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Insteon being discontinued?


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Posted
I must have jinxed myself. AFAICT my PLM bit the dust yesterday. NO Insteon action could be had. I power cycled it and all statuses and control came back only to be all found disconnected again last night. Replace with new PLM v2.6. Restore modem did a lot of work. Many Insteon devices failed to update but did so manually with "write updates" in admin console.
Now to start the long process of putting each MS and LD into linking mode to update. The automatic "write updates" never works with any of my 20 battery devices and just causes more caching backup inside ISY.  I hate having to take the dishwasher apart every time. **SIGH**

Smarthome show them in stock if you want another spare.
Posted
On 4/10/2021 at 11:05 AM, carealtor said:

Probably should start a new thread, but I'm too lazy.  The rumors that Logitech was going to dump Harmony have been flying around for awhile.  Much like the Insteon rumors.  Today was the official announcement.  Logitech is no longer producing Harmony remotes.

Discussion about this in a thread on the Logitech's announcement here:

 

Posted
23 hours ago, larryllix said:

I hate having to take the dishwasher apart every time. :(**SIGH**

I'm surprised you can get the Insteon Leak Detector under your dishwasher. The Insteon LDs is a real miss. I wish they had plug-in remote sensors with a 6 foot cable. Has anyone taken one of these a part and looked into mods?

Posted
4 hours ago, Goose66 said:

I'm surprised you can get the Insteon Leak Detector under your dishwasher. The Insteon LDs is a real miss. I wish they had plug-in remote sensors with a 6 foot cable. Has anyone taken one of these a part and looked into mods?

IIRC @Teken has demonstrated a double bolt extension for the water contact surfaces to keep the electronics out of the flood zone.

I found lots of room on the floor under any dishwasher I have opened up. They are a PITA to get out when changing your PLM. Mind you the LD is a very poor, basically one time usage only, design. (Smarthome strikes out again :().

 

Posted (edited)
On 4/12/2021 at 8:47 AM, Goose66 said:
I'm surprised you can get the Insteon Leak Detector under your dishwasher. The Insteon LDs is a real miss. I wish they had plug-in remote sensors with a 6 foot cable. Has anyone taken one of these a part and looked into mods?

I have four independent water leak systems in place and Insteon plays a role. This was the first proof of concept many years ago. Where the primary goal was to limit the amount of water damage and fire safety. Once the system detects water it will immediately turn off the (local) water supply. At the same time it will disconnect and terminate the electricity to the appliance.


Next it will send a SMS / Email  to all listed contacts.


In the home the system will use Julie U.S. to voice broadcast the area and zone over the PA system. A reader board display (RBD) is sent out to all system monitors throughout the home and property. In this really old proof of concept video you will see water placed on the strip sensor. The unit immediately detects the water and turns off the water supply which is connected to a open - close sensor. The open - close sensor is linked to the on - off module which turns on the light which can be anything but in this case its a light fixture.


What isn't in this video is the extra sensor(s) which confirm and validate the presence of water in extremely sensitive areas. This was done to avoid possible false positives because of damp concrete etc. There are various water leak sensors from rope, disk, to strip. They are soldered to the leak sensor and other 3rd party sensors which all tie into the security alarm system which is managed & monitored by my GMS. Which has global control of everything in and outside of the property. 


Proof of concept of water leak detection and reactive elements.

 


This is a sample of what Julie U.S will say depending upon the area and zone.

This is the Reader Board that displays the active, current, and historic state of the home and its systems. 


JWADtKw.jpg
 
c0oXZmo.jpg
 
fE7AWif.jpg

Edited by Teken
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  • 2 months later...
Posted

Just read on the Homeseer forum a letter from Smartome saying they have discontinued On/Off modules. In my book that is a basic enough product to indicate Insteon in general is not going to last much longer. Not sure how fast it will die but it doesn't look good.

Posted
1 hour ago, upstatemike said:

Just read on the Homeseer forum a letter from Smartome saying they have discontinued On/Off modules. In my book that is a basic enough product to indicate Insteon in general is not going to last much longer. Not sure how fast it will die but it doesn't look good.

Don't believe everything you read in the online rumour mills. I suspect there may be some person at Insteon whose  first language isn't English and uses the wrong expressions.

We hear this frequently, over the years, about many Insteon products, and then a new version of the product suddenly appears on the shelves.

One thing we do believe is that silicon chips are in shortage all over the world, due to COVID-19 slow downs.

  • Like 4
Posted
7 hours ago, larryllix said:

Don't believe everything you read in the online rumour mills. I suspect there may be some person at Insteon whose  first language isn't English and uses the wrong expressions.

We hear this frequently, over the years, about many Insteon products, and then a new version of the product suddenly appears on the shelves.

One thing we do believe is that silicon chips are in shortage all over the world, due to COVID-19 slow downs.

It was a written response from Smarthome with lack of sales as the reason for dropping on/off modules. Checked the site and they are indeed sold out so let's see if they stay in the product list or just quietly get dropped.

Posted
14 minutes ago, upstatemike said:

It was a written response from Smarthome with lack of sales as the reason for dropping on/off modules. Checked the site and they are indeed sold out so let's see if they stay in the product list or just quietly get dropped.

 

Screenshot_20210704-083128_Gmail.jpg

Posted

 

Update for Case 1147107 - "On/Off Module Information"

Hi Jim,

Thank you for contacting Smarthome Support.

Our apologies for the inconvenience caused. We understand that you would like to know about the availability of our products.

Unfortunately, we are sorry to inform you that the Insteon On/Off Module is a discontinued product, and we do not have any immediate plans to bring the Insteon On/Off Module back in due to limited sales.

Again we apologize for the inconvenience caused.

Feel Free to write to us for any further assistance.

Regards,

Martin Brown
Posted (edited)
9 hours ago, upstatemike said:

Just read on the Homeseer forum a letter from Smartome saying they have discontinued On/Off modules. In my book that is a basic enough product to indicate Insteon in general is not going to last much longer. Not sure how fast it will die but it doesn't look good.

While some of their business decisions seem questionable and give me pause with them myself, there's still life in the company.

For starters, their business isn't just insteon. They have smarthome sales as well so it's not like insteon is their sole source of income. Historically, both sides have ebbed and flowed propping up the other during lean times. 

The next thing is they have a new product line coming out. If they were going under i don't see the point in them working on the new line. 

Even if the plug in modules do get disco'd, they still have outlets that could be used in its place. Sure it's easy to plug something in, but if you can change a switch, a person can swap an outlet. Hell it looks better anyway.

Truth be told, many companies are in the same boat as insteon. Since most on her only deal specifically with insteon, the light shines brighter. However, for those that deal with other stuff, they see the impact on things. As a beta tester for a few, i know which products should have been released to the public already but have not. While cities and states across America are opening up, there's still a pandemic going on which is still effecting everything we've grown accustomed to

Edited by lilyoyo1
Posted

@upstatemike  The fact that on/off modules were out of stock at the end of last summer saved me a lot of money, I was planning to purchase a 5-pack.

Instead I decided to try out the Kasa nodeserver with this Kasa 4-pack.   Works well.  Can be used in scene's with Insteon controllers.  I've sense purchased two more 4-packs and last Chrismas for the first time ever had enough plug in modules to go around.

The interesting thing about the above email is that it states the product is discontinued, however the listing remains in Sold Out state on the smart home website.   Conversely, the "Hidden Door Sensor" was in sold out state for over a year, but the listing was removed entirely finally earlier this spring.    They aren't making sense, smarthome has always been on the weird side tho.

 

Posted

Nothing against Kasa or Wi-Fi modules in general except most cannot be controlled locally without flashing the firmware or some other involved process. How are you using them with Insteon controllers?

Posted
13 minutes ago, MrBill said:

@upstatemike  The fact that on/off modules were out of stock at the end of last summer saved me a lot of money, I was planning to purchase a 5-pack.

Instead I decided to try out the Kasa nodeserver with this Kasa 4-pack.   Works well.  Can be used in scene's with Insteon controllers.  I've sense purchased two more 4-packs and last Chrismas for the first time ever had enough plug in modules to go around.

The interesting thing about the above email is that it states the product is discontinued, however the listing remains in Sold Out state on the smart home website.   Conversely, the "Hidden Door Sensor" was in sold out state for over a year, but the listing was removed entirely finally earlier this spring.    They aren't making sense, smarthome has always been on the weird side tho.

 

The hidden door sensor is definitely disco'd. They may end up discontinuing the plug ins depending on how things go but for now there's an expectation that they will return

Posted
7 minutes ago, lilyoyo1 said:

The hidden door sensor is definitely disco'd. They may end up discontinuing the plug ins depending on how things go but for now there's an expectation that they will return

Maybe but haven't they been promising a new PLM for like years and years now? If they can't get that out the door in all this time how much faith can we have in rumoured new products or a reversal in product attrition?

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Posted
23 minutes ago, lilyoyo1 said:

The hidden door sensor is definitely disco'd. They may end up discontinuing the plug ins depending on how things go but for now there's an expectation that they will return

Oh I forgot, "discontinued" and "definitely discontinued" are two different things ?

I guess they should add a footnote to the above email: PS: Discontinued doesn't mean definitely discontinued it just means discontinued.  

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Posted
50 minutes ago, lilyoyo1 said:

The hidden door sensor is definitely disco'd. They may end up discontinuing the plug ins depending on how things go but for now there's an expectation that they will return

Thank goodness I ordered 10 of the hidden door sensors when I purchased all the wall switches to redo the house. Just need time to install them.

Posted
1 hour ago, MrBill said:

Oh I forgot, "discontinued" and "definitely discontinued" are two different things ?

I guess they should add a footnote to the above email: PS: Discontinued doesn't mean definitely discontinued it just means discontinued.  

???

  • Haha 1
Posted
1 hour ago, upstatemike said:

Maybe but haven't they been promising a new PLM for like years and years now? If they can't get that out the door in all this time how much faith can we have in rumoured new products or a reversal in product attrition?

Its been rumored before but never has there been anything added to the FCC database until recent along with the devices from their new product line. If you look at their old filings, they've released all of them

Posted
1 hour ago, lilyoyo1 said:

Its been rumored before but never has there been anything added to the FCC database until recent along with the devices from their new product line. If you look at their old filings, they've released all of them

are you saying there has been a recent filing in the FCC database for a new PLM?

Posted
1 hour ago, stealle said:

are you saying there has been a recent filing in the FCC database for a new PLM?

All of their new products were released to the FCC database in the last 18 months or so

Posted
On 7/4/2021 at 8:58 AM, MrBill said:

Oh I forgot, "discontinued" and "definitely discontinued" are two different things ?

Well, you are leaving out two more levels.  Then there is terminated and lastly "we fired/terminated the entire sales/product/production team".  ?

I learned many years ago that it is what someone doesn't say that speaks the loudest. 

Posted
7 minutes ago, LFMc said:

Well, you are leaving out two more levels.  Then there is terminated and lastly "we fired/terminated the entire sales/product/production team".  ?

I learned many years ago that it is what someone doesn't say that speaks the loudest. 

The sad part that not only is there a lack of industry "buzz" about Insteon, there's now actually alot of negatively.  I used to suggest Insteon for this or that when I'd read a post (speaking of social media other than this forum).. anymore it draws out negativity, so I've stopped suggesting.  

One of the big pluses in my opinion was that Insteon had lots of accessories nobody else did,  from odd colored paddle change kits, blank buttons, etc... and devices unique to the ecosystem such as the hidden door sensor, synchrolinc, plug-in modules, etc...  they are deleting lots of items and trying to focus on the switch itself BECAUSE that's what every other product line sells.  The fact that it was a complete product line, that has more functionality is why Insteon appealed to me. 

I don't think the current ownership understands what they have and how to market it.  What worked 10 years ago isn't the answer in today's market, but neither is abandoning the additional parts that make Insteon a very unique offering.

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Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, MrBill said:

The sad part that not only is there a lack of industry "buzz" about Insteon, there's now actually alot of negatively.  I used to suggest Insteon for this or that when I'd read a post (speaking of social media other than this forum).. anymore it draws out negativity, so I've stopped suggesting.  

One of the big pluses in my opinion was that Insteon had lots of accessories nobody else did,  from odd colored paddle change kits, blank buttons, etc... and devices unique to the ecosystem such as the hidden door sensor, synchrolinc, plug-in modules, etc...  they are deleting lots of items and trying to focus on the switch itself BECAUSE that's what every other product line sells.  The fact that it was a complete product line, that has more functionality is why Insteon appealed to me. 

I don't think the current ownership understands what they have and how to market it.  What worked 10 years ago isn't the answer in today's market, but neither is abandoning the additional parts that make Insteon a very unique offering.

Wreaks of the owner/CEO being a rich kid that never learned responsibilty for him/herself. I didn't say "millennial" :):)

Edited by larryllix
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