Looking for differences in V5 vs. V4

[lgilsenberg]

Is there a change document that highlights the changes in V5 from v4?

 

Is there a V5 manual?

 

I see there are great instructions on how to migrate to V5, I just want to make sure I understand it before making the move.

 

Thanx,

[asbril]

I am not sure that there is one single manual of differences, but they are "yuge" ?.....  The major upgrade is the introduction of Polyglot which allows the ISY to interact with numerous devices and services, from your Tesla to your vacuum cleaner. Read up in this forum on Polyglot, nodeservers and Polisy, and you will see all what you will gain with 5.X 

[lilyoyo1]

What exactly are you trying to understand? It would be easier to answer that vs going over in detail the exact differences between the 2 as there are many smaller changes vs. major changes (even though the major differences are huge and greatly overshadow the minor).

The main differences are in nodeservers and tighter zwave integration. A quick perusal of the forums you can see what people are doing now vs what you are capable of doing.

Nodeservers allow 3rd party devices such as hue to be used in scenes and programs as if they were native devices.  Now you can integrate those, zwave, and Insteon all together in scenes and programs. 

 

[madcodger]

On 10/13/2020 at 6:37 AM, lgilsenberg said:

Is there a change document that highlights the changes in V5 from v4?

I, too, often find it difficult to understand (or sometimes even find) information made available by UDI. Great engineers, rock solid devices, very fair pricing - but things like manuals and user experience are not their forte, in my humble opinion. So, don't hold your breath there. The wiki is likely some help, but be patient in reading it. UDI is a company of engineers and programmers, almost exclusively. That creates both benefits and challenges. That said...

The biggest difference I see is that v5 gives one the ability to access and use "external" solutions/data sources with the ISY, through an API (Application Programming Interface), if the external solution provides one. For example, my ISY can now obtain weather info from my on-site weather station and information about my non-Elk alarm system, because v5 allows for this while v4 does not (and because some great hobbyist users on this forum created "nodeservers" that enable this - kudos to them!). So, if you want to have your ISY work with "external" data, upgrade. If not, v4 is certainly solid and proven. Good luck either way.

[lgilsenberg]

My key components are Insteon (Switches, Keypads, MS I, MS II), Z Wave Locks, Logitech Harmony Hub and Amazon Echo.  I'm primarily looking at programming differences.  Is there a different manual for 5.x versus 4.x?

[Brian H]

If you want to use the Motion Sensor II or Siren Modules to name two.

Not supported in the 4.x firmware.

[larryllix]

Decimal variable values

[madcodger]

14 hours ago, lgilsenberg said:

My key components are Insteon (Switches, Keypads, MS I, MS II), Z Wave Locks, Logitech Harmony Hub and Amazon Echo.  I'm primarily looking at programming differences.  Is there a different manual for 5.x versus 4.x?

If you mean the use of the "Programs" capability of the ISY, I don't recall any differences other than the expanded set of external data sources and the additional devices that v5 enables. If you are referencing the ability to write code for the device, sorry - you need someone else's opinion/experience for that one. I'm no help there.

[larryllix]

There may be some obscure differences but I cant't recall any.

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[lilyoyo1]

15 hours ago, lgilsenberg said:

My key components are Insteon (Switches, Keypads, MS I, MS II), Z Wave Locks, Logitech Harmony Hub and Amazon Echo.  I'm primarily looking at programming differences.  Is there a different manual for 5.x versus 4.x?

Programming is mostly the name. Some things may be tweaked such as changing device levels but it's not something you'll have to truly re-learn. There are some additional capabilities to programs which can be found in the wiki, but those are on a case by case basis as those are generally advanced things that the avg user wouldn't do to fine tune their system. 

The type of programming that most people do doesn't change however. Programming for the devices you have is exactly the same as if they were Insteon devices.