Insteon remote or Keypadlinc button flickers after pressing

[htsource]

I have one Keypadlinc, for some reason aside from the local ON/OFF buttons, anything I press would flicker the backlight for few seconds. The load from remote seems to come on but not instant. The same when I tried to use the RemoteLinc, it would just flicker for few seconds although the load did come on, again with some delay.

Any suggestions what I can do to fix this? Thanks.

 

[apostolakisl]

What do you mean by flicker the backlight for a few seconds? Is this keypadlinc programmed into scenes and have you altered the backlight settings? Are you using an ISY or some other programming application?

You might try factory resetting it. Perhaps you have some settings in there like slow ramp rates and altered backlight settings that you hadn't intended.

 

[htsource]

It's the LED light that would normally indicate if the remote load is on or off when I press the button. What seems to be happening is that whenever I press the button, the LED of that button would start to flicker for about 5 seconds then it goes off. Around that time, the load from the remote switch would come on or off. There's about 10% of chance it won't respond. I'm going to try factory reset the switch to see if it makes a difference.

I have not had much of a success in the past to program scenes with Insteon switches. At this time, since I have the ISY99, I've been adding scenes to the switches but it's all done through ISY99 programming.

 

[roussell]

The flashing indicates a failed send command. Possibly from power line interference or a bad kpl

 

[htsource]

Could it be bad programming in ISY? So far it responds to on/off and update the backlight accordingly if the load is switch on/off from the actual switch. However, if I press the button that corresponds to the light switch, nothing happens and the backlight flickers for few seconds.

 

[apostolakisl]

I think you should use the word "blink". Flicker would imply quick unevenly spaced flashes and conjures images of a short or broken wire. Blink would imply a steady controlled on/off sequence, which I believe is what you refer to.

The buttons do blink if they fail to communicate. And no, it can't be bad programming in ISY. ISY is not part of a scene. ISY programs the switches, but once programmed, it does not participate in scenes (although the PLM does). This is not to be confused with programs in the ISY which work independent of the Insteon protocol.

It sounds like you have power line noise interference. You can run a scene test on the isy and see what it has to say. You can also check the links recrods on all the devices in the scene and compare them to ISY's record of what should be there. Some transformers and lots of CFL bulbs cause noise. Look for obvious stuff, unplug it and retest. If that doesn't fix it, try turning off all the circuit breakers in the house except the ones with the devices in the scenes/plm. Redo the scene test. If all is good, start turning on breakers 4 at a time until the problem resurfaces, then narrow it down to which one of the 4 is the problem. Then filter whatever it is on that breaker or just filter the entire circuit if it doesn't contain any Insteon devices.

 

[wuench]

Yeah there was a keypad flicker problem in some firmware versions (flicker when insteon traffic was on the line) but this doesn't sound like it. You probably just have poor communication, which is pretty normal for Insteon I think. I have it too, especially after upgrading to my dual band PLC and adding some newer V2 switches.

I agree with Lou and Roussel you are going to have to eliminate noise/signal suckers on your powerline and/or try to beef up communication with more access-points or dual band switches. A big source of signal suckers are AV equipment, PC's, surge protectors, and UPS. You should unplug them to isolate the issues, and if that helps put a filter on them.

Lou, what devices would you use to filter a whole circuit?

 

[jhdale]

Could also be "bad programming" in the sense that the button is also linked to another device, one that either is absent or which no longer has the link to this device. Could happen especially if you manually made links, not using the ISY.

 

[apostolakisl]

Could also be "bad programming" in the sense that the button is also linked to another device, one that either is absent or which no longer has the link to this device. Could happen especially if you manually made links, not using the ISY.

Yes, which is why I would suggest having ISY poll the link table from the devices and cross check to the ISY's internal link table.

Lou, what devices would you use to filter a whole circuit?

I have one circuit I filter using the 20 amp x10 device. SH sells it but you can find them on ebay for 1/3 the price. I'm pretty sure they are the exact same thing. The x10 unit works perfectly and has been up and running for 3 years. I also have a regular plug in filterlinc on my home automation/AV panel.

 

[htsource]

I did a poll on my Keypadlinc found 21 devices in the linked table from the keypad, vs 20 from ISY. I'm going to factory reset the switch to see if it will make a difference.

 

[htsource]

I went through all my switches and looked them up, I happened to have one SmartHome Keypadlinc that had Booster feature. I must had it on as I turned off Booster feature according to manual, right away I was able to restore the Keypadlinc that kept giving me grief, at the same time, that mysterous mismatch entry disappeared. That old Keypadlinc will be replaced later on this week during the daytime. I hope this is it to all the mysterious stuff happening with my Insteon adventure...