I have a backup ISY 994i controller which did not have a SD card in it. I purchased a new 32GB PNY micro SD card and formatted it to FAT32 format per the documentation available. After inserting the card and starting up the ISY, the indicator lights seem to reflect the state of the controller correctly. So I attempted to start the Admin Console for this controller. The Admin Console would not come up.

I connected to the ISY via Telnet. From the ISY shell, I formatted the SD card using the FS command. Not sure if you're supposed to get the shell prompt back after formatting it. The session timed out. I assume the formatting was complete and try starting the Admin Console again, but nothing came up. I swapped the SD card from another ISY not in use and the Admin Console started up just fine with it. So I'm assuming the issue has something to do with the SD card.

Can anyone provide me with any guidance on this? Formatting the card from Disk Utility on a Mac with a FAT32 partition didn't generate any errors.

@matapan I'm assuming by "per documentation available" you were following the instructions found in the wiki:

https://wiki.universal-devices.com/ISY-99i/ISY-26_INSTEON:Replacing/Formatting_an_SD_Card

It says if it was a new SD card you wouldn't need to format it. I'm not sure if formatting it has any impact on the NEW card or not, but perhaps some artifacts from macOS formatting it might happen (not familiar with macOS to know if even doing FAT32 doesn't add some "mac cooties" to the sd card.

According to these directions there should be a "Goodbye" message after the formatting in the telnet session and then the ISY should reboot. I think at that point you have a very basic way to access the ISY994 via the admin console and that's why/where you would then need to update firmware to the latest for that specific device.

NOTE: do you have a PLM connected to this "backup" ISY994? If not, you should only download/install the non-Insteon firmware. Otherwise, without a PLM connected you will always launch into admin console in "safe mode".

I wonder if you could disk copy the working SD card to the new SD card and try that to see if it would boot up. I've never attempted it, so just a swag suggestion.

Otherwise, try the telnet formatting again. Is there a way you can wipe the new card of any information and put it in an unformatted state?

Did you follow step 3 and start the program to add the firmware to the ISY994i? As the SD card does not have the needed firmware in it to be successfully started normally. Then you pick the backup you want to use in it. The telnet format was supposed to get you a slightly better performance. I too had it look like it didn't give the last expected ending but seem ed to work fine.

1 hour ago, Brian H said:

Did you follow step 3 and start the program to add the firmware to the ISY994i? As the SD card does not have the needed firmware in it to be successfully started normally. Then you pick the backup you want to use in it. The telnet format was supposed to get you a slightly better performance. I too had it look like it didn't give the last expected ending but seem ed to work fine.

I did not follow step 3 because I was unable to launch the Admin Console with the formatted card installed. Is it possible to install the card after the Admin Console boots? I think the Admin Console came up without the SD card installed.