lilyoyo1

You have responses to your post on the smarthome forum as well

I like the look of the spot as well. I'm thinking about ordering one as well. Depending on some things, I may order the new fire sticks too.

Philip is actually wrong in this case. The parent company is smartass. Smarthome is the retail side of things while Insteon is the product that smartlabs created.

I don't use the plugins so I can't say definitively what will happen. However, I do not see an issue with using them together as the frequencies are different. I tried many types of outlets and the Cooper ones felt like a quality device. The GE and leviton ones feel like a cheap plastic toy. I like that the relay changing states was quieter and more solid feeling. Cooper outlets also support secure beaming which means it'll repeat signals to zwave door locks. I use fibaro zwave sensors. Those were first chosen due to style but they have some great parameters that allow me to track things I never imagined. For example, the motion sensors have glass break sensors built in. Whether my alarm is active or not, I can use it to sense whether someone is breaking in. Granted they have to break the glass but it's better than nothing. Sense they also have tamper alarms, I can be alerted if one were to fall etc. While I don't have kids, if I did, I would know if they were trying to be sneaky and remove them.

If you're not experiencing comm issues then it's not something I'd worry about. If all your devices are communicating then your phases are bridged. I use the insteon phase coupler because it also helps clean line noise. The Potential for interfere is there but it's generally fixable. People can say it's stagnant due to interference but thats fixable as others have stated. I wouldn't worry about it especially since you have a working system. From my experience insteon has been great for me. Zwave too for that matter but I feel like I have to work harder with zwave than with insteon

I guess it's my turn to chime in on here. There are no perfect protocols. Each one of them has pros and cons. The best way to minimize the consequences of any protocol is to properly plan your installation and being willing to invest in the time and money to ensure a proper running system. From my personal experience, insteon signal issues from the Powerline is overrated. Will some people have problems yes. But there are fixes. When it comes to RF, the fixes aren't as straight forward or easy to figure out. In my equipment room, I have a filterlinc. Do I need one? Probably not. But I have it there to be safe as I am aware of what could happen. I also have a coupler in my panel. Once again, not really needed for for a few dollars it was well worth the peace of mind. I'd say stick with 1 protocol for the majority of your things and then use the other protocols to fill in gaps. For example, I prefer insteon switches and zwave (fibaro) sensors. I use Cooper outlets for zwave repeating. I get a trip out of people stating insteon is bad because it's only them, so you'd be putting all your eggs into 1 basket. My point of view is while Zwave has multiple mfgs, you'll generally go with only 1 of them for your switches (unless you wanted different looking switches all over). With that said, that single mfg. can still go out of business putting you in the same boat as with insteon. In closing, you'll be fine with whomever you choose. Just be willing to invest wisely with time and money and you will be ok

When I built my house, I built it as if automation would not be used and put switches in accordingly. That way should I sell it, do away with it, or technology changes; I can always change at a lower cost than with home runs or custom style setups. I differ from Larryllix in that I prefer keypads. Each room has a minimum of 1 at the entry for controlling multiple things. Major rooms have 2 side by side. 1 for controlling the room and 1 status/control of various things. Some rooms have multiple keypads such as my dining room since it has multiple entrances. All of the other switches are still located in the proper places but the kpl allows me to control things based off of scenes instead of individual lights. For example, my family room has lamps with hue bulbs, 3 chandeliers,blinds and recessed lights. Regardless of what's on, hitting my relaxed button will turn off the recessed lights, dim the chandeliers to 15 percent, lower the blinds and change my bulb colors. Hitting my goodnight will set the recessed lights to 25%, close the blinds if they are open, turn on the steps and hallways to see to get upstairs. Everything is on a 10 minute timer and turns off by themselves. Double tapping the goodnight button does all the same but sets my bedroom upthe way I like to go to bed.

Under or else put 100%. That way during any other times it goes to 100 instead of 10

I have a kohler whole house with zero issues

The load will always turn on if you manually turn the switch on. The only way to prevent the load from turning on would be to disconnect the load wire and use the switch as a remote. That location would be a good place to use a kpl. Then you can still have the load as well as increased function because of the other buttons.

To expand on what Stusviews added, if you want other kpl buttons to turn off add those buttons to your scenes in the off position. For example if button b is turned on and you want button c off, add button c to the B scene and set it to off. In my example the light is for button B and the lamp is button C Kpl B Controller On Remote B Controller Kpl C responder Off Light responder On Lamp responder off

Either way, 50 bucks for 2 years access is well worth the time and effort to make it work. That's less than the cost of dinner out

I have a whole house generator which kicks in pretty fast. However, I don't put my ISY on its own battery backup simply because I want it to reboot with the devices so that it can pick up proper status of devices again once it reboots. I tried a battery backup a long time ago but I found the ISY wouldnt update properly so I would need to reboot it anyway. Instead of going through that, it was just easier to let it reboot when power came on. I've only lost power a few times since my house was built so the frequency it happens really isnt worth it for me. Like Teken says, it comes down to your usage. I don't think either way is wrong

You must be in Cali. Lol

When it comes to basic hue control, this is the easiest way to go when using the ISY since you don't need to worry about configuring a rasberry pi, polyglot, etc. However using the rasberry pi route gives you more capability. Smartthings is nice and I believe it now supports hue lights without a bridge. However i think (long term) you'd be much happier with the ISY over Smartthings

I was speaking on how other companies do their 3way switches. For example, the GE jasco uses the traveler so it will not talk to another switch (may have changed since I tested capabilities but it was that way at one time). In the end, it's irrelevant as this is all hypothetical. They made their choice and from a personal standpoint, I agree with it

Once again. I said SOURCE. Meaning someone who makes decisions. Not someone who simply answers the phone. Some items smarthome sells are extremely slow sellers. They aren't there expecting to be hits or big sellers but are there for a specific purpose/loss leader. Yes if you don't do your own home you can always buy more devices. However, should you change how you do things (such as I did) a person is able to use switches they changed out in other locations instead of buying new switches. Not sure about what's so hard to follow. If you're putting in a switch simply to connect to another switch for a 3way it simply allows control of those 2 devices. Having full control over a device allows for more configuration. As I stated, I am able to do different things depending on what light I am at instead of simple turning on/of the switch that is connected to it. At the end of the day neither of our opinions matter. Insteon made a decision they felt would be in their best interest and went with it. If you don't like it you can always show your displeasure by voting with your wallet. Switch over to zwave and you have what you're looking for. He has them pretty cheap

A house that is fully done likely would not have parts repurposed. However, if a person has a couple of rooms done, they have additional rooms to grow. For example, when I first got into insteon, I did mostly switches/dimmers in my rooms and no kpls.. As I grew, I replaced some with keypads to give more capabilities. When I did that, those additional switches were used in other locations saving a few hundred dollars in the process. Had they been remote only (based off the prices you stated), I wouldve saved 100 bucks initially but would've spent much more afterwards. In the grand scheme of things, 20 extra bucks isnt much money. For those just starting out, it probably helps more in the long run (as others have attested to) in regards to ease of use and mistakes. Another thing is the ability to have different things happen from different locations. Turning on my upstairs switch triggers certain things during certain hours while the downstairs does others. Had this been 1 real and 1 remote, I would not have that capability As far as popy-cock the person remains unnamed simply because they may not want their name in the forum. I dont have to name drop to prove my point. Stusviews knows people at Insteon as well yet you never hear him mention anyone by name personally. There are reasons for that. Doesn't mean that others do not know people who work there. Whether its him or others with close contacts there, we simply choose to leave them out of here. IF they choose to chime in here they can but it is not for me to do so for them to appease you. Either way, while you may not like their decision it was made for what they feel is in their best interest not yours.

That one is priceless.

I didnt see that particular review but I've seen plenty like it. Many times its because its the cheaper item than what was recommended. A friend of mine said it best; "Make something dummy proof and someone will come along and prove you wrong".

Unlike you, I don't need to deal with people on the phone or go off second hand information. As I stated, my information came from the source, not cst. In regards to better information, unfortunately many people simply fail to read the information at hand. They will see 2 like things and purchase the cheaper of the 2. This is shown all over other companies webpages. Go to Amazon's, Lowe's or home Depot's website and you'll see questions asked and the information they are asking for will be in the first line. Unfortunately people are lazy. You can't count on people to read let alone research before they buy.

Being that my info comes straight from the horses mouth means it is their reasons cited. Yes zwave and X10 both have/had remote only devices....along with a high return date from smarthome customers who purchased the wrong thing when they carried a larger selection of those items. Maybe for your install having remote capabilities works. But for many others, having full capabilities has an even greater benefit. Either way, insteon determined having one extra device that did nothing simply wasn't worth the cost

The desire to stay away from Zwave was not mentioned until now. Information like that would help in regards to people being able to provide assistance. Zwave and RTS are not the same. Stus post (#2) details how you would go about integrating RTS with the ISY. Simply disregard his info. about zwave

There are multiple reasons for this. 1st is cost. To carry a device that has limited use didn't seem worthwhile. 2nd is simplicity. People mess up more often than what shows on these forums. As an oem/retailer, youbrun The risk of people not reading (happens far to often) and simply buying the wrong product because they see the same part cheaper. This in turns leads to more phone calls and questions for cst. 3rd is options. By having all devices standardized, switches can be used in multiple places. Maybe your needs change or you move. If half your switches are remotes, then you're purchasing more devices when you could've simply swapped for another one There were a couple of more reasons but I don't remember them all