Status Updates

[matapan]

Does ISY provide any notification mechanism for any state changes occurring in an Insteon network that iLinc can use?

I noticed that some state changes with my Insteon switches aren't being updated while iLinc is running. The only way I've found so far to get these state changes is to exit and relaunch the app.

[AdminWes]

Hi matapan,

iLinc subscribes to ISY so that iLinc stays in sync with your Insteon network. When you think that iLinc is out of sync with your network, log into your ISY java interface from your PC and see what ISY is reporting. iLinc is only as accurate as what ISY thinks your network's current state is.

There is another possible explaination. If iLinc disconnects from ISY due to heavy network traffic, ISY not sending (or interrupting) the ISY heartbeat, iLinc will attempt to reconnect to ISY and re-subscribe after 2 minutes. This is the default heartbeat setting for ISY and subscribed network devices. If iLinc gets out of sync, you can either resart iLinc to force a subscription to ISY or wait for 2 minutes and let iLinc resync itself with ISY.

Wes

[matapan]

iLinc maintains its status updates, provided that the iPhone is always on. If the iPhone goes to sleep or the top button is pressed, then the connection appears to drop, but the connection is not refreshed on wake.

Is it possible to refresh the connection automatically on wake? This is a fairly consistent and visible issue.

[AdminWes]

Hi matapan,

The issue you are seeing with the iPhone is (I'm assuming here) that your iPhone is on WiFi and connected to iLinc. When your phone goes to sleep iLinc unsubscribes to the ISY and waits till it wakes up to resubscribe to ISY. Once asleep, the iPhone will drop the WiFi connection and default back to 3G until it wakes up. When the iPhone wakes up it doesn't always log back into your WiFi router right way, however, iLinc will attempt to subscribe to ISY over whatever connection is available (3G). If the IP address you have in iLinc is an internal address, then the subscription over 3G will fail. If you have an external address then you still might see this issues as the iPhone switches the data service to WiFi as iLinc is trying to exchange data over the 3G connection. In this case the subscribtion will be interrupted as the ISY will see the 3G route drop off and the WiFi route come alive. This entire exchage could take 2 minutes to completly resolve (due to the ISY heartbeat timeout of 2 minutes).

I hope this addresses what you are seeing and a possible under-the-hood explaination.

Wes

[chicharon]

Hi Wes,

Is there any way to work around this issue? It happens every time the iPhone sleeps while iLinc is running. When I subsequently wake the iPhone, I can control devices but the status for the device is incorrect in the devices list. It is actually worse than just a status indication problem. The following is 100% repeatable:

* Launch iLink and select devices
* Wait a few minutes
* Hit the top button to wake the iPhone
* Select a dimmable SWL in the devices list
* Select <on> (light goes to 100% on, iLinc device control slider shows 100%)
* Go back to devices list. The SWL shows a status of off even though it is on. ISY Admin console shows on.
* Select the same SWL device (iLinc slider now shows off in the device control screen)
* Hit <dimm> once and the SWL load goes from 100% to off at the ramp rate.

Note that my connection method is via a DDNS URL so not sure it completely aligns with your theory of internal IP while on 3G (BTW I still have the original iPhone so on Edge and not 3G). It does align with the heartbeat part of your theory however since if I stay in the device list for long enough, the status will eventually get corrected and the above issue (hit dim once turns device off) does not occur. The way I use iLink makes this a real bummer of an issue for a number of reasons. Any way to avoid it?

[AdminWes]

Hi chicharon,

As part of the next update I'm changing the network code around a little bit and this is one of the issues I hope the update will address.

In the next update when iLinc detects the phone or touch going to sleep it issues a Unsubscribe request to the ISY thus disconnecting all status updates while asleep. When the phone or touch wakes back up it issues a subscribe request and connects back up right away. I think this is an improvement over the current implementation and solves the problem at hand.

Thanks for the feedback,
Wes

[AdminWes]

Hi chicharon,

The 2.10 update has been release to Apple for approval:
http://www.mobileintegratedsolutions.com/utilities/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=155

This update should address your connection concerns.

Wes