I have a single X10 device in my otherwise all-Insteon network -- outdoor floodlights with an attached motion detector. (Gee, it would sure be nice if there was a similar Insteon product!!!!) When I first installed this, there was no problem with Indigo sending and receiving X10 commands from this X10 motion detector -- I could manually control the floodlights from Indigo, and have Indigo receive an X10 command from the device to trigger an action group. But then I added more Insteon devices in my network, and Indigo will no longer send or receive commands from the X10 device. (I've read that Insteon devices will "soak up" X10 signals, so I assume that's what happened when I enlarged my network.)

Here's the possible bug in Indigo: When I now try to control the floodlights from Indigo by sending a "Turn On", "Turn Off" or even a "Send Status Reqpuest", the PowerLinc V2 meter shows the green bar going half way across, and then just sits in the middle of the meter. I'm guessing this shows the command is "pending"?? If any further commands are sent, including to any other Insteon devices, then those command signals also "queue up" and add to the green bar sitting in the middle of the PowerLinc V2 meter, and nothing gets through. Perhaps Indigo is programmed so that such a logjam will automatically "time out" -- I didn't wait to see if that happened -- but the only way I could get rid of the logjam so that Indigo would work again was to restart the computer.

I suppose I could fix the X10 problem by getting an X10 signal booster (ugh), but that doesn't resolve the logjam issue. Does this fix itself by timing out, or is this truly a bug?

Thanks.

I think something funny is happening on your power line. I believe the clogged queue only happens if the PowerLinc is waiting for the power line to go idle. Meaning, it is waiting until it isn't seeing any X10 or INSTEON commands on the power line, so that it can send the command Indigo requested. Indigo will momentarily stop sending X10 commands to the PowerLinc if you send a status request. But that times out after just a few seconds or when a status response is seen. Indigo doesn't hold up its queue at all after sending a basic on/off command. Rather, it waits for the PowerLinc to report that either the command was sent or that it failed to send. In your case, the PowerLinc isn't reporting either because it is waiting for the power line to go idle (or maybe the PL is malfunctioning). If the command were failing to send (PL reports back an error) you'll see the green nugget bar continuously being sent across the progress bar as Indigo retries the command over and over. But if it is just stuck in the center, then the PowerLinc isn't reporting a success or failure.

Now... what could be the cause? I'm not positive. It could be some type of X10 signal problem or it could be a X10 signal storm. Your floodlight motion detector is known to have problems getting into a signal race condition with other devices. See the bottom message on this post, and this entire thread. I suspect that might be related to the problem.

Regards,
Matt

Thanks, Matt. I removed the Leviton X10 6417 motion detector from my device list, and haven't had the problem recur. Or, does even having the device exist in my home's electrical system continue to carry with it the risk of another signal storm triggered by the motion detector even if Indigo doesn't have the device listed? Does chanigng the sensor switch on the 6417 from "in" to "out" shut off X10 signalling? (I'm continuing to use the device as a simple stand-alone motion-sensor to control the floodlights locally, since that works fine.)

support wrote:...Now... what could be the cause? I'm not positive. It could be some type of X10 signal problem or it could be a X10 signal storm. Your floodlight motion detector is known to have problems getting into a signal race condition with other devices. See the bottom message on this post, and this entire thread. I suspect that might be related to the problem.

Regards,
Matt

I think if it is transmitting X10 commands at all (because of motion) then you might have the signal storm problem. But if you haven't seen it for a while, maybe that wasn't the problem or maybe it will happen infrequently enough that you can live with it?

Regards,
Matt