intellihome Posted February 22, 2009 Posted February 22, 2009 Does it make sense to keep Homeseer and run the ISY with it? I have a fairly elaborate dependable system in place for about 10 years (70% X10 and 30% Insteon) with lots of conditionals and scenes. All my Insteon devices are in X10 mode because Homeseer has always been struggling with Insteon and now they no longer support it. I've been hearing this Forum and the Homeseer forum speak about plugins for each other's application. Do we really need a plugin? Can't I just get an ISY and program all my Insteon devices. Then send a virtual X10 trigger from homeseer to the ISY which would then send the Insteon commands and visa versa? An example would be for the ISY to receive an Insteon motion detect. If the action is to turn on Inteon devices then the ISY would do the work directly to the Insteon device "AND" alert Homeseer by sending a virtual X10 command. So Homeseer would know we had a motion detect and can execute some of the features that the ISY cannot . Such as scripting, zwave and elaborate conditionals. What are the downfalls of running both these systems together? Thanks for any help in making me understand this more clearly.
Michel Kohanim Posted February 22, 2009 Posted February 22, 2009 Hello intellihome, As much as I would want you to purchase a unit from us but, from experience, I can tell you that upsetting a dependable system (by introducing other variables) is usually not a good idea. Especially if X10 is involved. As far as ISY plugin, the power of ISY is in scene management (group of devices) and thus, for instance your sunset scene, would require only one command and not a sequence of commands. For this, you will need an ISY plugin. For more information on scenes, please take a look at our recently updated and enhanced Wiki: http://www.universal-devices.com/mwiki/ ... w-To_Guide . Otherwise, for what you are suggesting, there are much less expensive solutions such as PowerHome and HouseLinc which allow you to configure your INSTEON network. With kind regards, Michel Does it make sense to keep Homeseer and run the ISY with it? I have a fairly elaborate dependable system in place for about 10 years (70% X10 and 30% Insteon) with lots of conditionals and scenes. All my Insteon devices are in X10 mode because Homeseer has always been struggling with Insteon and now they no longer support it. I've been hearing this Forum and the Homeseer forum speak about plugins for each other's application. Do we really need a plugin? Can't I just get an ISY and program all my Insteon devices. Then send a virtual X10 trigger from homeseer to the ISY which would then send the Insteon commands and visa versa? An example would be for the ISY to receive an Insteon motion detect. If the action is to turn on Inteon devices then the ISY would do the work directly to the Insteon device "AND" alert Homeseer by sending a virtual X10 command. So Homeseer would know we had a motion detect and can execute some of the features that the ISY cannot . Such as scripting, zwave and elaborate conditionals. What are the downfalls of running both these systems together? Thanks for any help in making me understand this more clearly.
intellihome Posted February 23, 2009 Author Posted February 23, 2009 Thank you for your candid response Michel. I will continue to watch this excellent forum and also take a look at the other options you mentioned.
bpwwer Posted February 23, 2009 Posted February 23, 2009 intellihome, If you have questions about how the HomeSeer plug-in for the ISY works feel free to post them here or in the HomeSeer forum section dedicated to the plug-in. http://board.homeseer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=919 I think there's a thread or two over there about how people are using the combination that you might be interested in.
CJVann Posted February 24, 2009 Posted February 24, 2009 I have been very impressed with the ISY. and now I can't imagine life without it. I've offloaded a lot of HS's responsibilities to the ISY and found it to be far more reliable than a computer. Your line of thought is very clever (X10 dialog between HS & ISY), but I think you'll find HS's ISY Insteon plug-in quite useful. You do not have to create any Insteon devices in HS - the plugin automatically loads all devices, scenes, AND ISY programs from the ISY into HS. HS can then run ISY programs, enable/disable ISY programs, set ISY Flags true/false, and show the status of your Insteon devices & programs. Response times will be faster if you send a direct Insteon command rather than launching a program by sending an X10 command. Without it, I imagine that trying to keep X10 device status synchronized with Insteon device status would be difficult too (Is it dim, was it turned "Fast On", did the status change when HS wasn't running, etc).
Recommended Posts