Brian's Brain

A bit over a month ago, and ahead of the completion of my upcoming November 22 hands-on feature article in EDN, I told you of my difficulty getting Smarthome's INSTEON-based PowerLinc Modem and On/Off Adapters to reliably converse with each other. Over the weekend, I had an opportunity to re-engage with the project, as preparation for Brian's Brain blog-based addendums to the article, and I have some encouraging (albeit confusing) results to share.

As it turns out, of the several dozen power outlets in my small mountain abode (the original owner was seemingly somewhat AC-crazed!), the only two that won't reliably work with INSTEON are two of the three I initially tested! Unfortunately, the unreliable two outlets are also the two outlets closest to my router; a desireable attribute, since the two devices with which I've tried controlling the PowerLinc Modem (an ancient albeit energy-efficient Fujitsu laptop computer in conjunction with HomeSeer's HS2 software suite, and Universal Devices' standalone Home Automation Controller) both LAN-tether (and therefore WAN-tether) via CAT5. The laptop also offers built-in 802.11 connectivity, but wireless access has to date been hit-and-miss here.

Considering the large number of power outlets that are working with INSTEON, I'm statistically (albeit perhaps naïvely) concluding that the wireless access points intended to bridge INSTEON control signals across both phases of the residence's incoming 220V source power feed are functioning as intended. Here's initial feedback from Smarthome's National Training Manager, Steve Lee, on a possible cause of my two-bad-power-outlet situation:

Usually when I see a situation like yours it tells me you might have a loose neutral related to those outlets. You can plug an access point into the PLM [editor note: PowerLinc Modem] that that ISY is plugged into and that should fix the communication issue to the ISY.

Ironically, HomePlug AV runs just fine through one of the outlets that INSTEON is balking at! Therefore, and at least for the moment, I've moved the ISY-26 and partner PowerLinc Modem to another AC outlet and (believe it or not) am Ethernet-tethering the ISY-26 to the router via a HomePlug AV powerline spur. Yes, you've read it right...I'm running automation hardware over my home's power grid, and connecting that hardware to the rest of my network via that same power grid! Everything's working quite solid right now, albeit with one critical exception. During a quite spectacular thunder, lightning, wind, rain and hailstorm yesterday afternoon, the residence experienced a brief (~5 second) power outage. Everything came back up ok except for the ISY-26, which I was unable to 'ping' until I manually power-cycled it again.

Perhaps obviously, given the November 22 article's topic, my intention with this project is to be able to reliably access, monitor and control the home even when I'm a hour's drive (or half a world) away. Universal Devices' engineers have already found and fixed one power-sequencing firmware bug I reported, and as I type these words they're busily doing more debugging and development in response to yesterday's situation. Since the laptop computer also acts as a platform for running Dynamic DNS update client software, I always have the option of using it as the PowerLinc modem interface, and its wireless transceiver makes it more location-versatile...if I can convince myself that its no-wires tether is stable over the long term. So far, it's remained up for 2.5 days straight without a glitch, so I'm cautiously optimistic.

And yes, I realize I've just jinxed myself by typing the above words ;-)

Followup: I've just subjected the offending two outlets to interrogation by my circuit tester, which reports no problems (and specifically no open neutral). So I'm once again at a loss as to a root cause of the INSTEON woes with these particular AC sources.