Insteon upgrade - What is best, Hub or USB interface?

[kimp]

Hey everyone,

I have a small Insteon installation with about 25 light switches that I have been using for the past 9 years.

I originally had bigger plans with an ISY994 and various PLM options, but ran into a problem with Insteon PLMs not being compatible with the local 50Hz electricty supply and had to return most of my kit and fall back to use a simple Insteon Hub, which has worked reasonably well.

I'd now like to expand my setup with HomeSeer for better logic, and to add a bunch of Insteon motion and door sensors.

I am currently running a trial of HomeSeer and the Mark's Insteon plugin on a Raspberry Pi and have just started to fiddle with things.

I am not sure if the best practice would be to add the motion and door sensors to the Insteon Hub and then manage them via the Insteon plugin connection to the hub, or if I should start fresh and use a 2448A7 USB adapter installed in the Pi. Seems like less work to work through the Insteon Hub as my existing installation is already up and running, the downside is sometimes these hubs fail.

The USB adapter would mean I'd have to start over, but might not be a bad idea considering how old my installation is, and perhaps performs better than going through the hub?

Any recommendations or thoughts on this?

Kim

[mnsandler]

sitck with the Hub (the usb adapter has been discontinued; wont be easy to find a replacement if it fails). anything you have configured or registered via the insteon app will not transfer to the plugin. you will need to register everything in the plugin.

[kimp]

Thank you Mark!

I have gotten my existing stuff registered, and just reading up on sensors and all the other good stuff - I have a lot to catch up on, but really happy that I've found these forums.

I still have in my old hub links & scenes - I'll probably get those cleared out soon, so it will be pure HomeSeer

Thank you

Kim

[devoir]

Certainly didn't know the USB hubs were going out of production..... Hum might need to sell the new ones I've move over to the IP Insteon version...

[mnsandler]

the usb "adapter" i was referring to is the following. looks like smarthome is still selling them. Insteon must have brought them back. they were discontinued a few years ago

https://www.smarthome.com/products/i...le-usb-adapter

[zimmer62]

mnsandler, Have you tested this USB stick? This is the one I bought and I'm having a heck of a time trying to get it to remove links from the database. I might try it in homeseer with your plugin, but I could also just give up on it... See this post: https://github.com/TD22057/insteon-mqtt/issues/351

Curious if anyone else using your plugin is smooth sailing with this model. Maybe it's just the insteon-mqtt, and insteon-terminal that can't handle the remove from db commands on the modem.

Either way if you have any insight it would be greatly appreciated.

[mnsandler]

mnsandler, Have you tested this USB stick? This is the one I bought and I'm having a heck of a time trying to get it to remove links from the database. I might try it in homeseer with your plugin, but I could also just give up on it... See this post: https://github.com/TD22057/insteon-mqtt/issues/351

Curious if anyone else using your plugin is smooth sailing with this model. Maybe it's just the insteon-mqtt, and insteon-terminal that can't handle the remove from db commands on the modem.

Either way if you have any insight it would be greatly appreciated.

Joe,
I haven't tested my plugin with a usb adapter in probably 10 years. I also haven't heard anyone else using one. I don't have the model shown on the smarthome.com website to test.

can you tell me the firmware version the plugin sees when it connects.

[zimmer62]

I haven't tried it with homeseer yet, but I'd be happy to report back findings if I do end up trying it with homeseer.

LinkNet2020 reports back Firmware: 3.a, Cat: 3 - Bridge
There's a sticker on it that says V3.0 4818

I was able to delete group links with LinkNet2020, and I think there might be chance that insteon-mqtt and insteon-terminal are sending the wrong data on the 4th byte preventing it from deleting links.

I've really gone into the weeds on this one.

[kimp]

Hi Mark,

My old USB adapter was all black and labeled v2.1 with a physical sticker.
When I first tried to use your Insteon plugin, I got the error below, which then had me go buy a new USB adapter (That comes in white and didn't show any errors in the plugin
)

2/24/2021 5:35:50 PM - ..Time to send message: 571.7196
2/24/2021 5:35:50 PM - PLM contacted on /dev/ttyUSB0 with an Insteon address of 19.19.51 and firmware version 38
2/24/2021 5:35:50 PM - PLMBuffer_ProcessBufferThread Exit
2/24/2021 5:35:50 PM - Insteon hardware interface initialization failed.
2/24/2021 5:35:50 PM - Exit InitIO

-----------*Pre-Error Log*----------------
2/24/2021 5:35:50 PM - The attached Insteon Interface contains older firmware and needs to be upgraded for this plug-in to operate properly. Init failed.
2/24/2021 5:35:53 PM - Saved ini file. msecs=36
2/24/2021 5:36:13 PM - Submit Changes Selected
2/24/2021 5:36:16 PM - Saved ini file. msecs=16
--------*End Pre-Error Log*--------------
--------*Start /usr/local/HomeSeer/Config/Insteon.ini*--------------


The new USB key shows this during linux kernel bootup:

[ 1.347588] usb 1-1.2: new full-speed USB device number 3 using xhci_hcd
[ 1.493954] usb 1-1.2: New USB device found, idVendor=0403, idProduct=6001, bcdDevice= 6.00
[ 1.496265] usb 1-1.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[ 1.498620] usb 1-1.2: Product: FT232R USB UART
[ 1.499697] usb 1-1.2: Manufacturer: FTDI
[ 1.500750] usb 1-1.2: SerialNumber: AK05Z8JF
[ 3.850307] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbserial_generic
[ 3.850367] usbserial: USB Serial support registered for generic
[ 3.884780] usbcore: registered new interface driver ftdi_sio
[ 3.884935] usbserial: USB Serial support registered for FTDI USB Serial Device
[ 3.884940] brcmfmac: F1 signature read @0x18000000=0x15264345
[ 3.887703] ftdi_sio 1-1.2:1.0: FTDI USB Serial Device converter detected
[ 3.887883] usb 1-1.2: Detected FT232RL
[ 3.894353] usb 1-1.2: FTDI USB Serial Device converter now attached to ttyUSB0

And it shows this in the Insteon Error Log:

/19/2021 6:12:42 PM - PLMBuffer_ProcessBufferThread Enter
3/19/2021 6:12:42 PM - Sending command 02 60 to Interface, (Expecting 6 bytes extra back) Pre-Payload ACK:False, NAK is ok:False
3/19/2021 6:12:42 PM - ..waiting 459ms
3/19/2021 6:12:42 PM - ..Got Interface Response 02 60 52 1A EE 03 20 3A 06
3/19/2021 6:12:42 PM - ..Time to send message: 508.0353
3/19/2021 6:12:42 PM - Sending command 02 60 to Interface, (Expecting 6 bytes extra back) Pre-Payload ACK:False, NAK is ok:False
3/19/2021 6:12:42 PM - ..waiting 479ms
3/19/2021 6:12:43 PM - ..Got Interface Response 02 60 52 1A EE 03 20 3A 06
3/19/2021 6:12:43 PM - ..Time to send message: 581.5159
3/19/2021 6:12:43 PM - RF Dongle contacted on /dev/ttyUSB0 with an Insteon address of 52.1A.EE and firmware version 3A
3/19/2021 6:12:43 PM - ResourceManager::RequestExclusive for Resource 1
3/19/2021 6:12:43 PM - ResourceManager::RequestExclusive acquired for Resource 1
3/19/2021 6:12:43 PM - Sending command 02 6B 4A to RF Dongle, (Expecting 0 bytes extra back) Pre-Payload ACK:False, NAK is ok:False
3/19/2021 6:12:43 PM - ..waiting 192ms
3/19/2021 6:12:43 PM - ..Got RF Dongle Response 02 6B 4A 06
3/19/2021 6:12:43 PM - ..Time to send message: 298.1019
3/19/2021 6:12:43 PM - ResourceManager::ReleaseExclusive for Resource 1
3/19/2021 6:12:43 PM - Insteon hardware interface initialized.
3/19/2021 6:12:43 PM - Scheduled polling resumed.
3/19/2021 6:12:46 PM - Saved ini file. msecs=126


All this is just for your information - I decided to work with the Hub, for now :-)

Kim

[mnsandler]

Kim, thanks for the info. Interesting info about the old PLM and good to hear the usb adapter works.