bbruck
Member
As a new user, I like to keep abreast of the boards to know what's what with my Insteon system. I've been somewhat surprised at the volume and passion of negative comments about Insteon - especially compared with other boards that I keep up with such as Indigo's. In one long thread one user said that he suspected that there might be a fair number of folks who were satisfied with their experiences with Insteon. I see several posts saying "I was considering Insteon but now I'll avoid it like the plague!"
As my experience has been pretty good, I thought I'd share it with others. Honestly I sort of expect to get semi-flamed - or at least get a lot of "just wait terrible things will happen to you" comments, so I've held off saying anything for a while. But a recent similar thread in the Smarthome forum encouraged me to post the following. I'd love to hear other newbie's experiences with Insteon - and especially folks whose experience hasn't simply been terrible, if you know what I mean. What lessons have you learned that we can share with each other? Here's mine...
I started HA about four months ago. I have 56 devices; started with lighting controls (using X10 motion sensors); gradually have replaced the motion sensors with Insteon, and ventured into two thermostats and two garage door openers. I have some more light controllers and an IR sensor and a transceiver I want to wire in. I use Indigo to control everything. My thoughts so far:
o I love Insteon - which works - v. the X10 stuff I tried years ago - which never did.
o I totally love Indigo and controlling things from my mac, my airbook, and especially my wife and my iphones.
o I tried to get away cheap at first - buying things from ebay. Overall, the experience was good, but I did wind up with 6 bad switchlincs. These were not under warranty (as I wasn't the original owner), but I found Steve at SH to be especially accommodating. I have had two other device problems, and SH and Norm at MacHomeStore have been extremely helpful and willing to switch things out immediately. Lesson learned - if you wanna buy used stuff, do your research on the boards FIRST to know what's what. I'd still buy an appliance or togglelink (and in fact got one of my thermostats for $35), but know what you're doing.
o Be aware that in a big house you may need more than two accesspoints. Oddly enough, I bought two noise reducers (can't remember the name); put one automatically on my main computer, but have never even used the other one.
o Be aware that this is still early adopter technology. Things won't be perfect, and you need to have a DIY attitude for experimenting around etc. There still aren't controllers for some things that I would have thought there would be - my Casablanca ceiling fans (with 7 level fans and dimming lights); temperature sensors; less expensive ways to control drapes - some of these things get VERY pricey very quickly.
o I thought I'd be integrating my sprinkler system, cause I'm excited about smart controller technology. Turns out you can get a sprinkler controller, but there aren't plug and play routines for pulse schedules, adapting zones to slope, soil, and type of vegetation, and even the weather integration is pretty rudimentary. So I'm going with a weathermatic (non-linked) controller.
o I thought I'd be integrating my alarm system - nothing fancy - but being able to read the multitude of door, window, and motion sensors through Indigo. No can do - The Elk controller everyone uses sort of wants to be the main controller, and simply reading the sensors from my old Ademco board is dicey, expensive, and experimental.
So I guess my experience has been that I've been very happy with the stability of the system; felt a little stupid not doing more research to know about the paddle problem and got caught trying to save $$, have been extremely happy with the folks at indigo, machomestore, and smarthome, have more realistic expectations for what can and cannot be done today, and have gotten over the original sticker shock of paying $45 for a light switch!
As my experience has been pretty good, I thought I'd share it with others. Honestly I sort of expect to get semi-flamed - or at least get a lot of "just wait terrible things will happen to you" comments, so I've held off saying anything for a while. But a recent similar thread in the Smarthome forum encouraged me to post the following. I'd love to hear other newbie's experiences with Insteon - and especially folks whose experience hasn't simply been terrible, if you know what I mean. What lessons have you learned that we can share with each other? Here's mine...
I started HA about four months ago. I have 56 devices; started with lighting controls (using X10 motion sensors); gradually have replaced the motion sensors with Insteon, and ventured into two thermostats and two garage door openers. I have some more light controllers and an IR sensor and a transceiver I want to wire in. I use Indigo to control everything. My thoughts so far:
o I love Insteon - which works - v. the X10 stuff I tried years ago - which never did.
o I totally love Indigo and controlling things from my mac, my airbook, and especially my wife and my iphones.
o I tried to get away cheap at first - buying things from ebay. Overall, the experience was good, but I did wind up with 6 bad switchlincs. These were not under warranty (as I wasn't the original owner), but I found Steve at SH to be especially accommodating. I have had two other device problems, and SH and Norm at MacHomeStore have been extremely helpful and willing to switch things out immediately. Lesson learned - if you wanna buy used stuff, do your research on the boards FIRST to know what's what. I'd still buy an appliance or togglelink (and in fact got one of my thermostats for $35), but know what you're doing.
o Be aware that in a big house you may need more than two accesspoints. Oddly enough, I bought two noise reducers (can't remember the name); put one automatically on my main computer, but have never even used the other one.
o Be aware that this is still early adopter technology. Things won't be perfect, and you need to have a DIY attitude for experimenting around etc. There still aren't controllers for some things that I would have thought there would be - my Casablanca ceiling fans (with 7 level fans and dimming lights); temperature sensors; less expensive ways to control drapes - some of these things get VERY pricey very quickly.
o I thought I'd be integrating my sprinkler system, cause I'm excited about smart controller technology. Turns out you can get a sprinkler controller, but there aren't plug and play routines for pulse schedules, adapting zones to slope, soil, and type of vegetation, and even the weather integration is pretty rudimentary. So I'm going with a weathermatic (non-linked) controller.
o I thought I'd be integrating my alarm system - nothing fancy - but being able to read the multitude of door, window, and motion sensors through Indigo. No can do - The Elk controller everyone uses sort of wants to be the main controller, and simply reading the sensors from my old Ademco board is dicey, expensive, and experimental.
So I guess my experience has been that I've been very happy with the stability of the system; felt a little stupid not doing more research to know about the paddle problem and got caught trying to save $$, have been extremely happy with the folks at indigo, machomestore, and smarthome, have more realistic expectations for what can and cannot be done today, and have gotten over the original sticker shock of paying $45 for a light switch!
