Phantom Links and the Log and Event Viewer

[justin.cool]

I discovered a number of phantom links in my system last evening. In particular, a KPL-H button press that was supposed to turn a scene on and off, that had one device in it, actually turned on/off 5 other devices as well. The links to the other five devices were valid some time back, and I thought I had eliminated them, but apparently not.

 

I used the event viewer and looked at the Log and could see the button / scene activity for the intended device only. (Device is a 220V / 240V 30 AMP INSTEON Load Controller Normally Open Relay (Dual-Band), #2477SA1). I could not see any activity by any of the 5 unexpected devices being controlled by this button press. I would have expected to at least see some status reporting by the unintended devices, or something.

 

My question: Is what I experienced, in terms of what I did NOT see on the log and event viewer, to be expected? Or did I not do something right with the level of the event viewer, or some other goof?

 

Other information:

I followed the tried and true process of eliminating the links by adding each of the 5 unintended devices to the scene, then removing them from the scene, and all was right with the world at that point.

 

I also tried to restore the KPL device, but about half way through I got an error "DHCP fail" or something with DHCP in it, I believe. I then did a device update because of the green icons next to the KPL in the admin console, and the green icons went away.

 

I then tried to do a link compare of the KPL and the ISY, it died half way through for the KPL link read so I gave up.

 

I know these last two conditions probably represent other issues, and I will have to tackle them next.

 

Justin

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi Justin,

 

Long time no see!

 

The linkages were not eliminated from the responders and thus what you see in the event viewer is correct. It would have been easier had you simply restored the responders (not the KPL itself) to see if that fixes the issues.

 

Now, DHCP failed is not normal and only happens if ISY tries to renew its lease and fails. Also, it does not make sense for the Event Viewer to stop in the middle. It's quite possible that you had a network issue and that's when Event Viewer stopped reporting. Of course, all these are speculations.

 

Questions:

1. What's your firmware level?

2. What specific problems do you have now? This will help us pinpoint the issue

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[LeeG]

justin.cool

 

It is normal not to see the Insteon traffic between individual devices. If KPL-H is linked to device A, B, and C the KPL sends commands to the respective devices and those devices respond with ACKs back to the KPL. Although the PLM would likely see the Insteon traffic, none of the messages were directed to the PLM Insteon address so the messages would not be passed to the ISY.

 

The traffic that is being logged by the Event Viewer is a Group Broadcast message when the KPL button is pressed. This message has no specific “To†address. The ISY sees this message because it has been linked to that KPL button when the KPL was added to the ISY. There is also a PLM specific message sent by the KPL that is also traced. The PLM is just like any other responder device to the KPL so an individual Group Cleanup Direct is sent to the PLM and appears in the Event trace.

 

Hope that was not more detail than was of interest.

 

Lee

[justin.cool]

Michel and Lee,

 

Thank you for the prompt response. I think I understand now why I shouldn't / wouldn't see any traffic in the event viewer or LOG. Lee, no, you did not provide too much detail!

 

As for the s/w, I am running 2.8.16.

 

I did a link compare between the same KPL and the ISY as last night, and this one went through OK, no differences.

 

As for issues, none now that I have eliminated the phantom links.