Insteon Group Manager question

[MR]

Hi.
I posted this over in the Insteon Plugin sticky in the Gider4 forum, but I'm not sure that thread is being watched anymore. I have a question on why all my devices aren't available in the Group Manager. Attached are screenshots. I would like my device named "Mantel" to be available to create a group, but I can't seem to select it. Any ideas?

Thanks!
MR

[MR]

Are there any opinions on what I might do? I purchased the software and it's kind of annoying that I can't get it to work properly.
Thanks,
MR

[vitello]

MR

I've never seen this problem. Do you have any warning/error message under the Link Manager tab or the PLC tab? There might have been some problem in setting up your link database. In the Smarthome tab there are autodiscovery settings that you might want to enable which will cause Girder to automatically look for devices.

As a last resort I would try linking by hand. There appears to be some problems with the Insteon plugin in G5. Linking worked better under G4.

Peter

[MR]

Thanks Peter. I appreciate the response.
I don't have any errors listed in the Links Manager or PLC tab. I actually have "auto discovery devices" and "auto update links" enabled in the Smarthome DM tab. The weird thing is in the PLC Manager "mantel" is linked, and it shows up in the Device Manager it just doesn't show up in the Group Manager.

Any ideas what might be wrong? I assume it's an issue with Girder as opposed to the PLC, but I'm not really sure. Is there a way to resent everything in Girder?

Thanks,
Mike

[vitello]

Mike,

What operating system are you using? XP or Vista? If it's Vista then you are likely to be running into Vista issues with the Insteon pluggin. How did you enter your devices and linkes into girder in the first place? Did you use G4 or G5? I started my insteon system with G4 and found linking worked better than with G5. In fact I have not been able to add new insteon devices directly into the G5 database. What worked for me was to manually link them with an existing device and have G5 find the new device when doing an auto detect new devices and auto update device links.

If your girder data base is broken I would suggest deleting all links and all entries in G5, so the device doesn't show up anywhere. Then manually linking it to a device in the girder device manager and having girder "find it". There is an update links button on the PLC tab that may make things update faster. Also try unplugging the PLC from the wall with girder off and plugging it back in. This resets the PLC.

I would not recommend deleting all of your devices from G5, because I have had problems adding new devices and you could end up with no devices at all.

Let me know if this helps.

[MR]

Thanks. I'm using WinXP and I entered the devices in G5. I tried what you suggested (I think) and it didn't seem to make a difference. I removed "Mantel" from the PLC Manager and Device Manager, and then added the address to the PLC manager, then clicked on Update Links. I think that was what you suggested I do, right? I still have the same problem.

The weird thing is I got "Mantel" to add to a Group once. Attached is a pick showing Group1 renamed to "Movie." In it, the Device called Mantel exists. But in the second pick if I try to add devices to Group2, Mantel isn't an option. So, something must have changed after I was able to add Mantel to Group1 the first time, or there is something about how Girder works that I haven't comprehended yet.

... any other ideas? I could remove Mantel from Group1 and see if that clears out any reference to it so I can start from scratch, but I'm nervous I might not be able to get it back into Group1.

Thanks.

[vitello]

MR,

Your Insteon plugin definitely behaves differently than mine. All devices should show up in the group tab. Here are a couple of things to try since you seem to be able to add devices to group 1 that you have names movie. Try creating a group using a number other than 2. All group numbers should work, but group 2 is clearly broken for you. Try using the group copy tab. I took a look at it on my system and it seems to allow group duplication on the plc, but the groups must be named. So create a second gamed group and copy your links from group 1 to a new group. If this works then you can edit the new group to delete devices and change levels.

There is a possibility that your PLC is bad and that this is a hardware error. You might want to try dowunloading girder 4 and try setting up links with it. I had much less trouble setting things up with girder 4. Girder 5 should be able to find any links downloaded to the PLC by girder 4.

Peter

[MR]

OK. Something is definitely screwed up in Girder on my system. I removed all devices and links, uninstalled Girder via add/remove programs and uninstalled the SDM, reinstalled everything and linked my devices back normally. The first thing I noticed was that I had renamed Group1 to "movies" and when I started up Girder after the reinstall, "movies" was still there. Also, just like before, the "Mantel" switch isn't available to any group. I started to think something was wrong with my PLC, but I downloaded this app http://fredricksensoftware.us/Insteon/Group%20Commander%20II/index.htm and created a Group with the "Mantel" switch outside of Girder. Girder still shows no device in the group after doing that, but when I create a group command and turn it on and off in Girder, lo and behold, Mantel is being controlled.

So, it appears that my Girder is not showing what is really in the Group links database... or something like that. I'm just at a loss as I uninstalled the program but there are still some settings somewhere that is screwing things up. Could someone from Promixis help me out?

Thanks,
MIke

[Rob H]

I'd love to help, but unfortunately Insteon still isn't available in the UK.

You'll probably find that the configuration files remain behind after an uninstall - depending on how you installed Girder they will be in
C:\Documents and Settings\xxx\Application Data\Promixis\Girder\5\Config where the xxx is either 'All Users' or the name of the user that was active when you installed Girder.

It's probably also worth a look in the Logs folder in a similar location to see if any errors are being reported in the Insteon log.

[MR]

Thanks. I deleted the config files and reinstalled, but that didn't fix it. I guess I can live with this as I can use that other application to define my groups, and still use Girder to control them. I just won't be able to use Girder to manage my groups. Since I don't have too many controllers, it's probably OK for now. Not what I expected, but in the end I think I can do what I want.
THanks,
MR

[MR]

OK. It's not a bad as I thought. I can do everything in Girder afterall. I still can't see devices in the Group Manager pulldown to select directly, but as Peter suggested, I can enter a device into a Group manually in the PLC tab. Thing is after that, it will show up in the Link Manager as an Incomplete Link. After rebuilding it, the Group Manager will show the device I added and I can then set the ramp rate and on-level. So, it works as long as I don't forget the sequence of events (part of the reason why I'm posting this. :) )

What I don't know about Girder is vast, so my problems could still be opperator error.

Now after all the reinstalls, I just have an issue where pressing the same button on my remote to the USB-URIT will show up as different (seemingly random) IR codes. I should be able to figure this one out, and then I'm golden (I think.)

Thanks for the help.
MR