ISY not reposnding to button presses

[joeria]

I am migrating from HL2 to ISY. I have several programs that have conditions such as IF KP1B2 is switched on OR IF KP2B3 is switched on.... As I was building the programs they appeared to be working fine. I am just about done and shut down HL2 and they stopped working. I know it was the ISY programs working earlier today because I had disabled the HL programs and was watching the status and last run times in ISY.

 

It seems that there may be 2 issues. 1 is that the ISY may not be seeing the button presses. for some programs that have only one trigger, if I trigger the button in mobilinc, which forces the status in isy, the program runs. In other cases where there are multiple possible triggers, that is not the case.

 

I had to restart HL2 for the time being.

 

Please help with any suggestions!

 

Thanks,

Joe

[joeria]

One other fact, that I don't think is the cause, but you never know.

Shortly before things started to fail, in isy I marked as disabled and unplugged half a dozen lamplincs that I had urged in for the setup but that are used only for holiday lights... In case this helps. Thanks!

[LeeG]

joeria

 

Suggest running Tools | Diagnostics | Event Viewer with Device communications events selected (important) and press one of the KPL buttons that fails to trigger a Program. Does the KPL button produce traffic in the Event Viewer?

 

Removing the LampLincs could affect powerline communication as there are fewer devices repeating traffic on some circuits.

 

How were the devices added to the ISY? The KPLs would have had links to the HL2 PLM. Were they saved when devices were added to the ISY? If so is the HL2 PLM still powered and functional when HL2 is shutdown? Otherwise the KPL is experiencing responder errors when sending messages to the HL2 PLM.

 

Lee

[joeria]

Thanks Lee. I had looked and did not see the expected activity ...

I did reenable the hl plm, will try to put all the lamplincs back as well. I didn't think that would be it, since there were 6 lamplincs in 3 outlets and there are still over 80 devices on the network.

Thanks again and I will post the outcome

[LeeG]

joeria

 

I agree that with the number of devices installed removal of the LampLincs would be unlikely candidates. Not likely this is related to single versus double If statements either. There are so many users running ISY if such a bug found its way into the code it would be immediately visible to many users.

 

More likely something related to link records with two applications trying to manage the same set of devices and/or some communications issue. The lack of Insteon message traffic in the Event Viewer is a clear indication of either a link record or powerline issue.

 

Let us know if there is any ISY trace analysis that would be useful.

 

Lee

[joeria]

Lee

 

Thanks. I did restore all modules to the original location and enabled all. No success. I still don't see any button pushes of any device kn the isy event viewer.

Any activity initiated by isy ( timed programs, level changes thru the admin console, or changes from mobilinc) reach the devices fine. I am pretty stumped. Suggestions, please!

Thanks

Joe

[LeeG]

The activity described that is working is not dependent on link records. For the ISY to be aware of a button/paddle press there needs to be an E2 Controller link record in each device pointing to the ISY PLM and the ISY PLM must have an A2 Responder link record with each device. Suggest picking one device such as a SwitchLinc or KeypadLinc (more link records needed for KPL) and run Tools | Diagnostics | Show Device Links Table to verify there is the required Controller link record(s) pointing to the ISY PLM. If it/they exist then Tools | Diagnostics | Show PLM Links Table to verify the required Responder link record(s) are present.

 

Losing links records is common when trying to run multiple applications which want to manage the links tables.

[joeria]

Lee,

 

Thanks. You may have hit upon something. I chose the simplest case I had, where a switchlinc had a minimal number of links. In looking at the switchlinc links table, I see three "a2" links, two "e2" links and one "22" link to the ISY.

 

I then looked at isy plm links and was very surprised to see a TOTAL of 143 links, of which 142 were "e2" links, including one to the switchlinc in question. However, there is only one "a2" link to 0d.4c.74, which is not even a device in the ISY. It may be an unused lamplinc that was plugged in at some point.

 

I have a few backups of the isy, if that helps.

 

Would a restore plm work? I did do a compare of the device links and the isy links and that looked good. One mismatch link on the switchlinc from an old device no longer in use and the "22" link was listed as identical/ignore.

 

Thanks for all your help!

 

Joe

[LeeG]

joeria

 

The link record that starts with 22 is one that was active at some point and has been deleted. That link record slot will be reused if a new link is established. In other words, normal situation.

 

One of the E2 link records in the SwitchLinc must have the ISY PLM address. Other E2 records may point to other devices where the SwitchLinc is a Controller in an ISY Scene.

 

Sure looks like the link records in the PLM have been corrupted. I would run the Show PLM Links Table again to be sure of the same results. Insteon traffic received by the PLM during the "Get Next" sequence of reading PLM link records can cause duplicates to be read and records to be skipped. If additional Show PLM commands see the same result, only one A2 link record, the solution is File | Restore Modem (PLM). This command can take a long time depending on how much device activity it decides is necessary.

 

Without an A2 link record for each device (and device button) the ISY PLM is not aware of button/paddle presses even though the device may be sending them. A PLM will not accept a message from a device it has no Responder A2 link record for. There are some exceptions but normal device On/Off activity is not accepted without the A2 records.

 

Lee

[joeria]

Lee,

 

Thanks again. I re-ran the plm links request and got the same results.

 

As to the switchlinc, yes one of the e2 records is to the plm.

 

I will of course back up the isy before processing the restore plm command. Other than time, is there anything else i should be concerned with in using the restore plm command.

 

I really appreciate how quickly you responded and got the heart of the problem!!

 

Thanks again,

Joe

[LeeG]

joeria

 

You are very welcome.

 

If you have the Pro ISY where there is an option to hold updates to Wireless RF devices, Gray that option. This will queue any RF device updates and allow them to be done one device at a time after the Restore Modem (PLM) command completes. If that option is not available just let the RF device updates timeout (because devices are asleep) and they will be queued to be done one device at a time after the Restore completes.

 

When the Restore completes if there are pending updates to the RF devices, put one device at a time into linking mode, right click on node in My Lighting tree and select "Write Updates to Device".

 

Lee

[joeria]

Lee

 

Thanks again. Restored PLM and the world is in order again. I have disabled all programs on HL. I will wait a couple of days to be sure all stays well, then delete the HL PLM in isy and then unplug it.

 

I truly appreciate your help!

 

Joe