Insteon Software Controller recomendations?

[drozwood90]

This is mostly for Lou, however I know there are others out there using Insteon.

I have a friend that is getting into Home Automation, had asked me a LOT of questions, etc. I did recommend him signing up on here, since Cocoontech really is a "generic" HA site. "Everyone" is welcome type of place. To my knowledge, he is not a member...yet.

After spending a LOT of time with him he did a lot of research on his own and finally decided, for HIM in HIS situation Insteon is the protocol he wants to use.

At this time, I think he has some kind of PIM and 4 switches and a (probably getting this one wrong) 6 button scene controller (??)--"...So far just using HouseLinc 2 software that came with my computer PLM interface...". At any rate, he was messing around with it and was talking about getting Homeseer, but did not want to pay that much for software at this time (that's a lot to bite off to start with). The way he put it to me, he wanted to have Homeseer's capability, but could not put that much into this hobby at this time.

I did point him at the new page Dan put together, and he had some questions about the usability of the other software packages. So, that left me now being able to answer him. I know with Homeseer, the "best" want to connect was with a ISY-99 (?? probably got that wrong).

So, after all that setup...

If you are an Insteon user...WHAT are YOU using with Insteon? Do you have an ISY? Do you let it do all your automation? If so, how do you do more advanced functionality? What software package do you use? Does Elve work with Insteon (work well...since IT IS MY UNDERSTANDING until the ISY, Homeseer "supported" Insteon...but was not that great...however now is VERY reliable).

I'm curious, since I know what I would tell him if it were Z-Wave or UPB (I use both).

Thanks for all of your help!

--Dan (not E)

 

[wuench]

I use an ISY. I try to keep lighting rules on it, but where necessary I supplement with the ElkM1 and CQC.

If you plan to use multiple controllers/software, ISY is the best solution as it becomes the central controller that all the other software communicates with. Without it you would need a PLM for each controller and would have to re-program links into each one and they would be hard/impossible to keep in sync. But even without multiple controllers the ISY is probably the best out there for Insteon control....

 

[Smarty]

Lots of folks have good things to say about the ISY. I personally use and think very highly of PowerHome for Insteon PLUS all kinds of other control as well.

 

[apostolakisl]

I haven't used homeseer so I can not really speak to direct comparisons.

However, I have been very very happy with ISY. It is not cheap but it is very reliable and makes Insteon make sense. They keep adding more functionality to it, mostly for free. They also will bend over backwards to help you fix problems and just plain explain stuff to you even if the problem is cluelessness on the user's part. It is capable of very complex programming, and as such, requires effort on the user part to learn how to get it to do all that fancy stuff, if you want to.

It also is now fully integrated with cai webcontrol, which is nice and exciting to me, but maybe not to a ton of people.

It should be fully integrated with Elk m1g but for now is only partially integrated.

I currently have some of my home automation run by the elk and some by isy. When the elk module comes out, I will being letting ISY host everything.

I really like the fact that the unit is very tiny, accepts ir, uses only a couple watts, never crashes, recovers correctly from power failures on its own, and just works. I wish it transmitted ir on its own, but I got a global cache unit and it works that just fine.

With the network module, those with knowledge can send network commands to damn near everything that accepts network commands.

I do not know anything about elve.

I can not compare ISY to any other software packages since I have never had any. I will say that ISY capabilities greatly exceed those of Elk which many people are very familiar with. Not that the m1 is bad, but it is short on memory and quite difficult to keep organized when you have a lot of programs. Elk language may be a little easier to understand with no experience (it is a little more common English), but ISY isn't that hard to learn and once learned opens up a lot of options for control.

Just like Elk, however, ISY is not a user interface. You will need separate software if you want a nice pretty gui that your wife can understand. Though, I have not found the need for it, except on my smartphone. I have programmed keypads to do all of the common operations, have automated so many things that you rarely need to manually do anything, and the rare times I do need to take over manually, I just use the standard admin interface to do those things.

 

[rusgrafx]

It's not clear from the question if it's about Software or Hardware Controllers?

I use ISY99i as well and would definitely recommend it anytime as a hardware controller. As a GUI for ISY I use Conductor for Android on my Droid X phone - and it's awesome!

Having said that, Software (PC/Mac-based) controllers might offer more features, could be more novice-user-friendly, etc.

But everyone has to choose for him/herself what's more important to them - having a stable, robust, low-power, developer-oriented device or having more features at a cost of having to maintain an XP (in many cases) system with all the "bonuses" that come with it (namely, worrying about anti-virus/anti-spyware protection, lock-ups, reboots, etc).

For example, I would love to have a few features that ISY currently lacks - like voice control, TTS, distributed media control, etc. But I prefer to stay with ISY for the time being.

On the software front, I'm currently evaluating Shion software on Mac. It has some pretty interesting features (and is free). It supports programming with AppleScript, can launch apps, and has nice graphical event logging that's easier to understand (compared to ISY's). I use it to complement my ISY, mostly for non INSTEON-related activities. For example, it can announce current time every hour through Growl, launch music in iTunes (and push it to AirPort Express-connected speakers), notify of new email, make a photo snapshot in response to motion, etc.

 

[sanders2222]

I started with X10 and Homeseer in the early 90's. Then moved to Homeseer 2, Insteon & ISY-99iR as I hated running the PC 24x7. The ISY had no moving parts! Here is a summary of my set-up:

• Lighting (32 devices including dimmers, keypads & outlets)
• EZRain Irrigation with WeatherBug monitoring
• Venstar T-stat for heating cooling
• Inline Linc for tile floor t-stat control
• Garage door monitoring
• 2 2420M Motion Detectors
• Russound CAA66 Audio Distribution
• UR MX-850 & MX-980/MRF-350 Remote Controllers

My system has remained stable & dependable over the years it has grown. The ISY was significantly less than a HomeTroller system. Insteon is also considerable less than other protocols. Plus ISY firmware updates are constantly adding features. Programming the ISY is fun and very powerful. The friendly Universal Devices staff are second to none for customer service! You should visit forum.universal-devices.com if you want to know more about the ISY.
I soon will add:

• Elk M1G (replaces a 30 year old security system)
• 2-IP Web Cameras
• Driveway Sensor
• iphone (with controller app)
• iPad or tablet Controller

These adds will pretty much complete the essentials for my Home Automation and should be fully integrated with one another.

 

[Zellarman]

+ 1 on the ISY, I'm far from a computer programmer in any sense, but have it controlling IR through an iTach, RS232 through a port server, and HTTP commands (or network) in addition to the standard insteon protocol. I use my iPad with iRule, a standard IR remote and an x-10 keychain fob to control it. I'm not familiar with any other software or hardware, but don't need to be, there's nothing my ISY hasn't been able to do yet. The customer service is all you've read and then some, and the forums have plenty of documentation.

 

[gatchel]

I also use the ISY-99 IR Pro...I was using Powerhome but wanted to get away from a PC running 24/7.

I use it with ann Elk M1 and do some basic Elk input linking to turn on a few scenes.

It runs flawlessly. ( I Think I am running 2.8.16 firmware)

Their support is some of the best I have had from a technology company in a long time.

(No, I don't work for them)