Along with furnace dyeing, water softener dyeing same day, Tuxedo Keypad dyeing same time, my eisy isn't working. After dealing with all the other issues now getting a moment to address the eisy. Upgraded my ISY-994i to the eisy six months ago and used my existing serial PLM and used the serial adapter cable. System has been working fine. Noticed none of my landscape lighting has been working which was the trigger to check out the eisy. Using the LAN admin Console I cannot communicate with any of my Insteon modules so did the diagnostic PLM Info/Status and get the "Not Connected" error. The 2413S PLM has a solid green light, I've unplugged and plugged in several times. Unplugged the eisy several times still no communication.

If I need to replace the PLM is there any benefit to go with USB module or the Serial since I already have the serial cable?

Not sure is it's just a coincidence but had a power failure at my house and power out about four hours before power was restored. Next morning water softener is locked in permanent recharge cycle at 4:30 am and running for hours. House is 65 degrees. Didn't notice the Tuxedo Keypad being dead until later. Same with the eisy. Could just be weird timing and coincidence.

Sounds like a power blip that might have been worse than it looked.

You could try a factory reset of the PLM. If it then shows as connected, then do a PLM restore.

If you still have the ISY994i kickibg around, you could try connecting the PLM to it and see if it shows up as connected in admin console.

I have had a serial PLM for many years, and has been connected to my eISY since I upgraded a few years ago.

The other day, my PLM just seemed to die, or at least stop working. I have ordered a USB PLM because Insteon site says the serial PLM has been discontinued. Because I won't receive the new USB PLM for several days I started to see if I could get the serial PLM back on line, which I did. However it seems to die again overnight, so I have to repeat the following process pretty much daily:

Unplug PLM and wait at least 10 seconds

Hold in black button on side while plugging into socket and hold for about 10 seconds while it resets. It is supposed to beep doing this, but mine does not always do that.

Wait until the light on side turns green again, which for mine takes many minutes, so be patient at this step. Have a cup of coffee :)

Reboot the eISY so it interrogates the PLM at start up. I found this was a necessary step every time

Verify the PLM now shows connected and do a PLM restore | Note battery devices like my door open/close sensors must first have the button pressed so the light is flashing.

Do the PLM restore. This has been successful many times while waiting for my new PLM. Just did it again this morning.

I hope this helps.

Roib

Did the reset with the PLM, Unplugged, held for about 30 seconds or so, held the black button while plugging back in. LED went red and about 3 seconds later went green. Unplugged the eisy, same hold unplugged for maybe 30 seconds then plugged back in. Exited out of Administrative Console and reopened, check PLM status and still not connected.

Dead PLM? If so, should I reorder another serial or order the USP module this time?

Update:

After the reset attempt appeared to fail, I checked the log file. Looks like about 10K log entries which completely stop as of May 01, 11:23 AM. After that date, lines of 0 and null.

@DIYguy Your PLM seems to be behaving differently than mine. When you reset the PLM, did you hold the black button in for about 10 seconds after plugging it in? You may or may not hear a beep during that step. If you did not, do that step again, wait for the light to turn green, then do a more gentle reboot rather than unplugging the eISY.

After the reboot, if you then see the PLM connected, do the restore PLM. Hopefully that will buy you some time to get a new PLM.

Otherwise, it is unclear to me if it is the PLM or the eISY. More likely to be the PLM, but you may want to open a support ticket to troubleshoot.

If you want to order a new PLM, I think you have to go with the USB. That site says serial PLM is discontinued.

Tried again. Unplugged PLM for about an hour, took Golden for a walk. Did the hold black button in while plugging in and it just went solid red and long beep while holding in, went straight to green when released the button. Checked and still get "Not Connected". Did an eisy reboot from the Configuration tab. Checked again, Not Connected and can't do a PLM restore.

Ordered my last PLM through Amazon which showed last PLM was February of 2021. Also, Serial does look to be discontinued so that makes the discission for me, ordered the USB PLM plus a male/male USP cable. Slow ship, full week for Prime delivery.

Correct .

The Insteon sales site. Says the 2413S PLM is discontinued and no longer available.

3 hours ago, Brian H said:

Correct .

The Insteon sales site. Says the 2413S PLM is discontinued and no longer available.

People with isy994i controllers should take note.

If you are using eisy with a serial PLM, a special cable is needed. Are you using the correct cable and if so, could the cable be defective?

I use the 2413S with my EISY (and previously my ISY-994i). My PLM is 15-20 years old (can't remember when I bought it) and still ticking. I'm glad I bought a spare PLM several months ago!

I have a few I rebuilt and a spare new one myself.

Update:

Finally received the new PLM module. Went through the install steps, rebooted the EISY from inside configuration and then did the restore PLM. Now that system can see the PLM again, I have at least six Insteon modules that are now exclamation marks and cannot communicate. These are probably the most used modules. These all worked before the PLM failure.

Not sure if I delete the modules and try to add it back again will restore communication and if so, what that does to my programs.

No don't delete them. Doing that would require you to manually modify their references in programs after adding them back. Instead you should try to do a "restore device" on each one. If these are battery powered devices then this is normal after a PLM replacement. You need to momentarily activate the device by pressing the link button on it briefly, and then choose "Restore device" when you right click on the node in admin console.

2 hours ago, DIYguy said:

if so, what that does to my programs.

just as a precaution I'd suggest making a (text) backup of all your programs. This way if you do delete them and any programs that had the old device in it becomes corrupt you can find the program and be sure to repair it or recreate it as needed.

To make a copy of your programs:

• Right click the root folder (usually) "My Programs"

• "Copy Folder to Clipboard" - be sure you use "COPY"

• Open TEXT editor (for Windows I suggest Notepad) - Do not use a "word processing app"!

• Paste into a TEXT document

• SAVE the file

You should now have a TEXT copy of all your programs. This will be easy for you to use to search for device names and/or program names should you need to recreate them. You now have all the data for the programs that you can easily read and use to recreate programs rather than having to do it from memory of when you setup the program many moons ago.

But I think @Guy Lavoie's comment about performing a "restore device" on each one might help. Are the devices battery or powerline? Are they near other devices? Since this seemed to stem from a power issue could that have been damaged and not working properly?

Tried the "Restore Device" when right click on the offline devices. Does the System Busy for couple minutes while attempting to update and when done, no change. Devices that aren't responding are all hard wire, either wall switches or outlets. Also tried Query Insteon engine. When done get the Failed Communication With error and "Cannot Communicate With (xxxxx) Please check connections"

7 hours ago, DIYguy said:

Tried the "Restore Device" when right click on the offline devices. Does the System Busy for couple minutes while attempting to update and when done, no change. Devices that aren't responding are all hard wire, either wall switches or outlets. Also tried Query Insteon engine. When done get the Failed Communication With error and "Cannot Communicate With (xxxxx) Please check connections"

Did you try resetting the device before you do the restore?

I wonder if these six devices are simply experiencing communication problems during the restore process. How easy would it be to try moving the PLM to a different electrical outlet on a different circuit (a long extension cord can be useful)?

Tried the airgap factory reset on one of the wall switches with the least number of programs attached. Tried the EISY relink, and the EISY add device. Tried to delete that one switch but stopped when it gave a message about removing long list of devices. Figured that might be that that light is included in several programs with other devices. Wasn't sure if it just removed that light from those programs but the way the warning read look like multiple devices would also be deleted so did not delete. Still no communication, rebooted EISY, did another restore PLM with the mini remote in linking mode. Still have six devices with exclamation points and no communication plus the mini remote.

Have an Insteon signal bridge hard wired at load center. Everything except the PLM is plugged into battery backup /surge protector.

Moving stuff around is not an option. Photo attached.

5 hours ago, DIYguy said:

Have an Insteon signal bridge hard wired at load center. Everything except the PLM is plugged into battery backup /surge protector.

Moving stuff around is not an option. Photo attached.

"Surge Protector" and :battery backup!!!??? Is this on a filterlinc? Those things have been a problem for me...enough that I put all mine on a filterlinc.

And...you don't actually have to "move" things. Get an extension cord into which you can plug the PLM without much moving it. Take the other end of the extension cord into another outlet on a different circuit.

Edited 11 hours ago11 hr by oberkc

@DIYguy after you reset the device you restore not delete it then that will put it back to it's state that eisy thinks it was at before. If you are having communication problems trying to restore then you either have a failing device or noise on the power lines.