Insteon HUB (2245) cloud servers shut down

[shovelhead]

About 6 years into building out my smart home. Insteon and ISY are the core of it all. It has worked great and I have been a big proponent. I have not lurked the forums for quiet some time as I reached the point of zen for my system. Just finalized the sale of my house and included all the Insteon gear in the sale. Excited because the new house will be a blank slate to start fresh. Now I am finding out Insteon is no more... The disappointment settles in.

Now i have to go dig through all the "Insteon vs (insert option)" posts and rethink the new build. Gonna try to look at this positively.

For what it is worth, I never had a problem with any of my Insteon devices, including my PLM. It has all been rock solid for years. I did not use the hub long before jumping to ISY. I added a couple z-wave switches to feel them out. They were never as snappy and responsive as my Insteon. I do hope the tech finds a new home that keeps it in the market.

[oskrypuch]

@andrew77 I was just wrestling with the very same question. I have an extensive Insteon setup that I've been managing with ISYs over the years.

With no more peripherals available to buy, I decided to look seriously at Z-Wave. I had also been thinking of moving to the Polisy. This all kind of made me pull the trigger.

Delighted.

I am now running a Polisy, having migrated my Insteon setup fairly painlessly, and posted about some of my experiences. (Z-Wave 700 section) I purchased the recommended 700 series dongle, and an Aeotec repeater/amplifier, and have added a couple of Z-Wave devices. Everything is working well. There is a bit of learning curve, but that is part of the fun.

So, now I'm largely future-proofed. I do have some inventory of Insteon, and can swap devices around for failures, and where I can't, I can now fill with Z-Wave. I also have enormously increased the variety of devices available to me.

* Orest

 

Edited May 5, 2022 by oskrypuch

[ingeborgdot]

I have several questions.  I may have missed an answer because I didn't get a chance to read all of this because of a time crunch.

Is there an alternative device for the KPL switches that insteon used?  What about the insteon dimmer modules? Switches?

This is the time crunch question. I have a quadriplegic friend that has insteon switches and modules along with a hub. If I get an ISY994 for him, how do I make it communicate with the insteon products without a PLM? I need to get something up and going for him so he can gain back some ability to control lights etc.

Thanks.

[apostolakisl]

1 hour ago, ingeborgdot said:

 

Is there an alternative device for the KPL switches that insteon used?  What about the insteon dimmer modules? Switches?

 

Thanks.

I guess it depends on what you are trying to do.  A KPL has either 6 or 8 buttons, a switch has 2.  There are multiple commands you can issue with those 2 buttons, fast on/off, dim down/up, and on/off.  But I am not sure how this helps a quadriplegic since I would assume buttons are of no use to this friend.  And I am confused on why you would need to change switches at this point.

1 hour ago, ingeborgdot said:

 

This is the time crunch question. I have a quadriplegic friend that has insteon switches and modules along with a hub. If I get an ISY994 for him, how do I make it communicate with the insteon products without a PLM? I need to get something up and going for him so he can gain back some ability to control lights etc.

Thanks.

No, there is no way to control Insteon with an ISY994 without a serial plm.  If you buy a Polisy and run ISY on Polisy, you can use usb or serial plm's, so more options, but you must have one.

[mmb]

1 hour ago, ingeborgdot said:

This is the time crunch question. I have a quadriplegic friend that has insteon switches and modules along with a hub. If I get an ISY994 for him, how do I make it communicate with the insteon products without a PLM? I need to get something up and going for him so he can gain back some ability to control lights etc.

Thanks.

I’m using Home Assistant with my GEN2 Hub and was able to duplicate the automations.

Use google for more information.

[ingeborgdot]

Where can a person buy a Serial PLM today?

Actually the KPL is mine.  He has none, but he uses Alexa to run his lights that are on insteon switches. She no longer works with the hub. I think the hub was reset in all of the chaos that has gone on as of late. If we can't find an alternative that would work with Alexa, then new switches are mandatory.

[lilyoyo1]

5 hours ago, ingeborgdot said:

Where can a person buy a Serial PLM today?

Actually the KPL is mine.  He has none, but he uses Alexa to run his lights that are on insteon switches. She no longer works with the hub. I think the hub was reset in all of the chaos that has gone on as of late. If we can't find an alternative that would work with Alexa, then new switches are mandatory.

There's a few posts on here about using HA with the hub. I would check out their forums as that would be the easiest method to get your friend up and running. 

[MrBill]

9 hours ago, ingeborgdot said:

Where can a person buy a Serial PLM today?

Actually the KPL is mine.  He has none, but he uses Alexa to run his lights that are on insteon switches. She no longer works with the hub. I think the hub was reset in all of the chaos that has gone on as of late. If we can't find an alternative that would work with Alexa, then new switches are mandatory.

Your quickest solution is to run Home Assistant, it will talk to a hub.  I've done this at my son's house, it was pretty easy, but the caveat is I already run HA in my own house and knew how that controller works.  If you can find a Pi4, either 2 or 4gb (they are in short supply at the moment) that's the hardware I would recommend, that said there are many other ways to run Home Assistant.... (make sure 'Supervisor" is part of the install tho... that makes keeping the system updated much easier.)  https://www.home-assistant.io/getting-started/

For Alexa connectivity you will also need the 6.50/month or $65.00 Nabu Casa subscription, to make Home assistant talk to Alexa in the cloud.  It also offers remote connectivity tho, if you or someone else will be helping her maintain Home Assistant.

Edited May 6, 2022 by MrBill

[Athlon]

Just saw this on my phone, had no time to check it out, but here is the link. 

https://www.arachnoid.com/insteon_rescue/index.html

Just too much small text on my phone - hope it's helpful 

 

[andrew77]

On 5/5/2022 at 1:36 PM, oskrypuch said:

@andrew77 I was just wrestling with the very same question. I have an extensive Insteon setup that I've been managing with ISYs over the years.

With no more peripherals available to buy, I decided to look seriously at Z-Wave. I had also been thinking of moving to the Polisy. This all kind of made me pull the trigger.

Delighted.

I am now running a Polisy, having migrated my Insteon setup fairly painlessly, and posted about some of my experiences. (Z-Wave 700 section) I purchased the recommended 700 series dongle, and an Aeotec repeater/amplifier, and have added a couple of Z-Wave devices. Everything is working well. There is a bit of learning curve, but that is part of the fun.

So, now I'm largely future-proofed. I do have some inventory of Insteon, and can swap devices around for failures, and where I can't, I can now fill with Z-Wave. I also have enormously increased the variety of devices available to me.

* Orest

 

Hi @oskrypuch

I was just checking out your 700 series posts. I'm glad to hear the switch over is fairly painless. I fear the learning curve right now as I want to have time to sit and just focus on one thing.

 

When you say "an enormously increased variety of devices" that's encouraging. Maybe things like garage door openers and driveway motion alerts? I realize that sounds dumb but the start of my driveway isnt close to my house so I'd love to know when someone drives in. 

I would also love to have a sensor detect my wife's phone or mine and open the appropriate garage door and trigger 'her' scene but now I may be wanting sci fi to happen now. ?

 

 

[Bumbershoot]

3 hours ago, andrew77 said:

I would also love to have a sensor detect my wife's phone or mine and open the appropriate garage door and trigger 'her' scene but now I may be wanting sci fi to happen now. ?

 

That's doable with Z-Wave.  I have a couple of these: https://www.amazon.com/GoControl-GD00Z-8-GC-Z-Wave-Security-Black/dp/B085LKPHK6/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=GoControl&qid=1652372776&sr=8-3

Combine that with a geofence, and you're good to go: https://wiki.universal-devices.com/index.php?title=ISY_Portal_Node_Server_Occupancy_and_Locative_app_Instructions

 

[oskrypuch]

8 minutes ago, Bumbershoot said:

That's doable with Z-Wave.  I have a couple of these: https://www.amazon.com/GoControl-GD00Z-8-GC-Z-Wave-Security-Black/dp/B085LKPHK6/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=GoControl&qid=1652372776&sr=8-3

Combine that with a geofence, and you're good to go: https://wiki.universal-devices.com/index.php?title=ISY_Portal_Node_Server_Occupancy_and_Locative_app_Instructions

 

I noticed, but hadn't looked at the portal occupancy function.

So, that (Locative app) is only available for iThingies, it looks like?

* Orest

[Geddy]

22 minutes ago, oskrypuch said:

So, that (Locative app) is only available for iThingies, it looks like?

Yes, sometime ago the developer for Locative stopped offering for Android. I think even at a time had paused all development, but since has been updating the iOS app. 

Not sure if it would work with how @Bumbershoot is doing it, but if you have Alexa there are some geofence abilities in there that might work with Android. Although, Android seems to kill background applications to limit geofence abilities. Others mention tasker for Android. 

I think @Javi is working on adding Geofence to the UD Mobile offering, but not sure how far out it is in development. 

I know I use the "old" Moblinc Pro with ISY portal connection and geofence in Mobilinc to trigger variables when my wife's or my phone arrives home. I don't have anything to auto open the garage (that's too much security risk for me to consider), but some simple variable changing and programming used to help us with various events. The whole "work from home" time has changed lots of our routine and triggers though so most are now inactive. 

[Athlon]

I'm using my Alexa app's geofencing function to trigger ISY scenes by using Alexa Routines. It works quite well. (Our phones are Android's. btw).

I found I had to make the 'circle' a bit larger than the default to make it work reliably.

 

[kzboray]

@Athlon Which Alexa skill are you using for the geofence?

[Athlon]

1 minute ago, kzboray said:

@Athlon Which Alexa skill are you using for the geofence?

It's built into the app (not a Skill). When you create a Routine and go to the 'When This Happens' section and choose 'Location'.

[oskrypuch]

35 minutes ago, Athlon said:

I'm using my Alexa app's geofencing function to trigger ISY scenes by using Alexa Routines. It works quite well. (Our phones are Android's. btw).

I found I had to make the 'circle' a bit larger than the default to make it work reliably.

 

Don't have Alexa, and always leery about adding information about myself to the cloud, but...

How do you twiddle ISY from Alexa, is there a polyglot node?

* Orest

Edited May 12, 2022 by oskrypuch

[kzboray]

@oskrypuch UDI developed an Alexa Skill for ISY integration. You can access it via the Alexa store and search for "ISY Optimized for Smart Home V3" Once you have added that to your Alexa anything you add via the ISY Portal will be available via Alexa. Don't forget to <Discover> in the Alexa app once you've added scenes or devices to the ISY portal.

[Athlon]

Yep - that's exactly how I set mine up.

[Athlon]

37 minutes ago, oskrypuch said:

How do you twiddle ISY from Alexa, is there a polyglot node?

And no - there is no node for her...

[tazman]

2 hours ago, oskrypuch said:

I noticed, but hadn't looked at the portal occupancy function.

So, that (Locative app) is only available for iThingies, it looks like?

* Orest

If you would like to setup the occupancy function with ISY using Android the MacroDroid app has worked well for me.

Tom

[Geddy]

2 hours ago, kzboray said:

Don't forget to <Discover> in the Alexa app

Or verbally..."Alexa, Discover devices"

And keep in mind the ever popular https://alexa.amazon.com/spa/index.html site that sometimes is easier to manage than the app for removing smart devices or confirming what Alexa sees as your devices (on "the big screen"). 

 

 

3 hours ago, Athlon said:

I found I had to make the 'circle' a bit larger than the default to make it work reliably.

@Athlon do you think that's an Alexa issue or cell signal in your area? I don't use Alexa geofence enough to know if she's missing my triggers, but I already use a wider area because it's more just an announcement to the family when I'm almost home from work. 

 

[Athlon]

15 minutes ago, Geddy said:

@Athlon do you think that's an Alexa issue or cell signal in your area? I don't use Alexa geofence enough to know if she's missing my triggers, but I already use a wider area because it's more just an announcement to the family when I'm almost home from work. 

I don't know if the default is just too small, or it's a cell tower issue. Before I enlarged the circle it worked about 75% of the time and now it works every time. I only enlarged the circle by about 10%.

I used to have it announce an arrival over all of our echo devices, but that got old quick. ?

Now it controls the usual stuff - outside lights and HVAC settings.

[Bumbershoot]

23 hours ago, Athlon said:

I'm using my Alexa app's geofencing function to trigger ISY scenes by using Alexa Routines. It works quite well. (Our phones are Android's. btw).

I found I had to make the 'circle' a bit larger than the default to make it work reliably.

 

I didn't know about this.  I set up a routine that's using this function, and so far, it works beautifully!  Thanks for sharing the idea!

[Geddy]

19 hours ago, Athlon said:

I used to have it announce an arrival over all of our echo devices, but that got old quick. ?

Yeah, I agree, but it's fun to annoy a teenager.

And I'm not the one that has to hear it! LOL!