ricke Posted November 21, 2011 Posted November 21, 2011 I just got the ISY-99i Pro with the INSTEON Dual-Band PLM (PowerLinc Modem) but once its all setup the ISY can't find the PLM. How is that possible since they are simply connected by a 3 foot cat5 cable? I can see that there could be issues getting a signal to go out over the powerline but as far as ISY to PLM communications I thought that would be foolproof with a direct connection. How do I troubleshoot this sort of issue? Thanks a lot, Rick
LeeG Posted November 21, 2011 Posted November 21, 2011 ricke First make sure the cables are not reversed. Port A goes to the Serial PLM. Be sure the cable is fully seated. The PLM is not added to the ISY as a device. The ISY detects its presence on the Serial connection. Are you getting an error message the PLM cannot be located or checking Tools | Diagnostics | PLM Info/Status that shows not connected. Lee
ricke Posted November 21, 2011 Author Posted November 21, 2011 I swapped all of the cables around to make sure they work as networking cables and made sure they were firmly seated. The connections are: wall outlet (ethernet port which goes back to my house router) ---> mini-hub ---> connects to PC running mControl home control software ---> connects to network port on ISY-99i ISY-99i port A is connected to back of Dual-Band PLM. Nothing is connected to the serial port on the ISY-99i I connected to the ISY-99i web page and brought up the admin page which launched the GUI. I ran the diagnostics for the PLM and it said no PLM was connected. Rick
LeeG Posted November 21, 2011 Posted November 21, 2011 Is the Green LED next to the Set button on the PLM light dim?
ricke Posted November 21, 2011 Author Posted November 21, 2011 Well its in a bit dark of an area but the light looks fairly bright green on the PLM.
LeeG Posted November 21, 2011 Posted November 21, 2011 Tap the PLM Set button 4 times. The PLM is now in phase coupling test mode. It should be beeping and PLM LED is now bright (versus the normal dim). Tap the Set button once to complete the phase coupling test. If the PLM LED reacts as described I suggest factory resetting the PLM. Unplug it for 60 seconds. while unplugged press PLM Set button and hold it depressed. While holding the PLM Set button depressed plug in the PLM continuing to hold the Set button pressed. Hold the Set button for a full 10 seconds. Now power cycle the ISY and see if the PLM shows Connected.
ricke Posted November 21, 2011 Author Posted November 21, 2011 Lee that did it, thanks for teh great instructions! Not sure why it didnt just work out of the box. Do you have any tips on getting the ISY-99i working with Embedded Systems mControl 3.0? They dont have a lot if info on it. I am switching from a USB PLM to the ISY+PLM(DUAL BAND) combo. In the mControl 3 service manager I have the ISY-99y configured as a Universal device and I have the INSTEON Ctrl enabled (as I did before) under the mControl Base System tab. I have the INSTEON Ctrl configured to connect via ETHERNET but it seems to connect OK via USB as well. It all looks ok and the mControl Editor is able to connect to the server but whenever I try and control any lights nothing happens so I'm not sure whats going wrong. If I pull off the ISY-99i/PLM and put back the USB PLM, it all works again. Thanks for the help! Rick
LeeG Posted November 21, 2011 Posted November 21, 2011 Unfortunately I know nothing about mControl or how it interfaces to the ISY. There is a category for mControl topics but nothing has been posted there since Jul 2008. Perhaps mControl has a forum.
ricke Posted November 22, 2011 Author Posted November 22, 2011 Its brand new, its the 2413S PowerLinc Modem - INSTEON Serial Interface (Dual-Band) And yes I am trying to run mControl through the ISY-99. I'm assuming the PC should be able to find the ISY-99/PLM over the network? Since the PLM is no longer connected directly to the PC, how is the ISY-99 found? I want to make sure that I dont also need to connect the ISY-99 to the PC via the standard serial cable that comes with the 99. Thanks, Rick
Brian H Posted November 22, 2011 Posted November 22, 2011 I looked at the mControl V3 features file and it lists the following Insteon Interfaces. 2414U,2414S PLCs. 2412U and 2413U USB PLMs. The 2412S and 2413S serial PLMs are not listed. I believe I did see your post over in their forums. I hope they can give you added information on your setup.
LeeG Posted November 22, 2011 Posted November 22, 2011 As I mentioned earlier I don't know mControl but I do know the ISY. mControl will have no direct contact with the ISY PLM. mControl probably has some ISY plugin that communicates with the ISY over IP. Commands to the ISY over IP can direct the ISY to do things through the ISY PLM to control Insteon devices that have been added to the ISY but it is physically impossible for mControl to directly communicate with the ISY PLM. The 2413S PLM has a single Serial interface which is connected to ISY Port A which is a Serial interface. A Serial interface does not allow multiple applications to communicate over the same Serial connection.
ricke Posted November 22, 2011 Author Posted November 22, 2011 OK I think this is becoming clearer. So a home automation package like mControl can only direct the ISY (over TCP/IP) to control a device on its behalf? Before with the USB PLM, I created the devices using INSTEON addresses in mControl and then commands to those devices were sent out to the PLM over USB. I think what you are saying is that now what I need to do is create those INSTEON devices within the ISY-99 management tool and then somehow within mControl it then sends commands to the ISY-99 over IP to operate those INSTEON devices. Thanks for the help, Rick
LeeG Posted November 22, 2011 Posted November 22, 2011 For sure the Insteon devices must be defined in the ISY database. I think your evaluation of how things work with mControl going through the ISY over IP is logical. I would think mControl would describe how they work when using an ISY for powerline access.
Brian H Posted November 22, 2011 Posted November 22, 2011 There is an older thread over in the mControl Forums on using an ISY26/99i. http://www.embeddedautomation.com/forum ... php?t=1149
LeeG Posted November 22, 2011 Posted November 22, 2011 Some of the posts that Brian's link gets to discuss using a packet sniffer. That is a tool that is watching IP traffic. Suggests the idea of mControl using IP to communicate with the ISY is correct. Also the mControl instructions indicate the devices and Scenes must be defined in the ISY.
ricke Posted November 23, 2011 Author Posted November 23, 2011 I got it working under mControl, apparently when adding devices you need to bring up the right category to enumerate the corresponding INSTEON addresses defined in the ISY. So to show switchlinc dimmers in the ISY database you need to select a category of dimmable modules. So now I can directly control INSTEON devices from mControl via the ISY but I notice I no longer get any state information such as if a device is on/off or how far its dimmed. Does that type of info need to be configured to be pushed by the ISY or is that state information broadcast automatically? Thanks, Rick
LeeG Posted November 23, 2011 Posted November 23, 2011 Check the ISY Admin Console for status updates. Firewall/AV are common blocks to the ISY pushing data such as device status updates.
ricke Posted November 23, 2011 Author Posted November 23, 2011 Ah good point Lee, what TCP/UDP ports are used for status? I assume they are outgoing only. In the Network device list in the admin module if I walk around and turn INSTEON devices on and off the state change shows up OK. Rick
LeeG Posted November 23, 2011 Posted November 23, 2011 I believe Java assigns random port numbers. If the Admin Console is seeing status changes the ISY is successfully pushing the status change data over the local IP. Don't know if the mControl plug-in requires anything special. Would not think so but with the Admin Console seeing the changes I would have expected mControl to see them if it was looking for them.
ricke Posted November 23, 2011 Author Posted November 23, 2011 OK just wanted to make sure I didnt need to add any firewall rules to permit traffic through ISA 2006 (my firewall solution). If its not a port with a rule allowing it its possible to be blocked. Are there any cheap/free INSTEON control apps that can use ISY-99 that I could try as an alternate test to see if its able to see ISY state information coming across? Rick
LeeG Posted November 23, 2011 Posted November 23, 2011 Never used this but maybe it would help. viewtopic.php?f=66&t=5834 On the UDI forum toward the bottom is a section for 3rd party apps. That is where I got the above link.
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