Ding dong the hub is dead! Need pre-purchase help.

[jackman]

Hi folks! My Insteon 2242-222 finally died (I suspect the power supply) and judging from this post you know I'm planning to move up to the ISY994i. I have about 75 Insteon devices, including switches, dimmers, leak detectors, cameras, and motion sensor growing in size since 2007 so I'm not a newbie to this. Heck, I'm still using HouseLinc as a controller. I'd like to future proof my system and plan for integrating the thermostat, door locks, Amazon Echo, Google Home, Wyze cams, Blink, Ring, and whatever else may come along in the next few years, LOL! Fortunately I don't have any X10. I'm thinking I'll go ahead and purchase the Insteon w/PLM, ZWave, IR, and ISY Portal right off the bat. 

It looks like Orchestrated Home is the best source at the moment. Is there anything else I need to consider as part of this upgrade? All replies are greatly appreciated and thank you for the help. 

[carealtor]

I have ZWave and IR on mine...  never used either one.  IR seems especially useless to me.  Others opinion will no doubt be different.

Too bad the ISY hasn't been moved to the Polisy box yet.  That would save you buying an ISY box that (hopefully soon) will be obsolete.

[lilyoyo1]

You're on the right track. I would peruse the isy wik ihttps://wiki.universal-devices.com/index.php?title=Main_Page to familiarize yourself with how things work. There are a few write ups on this forum from people who have started over with the Isy. 

The general advice from advanced users is to factory reset your devices before bringing them over to remove all links. While their are ways to do this from the isy (including bringing them in with existing links) those methods generally cause issues down the road.... especially with the latter. Start 1 room at a time to make things easier. 

 

[jackman]

57 minutes ago, carealtor said:

I have ZWave and IR on mine...  never used either one.  IR seems especially useless to me.  Others opinion will no doubt be different.

Too bad the ISY hasn't been moved to the Polisy box yet.  That would save you buying an ISY box that (hopefully soon) will be obsolete.

Thanks for the reply carealtor. I have the IRLinc (no longer sold) and was thinking the IR on the ISY might replace it. I use a Harmony remote to control the media system and the lights with several scenes.

Oh my, I did not know about the Polisy box. Am I correct in understanding that it dramatically extends the capabilities of the ISY so I would need both? It would be nice to integrate my Davis weather station data with the thermostat. And there is a Tesla in our future. My head is starting to explode!

[apostolakisl]

11 minutes ago, jackman said:

Thanks for the reply carealtor. I have the IRLinc (no longer sold) and was thinking the IR on the ISY might replace it. I use a Harmony remote to control the media system and the lights with several scenes.

Oh my, I did not know about the Polisy box. Am I correct in understanding that it dramatically extends the capabilities of the ISY so I would need both? It would be nice to integrate my Davis weather station data with the thermostat. And there is a Tesla in our future. My head is starting to explode!

You don't have to buy the polisy.  You can run polyglot on a raspberry pi or other devices.  There seems to be some thought that in the future ISY itself will be ported over to the polisy box.  Time will tell.  Polyglot has quite a few plug-ins that allow for seamless integration of all kinds of non-Insteon devices.  Perhaps you have seen the current library.  Really anything with an open API can be integrated into ISY provided someone writes a polyglot node for it.  I get the impression that writing polyglot nodes is fairly straight forward such that many people with a descent skill set can figure out how to write a node.

[carealtor]

@jackman   To your comment about Harmony...  You could probably go the IR route to the ISY, but the WAY better way would be to use the Harmony Nodeserver (either via Polisy or installing Polyglot on a RPI, as mentioned, or even on a VM on your PC), assuming you are using a Harmony Hub.  If not, then IR would be your only route, I think.

Polyglot (again, either via Polisy, RPI, or VM) is AWESOME and you WILL end up going there and loving all that you can do with it.  There are MANY NodeServers already available so you don't actually need to write any code.  I know I haven't, and I have integrated 6 Harmony hubs, 2 Ecobee thermostats, 4 Sonos devices, and a RainMachine irrigation controller, and more.  Again, you don't have to write any code to do this as many NodeServers have already been written.

[apostolakisl]

Realize that ISY is IR input.  IR input is becoming less important as more controllers use networking rather than IR.  Harmony being a good example, you can control ISY from your harmony using networking (via polyglot).  But if you have other things that output IR and you want it to control ISY, then you need the IR version of ISY.  My ISY does use the IR input for one of my older Harmony remotes and networking for my new one.

[Teken]

You're on the right track. I would peruse the isy wik ihttps://wiki.universal-devices.com/index.php?title=Main_Page to familiarize yourself with how things work. There are a few write ups on this forum from people who have started over with the Isy. 
The general advice from advanced users is to factory reset your devices before bringing them over to remove all links. While their are ways to do this from the isy (including bringing them in with existing links) those methods generally cause issues down the road.... especially with the latter. Start 1 room at a time to make things easier. 
 

If you’re installing (New) Hardware at any point in time to make your life a lot easier. Consider making one of these so you don’t need to walk around endlessly through out the home.

- Hook Up
- Hard Reset
- Add Hardware
- Program
- Remove & Install
- Enjoy







Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk