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Lenny
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Joined: January 06 2008
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Posts: 102
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| Posted: June 28 2018 at 19:02 | IP Logged
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Over the years the reliability of my Insteon environment has deteriorated. A lot has changed over time. I started with PLC and have had a few PLMs die. The current PLM is a Dual Band I2CS (2413S). Over the last 12 years I have switched almost all lights to LED, replaced multiple switches and keypads due to mechanical issues. Most of the replacements being dual band. I also installed a new load center because the old pushmatic panel was jammed full and breakers were sticking. I also changed service entrance from aerial to underground.
I guess I’m wondering if anyone has any suggestions to narrow down the issues. It seems my main issues is that powerhome doesn’t “hear” some events. I think the transition to the new 2413s has caused the most issues and as I seem to recall the i2CS has a link requirement to not “ignore” traffic but I could be wrong. I went through and added some PLM links to devices not showing any traffic and cleared the PLM database / Add Full and that helped some. Should I do this Clear and Add Full any time I add links?
I have also cleared the “Comms” report in effort to try and nail down the problem children. It’s been several days and most of my devices show “insufficient data”. My thermostats poll every few minutes and the garage I/O link does show data in the graph.
I don’t have status scan enabled. So PH isn't actively talking to all the devices. It’s almost like the Comm Report only builds stats for events initiated by powerhome. Maybe someone can confirm that. I can toggle the device on and off from devices tab and that generates enough traffic to show data on the graph for that device.
Another thing is my electric meter is an “ISM Smart Meter". Those meters also transmit in the 900Mhz spectrum. I often wonder if my own and the surrounding meters are bleeding causing interference. I don't understand how the utility gets away with using unlicensed frequency in the same spectrum as consumer devices. It has it's FCC sticker, but it's crazy that these meters transmit at such a high power and almost continuously. If you’re interested you anyone can read this traffic flying through the air. All it takes is a software defined radio for $25. I tested using RTLAMR and RTL-SDR just to see if I could do it and I was shocked at how many meters showed up in just a few minutes of listening and decoding. Here is some source and examples: https://github.com/bemasher/rtlamr.
Well, any way.... if anyone has suggestions to help get my reliability back I’d certainly appreciate it.
Thanks
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dhoward
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Joined: June 29 2001
Location: United States
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| Posted: July 02 2018 at 10:02 | IP Logged
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Lenny,
The most common reason the PLM cant "hear" incoming traffic is due to not having the proper links. For every device capable of being a
controller, I would create a link with that device as a controller and the PLM as a responder. This is the most important link for getting
notifications. With those links all successfully created, it may also help to "reorder" your links in the controller device such that the PLM
link is first. When a controller is manually switched, it sends a group broadcast command which is basically unacknowledged and you "hope"
that the device hears it. After the group broadcast, the controller will send individual group cleanup commands (these are acknowledged
commands) to each device until all devices have been addressed or another Insteon communication has taken place. If you have alot of Insteon
devices and a fair amount of traffic, that might mean you only get 2 or 3 group cleanups so link order can be important.
As a habit, I usually do a "Clear" and then an "Add Full" anytime I play with the links or anytime something just isnt working right. It seems
that the PLM can "forget" links and if it does, it will ignore group broadcasts (but would still respond to group cleanups directly addressed
to the PLM).
Clearing the COMMS and then monitoring for problems is good to try and locate issues. However, you need to enable status scan at a minimum and
you may want to initially enable Link Scan to make sure your devices really do have the links you think you have. I would never leave "Link
Scan" enabled indefinitely though as over time it can cause your database to get really messy due to inaccurate communications.
The reason you need to have "Status Scan" on is so that PowerHome initiates a communication to a device and then waits for the response. You
are correct in your assumption that the Comm Report ONLY builds stats for PowerHome initiated communications. When a device initiates a
communication (nearly always a group broadcast), there is no way to measure the time it takes for a round trip message and no way to tell if a
communication is missed since there is no way of knowing if the comm should have been there or not. Once you've cleared comms and turned on
Status Scan for a couple of days, you should have reasonable stats to determine where you may have issues. For devices that the PLM just don't
seem to hear, I would do a DB scan and verify the links for that device and a cleanup and rebuild if necessary.
Hope the above helps some. Let me know if anything doesnt make sense or needs clarification.
Dave.
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Lenny
Senior Member
Joined: January 06 2008
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Posts: 102
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| Posted: July 02 2018 at 17:38 | IP Logged
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Thanks Dave for taking the time to respond. When I first started with PH I had status scan running, but it just seemed not useful with so many devices to poll. I have been relying on good COMMS.
This weekend I did clear COMMS and let status scan run over night. My office wall switch was really bad. A couple others showed some issues too. Odd thing is they are on the same circuit. I see nothing on that circuit that would be causing noise unless the device(s) themselves are going bad and are sucking up the traffic. Also, that circuit is on the opposite phase that PLM is on. I replaced the wall switch with a new dual band and that seemed to solve that.
Also showing issues was an appliancelinc (2456S3). I ordered a couple new Dual Band (2635-222) plug-in modules to try and swap it out.
You mentioned “or every device capable of being a controller”. Now the 2456S3 is really just a responder. Some of mine I have set as 2476S device type and do have PLM Links as responder. Don’t remember why I did this. Is this bad idea? Should I get rid of those links and switch their type in PH back to 2456S3?
The link order is still a little fuzzy for me. Can PH assist me in reordering the links? I’m not sure I fully understand. Are you talking about the REC#/Slot/Memory location?
For my large groups (All Off, Upstairs Off, Downstairs Off, Etc) I have those as purely PLM groups and not hard links in all the devices. This is purely for sanity and link counts. I trigger macro from keypad button presses for these.
As for the PLM responder link requirement. Lets say on a 8 button keypad, would I need a responder link for all 8 groups or is just one good enough for the PLM not to discard it? From my experience testing, I can press a button on and off and if I don’t have the PLM as a responder for that group, PH won’t “hear” it.
I did notice something while looking at the Insteon Problems Report:
The Garage IOLinc and a few keypads show
Link Errors:
“Controller link for this Insteon device has Group ID greater than the number of controller groups allowed for this Insteon type”
I’m not sure I understand what this means. I do have my large PLM groups with Group Numbers of 250-254. This never seemed to be a problem creating the links and I thought the limit was 255 links for the older devices.
Thanks Again Dave for the feedback
Oh, does anyone know if Smarthome has discontinued their software solution in favor of their "hardware hub"? Just curious, I tried their early hub and it was horrific experience and I sent it back.
Lenny
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Topic: Insteon Reliablity Help
