ELK with Insteon and UPB integration

[zman100]

Hi,

I used to have an HAI system on a home that we just sold. I will be taking around 30 UPB switches with me and will be moving to a smaller house for a year so. I will be getting a ISY994i and some Insteon switches. In the meantime we will start building a house where I will be using the UPB switches in combination with an ELK. Will addressing the Insteon and the UPB switches be transparent? once they are defined/labeled I don't have to know whether they are Insteon or UPB? Are there any features that one switch has that the other does not programatically?

 

Thanks for any info.

[ISYhbsh01]

I am not sure that I understand your question, but the ISY does not work with UPB.

 

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[zman100]

I will be connecting the UPB switches to the ELK M1G and using the ISY to talk to the the ELK. I just wanted to confirm I will be able to address the UPB switches (connected to the ELK) and the Insteon switches (connected to the ISY) thru the ISY.

 

I am not sure that I understand your question, but the ISY does not work with UPB.

 

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[apostolakisl]

You definitely will not be able to address the UPB switches in the same fashion as you address the Insteon switches. ISY natively contains all the address allocations for Insteon switches and allows you to drop them into programs and scenes and ISY will take care of the rest.

 

There isn't going to be a simple way to have ISY tell Elk to turn a UPB switch what to do. It is certainly possible, but it will not be simple or elegant. You would need to use "phantom" outputs on Elk is intermediary. For example, you want to turn a UBP light on from ISY. ISY would need to turn an Elk output on (one that isn't actually connected to anything, like 200), Elk then sees the output turn on and that triggers an Elk program which then would turn your UPB light on. So, in short, I am guessing you aren't going to want to do this.

 

As it stands with Insteon, Elk tells ISY via its IP connection to ISY what to do and then ISY controls the switch. There isn't a streamlined way to go the other direction.

[zman100]

Thanks for clarifying this. I think I will have to rethink things but will need to get more familiar with what kind of integration there is between the ELK and the ISY. Is there a table that lists what features are available directly and what does the ISY ELK module gives you provides? My plan was to to use the ISY to control everything but was hoping to use Insteon, UPB and even Zwave (I have locks) I have a year to figure it out and my plan was to start with the ISY with some Insteon devices and then get the ELK and use UPB. If this is not as elegant I will have to look into other options..

 

 

 

 

You definitely will not be able to address the UPB switches in the same fashion as you address the Insteon switches. ISY natively contains all the address allocations for Insteon switches and allows you to drop them into programs and scenes and ISY will take care of the rest.

 

There isn't going to be a simple way to have ISY tell Elk to turn a UPB switch what to do. It is certainly possible, but it will not be simple or elegant. You would need to use "phantom" outputs on Elk is intermediary. For example, you want to turn a UBP light on from ISY. ISY would need to turn an Elk output on (one that isn't actually connected to anything, like 200), Elk then sees the output turn on and that triggers an Elk program which then would turn your UPB light on. So, in short, I am guessing you aren't going to want to do this.

 

As it stands with Insteon, Elk tells ISY via its IP connection to ISY what to do and then ISY controls the switch. There isn't a streamlined way to go the other direction.

[apostolakisl]

Assuming you purchase the Elk module for ISY.. . ISY can pretty much see and control everything in Elk, except lighting . . . since the idea is that ISY controls the lighting. After they came out with the Elk module for ISY, I moved all of my lighting programs into ISY and even moved a lot of purely Elk things into ISY. ISY is a better programming platform than Elk rules. ISY can respond to all changes in Elk zones, alarm status, output status, and so on. ISY really has about 98% of everything in Elk. ISY can even directly do stuff that Elk itself can't do, like simulate button presses on an Elk keypad.

 

ISY can directly control z-wave . . . assuming you buy the zwave module/radio. So z-wave is pretty much fully integrated. But when it comes to UPB, well, it just isn't integrated.

[zman100]

Thanks. The only reason I am looking at UPB is because I might be able to take the UPB switches with me. I also wanted to hedge because of Insteon reliability issues. How is your experience with the reliability and durability of the Insteon gear?

 

 

Assuming you purchase the Elk module for ISY.. . ISY can pretty much see and control everything in Elk, except lighting . . . since the idea is that ISY controls the lighting. After they came out with the Elk module for ISY, I moved all of my lighting programs into ISY and even moved a lot of purely Elk things into ISY. ISY is a better programming platform than Elk rules. ISY can respond to all changes in Elk zones, alarm status, output status, and so on. ISY really has about 98% of everything in Elk. ISY can even directly do stuff that Elk itself can't do, like simulate button presses on an Elk keypad.

 

ISY can directly control z-wave . . . assuming you buy the zwave module/radio. So z-wave is pretty much fully integrated. But when it comes to UPB, well, it just isn't integrated.