I have a state variable called sOnVacation that is normally set to zero. I have about a dozen programs that check this variable. I set the variable to 1 when I go on vacation, so my EISY doesn't turn on lamps or fans or other devices while I am gone. I set up all these programs a long time ago but didn't try to set the variable to 1 for the fist time until just before a recent trip.

When I updated it to 1, the Admin Console kept displaying the small dialog box saying "System Busy - Please do not power off/unplug the system or make adjustments to liked/attached devices". It displays what looks like an address (56 83 05 1) below that. This dialog box pops up about every 5-10 seconds and then goes away. This happened over and over for close to 10 minutes. I thought maybe IoX was updating the status of all the programs, yet this continued on and on. Finally I changed the variable back to 0 and the messages stopped immediately.

Any idea what is going on?

Here's a sample of one of my programs:

CELFAN 7D 21:00-09:00 MBDRM Fan ON - [ID 001C][Parent 002C]

If

From 9:00:00PM

For 12 hours

And $sSummerTime is 1

And $sBedroomIsWarm is 1

And $sOnVacation is 0

Then

Set 'Master Bedroom / MBR Fan Sw' On

Else

Set 'Master Bedroom / MBR Fan Sw' Off

18 minutes ago, IndyUDIuser said:

It displays what looks like an address (56 83 05 1) below that.

I thought maybe IoX was updating the status of all the programs, yet this continued on and on.

That looks like an Insteon device node name. I'd find out what 56 83 05 is, and try controlling it directly from admin console, to see if it works ok.

IoX doesn't update the status of programs. It looks for control or status change events and evaluates any programs where the triggering event is used. I'd check that device node first, and then look at any programs where it's controlled with Then statements.

Thank you! I searched for that node address and found out it was one of my kitchen switches. With more research I found the following program was causing the messages to appear. This was an experimental program to blink the switch's backlight to confirm that the OnVacation variable was set, so that I would remember to turn it off when I got back from vacation.

It worked as designed. Alas, every time it repeats, it generates the "System busy" message. I guess maybe that is OK and harmless. I'll delete the program anyways just so this doesn't bug me in the future.

KITRMT On vacation blinker - [ID 0046][Parent 0064]

If

$sOnVacation is 1

Then

Repeat Every 5 seconds

Set 'Kitchen / KTCHN Lights North Dmr' Backlight 0%

Wait 1 second

Set 'Kitchen / KTCHN Lights North Dmr' Backlight 100%

Else

Set 'Kitchen / KTCHN Lights North Dmr' Backlight 100%

This will blink the backlight on the north wall switch so I can tell that the On Vacation variable is set.

Actually, I changed the code to send a beep to the switch instead of flashing the backlight. That works, and no "System Busy" messages.

Having a program set the backlight or the On level of a switch writes to it's EEPROM, which wears out the memory cells. Not a good practice.

@IndyUDIuser ,

As @Guy Lavoie indicated, changing ramp rates, on levels, backlights and Adjust Scene commands write to devices EEprom.

You may choose to use them in a program that gets activated 2x/day. Using them in a Looping program is unwise.

Adjusting the backlight on a device is also a rather communication intensive activity. This is likely why you saw the "system busy" notification. The ISY makes this so easy to accomplish that it's not at all obvious what is going on "under the hood". Timing/communication varies depending on the type of device involved. The follow sample timings are for setting the backlight to zero and assume "perfect" communication timing:

1. Old I1 Devices: 2 seconds - 8 I1 send/receive comms

2. I2 Devices: 1 second - 2 I2 send/receive comms

3. I2CS Devices (most newer devices): 2 seconds - mixture of 5 I1/I2 comms

For the program shown above (set backlight to 0, wait 1 second, set backlight to 100%) the times shown above would be 2x + 1 second. You can easily see that you are at (or over) the 5 repeat time under perfect conditions. If you encounter external powerline activity, rest activity, or device retries, things will go sideways quickly.

A couple of "interesting" observations regarding using these commands in programs:

• If you disable "automatic writes to devices" (ISY994 Pro), programs will run, but they will NOT write to the device EEprom (no communication in event viewer).

• If you have devices with pending writes (green 11010 showing), a program that writes to a Different Device EEprom will trigger the ISY to perform the pending write (ISY994 Pro again).

Your solution of using the "Beep" command is an excellent one. I often use this when I can't remember where a particular device is located. You can further reduce overhead by placing your device in a scene and "Beeping" the scene.

I1 Peek/Poke Backlight Write: 8 comms/2 seconds

Thu 07/16/2026 10:33:15 AM : [All         ] Writing 2 bytes to devices
Thu 07/16/2026 10:33:15 AM : [B B7 F8 1   ] Memory : Write dbAddr=0x0264 [00] cmd1=0x2E cmd2=0x00
Thu 07/16/2026 10:33:15 AM : [INST-TX-I1  ] 02 62 0B B7 F8 0F 28 02
Thu 07/16/2026 10:33:15 AM : [INST-ACK    ] 02 62 0B.B7.F8 0F 28 02 06          SET-MSB(02)
Thu 07/16/2026 10:33:15 AM : [INST-SRX    ] 02 50 0B.B7.F8 53.BC.3A 2F 28 02    SET-MSB(02)
Thu 07/16/2026 10:33:15 AM : [Std-Direct Ack] 0B.B7.F8-->ISY/PLM Group=0, Max Hops=3, Hops Left=3
Thu 07/16/2026 10:33:15 AM : [INST-TX-I1  ] 02 62 0B B7 F8 0F 2B 64
Thu 07/16/2026 10:33:15 AM : [INST-ACK    ] 02 62 0B.B7.F8 0F 2B 64 06          PEEK   (64)
Thu 07/16/2026 10:33:16 AM : [INST-SRX    ] 02 50 0B.B7.F8 53.BC.3A 2F 2B 7F    PEEK   (7F)
Thu 07/16/2026 10:33:16 AM : [Std-Direct Ack] 0B.B7.F8-->ISY/PLM Group=0, Max Hops=3, Hops Left=3
Thu 07/16/2026 10:33:16 AM : [INST-TX-I1  ] 02 62 0B B7 F8 0F 29 00
Thu 07/16/2026 10:33:16 AM : [INST-ACK    ] 02 62 0B.B7.F8 0F 29 00 06          POKE   (00)
Thu 07/16/2026 10:33:16 AM : [INST-SRX    ] 02 50 0B.B7.F8 53.BC.3A 2F 29 00    POKE   (00)
Thu 07/16/2026 10:33:16 AM : [Std-Direct Ack] 0B.B7.F8-->ISY/PLM Group=0, Max Hops=3, Hops Left=3
Thu 07/16/2026 10:33:16 AM : [INST-TX-I1  ] 02 62 0B B7 F8 0F 24 00
Thu 07/16/2026 10:33:16 AM : [INST-ACK    ] 02 62 0B.B7.F8 0F 24 00 06                 (00)
Thu 07/16/2026 10:33:17 AM : [INST-SRX    ] 02 50 0B.B7.F8 53.BC.3A 2F 24 00           (00)
Thu 07/16/2026 10:33:17 AM : [Std-Direct Ack] 0B.B7.F8-->ISY/PLM Group=0, Max Hops=3, Hops Left=3
Thu 07/16/2026 10:33:17 AM : [B B7 F8 1   ] Memory : EPROM Refreshed
Thu 07/16/2026 10:33:17 AM : [All         ] Writing 0 bytes to devices

I2 Backlight Write: 2 comms/1 second

Thu 07/16/2026 10:35:23 AM : [All         ] Writing 1 bytes to devices
Thu 07/16/2026 10:35:23 AM : [1A 4F 19 1  ] Memory : Write dbAddr=0x0264 [00] cmd1=0x2E cmd2=0x00
Thu 07/16/2026 10:35:23 AM : [INST-TX-I2  ] 02 62 1A 4F 19 1F 2E 00 00 03 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 CF
Thu 07/16/2026 10:35:23 AM : [INST-ACK    ] 02 62 1A.4F.19 1F 2E 00 00 03 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 CF 06        (00)
Thu 07/16/2026 10:35:24 AM : [INST-SRX    ] 02 50 1A.4F.19 53.BC.3A 2F 2E 00           (00)
Thu 07/16/2026 10:35:24 AM : [Std-Direct Ack] 1A.4F.19-->ISY/PLM Group=0, Max Hops=3, Hops Left=3
Thu 07/16/2026 10:35:24 AM : [All         ] Writing 0 bytes to devices

I2CS Backlight Write: 5 comms/2 seconds (mixture of I1 and I2)

Thu 07/16/2026 10:36:35 AM : [All         ] Writing 1 bytes to devices
Thu 07/16/2026 10:36:35 AM : [INST-TX-I2CS] 02 62 41 1E 09 1F 2F 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 D0
Thu 07/16/2026 10:36:35 AM : [INST-ACK    ] 02 62 41.1E.09 1F 2F 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 D0 06        (00)
Thu 07/16/2026 10:36:36 AM : [INST-SRX    ] 02 50 41.1E.09 53.BC.3A 2F 2F 00           (00)
Thu 07/16/2026 10:36:36 AM : [Std-Direct Ack] 41.1E.09-->ISY/PLM Group=0, Max Hops=3, Hops Left=3
Thu 07/16/2026 10:36:36 AM : [INST-ERX    ] 02 51 41 1E 09 53 BC 3A 15 2F 00 00 01 0F FF 00 A2 00 53 BC 3A FF 1F 01 B8 
Thu 07/16/2026 10:36:36 AM : [Ext-Direct  ] 41.1E.09-->ISY/PLM Group=0, Max Hops=1, Hops Left=1
Thu 07/16/2026 10:36:36 AM : [41 1E 9 1   ] Memory : Write dbAddr=0x0264 [00] cmd1=0x2E cmd2=0x00
Thu 07/16/2026 10:36:36 AM : [INST-TX-I2CS] 02 62 41 1E 09 1F 2E 00 00 07 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 CB
Thu 07/16/2026 10:36:36 AM : [INST-ACK    ] 02 62 41.1E.09 1F 2E 00 00 07 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 CB 06        (00)
Thu 07/16/2026 10:36:37 AM : [INST-SRX    ] 02 50 41.1E.09 53.BC.3A 2F 2E 00           (00)
Thu 07/16/2026 10:36:37 AM : [Std-Direct Ack] 41.1E.09-->ISY/PLM Group=0, Max Hops=3, Hops Left=3
Thu 07/16/2026 10:36:37 AM : [All         ] Writing 0 bytes to devices

Edited 10 hours ago10 hr by IndyMike

@IndyMike and @Guy Lavoie Thank you for the information. Good to know. (I thought about flashing a light but didn't want the neighbors to get suspicious - ha ha).