Getting the ISY994i Insteon Home Controller to Work Again

I finally got around to installing the new Insteon 2413s modem on Sunday evening last week.  I had figured installation of the new modem would be a piece of cake.  I imagined that all I would have to do is unplug the old modem, plug the new one in, connect it to the ISY994i serial port, and run the "Restore PLM" and "Restore Devices" in the web based program, and my home control system (with automated lights and bedroom macro controls) would be working again.

It was not at all that simple, it ultimately took me about 4 hours of frustration to get my home control system working again.  At least I now have ideas as to what was going wrong and how it can be done relatively quickly if I should need to again.

Here's my thinking (which is easier to explain than the nearly endless trial-and-error).  When the new PLM is plugged in, it has no links to other Insteon devices in my network.  That means that other devices cannot "relay" the messages that the ISY994i is sending out to link and program those devices, and the RF/PLC signals just have to be strong enough from the ISY994i itself.  This is particularly difficult after the front door light (a fluorescent with daylight sensor) turns on because that light generates huge amount of electrical and RFI noise.  The LED patio lights and Kitchen Table light on dimmer also generate a huge amount of noise.  Once I figured that noise was blocking the signals, I turned off the lights I could but I had no switch to turn off the front door light (yes, that is the way I arranged it…the front door light is automatic only, cannot be turned off by accident, and if I need to change the bulb once every 7 years I turn off the breaker).  But then, the breaker for the front door light is on the same circuit as ALL the Insteon devices nearest to the ISY994i (as it turns out, just my luck).  I could have waited until the next day (Monday?) but I never have time to mess with this stuff before going to work.  So I tried to solve the problem as best I could at night with the front door light on when I have it's circuit on.

The trick was to pull out the Insteon module which controls the living room Lava Lamp (on the same circuit as front door light) and plug it into the outlet nearest to the ISY994i.  THEN I could flip the front door light breaker to off and still program that module.  (There's also any ISY994i trick in which you right click on each individual device and a menu lets you link/program JUST that one device, rather than ALL the devices--which takes a LONG time and can still fail completely when there are connection difficulties.)

Then I programmed all other Insteon modules this way, by temporarily plugging them into still active outles in the kitchen near the ISY994i.  With 3 Insteon modules plugged in in the kitchen, and capable of relaying Insteon messages, I finally had enough signal strength flip the front door light breaker on again and program the kitchen light and patio light (which are on the same super noisy circuit as the Front Door light, wouldn't you know, no wonder I had so much trouble with X10).

Then I put all the modules back in their places…and everything worked despite the line noise because of the way Insteon modules cooperatively relay messages.

Before discovering this method, I had endless tried running the "Restore PLM" and "Restore all devices" programs in the ISY994i menus.  It seemed as though they were always linking my devices in the reverse order that I had done originally…starting with the last modules I had added to my system and working back to the first modules I had added to my system.  That is likely the wrong approach.  Better to start from the first devices added to the network (which are likely the ones closer to the PLM which you *could have* programmed initially) and work forwards to the last devices added to the network (which might not be reachable until the previous ones are linked).

But I don't know if that would have made any difference, since even when I tried manually I couldn't link the closer devices by themselves first anyway, I actually had to remove modules from their existing locations and flip the front door light breaker before I could get sufficiently signal quality to do the linking.  Now I don't know whether if it would have been easier had I waited until daylight (which turns the front door light off) or pulled out the front door light bulb first.

One interesting thing was I discovered you could make the PLM signal devices that it can actually communicate with by pressing the button 3 times (or was it 4 times?).  Then the nearby devices that it can communicate with start blinking their comm lights.  When I tried this (which was before I finally came up with the working strategy described above) it seemed I had native communication to the Lava Lamp module, the kitchen light, and the patio light.  But then with the PLM connected to the ISY994i it seemed to be unable to link those devices anyway.  So it seems like the linking process that ISY994i does might require better signal quality than the "test" performed by the PLM.