Best practices to ISY and Insteon HUB coexists

[sandryseibert]

Hello friends,

 

I was reading many threads searching for some information on how to have an Insteon HUB and a ISY coexisting on the same home but couldn't find something easy to understand. Any help will be appreciated.

 

I recently purchased a Harmony Elite which doesn't recognize my ISY994i/IR and the alternative was to purchase an Insteon HUB in order to make my Harmony fully functional.

 

So, I have added my Insteon HUB to my network and I was wondering hoe can the Insteon HUB retrieve the configuration already written on my devices. For example, I have a 6 button keypad on each side of my kitchen, when I press the Scene A on one, the other responds and vice-versa, however after add the 6 button keypad to my HUB, when I press any scene on the HUB APP it's not behaving like it does when I physically press the scene button clearly showing that not all programs stored on the keypad was loaded by the HUB.

 

I remember when I had an issue with my PLM my ISY stay offline for days and the keypad still working, so definitely the program is stored on each keypad, why the HUB don't pull this program?

 

Is there any chance to have ISY994i added to the list of compatible devices to work with Logitech Harmony?

 

Thank you all

Sandry Seibert

[Teken]

Hello Sandry,

 

Not sure if you had the chance to review this related thread: https://forum.universal-devices.com/topic/17271-hub-ii-isy-echo-integration/ I personally would not try to make the two systems co-exist where the systems have links together. I've done this in the past to see how things operated and in a small Insteon network with very little programs in the ISY Series Controller its manageable.

 

When you have lots of complex programs and Insteon hardware with linked scenes you're just setting yourself up for trouble.

 

I have four ISY Series Controllers and three HUB II and one Hub v2 which operate in a isolated environment. 

[G W]

It's a disaster waiting to happen.

 

Sent from my SM-G955U1 using Tapatalk

[mwester]

That's like having two steering wheels in a car -- just don't do it, nothing good will come of it.  Guaranteed.

[sandryseibert]

I wouldn't do such weird thing if UDI create their own ways to be really "Universal".

 

I spent a considerable amount of money purchasing stuffs just to cover gaps. I'm an ISY user since 2013 and I haven't really saw much improvement on ISY software, major bug fixes. Sorry for being honest and share my thoughts, not telling I'm right, but for my usage all ISY updates since I bought my unit didn't bring me anything new.

 

Anyway, Teken post helped me to make the Insteon HUB able to work in parallel with my ISY without mess anything, I just needed to read a LOT of lessons learned written by some other users who was forced to use other devices to grant a full automation rather than a partial automation.

 

One thing I saw and it's quite interesting is that you can add devices already configured to the Inteon HUB and after some time and some buttons push you hear beeps that let you know that some data exchange happened and after about an hour I figure that my APP is now respecting the scenes created on both of my keypads without need to clone the scene configuration on Insteon HUB. Weird but it's working. Maybe boom? Not here, my home automation is far from yours, I have no more than 30 Insteon devices plus 20 Zwave and maybe a couple of "others".

 

Cheers

Sandry Seibert

[Teken]

I wouldn't do such weird thing if UDI create their own ways to be really "Universal".

 

I spent a considerable amount of money purchasing stuffs just to cover gaps. I'm an ISY user since 2013 and I haven't really saw much improvement on ISY software, major bug fixes. Sorry for being honest and share my thoughts, not telling I'm right, but for my usage all ISY updates since I bought my unit didn't bring me anything new.

 

Anyway, Teken post helped me to make the Insteon HUB able to work in parallel with my ISY without mess anything, I just needed to read a LOT of lessons learned written by some other users who was forced to use other devices to grant a full automation rather than a partial automation.

 

One thing I saw and it's quite interesting is that you can add devices already configured to the Inteon HUB and after some time and some buttons push you hear beeps that let you know that some data exchange happened and after about an hour I figure that my APP is now respecting the scenes created on both of my keypads without need to clone the scene configuration on Insteon HUB. Weird but it's working. Maybe boom? Not here, my home automation is far from yours, I have no more than 30 Insteon devices plus 20 Zwave and maybe a couple of "others".

 

Cheers

Sandry Seibert

 

Hello Sandry,

 

Glad the linked resource helped you out. Hope to find Mom & Baby all doing well!

[carealtor]

I was in the same dilemma.  I wanted to use the home control buttons on my Harmony Elite to control my Insteon lights.  I ended up buying a SmartThings Hub to communicate with the Harmony Hub and then IFTTT to communicate between the ISY and the Smarthings Hub.  I bit sluggish because of the IFTTT, but it works for me and there are no headaches trying to use the Insteon Hub.

[stusviews]

I use a Harmony Hub with the ISY IR module to control lighting. Using standard codes provided by the IR module, buttons on the Harmony hub can send the desired code. An ISY program is created with the code as a trigger. You must use an unused Harmony remote button.

 

LR Begin Movie 1
If
        From    Sunset
        To       3:05:00AM (next day)
    And (
             Control 'LR / Devices / LR Movie Time 1' is switched Off
          Or Control 'LR / Devices / LR Movie Time 2' is switched Off
          Or IR 'IR_001' is Pressed  (this is the ISY IR code)
        )
 
Then
        Set Scene 'LR / Scenes / LR Movie Time' Off
        Set 'KT / Devices / KT Ceiling 50' 10%
        Set 'LR / Devices / LR Sofa Tabletop 1' On  2 / Off 1 (Backlight Level)
        Set 'LR / Devices / LR Sofa Tabletop 2' On  2 / Off 1 (Backlight Level)
        Set 'CR / Devices / CR KPL LR Light' On  2 / Off 1 (Backlight Level)
        Set 'LR / Devices / LR Movie Time 1' On  2 / Off 1 (Backlight Level)
        Set 'LR / Devices / LR Movie Time 2' On  2 / Off 1 (Backlight Level)
        Set 'LR / Devices / LR Ceiling Light KPL 20' On  2 / Off 1 (Backlight Level)
        Set Scene 'DR / Scenes / DR Ceiling Light' Off
 
Else
   - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action')

[sandryseibert]

I use a Harmony Hub with the ISY IR module to control lighting. Using standard codes provided by the IR module, buttons on the Harmony hub can send the desired code. An ISY program is created with the code as a trigger. You must use an unused Harmony remote button.

Hi stusviews, could you confirm if the specific button designed to homecontrol send IR commands and how you configured them? My Harmony don't do nothing when I press these buttons except if I link them to a home control device like Insteon, Philips HUE, etc..

[carealtor]

I'm pretty sure what stusviews outlines will not work with the home control buttons on the Harmony Elite.  You would have to use the screen "buttons" or some of the other hard buttons.  The problem with this is, you have to be in an activity to turn a light on.  This of course defeats the purpose of purchasing the Harmony Elite with the intention of using the home control buttons, which are always live.

[sandryseibert]

I'm pretty sure what stusviews outlines will not work with the home control buttons on the Harmony Elite.  You would have to use the screen "buttons" or some of the other hard buttons.  The problem with this is, you have to be in an activity to turn a light on.  This of course defeats the purpose of purchasing the Harmony Elite with the intention of using the home control buttons, which are always live.

Thanks for advise. I'll keep using both ISY and Insteon HUB and to minimize the possibility of conflicts I removed all unnecessary devices not related to my home-theater.