Insteon HS3 to HS4 with v3 plugin

[thetaz01]

Hey mnsandler wanted to find out, i am a long time Insteon user, and have had HS3 for as long as i can remember..
i just migrated to HS4 finally!, and still using the 3.x plug in, couple questions.
first off, is there a charge for the Upgrade from the plug in from hs3 to hs4,
and two, what are the benefits from going from the 3.x to the 4.x verisions?

thanks so much
fred

[mnsandler]

Hey Fred
there is an upgrade fee but you can get a discount since you own an hs3 license. see the plugin sales page and look for this "Upgrade available: Learn more."

the biggest change is the mns plugin conforms to the hs4 ui standard for devices, triggers, actions, and config pages.

if you are using the insteon hub, I have made some stability/reliability improvements for the hub

you can review the log to see the changes i've made:
https://forums.homeseer.com/forum/hs...elease-4-0-4-0

as far as upgrading, its all spelled out in the same post. please make a complete backup so you call rollback if necessary

just an FYI: i wont be updating the hs3 plugin any further. time to move one.

[efpetro]

Hi Mark, I'm looking to upgrade my plugin to HS4 but can't get a discount code using my HS3 license. My reason for wanting to upgrade is random communication errors with a physical serial port on a Win10 system. The error always happens on boot but sometimes after running for weeks. I resolve the problem by disabling and then enabling the plugin. the log reports "Error: Could not open COM3 - Access to the port 'COM3' is denied" . . I would try the HS4 plugin if a discount code was available.

[mnsandler]

see the "learn more" link on the product page for the discount. if you have issues. please contact hs support. they handle all this.

https://shop.homeseer.com/collection...plugin-for-hs4

[Mediatech]

Hello Mark,
I migrated from a HS 4 Pi to a Hometroller Plus. Can I de-activate the Insteon license for the Pi and activate on the Hometroller? I did a backup on the Pi and a restore to the Hometroller and it looks like all my devices and events came over fine. I'm now in the process of trying to get the plug ins to work. I do have a USB PLM and your plugin worked great on the Pi.

[mnsandler]

you should be able to just register the plugin again on the HT (i dont think there is a deactivate/unregister function). if you have any issues, just contact hs support.

[Mediatech]

you should be able to just register the plugin again on the HT (i dont think there is a deactivate/unregister function). if you have any issues, just contact hs support.

Hi Mark,
Got the plug in registered. Here is the latest. Re: USB PLM and MNS V3.0.7.1
As already stated, I migrated from a Pi to a Hometroller Plus. I was informed by HS support to use this version of your plug in which I have purchased/registered. My question is this. I go into device manager and see that my COM port is COM5. How do I know that for sure? I unplug the USB cable, device manager updates and the COM port disappears. I plug the USB cable back in, device manager updates and says COM5. When I go into Insteon Plug in\Configuration and put in COM5, then save, I then restart. When I log back in after reboot it still says:

Insteon
3.0.7.1

WARNING: Please check the Interface and enter the Interface Port information on the Config page and restart HS.

Registered


I'm going in circles. So I can understand if i did not choose the correct COM port but the only thing I can base it on is what Device Manager tells me. Got any ideas how I can get this going?

thanks

[mnsandler]

it sounds like COM5 (it must be entered fully and in uppercase) is the right port.

if you want to stick with the v3 plugin, please upgrade to the last beta which is stable.

ps. the getting started instructions in the MNS insteon forum only apply to the v4 plugin only

you should be following the instructions in the other forum
Insteon for HS3

I'm going to have this thread moved to the other forum...its too confusing here.

ps. i am not making any more changes to the v3 plugin. you should consider upgrading to the v4 plugin

[mnsandler]

Derek
lets continue this thread here since you are running the v3 insteon plugin

I understand you are trying to get a PLM to work on a HT+ which runs windows.

please try a factory reset on the plm, and then restart the plugin

please post a picture of the plugin config page

[mnsandler]

Mediatech, please reply here after reviewing my last two posts

[Mediatech]

Derek
lets continue this thread here since you are running the v3 insteon plugin

I understand you are trying to get a PLM to work on a HT+ which runs windows.

please try a factory reset on the plm, and then restart the plugin

please post a picture of the plugin config page

Well believe it or not, I installed the V4 plugin first. Then I couldn't figure out how to purchase the discounted upgrade from the V3. There was a hyperlink on the page where you register the plug in, which I clicked on, but it took me to just the HS Plug ins page. When I click on yours, there wasn't a "Upgrade" option, which is what I was sort of expecting. Then I was hoping that would take me to a place where you enter in your V3 license and pwd and proceed to pay the upgrade few, subsequently resulting in a confirmation email with the new license info. So I guess I'm a dope on that one.

Soooooooooooooooo for now I'll be content with V3 and happily upgrade to V4 once I get the Insteon crap working. You must have been reading my mind because what I was just about to do before I checked the forums here, was RESET THE PLM! So let me do that with the V3 and I'll report back. And let me know where I'm dropping the ball in terms of getting to the V4 upgrade area. Thanks for getting back to me.

[mnsandler]

please install the latest v3 beta as well

https://forums.homeseer.com/forum/li...-windows-linux

the following link should help with the upgrade. check with hs support if you have troubles; they deal with the licensing.

https://shop.homeseer.com/pages/pluginupgrades

[Mediatech]

Derek
lets continue this thread here since you are running the v3 insteon plugin

I understand you are trying to get a PLM to work on a HT+ which runs windows.

please try a factory reset on the plm, and then restart the plugin

please post a picture of the plugin config page

Ok, reset my PLM. Check. Upgraded to V4 of your plugin. [ Thank you for discount ] Check. (Hope this doesn't goof things up in terms of keeping the post here since now I'm V4) When I go to "Manage Plugins" and examine MNS Insteon I see, more or less the same thing I have been seeing with every previous version of the Insteon plugin, it is not seeing the PLM?:


"MNS Insteon
4.0.4.0

CRITICAL: The Interface is not configured correctly on the Settings page

Registered"


Note: Device Manager is still showing that it is COM5. Not sure why it keeps putting it there, but it is.

"Post a picture of the plugin config page". Check [attached]

You're probably thinking the PLM is bad? Well it was working just fine yesterday when connected to my Pi. And yes I know things can break w/o warning, notice etc. but I'm inclined to think that is not the case.
Do you or anyone do Team Viewer or similar remote desktop app so as to solve things quicker. I've been dicking with this for two days now, just trying to turn on a light bulb.

Thanks
Derek

P.S. On boot I'm getting this. Maybe its relevant because there is a reference to COM5:

Starting up....

9/13/2022 6:45:55 PM HomeSeer~!~Error~!~SQL Exception adding record(s) to the LOG database(0): database disk image is malformeddatabase disk image is malformed, Code=11 SQL=

9/13/2022 6:45:58 PM HomeSeer~!~Error~!~SQL Exception adding record(s) to the LOG database(0): database disk image is malformeddatabase disk image is malformed, Code=11 SQL=

9/13/2022 6:46:00 PM HomeSeer~!~Error~!~SQL Exception adding record(s) to the LOG database(0): database disk image is malformeddatabase disk image is malformed, Code=11 SQL=

9/13/2022 6:46:03 PM HomeSeer~!~Error~!~SQL Exception adding record(s) to the LOG database(0): database disk image is malformeddatabase disk image is malformed, Code=11 SQL=

9/13/2022 6:46:03 PM HomeSeer~!~Error~!~Could not add Z-Wave to the plug-in list. Is this a duplicate? Check for two plug-ins with the same plug-in name.

9/13/2022 6:46:05 PM HomeSeer~!~Error~!~SQL Exception adding record(s) to the LOG database(0): database disk image is malformeddatabase disk image is malformed, Code=11 SQL=

9/13/2022 6:46:08 PM HomeSeer~!~Error~!~SQL Exception adding record(s) to the LOG database(0): database disk image is malformeddatabase disk image is malformed, Code=11 SQL=

9/13/2022 6:46:11 PM HomeSeer~!~Error~!~SQL Exception adding record(s) to the LOG database(0): database disk image is malformeddatabase disk image is malformed, Code=11 SQL=

9/13/2022 6:46:11 PM Insteon~!~Info~!~Error: Could not open COM5 - Access to the port 'COM5' is denied.Startup Complete, 9 errors detected, check the log for more information.

[mnsandler]

Derek

Glad you found the discount. thanks for upgrading.

the log errors are HS related. you could stop hs, delete the log\HomeSeerLog.hsd file, the restart hs. those errors should go away. if you can't do that, contact HS support.

"Access to the port 'COM5'" indicates that something else is using COM5 which is why the plugin can't access it. are you running some other plugin/program/app that is accessing COM5? Disable the zwave plugin if you are using it, and/or make sure it isn't trying to open COM5

[Mediatech]

Derek

Glad you found the discount. thanks for upgrading.

the log errors are HS related. you could stop hs, delete the log\HomeSeerLog.hsd file, the restart hs. those errors should go away. if you can't do that, contact HS support.

"Access to the port 'COM5'" indicates that something else is using COM5 which is why the plugin can't access it. Are you running some other plugin/program/app that is accessing COM5? Disable the zwave plugin if you are using it, and/or make sure it isn't trying to open COM5

Roger that Houston!

I have my Nortek USB Zwave dongle on order [due Sept 16-18th] so not using Zwave yet, so good advice I will disable the Zwave plugin. You'd think Windoze would be smart enough that it wouldn't assign two devices to the same COM port, no? Oh well....poooters.... they do what they do.

Ok deleted HomeSeerLog.hsd. Now on boot I get the following messages AND, BTW without the PLM connected via USB AND all plugins disabled excepted MNS Insteon latest version:

Starting up....


9/14/2022 1:12:26 PM HomeSeer~!~Error~!~Could not add Z-Wave to the plug-in list. Is this a duplicate? Check for two plug-ins with the same plug-in name.

9/14/2022 1:12:29 PM Insteon~!~Info~!~Error: Could not open COM5 - The port 'COM5' does not exist.Startup Complete, 2 errors detected, check the log for more information.

RE: Are you running some other plugin/program/app that is accessing COM5?
Response: Well the Hometroller has a USB male to female extension cable plugged into one of the ports. That comes down to a USB hub where I have a Keyboard and trackball connected. The USB port right next to it has a cable plugged into it which goes to the PLM, which is not connected at the moment.

So the question becomes why does COM5 not exist according to the error message? Maybe I just go into device manage and delete COM5? It really shouldn't be this complicated, right? Yes I'll ping HS support about those messages as well but how do we get to the root cause of not being able to get this darn thing recognized?

thanks