SmartHome INSTEON in Chicago

toymaster458

Active Member
For everyone that is interested Ken Fairbanks, the Director of Smarthome, Inc. will be attending Chicagoland Home Automation Users Group’s (CHAUG) meeting in May to discuss their INSTEON products that are currently in beta test and are due for release at the end of the second quarter.

If you wish to attend or would like more information on CHAUG please visit
CHAUG
 
That's some great news, does he live in Chicago, or is he flying in? If you don't mind posting a reminder a week before the event, I will post it in the event calendar, and a reminder on the front page.
 
He is going to be flying in. We are looking at the middle of May.
I realy need to get a head count ASAP to see if I need to find a larger room to meet in.
 
Any chance for an audio/video stream (or replay) for those of us that cannot get to Chicago?
 
If someone wants to loan us the equipment or recommend a cheap solution I maybe able to setup a location with a T1
 
The meeting has been finialized.

May 20th, 2005 at 7:00 PM
Please see attached file for more details

If you are unable to make it and have some questions you would like me to ask, please post them here and I will post the answers after the meetng.
 

Attachments

  • CHAUG_May05_Meeting.pdf
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Obvious questions:
what will be available?
when will it be available?
what will it cost?
who will support it?
why is HomeSeer being slow in claiming/planning support in HS1.7? Can SH give HST a nudge that customers want this?
 
What is the real world range - how far (length of wire) will the signal reliably be useable is most situations.

Will existing X10 products continue to work with the current controls (no interferance)

Doesl the new powerline interface support the full current X10 protocol with extended codes, etc.

Will it improve my WAF and make my hair grow back (lol)
 
Bruce L

I can answer some of you questions now.

Will existing X10 products continue to work with the current controls (no interferance)

INSTEON will be able to send and receive both X10 and INSTEON. For Example INSTEON to INSTEON device will communicate with INSTEON but INSTEON to X10 will communicate with X10.

Will it improve my WAF and make my hair grow back (lol)
this will be a yes and no type of answer.
 
BruceL,

In addition,

Does the new powerline interface support the full current X10 protocol with extended codes, etc.

The new interface coming out will support the same commands as the current PowerLinc Controllers in addition to the RF piece.

What is the real world range - how far (length of wire) will the signal reliably be useable is most situations.

The X10 side should be the same as current Smarthome X10 products. The RF side, is RF (no wire). We'll see what the real range is but the spec says 150 feet.
 
I may be wrong, it was a while ago that I spoke to the rep, so please correct me if I am mistaken.

I do beleive the Insteon RF will re-transmit the signal to other devices. So if you have the xmitter in one end of the house and need to get a signal to the other end, it will use any device in range to repeat the signal, and report if the signal got through or not.

I am also SERIOUSLY hoping that HST will add the Insteon support to the current HS 1.x app. Keeping my fingers crossed here.....
 
Last I read on Insteon was the RF transmission was only to another powerline transmitter. This was how they got around the 2 phase issue.
 
Bruce L said:
Last I read on Insteon was the RF transmission was only to another powerline transmitter. This was how they got around the 2 phase issue.
Nope, the RF is not ONLY for phase coupling, but that is the only place you will see it in the first few products. They do use RF for phase coupling and signal repeating. The first modules and switches will be PLC only. But they do plan on thermostats, motion detectors, etc that will be wireless and battery operated.
 
So, I am already using a phase coupler. The ACT one. I wonder if the RF coupling combined with the hardwired coupler might cause issues....
 
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