Need Help Eliminating Phantom Links

[justin.cool]

Could use some help making sure I really eliminate the Phantom Links described below.

 

Insteon Configuration

 

Approximately 100 Insteon devices:

 

• Mainly Switchlincs, Lamplincs, Outletlincs, On/Off Adapters, etc etc

• 7 KPL’s

• Triggerlincs (2)

• RemoteLincs (3)

• Controllincs (2)

• ISY-99

• Access Points (5)

• Dualband LampLinc dimmers (4)

• Signal Linc (2)

 

Issue: Phantom Links that appear to be re-introduced by a RESTORE

 

• I have 4 KPL’s that can control a certain Evening Scene

• The evening scene has 6 different responders in it, all are for lights.

• Button E on all 4 KPLs controls the evening scene, works just fine.

• On one KPL: Button G has been programmed to control the patio ceiling fans, ONLY, and that works fine. However, for some unknown reason, it also turns on/off 3 of the lamps in the Evening Scene. I have termed these the “Phantom Linksâ€.

• A simple check of the device controllers via the ISY-99, ie who is Managing whom, shows that the three lamps impacted by the phantom links are NOT Managed by the G button on the one KPL. Thus it is not clear where these phantom links may have originated.

 

I went through two different methods to try and eliminate the “phantom linksâ€.

 

Process 1: Unsuccessful: (Done on an Icon Lamplinc 2 pin dimmer v.32)

• Factory reset the lamplink device

o At this point, the phantom links appeared to be gone or at least not operating.

• Restore the Device via the ISY-99

• Problem came back: KPL-G from the same errant KPL controlled this Evening Scene device again.

 

Process 2: Successful: (Done on a Switchlink dimmer v.35)

• Remove device from all scenes

• Remove from the network

• Factory reset the lamplink device

• Add back to the Network

• Link back into the Evening Scene

• Phantom links are no longer an issue with this device.

• I then repeated this process with the Icon Lamplinc from Process 1 and it was resolved as well.

 

My concern is the following:

 

• If I ever have to RESTORE the devices impacted by the phantom links, I am afraid the phantom links will reappear.

• It takes an enormous amount of time to reinsert devices into a large, complex scene, (Process 2), particularly when the ramp rate and on level has to be reset / copied for each Controller in the network.

o The COPY SCENE ATTRIBUTES button on the ISY interface for each controller can easily take 15 minutes to complete. Multiply that by 4 controllers and it borders on painfully long.

• This is probably just the “tip of the iceberg†in terms of things to be concerned with here, what am I missing?

 

Justin in Dallas

[Sub-Routine]

Hi Justin,

 

If you used Keep Existing Links when you added the devices to the ISY then those links are stored in the ISY database for that device. This feature was added as requested by users who wanted to use other software/firmware besides the ISY.

 

These links can be deleted using the method described by Chris in this post:

How To: Remove a link that is not recognized by ISY

 

You will not have to remove and re-add the devices.

 

Edit: In short, add the device to the scene and then remove it.

 

Rand

[justin.cool]

Rand,

 

Good to hear from you again and thank you for your prompt response.

 

1. I went through the steps of linking and delinking the device and that did the job.

 

2. When I brought the devices back into the network, I always select: "Remove existing Links", versus "Keep Existing Links". Thus, shouldn't any "leftover" links have been removed through that process? If I have to do a restore now, on that KPL, that PHantom Link should be gone, correct?

 

3. Is there some way to speed up the process of "Copy Scene Attributes"? Or does it just take that long?

 

Thanks!

 

Justin

[Sub-Routine]

Hi Justin,

 

I wish I could say it is good to hear from you, but we have a problem here.

 

1. I am glad to read you were able to fix the phantom links.

 

2. The links are contained in the responder devices, not in the KPL. If you use the Diagnostic function to ISY-99i/ISY-26_INSTEON:Tools_Menu#Show_Links_Table on any/all of the responders and click the Compare button the table will highlight any differences. If there are errors you can right-click on the device and select Restore Device.

 

3. Copy Scene Attributes should take 6-10 seconds for each responder in the scene. If it is taking much longer than that we will have to assume there is a communication issue. Opening the Event Viewer will allow you to watch the writes to the devices and see which ones are using retries. Often moving the AccessPoints can solve this issue.

 

Rand

 

Rand,

 

Good to hear from you again and thank you for your prompt response.

 

1. I went through the steps of linking and delinking the device and that did the job.

 

2. When I brought the devices back into the network, I always select: "Remove existing Links", versus "Keep Existing Links". Thus, shouldn't any "leftover" links have been removed through that process? If I have to do a restore now, on that KPL, that PHantom Link should be gone, correct?

 

3. Is there some way to speed up the process of "Copy Scene Attributes"? Or does it just take that long?

 

Thanks!

 

Justin