Recent content by Jay M

I know Squeezebox has come a long way recently it might be a great option. But let me tell you about how much I love my Sonos system. I have 8 zones in a very small house. -Master Bedroom -Master Bath -Guest room -guest Bath -Living room -Patio -Office -kitchen The controllers work much...

It 's been a few months so I thought I'd give an update on how life with Insteon and the ISY has been. In a word--Outstanding! It's only been a few months, so I won't comment on build quality, but nothing has failed yet. I am not an automation professional, or even a hobbiest, I really just...

I guess it depends on how you define the word "bug". To be fair I won't use the word bug. I'll tell you what's wrong. To interact with the ISY you need to use a web browser. When I go to log on sometimes it will take a few tries to get in. Sometimes it will time boot me off while I'm working...

A week has passed and so far I am VERY happy with Insteon. I'm less happy with the ISY. The ISY does offer a very elegant and powerful programming solution, but it's just too buggy and sluggish to enjoy using. Last night I couldn't even log into it to modify a program. But the programs still...

I know I'm still in the Honeymoon stage, but so far everything is working well. I have a 1400 sq foot house with 4 Access points. Everything seems to communicate very well. The ISY99 is easy to program and appears to be reliable. Right now I think I have: 15 dimmers 1 relay 2 keypads 2...

Thanks Mike, I decided to take the reliability risk and order Insteon. They have a 30 satisfaction guaranty, and for just a few $$ per device you get a 7 year warranty. I hope to know in the first 30 days if there are nay communications problems, if there are I make send it all back. The...

I am trying to think of how to wire the back yard stuff, here's my thought: -In line relay for the low voltage to switch the outdoor outlet on and off. I'll just not use the timer built into the transformer. -In line relay for the outlet the the fountain is plugged into. My thinking is that...

I have been using X-10 for about 10 years now and my needs are pretty simple. But X-10 doesn't work well in my house. The biggest issue I am aware of with Insteon is build quality. I have had 5 Insteon dimmers and 1 Powerlinc controller (the thing that stores timers for X-10) for over two...

WOW! I would consider that to be unusable. No wonder Automated Outlet has had them on sale for so long. Does GEN II solve the problem? ~Jay

There is a difference between a hoist and a winch. I can't rember all the differences, but I did a google search and found a good page on the subject. There are also guidlines for a hoist that is considered safe to walk under. I use a hoist to store my car's hard top in the garage ceiling...

Thanks for the replies, that is very helpful. What is the delay on the Gen 1 switches? Is it slower than X10? Another question: The Smart Home switches I have now make most bulbs ring when they are dim. Will these UPB switches help resuce that? ~Jay

I am about to replace my X-10 with UPB. I am having a hard time finding a clean feature list for teh different brands of UPB switches. There is the: Simply Automated US1140 PCS WS1D HAI 35A00-1 What are the major differences? The things that I have come to like about my Smart Home dimmers...

Thanks for the quick reply.. That is good advice to buy a few different brands to try. I saw someone selling what most people call a starter kit, but he called his a trial kit. Maybe I'll just create my own trial kit. Bright LEDs are a bad thing in the Home Theater room. ~Jay

I had a bunch of X-10 in my house, so I replaced it all with Smarthome switchlinks (i think they are called). Then I added some Insteon but use it with X-10 commands. I am using the Smarthome PC/timer module. The quality of this is terrible. My second one just failed. The robustness (if...

Thanks for the tip! I was seriously considering the watch, but I can't imagine sleeping with such a big watch on my wrist. the wrist band makes a lot more sense B) If you've read any reviews on the Sleep Tracker watch you'll notice that the biggest problem is sleeping through the alarm. I...