upstatemike

4a. A sufficiently powerful processor to handle greatly expanded routing tables and DHCP reservation tables without bogging down. 5. A simple enough configuration UI to avoid being a barrier to non-techie consumers. 6. A low enough price point to avoid being a cost of entry barrier to casual consumers.

I don't think anybody disputes the past but the question is what of the future? Some questions looking forward might be: Can Insteon overcome the challenges of gettting product back in the pipeline against a backdrop of component shortages, and inflation? Do the investors have enough resources to survive a slow and expensive ramp up? Do the shortcomings of other protocols provide a unique opportunity for Insteon? Zigbee (aka Matter) has no high end switches (apart from Control4) with true rocker action, multi-tap and fancy LED bars. Z-Wave does not understand that keypads are used for more than just "scene controllers". The protocol does not currently have the command classes needed to use keypad buttons as virtual 3-way switches and other common applications easily handled by the Keypadlinc. LoRa has only low-end switches like Zigbee. Broadlink Bluetooth has a lot of potential but there are too many issues with the gen1 stuff to be an immediate threat. Wi-Fi is not scalable beyond a very small limit. This leaves Lutron as the only true competitor to Insteon right now. Will the delays in rolling out matter help Insteon get re-established before consumers decide matter support is a defacto requirement (assuming consumers ever actually embrace Matter... they never really did Sidewalk).

Best possible outcome!

@Techman No mention of communicating through a Smarthome forum. I wonder if they are going to bring that back?

Interesting. I guess there is a link. I'm still not in favor of RF only over dual band though.

OK but looking at the technolgy description: https://www.insteon.com/technology I don't see how a PLC problem can kill the RF signal. I also think there are some communication diagnostics, it just depends on how they are implemented in the controller. If you don't like the ones in ISY take a look at the Homeseer plugin which offers some different diagnostic tools.

If the radio was in range it should have. PLC was probably bridging two areas that were out of radio range with each other so when the PLC got squashed the only path was broken. You could build out with more dual band devices just as you would with RF only stuff or get a filter for the deep fryer to keep it from causing problems.

@apostolakisl 1) I think they need to use the existing line, already UL approved and tooled at the factory, as a quick way to resume cash flow but I think both the look and the feature set will need to be refreshed ASAP to give new customers a reason to consider Insteon. 2) I agree on licensing but it might be hard to find anybody who wants to at this point, especially if there is much of a fee involved. (Of course without the revenue from licensing there is not much reason to do it.) 3) Maybe a compromise is a dealer network that can do firmware upgrades without trying to support the headache of letting end users do it. 4) PLC is the magic bullet that lets you add devices anywhere without "building out" a radio path to remote devices. It is already in the protocol, it just needs to be marketed better. I don't buy the theory that PLC interferance degrades RF communication. 5) Specialty items are great but it is more important for them to get profitable at this point so I don't see them tying up capital in low volume products right away. If they do invest in specialty devices it should be strategic such as a new Fanlinc module that is the size of a Micro Module so you can actually fit it in an existing electrical box. Competing protocols still don't have a viable offering to address the need to control both fan and light in a location that wasn't wired for it. 6) Insteon has always had a "cut off our nose to spite our face" attitude when it comes to UDI. I have always wondered what the real story is behind that and I don't know if things will change. It would also be interesting to know why the UDI purchase offer was rejected... did this group of "users" really have a better offer? Or was it just "No to UDI no matter what"?

My questions are also simple: Will Insteon follow through on the Nokia deal or at least inorporate those new designs into the regular line in order to put a fresh face on Insteon? Will Insteon finally acknowledge the chronic capacitor issue and insure that all new products have proper capacitors that do not lead to premature device failures? Will Insteon encourage integration with major user platforms such as Smartthings, UDI, Hubitat, and Home Assistant in order to build good will and product buzz within those communities? Will Insteon seek partnerships with non-competing brands such as Hue or Sonos to expand the appeal of an Insteon based Home? Will Insteon aggressively market the advantages of their technology over routed protocols with ads that talk about smooth scene control v.s. "popcorn effect", the ability to add devices anywhere v.s. "building out a network", and so on? Will Insteon make themselves a reliable partner that professional integrators can depend on for support and realistic wholesale pricing? Will Insteon use their strengths to challenge direct competitors such as Lutron Caseta by emphasizing products the others don't offer such as the Fanlinc? Will Insteon engage more directly with end users on forums to understand what those users are really looking for? Perhaps have a full-time product ambassadore similiar to Eric at Yolink?

That means Smarthome has successfully linked to your checking account.

I edited my post because I meant Elk, not ISY. My ISY uses a different email account but it should work the same. When you turn on 2 factor authentication in GMail it will give you an option under security settings to generate an app password. In ISY email settings replace your regular GMail password with the 16 character app password. Don't make any other changes to the email settings and everything should resume working.

I applied the 2FA fix to Elk M1, Blue Iris, and my PC that is still running Outlook 2010. Worked fine on all of them.

Both Homeseer and Home Assistant are using old hubs as interfaces (virtual PLMs) but I don't know any details. Is their method not compatible with Polisy?

If you are concerned about how Matter will impact the future of Home Automation you might want to try this exercise: Make a list of the primary problems in automation today; Popcorn effect, 2.4GHz overcrowding, lack of enforcement to standardize implementation of advanced features, etc. Then go through all the announcements related to Matter to see how many of those problems will get resolved when Matter becomes available (spoiler alert, it is a very low number). Then decide if Matter is worth worrying about or not.

I like the way Pico remotes match the styling of Caseta switches so they mix well in a multi-gang plate. If Caseta switches to the Sunnata look will there be matching Sunnata Picos as well?

Just seems like they should have made the names different for appearance sake if for no other reason. Are they trying to look as sleazy as possible for some reason? If I was a creditor I woud not trust this company was working to benefit me rather than working to benefit the debtor.

"despite their similiarity in name, Assignor and Assignee have no corporate affiliation to each other." So how does that work?

Where I have basic lighting functionality that depends on a controller I so far haven't had any problems but I am mindful that a controller coordinates many different integrations (or nodes) any one of which could go rogue and crash the controller and disable my abilikty to control those lights... even if the integration that went bad has nothing to do with lighting. The fact that Insteon kept device link info including how the device should respond to a given broadcast from another device, made it pretty much immune to this concern.

A good example is how when contacting Zooz support they always refer to how they address your particular issue on the Smartthings platform. They have very limited knowledge around UDI Isy994 or Homeseer or similiar platforms and probably see no urgency to change that.

This is why I question the longevity of Z-Wave. It just doesn't seem like the protocol is well thought out for what consumers need (maybe was designed more to satisfy the desires of manufacturers to get companies to buy in?) In my application I use Zen32s to control Hue bulbs. I use the large button to control on/off and the four small ones to set a color. The leds on the four small buttons are left on all the time and act as labels to show what color they will set. The LED on the large button changes color to acknowledge what color selection is currently active. I had to use a value of 2 for the relay disable parameter to keep the relay on and disconnected from the paddle and also non-responsive to Z-Wave commands so that I could make the on/off status of the large button LED stay in sync without actually operating the relay. I use 2 programs for on and off. 4 programs for the small buttons to set the colors, and 2 programs to ensure the large button stays in sync when the lights are controlled from Hue switches or motion sensors, the Hue app, or from an ISY schedule. In the end it works well but I would never use it to set up control for somebody else because it is too labor intensive and has too many potential points of failure if I ever had to troubleshoot a problem.

I would put a smart switch on the attic light so you can shut it off remotely if it somehow got left on. I would also poll it a couple of times a day to check if it was left on and have some sort of alert to tell you if it was. I definitely would NOT put any kind of remote control on a garbage disposal but if it uses a plug under the sink instead of being hard wired I would put a smart plug-in module that monitors power use on it... not to track power use but to have a trigger you can use when the disposer is on (maybe flash the lights over the sink for effect while it is running).

Again just took the easy route and modified a solonoid to act as a friction brake against the roll. Roll movement starts a one second delay and then the solonoid engages and stops the roll so you only get about 3 sheets before it tears off. A ten second delay before the roll is released prevents rapid consecutive grabs.

I took the simple route and just put pressure sensors on the toilet handle. When the toilet is flushed the system recognizes who it is by their unique pressure profile and triggers a TTS announcement that scolds them by name to shut off the bathroom light as they leave.

If ISY sends a heartbeat to another controller that controller could reboot ISY if it locks up and the heartbeat stops.