Hey everyone! New to the home automation game here. So far last week I bought the Insteon Starter Kit which has the Insteon Hub, and then 2 wall dimmers. I also bought a wall dimmer switch, bunch of LED lights, motion sensors, leak sensor, and door sensors. Everything works great, although basic which is to be expected. Because of this I was advised to get the ISY994 which I most likely will do soon just do to its more advanced events and rules.
My issue though is that I'd really love a door lock that shows status, which I understand no Insteon ones do but Z-Wave ones do. Same with thermostats, I find the Insteon one really basic and ugly, with Z-Wave ones much nicer. It would be awesome if there's a controller that does both, but actually well and supported vs patched together.
I've seen that the ISY994 can use a $100 add on to support Z-Wave but they call it Alpha and it seems hit or miss as to whether it works or not as things like door locks people say it works others say they have problems. I was then looking at a HomeTroller SE3 as well since it says it does both, but it seems like it's primarily Z-Wave, with Insteon being a plug in, so again not sure how well that works with all devices and so on or if it's recommended when 95% of my devices would be Insteon and a few Z-Wave. I downloaded a trial for HomeSeer and it did connect to my Insteon Hub and controlled the kitchen light when I did that as a test, so I'm a bit more confident in its Insteon capability.
Really my main thing is that I want an app for my phone or android tablet that controls everything if possible. So one app that does temperature, door locks, motion sensors, cameras etc, vs diff apps for each. Right now the cameras I use in their own app which isn't a huge deal but it's kind of nice when it's all together. So another option I thought was if there's any iPad or android apps that support not only Insteon like the ISY but also Z-Wave, as that way in the future I could just buy a Vera or something and have 2 systems that are separate, but an app that integrates them, but haven't seen any that do that. MobiLinc seems to be Insteon only for the most part, and I don't see EKeypad supporting Vera either. I thought also its nicer if company is over, they can use one wall mounted tablet with a floor plan of the house type thing, and tap locks, cameras and so on to use them all. HomeSeer is interesting also since it has so many cool plugins like iTunes which would be really neat to be able to do multi room audio.
I'm kind of regretting getting Insteon now as it seems there's more devices for Z-Wave that I like, but I'm hesitant on fully switching mainly because I already bought a bunch of Insteon stuff, and it works VERY well so with my luck I'd sell it all or return what I can, only to find Z-Wave gives me issues or something.
The one thing I can't seem to figure out either is which Z-Wave controller would be more comparable to an ISY994 in terms of the features it supports as that might help to compare them both. I'm not overwhelmed by the options, it's more a lot of devices will say they support Insteon and Z-Wave or what not but then when you look into it it seems more like a hack to support the one, with not all devices working and so on. So I feel like if something is more headache that it's worth I'd rather forfeit the door locks and stick with Insteon.
As a final option, I'm more than open to a PC based system if it means leaving a PC on 24/7. Not sure if there's any software that can work with the ZWave USB device thing (I forget what it's called) as well as with an Insteon PLM. Even if there's inexpensive or free software that does only one of them, that wouldn't be too terrible either as it would still be less to use an old PC I have running an Insteon and Z-Wave network, using 2 Android/iPhone apps, than to buy the ISY994 and also the Vera or whatever.
Anyway sorry for the ramble, hoping for some pointers on what I might want to look for. Thanks so much!!!
My issue though is that I'd really love a door lock that shows status, which I understand no Insteon ones do but Z-Wave ones do. Same with thermostats, I find the Insteon one really basic and ugly, with Z-Wave ones much nicer. It would be awesome if there's a controller that does both, but actually well and supported vs patched together.
I've seen that the ISY994 can use a $100 add on to support Z-Wave but they call it Alpha and it seems hit or miss as to whether it works or not as things like door locks people say it works others say they have problems. I was then looking at a HomeTroller SE3 as well since it says it does both, but it seems like it's primarily Z-Wave, with Insteon being a plug in, so again not sure how well that works with all devices and so on or if it's recommended when 95% of my devices would be Insteon and a few Z-Wave. I downloaded a trial for HomeSeer and it did connect to my Insteon Hub and controlled the kitchen light when I did that as a test, so I'm a bit more confident in its Insteon capability.
Really my main thing is that I want an app for my phone or android tablet that controls everything if possible. So one app that does temperature, door locks, motion sensors, cameras etc, vs diff apps for each. Right now the cameras I use in their own app which isn't a huge deal but it's kind of nice when it's all together. So another option I thought was if there's any iPad or android apps that support not only Insteon like the ISY but also Z-Wave, as that way in the future I could just buy a Vera or something and have 2 systems that are separate, but an app that integrates them, but haven't seen any that do that. MobiLinc seems to be Insteon only for the most part, and I don't see EKeypad supporting Vera either. I thought also its nicer if company is over, they can use one wall mounted tablet with a floor plan of the house type thing, and tap locks, cameras and so on to use them all. HomeSeer is interesting also since it has so many cool plugins like iTunes which would be really neat to be able to do multi room audio.
I'm kind of regretting getting Insteon now as it seems there's more devices for Z-Wave that I like, but I'm hesitant on fully switching mainly because I already bought a bunch of Insteon stuff, and it works VERY well so with my luck I'd sell it all or return what I can, only to find Z-Wave gives me issues or something.
The one thing I can't seem to figure out either is which Z-Wave controller would be more comparable to an ISY994 in terms of the features it supports as that might help to compare them both. I'm not overwhelmed by the options, it's more a lot of devices will say they support Insteon and Z-Wave or what not but then when you look into it it seems more like a hack to support the one, with not all devices working and so on. So I feel like if something is more headache that it's worth I'd rather forfeit the door locks and stick with Insteon.
As a final option, I'm more than open to a PC based system if it means leaving a PC on 24/7. Not sure if there's any software that can work with the ZWave USB device thing (I forget what it's called) as well as with an Insteon PLM. Even if there's inexpensive or free software that does only one of them, that wouldn't be too terrible either as it would still be less to use an old PC I have running an Insteon and Z-Wave network, using 2 Android/iPhone apps, than to buy the ISY994 and also the Vera or whatever.
Anyway sorry for the ramble, hoping for some pointers on what I might want to look for. Thanks so much!!!
