What type of insteon products do you have and how do you control them?

TechHA said:
I too use HomeSeer with Insteon except I do it without an ISY. While I do agree it is an excellent product, I've never had a need for it. The Insteon plug-in that is free for use with HomeSeer has come a long way. It's been taking over by a new person that has transformed it into a true link management system. I currently have 52 Insteon devices setup within this plug-in. He is adding new devices as quickly as he can, but has all the basics covered.

My system consists of a mixer of Icons and V2's:
- KeypadLinc Dimmers
- SwitchLinc Dimmers
- LampLincs
- ApplianceLincs
- In-LineLinc Relay's
- In-LineLinc Dimmers
- Motion Sensors
- RemoteLincs

From within the plug-in:
You have 52 internal Insteon device(s) registered in the system, 0 external device(s), and 18 group(s).
These devices and groups currently consume 209 link database entries in your interface.

Hope this helps.
Click to expand...

I'm using HomeSeer without an ISY for now as well and it's a good setup for those of us comfortable with tweaking the settings. To get my EZIO to work for instance required some research, editing several files and reloading a few times. I believe this is easier on the ISY, but if you have an already running media server or other windows box it's pretty easy to dual-purpose it for HomeSeer.

I don't want to jack the thread but since the OP is asking about setups - for those of you with whole-home microphones setup, did you need a mixing board with standard mics or is there another setup that works well?
 
I have an Elk m1g and an isy-99ir with about 60 devices.

The ISY is vastly superior to any PC based system. PC's are constantly trying to reboot (at least once per month becaus of MS updates), or getting screwed up in one way or another. The ISY with its hardware/firmware system basically never shuts down or crashes. It also uses very little electricity. The hardware seems to have a ton of untapped reserve as I keep seeing the firmware upgrades expanding its abilities.

It links up nicely with iPhone apps and tends to just work.

I can't tell you how valuable the ability to swap out insteon stuff is. With all of the smartlabs poor quality control issues I have had to swap out dozens of switches (just sent 5 more out last week for replacement). It it weren't for the ISY's simple "replace with" command I would have gone completely balistic and trashed the whole thing.

I have never even seen HomeSeer. It seems like lots of people like it. It is my undertanding that it sets your house up on a floor plan sort of scheme which is something I consider a big "why isn't it here" thing on ISY. Supposedly it is on the ISY to do list but not a high priority.

While I like the Insteon protocol for the most part, it is probably only 99% reliable. 1% may seem small, but it is huge for security or running stuff like your sprinkler. If it misses the off command the sprinkler could run for a day or two. Or you could get robbed or your house catch on fire and have a 1% chance of not knowing. Anyway, Elk has the reliability needed for that stuff and ISY can indirectly be part of that process. Hopefully it will soon be a direct part of that process if they get the Elk module out.

In short, I would consider it a perfect system if ISY had full Elk control and a nice floor plan utility. Also it might be nice if the user interface were a littlbe bit more intuitive. At this point I am totally comfortable with the ISY, but it took a little while. I certainly don't know how it could be more intuitive but it seems like there has got to be a way. That is something for someone with a wonderfully elegant thought process to figure out (not me).
 
I am not real familiar with the ELK system. What is it really?

What ISY system did you buy? There are different price points I see on Smarthome.
 
I have a few light switches, thermostat, and some lamp and appliance modules. These are all working great with HomeSeer. The HomeSeer plugin had recently been picket back up and the new enhancements are great.
 
You will need a PLM.
The 2412S PLM is the best right now for the ISY99i.
It has a larger link database and supplies the power to the ISY99i that the newer 2413S Dual Mesh PLM does not.
Also there are threads indicating the new 2413S is not as efficient with the ISY99i as the 2412S is.

For awhile the 2412S was listed on the Discontinued Products page of Smarthome, but it is now back on the sales pages. If you can't find it directly. Use the link on one of the other PLM models [2412U,2413U or 2413S] pages to find it.

The 2412S is now removed from the Discontinued Page. Smarthome changed their minds and will continue to manufacturer it.
 
ingeborgdot said:
So, I will just buy the package that they sell. Is there anything else that you guys recommend besides these two things?
Click to expand...

You definitely want the PLM/ISY package. That way you know you are getting the correct PLM version for the ISY. There have been issues with SH updating the PLM firmware and breaking communication with the ISY.
 
Lou Apo said:
The ISY is vastly superior to any PC based system. PC's are constantly trying to reboot (at least once per month becaus of MS updates), or getting screwed up in one way or another. The ISY with its hardware/firmware system basically never shuts down or crashes. It also uses very little electricity. The hardware seems to have a ton of untapped reserve as I keep seeing the firmware upgrades expanding its abilities.
Click to expand...

Well I think that is a matter of opinion. While I do have an ISY-99 (and like it a lot), there are things that my home-grown home automation software can do that the ISY can't. My scripting support (in relation to ISY's programs) is a bit more flexible and can do things the ISY currently can't. For example, the ISY can't do nested conditional logic. I can. The ISY only allows you to do a IF ELSE THEN logic and that's it. I can do IF ELSEIF ELSEIF ... ELSEIF THEN and I can nest more IF ELSEIF ELSEIF ... THEN structures many, many, many levels deep if I want to. In short, my scripting language is more like a programming language. Yes, this makes it harder for the novice to use, but it is far more powerful. I can also execute more Insteon commands per second than the ISY allows. For example, I can only flash a light on & off at a rate of once per every 2 seconds with the ISY. With my program, I can flash a light on & off 10 times a second if I want to, which I sometimes use as an emergency alert. I can also customize all of the text in each of my email & SMS alerts to say whatever I want. With the ISY, the messages are canned and you can't change them.

The ISY has no direct audio support. Actually neither does my software, but I know how to add it if I want it. ;)

Also, you really can actually make a PC reliable without reboots if you want to. First of all, for Windows, you can disable MS updates. Secondly, you can strip it of all unnecessary software and get a streamlined machine that stays running all year long without a reboot. It can be done. And of course you can do this even easier with a Linux OS.

I'm not saying the ISY isn't a fantastic product. It really is a great product that fits the needs of most users out there. I'm just saying that "vastly superior" is debatable, especially since different people have different requirements and for some people a PC-based home automation might be a better fit.
 
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