Moving from PLC to PLM

[leerogers]

I have had good luck with my PLC but in the past week, the PLC has started locking up (especially when I am out of town) and the only way to get it back it to unplug it. Very frustrating.

With the PLM better now, I just ordered one and should be here by the end of the week. I have looked but can't find anything. Will there be any trick of moving from PLC to PLM? Is it as easy as unplugging one and plugging in the other?

Thank you very much in advance for pointing me in the right direction.

[nightwalker]

I don't use insteon so I can't say but in home automation nothing can be that easy, can it?

[johnnybwis]

My PLM showed up today. I was sure I had seen instructions on how to upgrade from the PCL to the PLM but cannot find them. Anyone know what needs to be done?

[GregHoog]

I have had good luck with my PLC but in the past week, the PLC has started locking up (especially when I am out of town) and the only way to get it back it to unplug it. Very frustrating.

With the PLM better now, I just ordered one and should be here by the end of the week. I have looked but can't find anything. Will there be any trick of moving from PLC to PLM? Is it as easy as unplugging one and plugging in the other?

Thank you very much in advance for pointing me in the right direction.

It really is very easy to move to the PLM... you need to get the correct plug to support it though... you can use the updater to grab the PLM plugin... I've found the PLM to work a bit more quickly on routine configuration functions as well as respond to various commands... I'm sure you'll find it works just fine...

If memory serves me correctly, you will also need to go into the insteon configuration and run the Update Address Database, but you don't have to delete and reinstall or anything so dramatic...

I would recommend you make a back up too...

Greg

[leerogers]

Greg, sweet. I post back Friday with my results.

Thanks for your help.

[johnnybwis]

Well...here's what not to do...probably

I disabled the PLC and backed up the .Dll and ini file & removed them from the H/S directory.
From the updater I downloaded the PLM plugin.
I restarted H/S and no insteon devices showed up (as the ini was blank?)
I put a copy of the old ini back in place and restarted, I now had devices but my events were screwed up because on the previous start up the devices were missing so they were removed from my events.
I restarted HS with an older datebase backup and everything looked and worked OK.
I went to the insteon setup page and now have extra references to my old PLC such as:

Link# 1 - Switch/Load is controlled by Unregistered Device (07.8A.F0) (Using Insteon Link# 254) Unknown - Command: On
Link# 2 - Switch/Load is controlled by Light 3 way bottom (03.69.F0) (Using Insteon Link# 1) Outlet - Command: On
Link# 3 - Switch/Load is controlled by Unregistered Device (07.8A.F0) (Using Insteon Link# 1) Unknown - Command: On
Link# 4 - Switch/Load controls Unregistered Device (07.8A.F0)
Link# 5 - Switch/Load has local control reporting to HomeSeer
Link# 6 - Switch/Load is controlled by HomeSeer (Using Insteon Link# 254) HomeSeer 'All Devices Group' - Command: On

Im not sure how to clean this up. At least everything is working, I would like to add some appliance modules but will hold off until I figure out how best to straighten this out.

.........Update.....

Apparently its as simple as deleting the extra links from the plugin.

Well that was my experience. Couple of bumps but not too bad I guess.

[richtj99]

Im about to make the same move from the PLC to PLM.

What would you say is the easiest way to do this?

Im a bit confused about your fixing broken links?

[sanders2222]

Just another Seer

I switched from the PLC to the PLM just this month. Glad I did too. I worked over a month to get my system up with the PLC, have pages of email suggetions from the HS helpdesk. But communication problems between the PLC and Insteon devices could not be overcome. I also had my PC plugged into the same outlet as the PLC and later found out that is not a good idea.

Once I received my PLM replacement and plugged my PC into another outlet and established the interface link, everything works and links seem rock solid. Even my older X-10 devices seem to work better.

Initially, I did a reinstall of HS2 on my PC and downloaded the PLM driver but nothing worked. A quick call to Smarthome identified my problem (the PLM cord was plugged into my COMM2 serial port). I moved the connection to other COMM port and things have worked perfectly since.

The PLM is newer than the PLC and I'm told the signals xmitted from the PLC are weak. Maybe that's why there was a significant difference between the 2 interfaces in my house.

[johnnybwis]

Im about to make the same move from the PLC to PLM.

What would you say is the easiest way to do this?

Im a bit confused about your fixing broken links?

I think when I switched I should have left the ini file in place. <disclaimer goes here>
Anyway when I finished and had it working I had links that referenced my old PLC. The plug in allows you to delete links so I then deleted these links.