Insteon 2413U occasionally disappears

Hi all,

I've been dealing with an issue that happens sporadically, but enough to be a pain. It's especially troublesome when I'm away on business and cannot rectify it immediately, leaving my system useless.

I'm running Indigo 7 on a Mac Pro connected to an Insteon 2413U via USB port. Every so often, perhaps once every 3 weeks, sometimes more frequently, the 2413U simply "disappears" and I see the "PowerLinnc 2413U" with the red line through it in the lower left hand corner of the Indigo window. Usually I have to reboot the Mac Pro and unplug/replug the 2413U into the wall socket in order for things to come back to normal.

Nothing unusual that I can see has happened to cause this. Do others see this same behavior with the 2413U?

[jay (support)]

We've had periodic reports of this. Seems like often times it's because there's some USB issue on the Mac - a device that's somehow interfering with the PowerLinc, the PowerLinc being plugged into a hub, etc. It could also be a sign of a failing PowerLinc. Have you tried just unplugging the PowerLinc (without the reboot) and waiting a couple of minutes then plugging it back in? Also, when it goes away like that does it disappear from the USB section of the System Information?

Looking at the USB section in System Profiler, it appears that a phantom FT232R USB UART device has appeared:

Screen Shot 2017-08-08 at 4.22.36 PM.png (123.2 KiB) Viewed 4330 times

Screen Shot 2017-08-08 at 4.22.32 PM.png (123.28 KiB) Viewed 4330 times

Notice that both screenshots show the exact same serial number (A501LDD5) in the details.

I've confirmed that unplugging the USB cable from the 2413U causes one to disappear, but the other one persistently stays.

I also checked the /dev/cu.* devices and mysteriously, only Bluetooth-Incoming-Port appears. Not /dev/cu.usbserial-a501ldd5 as I would expect. Also kextunload fails to unload the driver (predictably).

Screen Shot 2017-08-08 at 4.24.59 PM.png (58.68 KiB) Viewed 4330 times

Freaky!

FYI, a reboot fixed the issue. I am still stymied by how it happened in the first place.

[jay (support)]

Ah, yes, we've seen that before. In fact it happened to me. Seems like an OS update fixed it.

I'm running macOS Sierra 10.12.6 so that is the latest OS update (outside of betas).

I'll keep an eye on this and note when it happens again. Now I have something to look for.

I have also consistently lost connection to my 2413U. I have even purchased a new 2413U and it won't connect.

I get "usbserial-A40160PA-port not found" in the Configure INSTEON/X10 Powerline Interface.

I've tried rebooting, etc. Running Indigo 7 Pro and V10.12.6.

Stumped..

[jay (support)]

Have you tried other USB ports, including on your USB 2 hub, and a different USB cable?

Yes--I tried the existing USB cable (the old 2413U) but then I even swapped it out with the new one that came with the new 2413U. Both are plugged directly into the back of my late-2015 MAC desktop and I tried moving the cable to another port on the back (there are only 4 of them--not a hub).

Is there a driver I need to upgrade for the modem?

[jay (support)]

Did you try a port on your hub as I suggested above?

The FTDI driver is built-in to the OS so that's unlikely to be the issue.

Also, open Terminal window and paste in the following command:

Code: Select all

ls -la /dev/*usb*

Copy/paste the contents of the terminal window into a reply here.

Just as an FYI, I purchased another 2413U last week and it came in a few days ago. Its firmware revision is printed on a small sticker and shows "2.3" while the one I'm replacing is "1.7". We'll see how well this one works.

Sorry for delay--out of town ...

I tired going into a hub (rather than the back of the mac) and the results are the same. No difference--although--*so* time there are two USB options when I clicked on configure.

Here are the results:

FLiMAC:~ BillNYCiMac$ Ls -la /dev/*usb*
Ls: /dev/*usb*: No such file or directory

Likewise--my "old" 2413U was V1.7--the new one is V2.3

Not sure if that makes any difference.

[jay (support)]

You didn't copy/paste the command exactly as I put above (note your capital L which shouldn't be).

Sorry-I ran it several times but for some reason when I did the cut and paste I selected the *only* example with the capital L!

I thought maybe my cut and paste was screwing it up so I tried to do that one by hand--I must have inadvertently capitalized the first l.

As you can the results have been pretty consistent though (or am I still issuing the wrong command?)

Tried it again...

FLiMAC:~ BillNYCiMac$ ls -la /dev/*usb*
ls: /dev/*usb*: No such file or directory
FLiMAC:~ BillNYCiMac$

[jay (support)]

Ok, so that's showing the the Mac isn't seeing the 2314U - or at least the FTDI driver isn't seeing it. Unplug all USB devices from your Mac except mouse/keyboard and the 2413U and try again. When you do the ls command it shouldn't say No such file or directory but rather will show something.