Lost RF Device Comms

[wrj0]

Two days ago, my ISY99 system (rev 3.1.6) experienced problems communicating with most RF devices. These devices just seemed to suddenly stop working after operating fine for many months - 2420M Motion Detectors, 2421 Triggerlincs, and a 2441V Thermostat adapter all ceased to function with the ISY, even though the RF devices would blink their LED when activated.

 

The only Insteon RF device that would function properly was a 2440 Remotelinc which worked fine to control the devices configured to work with the Remotelinc. When Triggerlincs were activated, two Access Points blinked their LED indicator, but no communication was shown in the ISY Event Viewer set to Device comm events. Commands could be sent from the ISY to the Thermostat, and it would respond, but the ISY reported: "Cannot communicate with 14.15.18 - Please check connections."

 

Both the ISY and Access Points were power cycled with no change in RF operation. A dual band Switchlinc was put into Phase Bridging mode to see if it was “talking†to one of the Access Points – it was. The Thermostat adapter was removed/installed a few times, and then a factory reset on the adapter was performed – all with no change in the comms error.

 

I tried moving a Triggerlinc very close to one of the Access Points, and tried swapping the position of two Access Points in case one had failed – no luck there. Finally, what did work was to put the RF devices (one at a time) into linking mode and then to perform an ISY Restore Device – that put the devices back into normal operation. Unfortunately, getting frustrated during this testing, I deleted the Thermostat adapter from the ISY so had to re-install it from scratch (and update way too many programs that used the Thermostat).

 

Other than several power glitches associated with Irene, no changes were made to the ISY or to devices connected to house power. Suggestions will be appreciated on what may have caused the loss of RF links with the ISY and what diagnostic tools may be used to isolate RF comm problems. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[LeeG]

wrj0

 

What is the firmware level of the tstat adaptor?

 

The v2 tstat adaptors (below the new v2.2) are known to block RF communication. Normally unplugging the dongle restores communication with the other devices.

 

Lee

[wrj0]

LeeG,

It's a relatively new rev 2.2 adapter (build 1310) received about 3 weeks ago as a replacement for a rev 2.0.

[LeeG]

Unfortunately there are no RF tools. The v2.2 adaptor should not have blocked RF communication. Some of my Insteon devices did odd things after a few very brief power drops during the beginning of Irene. Before I could determine what was happening power went out completely for a full day. When power was restored all the devices worked. I assume the very short power interruptions caused some problems with the devices that a full power off resolved. This would not have affected RF devices as they would be asleep making any communication with them impossible. The RF devices would be getting errors when activated as they would be trying to communicate with at least the ISY PLM even when power was down. Guess it could have caused them to get into some error state but have not seen this myself and not seen anyone report such.

[wrj0]

Thanks for the reply, Lee - I appreciate the input. Since the rev 2.2 thermostat adapter was removed for some of the testing period and the failure to communicate continued, it doesn't seem adapter was clobbering the RF communication.

 

Too bad we don't have an RF diagnostics tool; fortunately these kind of problems seem relatively rare. I'm still wondering how several RF devices ceased to function seemingly at once, continued to cause the Access Points to flash when triggered, but showed no data in the ISY Event Viewer. Here's hoping that problem (and Irene!) don't happen again anytime soon.

[LeeG]

I'm sure the tstat adaptor was not the cause. SmartLabs put a lot work into v2.2 to insure it would not interfere with RF communications.

 

If the RF devices that were not working were added to the ISY toward the end of the device inventory a PLM link record could have gotten corrupted. The link database is searched sequentially so if one link record gets corrupted it can prevent other devices from communicating with the PLM even though their link records are intact. The Restore Device could have resolved a PLM link record problem. Only speculation after the fact.

 

Glad things are working now.