Insteon switches not acknowledging paddle press

[upstatemike]

Just tried replacing the paddle on the one giving me the most problems but that didn't solve the problem so I swapped out the switch. One thing I noticed between the old switch and the new one: With the paddle off, the small square metal area surrounding the actual switch buttons is bright silver on the new switch and kind of a bronze color on the old one. Could this be some sort of oxidation issue?

Tried calling tech support but the wait times are super long for some reason. I'll see if I can get through later this evening.

 

[johnnynine]

the small square metal area surrounding the actual switch buttons is bright silver on the new switch and kind of a bronze color on the old one. Could this be some sort of oxidation issue?

All of my switches are less than 2 months old and I have made 3 seperate insteon orders. I haven't checked yet, but I doubt that I would have an oxidation issue with such young switches (and I am seeing the problem on all of them).

 

[upstatemike]

I know. I'm just grasping at straws.

 

[PeterW]

I had four switchlincV2's do this as well. I found that removing the paddle putting a tiny tiny dab of hot glue on the tips of the posts that make contact with the microswitches (and letting them dry) seemed to do the trick for a while. (I tried this on one switch, but in the end it wasn't worth the hassle). Removing the paddle and pushing the microswitch directly was reliable 100% of the time.

I think the posts are a tiny bit short and are enough to make the metal button go click, but are just not quite enough to make electrical contact in some circumstances. I'd suspect bathroom oxidation, but we had one dimmer do the same thing *AS SHIPPED* from smarthome (directly out of the box), before the decora plate was even installed.

I had a couple of them do this and they drove my wife crazy as they were in high traffic areas (both bathrooms!). Sometimes, it would take 10+ pushes/wiggles/etc to make them finally turn on or off. They WOULD respond to remote control (eg: the nearby keypadlincV2).

I don't remember what we did with the bathroom ones. It was months ago. I'm pretty sure I returned those two, but it was possible I used them as paddle-less appliancelincV2 replacements.

(In case anybody was wondering, I do NOT return anything I've modified as that is clearly a warranty void situation!)

In any case, the failure mode made me a bit nervous. I resolved to check all the infrequently used switchlincV2's about once a month, just in case any more are going.

 

[Guy Lavoie]

Hmm, insteresting. A couple of months ago I ordered the Insteon SDK along with two Icon switches for testing and the very first Icon switch I hooked up had this problem with the top paddle. No matter what I did, I never did get it to turn on by pressing the paddle, although it did work with an Insteon command.

Now its the serial Powerlinc that's giving me problems; it won't transmit group broadcasts. I can do all the factory resets, database clearings, reload the coreapp, etc I want but no go. It transmits direct commands ok. It sets up links ok, but doesn't send anything on the powerline when trying to send a group broadcast.

 

[MrGibbage]

Where do we stand on this issue? I just installed a new dimmer (V2) and had this exact symptom? I replaced it with another brand new switch (wire for wire to make sure it wasn't an installation error) and it now works fine. Do I really have to go through the hassle of returning the bad switch to get a replacement? **sigh**

 

[Xpendable]

I had this problem on 1 switchLinc V2 which I have RMA'd. Now I am just starting to have this problem on an Icon Relay. I think SmartLabs should consider looking into the design of the paddles and see if there's a way they can improve them. My fiance got pretty agitated when she couldn't turn on the bathroom light one day after 50 presses.

 

[mkensinger]

Hmmm....

I have five of the older (green LED...which I wish I could still get) ICON relay switches and I am constantly walking into a dark bedroom because I miss with the first (fast stab) push of the switch. I always hear the microswitch click, but I do not get a response from the lamp.

Maybe it isn't just me after all...gawd I hate the thought of five amber LED ICONS...

*sigh*

Michael

 

[johnnynine]

I just posted a request for follow up at techmall on the quick tap issue.

http://www.techmall.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID...archTerms=quick

Can anyone here test the latest revision switches as I described in an earlier post of this thread and see if you still get the same behavior.

The gist is that is you tap the switch on or off very quickly the switch ignores the tap. Also if you double tap the switch very quickly the 1st tap is ignored. And therefore to get a double tap to be acknowledged you must quickly tap the switch 3 times since they ignore the first quick tap. You can read the exact details in the 7th post of the thread.

SmarthomeMike originally indicated that this was by design to prevent false presses but they would look into it as an issue. It basically causes my wife and I to enter dark rooms after we tap the switch on.

I would like to know if the latest generation of switches still suffer from this problem, can anyone confirm?

Thanks, Johnny

edit: fixed typo

 

[keepersg]

I have about 30 insteon switches and had 3 bad ones that were bad out of the box (these were clearance green led icons). Haven't been able to get them to produce the behavior you describe. They were purchased in November.

 

[johnnynine]

I RMA'd 2 dimmers from SmartHome and yes indeed, the 2 new v3.1 dimmers are working much better than my older ones. I have not yet walked into a dark room after after tapping the top paddle, however I have only been using them for a couple days.

Under stress tests I was still able to duplicate the initial problem that I reported but it was much more difficult to duplicate. So I would guess that either the anti-false click delay was shortened, or perhaps somehow there was some kind of mechanical tweak that causes it to work better.

I do however notice that you can get the microswitch to click without actually having the light turn on or off if you just barely tap the switch. This isn't as big of a deal and is possible just mechanical issue. My main concern was just to get the switches to turn on when they were pressed.