Established Insteon System Device State Change Failures - Bad PLM?

[kmahrous]

Hi all,

Curious if anyone has had a similar issue to what I'm seeing: TL;DR - Device state shows correctly but can't control any insteon device

I have a HS3 Insteon system that's been up and running for years (with slow and steady expansions all the while).

As of late have encountered system-wide Insteon communication failure (notably my Z-Wave and Concord stuff is fine).

Example use case:
I have a SwitchLinc which controls a gas fireplace
Main device page lists state correctly (top on, bottom off)
Polling updates correctly (if I manually switch top to off and then repoll it updates to off/off)
On the device page I try and change the state of the fireplace outlet (I hit the on button) and no change occurs
Detailed logging shows the text below:

Dec-29 22:43:07

Insteon

..Got RF PLM Response 02 62 36 64 61 0F 13 00 06

Dec-29 22:43:07

Insteon

Sending command 02 62 36 64 61 0F 13 00 to RF PLM, (Expecting 0 bytes extra back) Pre-Payload ACK:False, NAK is ok:False

Dec-29 22:43:05

Insteon

CAPIControl: Label=On, Value=100, ControlType=Button

Dec-29 22:43:05

Device Control

Device: Downstairs Fireplace to On (100) by/from: CAPI Control Handler

(with the top two lines repeating many many times)

This leads to a couple questions:
1) Need help parsing the short-hand of these messages (e.g., does "Got RF PLM Response" mean that it responded correctly?)
2) I have had to change PLMs due to failure every three years or so and it seems to be about that time. Previous failures have been a complete lack of communication from the plugin, this seems like some kind of "half" failure as it can clearly communicate and receive state it's just the changing of state that isn't functioning. Can a "dead"/"dying" PLM exhibit this kind of behavior?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[Burrington]

What do you get for communication test to the fireplace?

[joegr]

Try the reprogram PLM option. It sounds like the memory on the PLM has corrupted. My experience has been that when this happens the reprogram will work for a few times before the PLM dies completely.

[kmahrous]

Thanks both for the advice.

Good idea on the comms test, for some reason it didn't occur to me but it matched what I saw in the comm reliability data. (Pasted below.)

Device	1 Hop	2 Hops	3 Hops	Failed
Downstairs Fireplace Outlet	0	4	0	0

So it seems like that's not the issue.

I'm not sure I understand the reprogram PLM advice but I will try two things:
1) Update Interface Database
2) Reset and reprogram interface (this is likely the one you were referencing)

I'll update with the results of these two tests.

Thanks both of you for the advice.

[kmahrous]

Yeah, indeed looks like the PLM is on its way to dead...

All attempts to reprogram interface attempt yield:

The RF PLM did not reset properly. Please try again.

---

Press the 'Continue' button to continue setting up the plug-in

I'm going to assume it is indeed a dying PLM, if anyone has any other ideas I'm open to it.

Thanks again all for the advice.

[mnsandler]

You can try a manual factory reset (see the manual), and then run the Update Interface Database routine (this will add the links back in)

[kmahrous]

Thanks all for the replies and help.

For lessons learned later the solution was indeed a new PLM.

All attempts to program old one (including factory reset) were unsuccessful.

Just unboxed new one a bit ago, reprogrammed it and the system is back up and running perfectly.

So, in summary: able to read state of all devices, unable to control any device, all attempts to reset/reprogram PLM "failed," new PLM solved it.

Thanks.

[JimSpy]

I believe mine, too, is circling the drain. Same symptoms, plus a few others. A new one might solve a plethora of issues.

I'll miss this one, though. We've been thru some exciting times together. Power outages, MYHS system crashes, unveiling of HS 4...good times. Farwell old friend, may your final days be peaceful...ah, crap...give me a minute...