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    2413U PLM dead - revival solution

    I have been using the 2413U interface since its inception with very little problem EXCEPT on two occasions, both while I was away on vacation. The PLM locked up (possibly due to a power surge during a storm) effectively disabling the entire system. The only way I've been able to fix it is to completely disconnect the modem for about a minute, then re-connect the usb cable and plug it back in to the outlet. (actually a neighbor did this while on the phone with me). I then restart the PI and all is well. Everything else within the Insteon/HS3 environment is fairly robust, but if the plm fails, nothing else matters at that point. In the coming months, I will be leaving the house unattended for weeks on/off, so I needed a way to 'hard reboot' the 2413U. I came up with a solution using an Arduino board which has been extensively tested. I also bought the hub as a backup to the system if the PC were to fail, so I'm fairly confident that I can deal with almost anything while away.
    Judging from the posts, it doesn't appear to be a problem with others, but I thought I'd throw it out there in case anyone is interested, I'll share what I did.

    #2
    Are you making use of Mark's built-in PLM failure detection triggers? I added events that detect when Insteon stops responding and when Insteon Interface crashes, and then trigger the BlShutdown PlugIn to shutdown and restart HomeSeer. Since then I have had no cases of failures that could not recover themselves. The events also send me an email prior to restarting so I know that it has happened. Has saved my neighbor a lot of visits to the house over the past couple years...

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      #3
      Yup,
      I'm doing pretty much the same thing. I get a Insteon stop responding email/text and a Insteon crash email/text. If I have house power, I will then restart HS. If that doesn't work , I'll restart the server. Unfortunately on those two occasions, that procedure didn't help and I wanted a fail-safe solution which did not involve outside intervention.
      Doug

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        #4
        I was still having the occasional failure where the reset and reboot didn't work and I had to unplug the PLM from the wall. I upgraded my Rev 1 PLM to Rev 2 and I don't think it has happened since. I suspect that my Rev 1 PLM was beginning to fail, which may have been causing the lockups. The Rev 2 also has a much stronger powerline signal as proven by my X10 meter. If you're using a Rev 1 PLM, you might want to replace it...

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          #5
          Not sure if my own experience can help.

          Power wise, I live in a very stable area. Still my system is operating on it's 3rd PLM. The latest one being from June 2017, previous one in 2013 and I think 2011 before that.

          What will typically happen is like you described field888. And yes, for some reason it is always when you are away for a few days.

          Unplug and re-plug works at first. Until one day, lights that were always perfectly working fails to respond. With the increasing retries, the Insteon network start to get slow. Eventually it stops. You un-plug, reset, reprogram, nothing work. You buy a new one and all goes back to normal.

          Not 100% sure about that theory but each time it happened, I was with the impression that the LED on the side of the PLM was dimmer then when new.

          I can't remember where, but during my search about this I stumbled on a comment that with time, one particular component in the PLM was getting weaker and that seemed in-line with what I've seen.

          If I was the one going for a while, I would start fresh with a new PLM.

          Again, my experience might not be what you are experiencing.

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            #6
            Burrington's info on the PLM is good to know. The PLM running now was purchased from Amazon in Feb 2015 and is version 2.0. I do have a new unit waiting in the wings (r2.3), if and when I need it.
            Michel, the last time I had a problem, the LED actually turned red, but the LED (red or green) appears to be the same intensity then and now. Interestingly, I did notice excessive retries after that problem, so I shut the PLM down again for about a half hour and when I brought it back, all was normal.
            At least with my 'black box', I can do stuff like that while away...
            Attached Files

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              #7
              There are some capacitors in the PLM that seem to degrade and fail prematurely. I believe its more prevalent in the Ver 1 but maybe that's just because they are older. If you look elsewhere in this board, you will find some very nice detailed instructions on how to change the capacitors and bring a dead PLM back to life.

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