is different, but knock on wood, so far so good here. We prefer the new Alexa over the old one by a lot.

Edited Thursday at 01:18 PM by Athlon

[jlloyd_UD]

2 hours ago, Athlon said:

I have Alexa Plus and been having no issues. I have a Polisy with a mix of Insteon, Kasa (TP-Link), Z-Wave, Sensibo, Caseta and Ecobee devices. Over half of my devices are Insteon.

I know every environment is different, but knock on wood, so far so good here. We prefer the new Alexa over the old one by a lot.

I reverted to the original Alexa. It's easy, all you need to do is ask Alexa to install (go back to) the original Alexa and it does revert.  It lost something in the reversion as she no longer responds to the spoken changes to my Insteon devices; it simply beeps. That is not a big deal, as she does respond to more complex questions.  However, random commanding of my Insteon devices has not abated with the reversion.  Unfortunately, a simple reversion does not resolve the problem if, indeed, the problem is with Alexa Plus; back to scratching my head.

 

[Geddy]

41 minutes ago, jlloyd_UD said:

It lost something in the reversion as she no longer responds to the spoken changes to my Insteon devices; it simply beeps.

You might need to re-enable or re-link the UD/Echo skill. If nothing is working then seems like the skill got broken in the update to plus and/or in the reversion back to the old style.

https://wiki.universal-devices.com/ISY_Portal_Amazon_Echo_Integration_V3

 

[jlloyd_UD]

On 10/6/2025 at 9:46 AM, Techman said:

You could try unplugging the eisy and leave the PM plugged in to narrow the problem down to either the eisy data file or the PLM

I have unplugged my eisy for the past several evenings while sleeping.  This effectively eliminated the random commanding of lights when the eisy was unplugged. When powered, the random commanding of lights returned..  Does this behavior tell me the eisy might be at fault?  Does it also exonerate the PLM? Or is the eisy only reacting to commands even though there is no clear understanding of how the commands are being generated?

I have an Alexa Connectivity tool as part of my Universal Devices account, where my devices/lights/outlets/scenes are linked with Alexa "spokens".   The "spokens" are working properly. A commenter has expressed his belief that the random commands are coming from Alexa. [Note that several days ago, I reverted from Alexa + back to Alexa after I suspected that this random commanding problem started after I agreed to upgrade to Alexa+.  The reversion did not resolve the random commanding problem.]  Does this suggest the eisy might not be the source of the random commanding but only responding to spurious commands from the Alexa device?  Is it logical, as a simple and uncomplicated diagnostic step, to unplug all the Alexa devices to determine if the random lighting stops or changes behavior?  I have other thoughts, but will leave this comment until I learn the outcome of Alexa unplugging.

[Techman]

It basically eliminates the PLM and electricial interference as the cause of your issue.

The next option to try is stopping all your node servers, and disable Alexa. The commands are coming from the eisy, it's just a matter of finding out what is sending those commands to the eisy

 

 

[jlloyd_UD]

On 10/8/2025 at 5:26 PM, Techman said:

@jlloyd_UD

It's down to a process of elimination:

If you log into PG3 there's an option in each node server to "stop" it

You should stop each server to see if the issue still exists, if it doesn't then start one node server at a time to narrow things down.

Do you have any insteon battey operated devices, if so what are they?

 

I am returning to your comment about node servers.  I will need to work my way through that since I really do not know what a node server is or what it does. Do I stop all the node servers, and then turn each one back on while waiting for a result, before turning the next one on?  If I find a node server that starts the random lighting, I will note its identity and will need to know the next steps. Do I turn it off again?  So, I clicked on the Administrative Console tab for Plug-ins and selected Launch Polyglot V3 (PG3). After successfully logging in, I see many pull-down tabs, but I see nothing explicitly about "node servers."  Would it be called something different?  Can you refer me to a document that discusses node servers?  I am deeper into ISY than I have ever had to go, but I am willing to learn.

In the meantime, even unplugging all of my physical echo devices does not stop the random commands from being issued.  One of them just came back on with all echos disconnected, so the commands must be originating elsewhere.

[Techman]

Node servers, aka plugins, need to be installed by the end user, so most likely you don't have any.

Most likely you either have a program that's triggering the lights or it's your echo devices

Try disabling all your eisy programs to see if that corrects the problem. It's really down to process of elimination.

[IndyMike]

12 hours ago, jlloyd_UD said:

I have unplugged my eisy for the past several evenings while sleeping.  This effectively eliminated the random commanding of lights when the eisy was unplugged. When powered, the random commanding of lights returned..  Does this behavior tell me the eisy might be at fault?  Does it also exonerate the PLM? Or is the eisy only reacting to commands even though there is no clear understanding of how the commands are being generated?

I have an Alexa Connectivity tool as part of my Universal Devices account, where my devices/lights/outlets/scenes are linked with Alexa "spokens".   The "spokens" are working properly. A commenter has expressed his belief that the random commands are coming from Alexa. [Note that several days ago, I reverted from Alexa + back to Alexa after I suspected that this random commanding problem started after I agreed to upgrade to Alexa+.  The reversion did not resolve the random commanding problem.]  Does this suggest the eisy might not be the source of the random commanding but only responding to spurious commands from the Alexa device?  Is it logical, as a simple and uncomplicated diagnostic step, to unplug all the Alexa devices to determine if the random lighting stops or changes behavior?  I have other thoughts, but will leave this comment until I learn the outcome of Alexa unplugging.

Your earlier "Event Viewer" post showed that the EISY was receiving REST commands instructing it to turn on/off device  60.41.6B.

That is the EISY simply responding to an external command.  Not a fault of the EISY or the PLM.  It's a valid command that is being received through the network interface.  

I don't use Alexa or PG3 so I am not much help in troubleshooting.  I suppose you could try eliminating specific device links (60.41.6b) from Alexa to see if that corrects the behavior for that specific device.

You can also disconnect the EISY from your network during the night (rather than unplugging it).  Without a network connection, the Rest interface should not be operative.   

[someguy]

I’m having a similar problem: my bathroom light goes on at random times in the middle of the night (which wakes me up). 
 

I recently upgraded to Eisy, I’m on 6.0.0 and I also upgraded to “Alexa plus”.  I’ve been following this thread to see what @jlloyd_UD figures out. 
 

i will run my event viewer at night at some point and see if i can figure out “who” is to blame.  
 

I have a comment for @IndyMike:  if I just go into the portal and remove a device from the Amazon echo list, does it instantly remove the echo/alexa control of that device?  I’m thinking not.  I’ve had many devices that have duplicates and many challenges with trying to remove these duplicate devices.