OmniPro II <--> Insteon; Anything better than X10 protocol?

[ijoy]

Newbe question...

Is there a way to use an OmniPro II to control (and respond to) Insteon switches and plugs other than relying on X10 protocol? Any sample OmniPro programs, diagrams, shopping lists, how-to's, etc. would be really great. Thanks!

- iJoy

 

[htsource]

I'm fairly new to HAI OmniPro II as well, but OmniPro doesn't support Insteon directly so you'll have to use it in x10 mode, or replace your switches with UPB.

You can search the knowledge base from HAI, it has lots of useful information:

http://kb.homeauto.com/

 

[upstatemike]

I don't think I would use X10 directly to the switches if you have a lot of Insteon because the loading from the 2-way Insteon switches will kill the X10 signal. A better approach would be to use an ISY-26 plugged into the same circuit as the TW-523 from your OmniPro. The ISY-26 can tranlate the X10 signals to Insteon (and vice versa) and also provides a good way to manage your Insteon links in general. I am planning to try this with my Stargate as soon as UPS arrives with my new ISY unit. (Should show up within the next 3 or 4 hours!)

 

[Timoh]

So how would you setup the ISY26 to do x10 <=> Insteon translation? Don't x10 address any Insteon switches, and have the ISY26 respond to your x10 commands and trigger an Insteon command?

You also might be able to achieve the same thing using the SimpleHomeNet Insteon/X10 gateway.
http://www.simplehomenet.com/prods.asp?pag...dServers_EZSrve


Tim

 

[upstatemike]

Don't x10 address any Insteon switches, and have the ISY26 respond to your x10 commands and trigger an Insteon command?

YES

You also might be able to achieve the same thing using the SimpleHomeNet Insteon/X10 gateway.

PROBABLY... But you still need to manage your device to device links somehow, which the ISY does and EZSrve does not (from what I can tell). EZSrve looks like it will be a great gateway for applications that maintain a database containing all of your Insteon links for all of you Insteon devices but it will only hold the links between itself and the devices it controls in its onboard memory (as best I can tell from the specs). The ISY maintains your full Insteon configuration in memory so it can both control AND manage your Insteon environment and is better suited for connecting to non-PC based systems (like the OmniPro) that do not provide that function. The two devices address different application requirements although there is some overlap.