Are there Insteon signal testers?

[bbruck]

I have a 90-device installation - probably <10 are x10; the remainder insteon. My insteon health check indicates a lot of very very very slow responding devices. Phases are bridged properly. I also have a wide, wide variety of potential signal producing devices from florescent lights to appliances to A/V equipment in multiple locations to computer equipment in multiple locations.

I see forums that discuss the use of noise testing equipment in the X10 world, but nothing about noise testing equipment in the Insteon world. Are there in fact noise testers for sale? Is there other equipment that a non-electrical engineer could feasibly acquire and use that would do the trick? (What I mean is I'm not one of those folks who rewire circuit boards with my eyes shut (or open for that matter), own and use oscilloscopes (or know how to spell them), etc.).

I'm hoping there are others who have had this problem? How have you diagnosed line noise in an Insteon world?

 

[BLH]

I have not see any specifically made for Insteon.
I have seen someone in the UDI forums working on one but it is still in prototype stage.

I have used an X10 one to roughly see noise and signal absorbers as most X10 signal issues also effect Insteon to a smaller degree.

Some brand of X10 repeaters are known to scramble Insteon Signals as they see part of the Insteon signal as an X10 one.

Also v35 firmware SwitchLinc Dimmers are known to have communications problems with an ISY99i and may carry over to other automation controllers.
http://forum.universal-devices.com/viewtopic.php?t=3890&highlight=switchling+v35

 

[apostolakisl]

What BLH said.

If you have $1000 and an EE degree you can get an oscilliscope (googled it for spelling). It would be nice if the guy on the ISY forum puts together a viable solution, though I have only ever had one significant noise making device in my home (a low voltage under cabinet lighting transformer). I have about 60 devies. I have lots of cfl's and regular flourescents and Insteon switches actually control them. It is a crap shoot, however, as I have heard people who will have two of the same cfl and one creates havoc and the other doesn't.

You have a large installation, and you report a poor "health check". I don't know what that means as I don't have whatever software is telling you that. Perhaps that is a hop measuring? It would be nice if that were more specific. Will your software log all of your communications?

Anyway, is this poor health check translating into actual usage troubles? Are your problems new or have they been there all along? Exactly what are your problems.

 

[bbruck]

Thanks Lou and BLH.

I am using Indigo software as my controller. (I post mostly on their forum, so forgot that folks might not be able to read my mind and know I wasn't using it.) I used an Insteon health check app called iHealth, described by its creator as follows: iHealth send a status request to each Insteon device identified in the "evices" file and wait for a response. The round-trip-time (RTT) is recorded and show graphically in the output. The number of passes iHealth makes will increase the accuracy of the reported data. It produces a report like the following:

Per-device statistics: name success min avg max stdev avg

2nd Floor Hall Lights 1 0.553 2.305 2.500 0.584 **********************************************
2nd Floor Hall Lights 2 2 0.505 2.111 2.500 0.779 ******************************************
2nd Floor Hall Lights 3 0 2.500 2.500 2.500 0.000 **************************************************
Backyard Patio Lights 0 2.500 2.500 2.500 0.000 **************************************************
Backyard Patio Lights 2 0 2.500 2.500 2.500 0.000 **************************************************
Breakfast Table 7 0.453 1.411 2.500 0.818 ****************************
Breakfast Table 2 1 0.453 2.295 2.500 0.614 *********************************************

(That's a sample, not mine.)

Sometimes I have as many as 25% of my devices that not not successfully reached; and often over 50% have what the report describes as "poor" performance - i.e. long times and/or multiple tries to reach them.

Aside from the report - yes - there are many devices that I have to use the ON or OFF commands from my iPhone or from Indigo at my computer multiple times to get to come on and off - so those are the problems.

Given the size of the installation, the number of circuits in the house, and the number of digital clocks that have to be reset when I turn circuits on and off, checking things circuit by circuit would be a "most of the day" process I suspect, so I am looking for testers that would make this quicker.

 

[linuxha]

While this isn't a Insteon signal checker I've found that the ELK ESM1 works really well for checking the signal strength of Insteon & X10. It won't tell you if it's a valid Insteon signal and SmartHome no long carries it (but they had the page so I used it). Sorry I don't know of anything better ... and no I won't sell my unit.

 

[BLH]

I believe the ESM1 is discontinued.
I have a JV Engineering XTBM that reads X10 signal levels up to 9.99 volts, noise levels and decoded X10 message.
It also shows an Insteon Display if it see an Insteon message but not much more than it saw an Insteon message.

Since modules repeat Insteon Messages. Depending on where you tried to read them. It could look good but not reaching the intended responder.