Device Link Table Mismatches (Needing device reset)

[SunSentry]

I thought I should put this info in a separate thread so as to not confuse people with other issues.

 

After upgrading from 3.2.6 to 3.3.4 a couple weeks ago, I started getting a couple lights doing strange things such as not coming on at the level of brightness that seems to be programmed in the scene, and a 3-way light not working properly. When going back to 3.2.6, everything began to work normally again.

 

LeeG, you gave me a BIG clue when you mentioned this in another thread... "There was a problem some releases back with the file system that could have compromised some of the Insteon configuration data. It could go unnoticed until a device was restored. I noticed that at one point some of the devices were restored. This could have rolled incorrect data back to the device. The probability is low of this happening and it is not an issue with 3.3.4 itself as it is only restoring data it did not create."

 

When I compared the device link table to ISY, they were not the same. I made a couple attempts to "Restore Device", yet I was never able to get the device to match the ISY. I also tried removing the device from the scene and re-adding it back in, but still get a table mismatch. I would have thought the ISY could completely wipe out the table in the device and restore it properly, but that did not happen. I had to hard reset the devices (reset button on the devices), then when I did a "Restore Device" from ISY, the tables matched, and the problems went away. The devices started working properly.

 

I'm attaching an image to show an example for one of the devices that continued to show a link table mismatch. It's the last record that never seemed to match after attempting a restore.

 

In thinking how these mismatches got that way in the first place? I have no idea. Your might be thinking I manually linked the devices in some way, but I never do that. I always use the ISY UI to create scenes, so I am puzzled how they get out of sync. At any rate, the weird problems with those 3 devices stopped after doing the manual device reset and then restoring with ISY.

[LeeG]

There could be link database issues but in this particular example things are fine. In earlier images the ISY Links Table display did not display an End Of List record as that is not physically stored in the ISY. This always presented itself as an extra link record in the device because the device hardware/firmware must have an End of List link record to stop a link database search.

 

The simulated End of List record now being display in the Show ISY Links Database is always 8 bytes of zeros. The actual End of List record in the Show Device Links Table often has only a single byte of 00 in byte 1 (flag byte). Depends on the past link record activity in the device itself whether the End of List record is all zeros or only a 00 in byte 1. Thus the possible label mismatch.

 

In 3.3.4 (any maybe some of the earlier 3.3.x images) the End of List mismatch is now labeled [ignored/mismatch] to explain the mismatch in some of the physical data compare is ignored.

 

Bottom line, the last record in the device is a valid End of List link record that must be there. It is not worth the effort but a factory reset of the device to turn the entire link database to all zeros and then a Restore Device will have the End of List records physically match. Really not a necessary step as the device firmware is only looking at the first byte (flag byte) to locate the End of List indicator.

[SunSentry]

Great explanation !!! You really understand this stuff well.

 

I am puzzled as to why the devices started working as planned when I did a hard reset, but as long as they work, I guess I don't really care as to why.

[LeeG]

Would need a display of the before and after link database to evaluate. The thing about the link database, with all the various changes to Insteon protocols and commands, device features and functions, the format and function of the link database has not changed. Link records have the same format today as they had when the first Insteon device was shipped back in the mid 2000's.