Successful Move To 2018 Mac Mini

I have successfully moved from a 2012 Mac Mini to a 2018 Mac Mini. I had no problems and only had to select a USB port for the Z-Wave G5 stick - the Insteon modem port was proper. So far I have had no issues.

[jay (support)]

And you didn't experience the FTDI driver issues so you didn't perform the workaround for your PowerLinc? This is something I've really been waiting to hear from someone.

And you didn't experience the FTDI driver issues so you didn't perform the workaround for your PowerLinc? This is something I've really been waiting to hear from someone.

No, no FTDI driver issues, no work around - nothing! I did, as I stated, have to choose a port for the Z-Wave stick, other than that it works/worked flawlessly. I'll have to admit, I was very pleased. I wasn't looking forward to the the FTDI workaround. I am wondering why someone hasn't come up with a shell script to do all the heavy lifting of the workaround? If I'd had problems, I was planning on going back to the old machine and develop a script to fix the new Mini since from what I've been reading it seems that the problem can crop up with later updates. I hope I have no problems down the road.


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[jay (support)]

That is great news. I'm quite mystified why they would change how they named modem ports (forcing you to reselect it for the Z-Stick) but I suppose as long as it works it's not a huge deal.

A shell script wouldn't really help since you have to reboot into recovery mode (or safe mode) to move Apple's broken driver out of the way (because of SIP).

This is just a little extra input after a successful move to a 2018 Mac Mini with Mojave OS a couple weeks ago. (Thanks to everyone for the tips that made that move quite painless.) Today, I updated Mojave OS to the latest version 10.14.2, using the COMBO updater I downloaded from Apple, not the basic updater from the App Store. The update was quick and smooth, except after the final restart and then launching Indigo 7.2, it could not find my Powerlink 2413U. I quit Indigo, unplugged the Powerlink's USB cable from the Mac Mini, reinstalled the serial driver (luckily still saved in New Downloads), reattached the USB cable to the Mini, relaunched Indigo, and everything was fixed and back to normal. I'm not sure if updating Mojave to 10.14.2 using the simple updater instead of the full COMBO updater would have retained the serial driver, but that's my guess. I prefer to update any Mac OS with the full combo updaters, so I am going to hang onto that serial driver installer for possible use in the future.

[jay (support)]

This is just a little extra input after a successful move to a 2018 Mac Mini with Mojave OS a couple weeks ago. (Thanks to everyone for the tips that made that move quite painless.) Today, I updated Mojave OS to the latest version 10.14.2, using the COMBO updater I downloaded from Apple, not the basic updater from the App Store. The update was quick and smooth, except after the final restart and then launching Indigo 7.2, it could not find my Powerlink 2413U. I quit Indigo, unplugged the Powerlink's USB cable from the Mac Mini, reinstalled the serial driver (luckily still saved in New Downloads), reattached the USB cable to the Mini, relaunched Indigo, and everything was fixed and back to normal. I'm not sure if updating Mojave to 10.14.2 using the simple updater instead of the full COMBO updater would have retained the serial driver, but that's my guess. I prefer to update any Mac OS with the full combo updaters, so I am going to hang onto that serial driver installer for possible use in the future.

Wow, that's very interesting. Try this if you would: reboot your Mac (leaving the 2413U plugged in) and see if it successfully connects and communicates once logged in without doing anything else.

What you're describing seems counter to what other users have reported with the new mini - according to them, the built-in FTDI driver in macOS worked fine for them so they didn't need to install the 3rd party FTDI driver. Since it appears that your experience is different, I'm wondering if you're also going to see the second macOS driver bug described in our blog post about the driver issues (if you reboot with the PowerLinc plugged in it won't work until you've unplugged/replugged it).

Jay - OK, I quit Indigo touching no cables, restarted the Mac Mini, relaunched Indigo 7.2 and found my Powerlink 2413U with the red line thru it. Not communicating with anything. I quit Indigo, unplugged the Powerlink's USB cable, counted to 10 and plugged it back in, restarted Indigo and the Powerlink was back to normal. I tested a couple of devices from the Mac Mini keyboard and they worked as normal. Thanks for alerting me to this issue. Now I know what to do to fix it if I see this again, but it is weird.

Jay - one more thing I forgot to mention in my initial post. After restarting everything after applying the COMBO updater and discovering the Powerlink problem, the very first thing I did was quit Indigo, unplug and replug the Powerlink USB cable. Relaunched Indigo. No joy. Then I unplugged the Powerlink from the wall and plugged it back in, and then relaunched Indigo. No joy. That's when I thought to reinstall the driver and that is when everything went back to normal (or so I thought . . .)

[jay (support)]

Jay - one more thing I forgot to mention in my initial post. After restarting everything after applying the COMBO updater and discovering the Powerlink problem, the very first thing I did was quit Indigo, unplug and replug the Powerlink USB cable. Relaunched Indigo. No joy. Then I unplugged the Powerlink from the wall and plugged it back in, and then relaunched Indigo. No joy. That's when I thought to reinstall the driver and that is when everything went back to normal (or so I thought . . .)

Did you use Migration Assistant and/or a Time Machine to move/restore from the Mac you moved from or did you just manually move over the Indigo folders?

I've had an unsubstantiated suspicion for a while now that the driver issue may somehow be tied to older cruft that's being propagated through those processes (both use the same mechanism for moving stuff around).

[jay (support)]

Jay - one more thing I forgot to mention in my initial post. After restarting everything after applying the COMBO updater and discovering the Powerlink problem, the very first thing I did was quit Indigo, unplug and replug the Powerlink USB cable. Relaunched Indigo. No joy. Then I unplugged the Powerlink from the wall and plugged it back in, and then relaunched Indigo. No joy. That's when I thought to reinstall the driver and that is when everything went back to normal (or so I thought . . .)

Yeah, that makes sense because it would be using the built-in Apple FTDI driver which is part one of the driver issues.

Jay - I did not use Migration Assistant or Time Machine Backup for my new Mac Mini. I copied the Perceptive Automation/Indigo 7 folder from the Library of my old failing Mac Mini onto an external drive. I had decided to have a new dedicated home automation Mac Mini to be used for almost nothing else running 24/7, so I wanted no other apps or document folders from the old machine on it. I de-authorized Indigo 7 on the old computer, downloaded Indigo 7.2 directly to the new computer from your site, copied the Perceptive Automation/ Indigo 7 folder to the correct spot in the Library folder of the new machine, and then launched and authorized Indigo on the new computer. Indigo added the Indigo 7.2 folder to the PA folder in the Library, and it apparently found other data it needed in the Indigo 7 folder. I downloaded the serial driver and installed it. Except for 1Password and Dropbox, I have added no other apps to the new Mac Mini, and as coached, I have iCloud Drive turned off.

If I did not have a whole house generator (and a battery backup unit to power the home automation computer for the 15 seconds it takes the generator to kick on), this unplug/replug issue would be a real problem for me when we are gone for a few weeks at a time a few times a year. I guess I am not too worried about it right now, but I will be eager to learn about a real fix in the future.

[jay (support)]

Ok, so much for that theory. Back to the random macOS bugs then.

Oh, btw, have you tried both of the USB ports on the mini? Seems like I recall someone mentioning that they could avoid the issue using a specific USB port on the back of an older mini.

Jay - bottomline: tested connecting my Powerlink 2413U via each of the two USB ports on my Mac Mini 2018 running Mojave with 10.14.2 update, and today both ports worked fine when starting back up - Powerlink visible in Indigo 7.2 with no red line thru it. Not the same problem I stumbled upon yesterday. Interesting. (Indigo performed beautifully thru the night and up to the time of the test today with all devices, timers and triggers working automatically as expected.)

Here is what I did to test.

1. Quit Indigo. Shut down the Mac Mini. Noted that Powerlink USB cable was connected to the innermost USB port on the Mac Mini. Waited 3 minutes and started the Mac Mini. Waited for all desktop menu items to load and then manually launched Indigo 7.2. Powerlink 2413U appears in Indigo with no red line and log shows it connected successfully. Tested a couple devices on/off via the keyboard. No problems.

2. Quit Indigo. Shut down the Mac Mini. Moved the Powerlink USB cable to the OTHER (outermost) USB port on the Mac Mini. Waited 3 minutes and started the Mac Mini. Waited for all desktop menu items to load and then manually launched Indigo 7.2. Powerlink 2413U appears in Indigo with no red line and log shows it connected successfully. Tested a couple devices on/off via the keyboard. No problems.

[jay (support)]

Hmmm. I wonder if your installation of the FTDI driver was in fact needed or if some other transient issue was causing the PowerLinc to not connect. Usually both problems go hand in hand, though I suppose it's possible that the second bug may be fixed (driver load order) in Mojave.

Thanks for testing.