Insteon acquired and servers coming back up

[lilyoyo1]

5 hours ago, jec6613 said:

.

Unless I'm doing a direct link to a light switch though, nowadays I use the Aeotec Door Sensor 7 Pro, which is smaller and performs just as well.

I've been testing the zooz door sensor which is even smaller than the aeotec.

I wasn't impressed with the battery life on my aeotecs (still lasts longer than insteon) though it performs really well. Haven't had zooz long enough to say anything about it's battery life. 

[larryllix]

8 hours ago, jec6613 said:

The door sensor was originally the TriggerLinc and they advertised it more heavily - you can use it to handle any dry contact switches including a simple push button, which I've used in a few locations either with a remote reed switch itself could be subject to weather (and therefore bad to have the door sensor itself on it) or to use a pair of reed switches to detect either of a pair of doors using a single door sensor - though in this case either door closing would show the sensor closed, it's still effective in certain situations - in my case, double door reach-in closets where the light only turns on with both open, and will turn off with either closed.

Unless I'm doing a direct link to a light switch though, nowadays I use the Aeotec Door Sensor 7 Pro, which is smaller and performs just as well.

Although I have a few Zwave devices and a SiLabs 700 dongle, I have been trying avoid a Zwave system after hearing so many negatives in forums. I may have to push myself some day but after downsizing my home (severely) I have boxes of Insteon devices right now and not much need for new gadgets. WiFi has been taking over for lighting here.

I just threw out almost a dozen Zwave receptacles I inherited. I think they may have been series 300 units, and more terrible UI , so far.  I was previously looking forward to moving to Zwave but they really don't seem forward now. My experiences so far has been like going back to the 1980s with X10.

[RPerrault]

11 hours ago, larryllix said:

I was previously looking forward to moving to Zwave but they really don't seem forward now. My experiences so far has been like going back to the 1980s with X10.

i had a house full of farthome's switchlinc plus x10 devices - had scene capability - worked as well as any of the stuff they put out - when they quit selling them and introduced insteon, i tried a few with the x10 setup - the coexistence stuff was what you'd expect from them - bought into the 'add more and it will work' too

scenes were like insteon in response 

without that response, z-wave is not an option for me

 

[MrBill]

15 hours ago, RPerrault said:

farthome's

I've always enjoyed your 3rd grade level posts, I hope you never grow up!

[larryllix]

I've always enjoyed your 3rd grade level posts, I hope you never grow up!

I always thought it was Smartypants.

Sent from my SM-G781W using Tapatalk

[RPerrault]

i do it as a service for those that only comment on my gutter posts - not on the substance of the post - just my adolescence 

never participate in conceptual discussions of networks and protocols

so i do it as a service - so everyone can participate

 

 

[mango]

Um....

 

Instiwrong ?

 

Sorry. I'll get my coat.

[Techman]

This email was sent out to Insteon Hub subscribers on July 7. 2022

Hi everyone,

I hope you had a great 4th of July. It is hard to believe we are mid-way through 2022! I know it's only been a week since my last note, but things are moving fast so I wanted to give you four quick updates.

Hub Subscriptions (Thank You!)
We thank those of you who have already ordered a subscription. The response has been incredible and your early support of our efforts was very encouraging. To show our thanks, we will be sending you a $20 coupon* towards Insteon products once we have items in stock. If you have not yet subscribed and you order no later than July 15, we'd like to show our appreciation with a $10 coupon*.

The free access period for everyone else is scheduled to end August 1, 2022

Here is the link to subscribe: www.insteon.com/store

Hub Refurbishment
For those of you with Hub 2's that have stopped working, you are now able to order a repair service that will refurbish your hub to the latest manufacturing specifications. For details, please visit www.insteon/com/store/repair-service-for-insteon-hub-2245-222

Replenishing Inventory
Our factories are working to fulfill the orders we have placed! Full disclosure, we are truly restarting the manufacturing process so we believe product deliveries are "months", not "days" or "weeks" away. I know this is not ideal, but I promised to be up front with my communications and I will continue to set as realistic as possible expectations along the way.

On-Hand Inventory
We are moving closer to posting for sale the existing on-hand inventory - as limited as it may be. This is definitely more in the "days" to "weeks" timeline.

Again, thank you. We run into new hurdles and celebrate the small victories daily - but we continue to move forward and we thank you for riding alongside us in this journey.

Ken
CEO, Insteon Technologies

[PBeyard]

I'm not a Hub subscriber but I did subscribe to their mailing list. That happened this way: I sent them a question via their contact form, essentially asking if/when they were planning to offer Insteon devices again. They did not answer it, exactly, but a day or two later I received an opportunity to sign up for updates, which I did. As I recall, this amounted to little more than handing them an email address. But I have not received this missive. I hope they plan to keep everyone in the loop, but in case not - thank you for passing this on.

[Techman]

The above news release was posted by someone on Reddit. There has been nothing posted on the Insteon site other than the original 1st blog post

I don't have a hub, but I originally signed up for their newsletter and updates. I have yet to receive anything from them. Not a great new beginning.

[MrBill]

3 hours ago, Techman said:

The above news release was posted by someone on Reddit. There has been nothing posted on the Insteon site other than the original 1st blog post

I don't have a hub, but I originally signed up for their newsletter and updates. I have yet to receive anything from them. Not a great new beginning.

All the blog posts are there. https://www.insteon.com/blog but for some odd reason "Insteon Blog" only appears in the footer of the front page, not the header.

They also sent the email below to the Smarthome mailing list last week (dated 7/12).

b

I had to paste the email as a picture because the forum wasn't liking a cut and paste.  The subscribe button is apparently linked to me and I couldn't figure out a generic version of the link in the email.  The bottom of the main page does have an email signup blank.

 

Edited July 18, 2022 by MrBill

[Techman]

@MrBill

Seems he's focused on the Hub subscriber email list and not the general newsletter list that he offered on the site and that some of us signed up for.

I've sent several emails to Insteon support but never received a reply. I think he needs a good PR / Website person to reach out to the entire Insteon user base.

At the bottom of this page is the newsletter signup option

      Store — Insteon

 

 

Edited July 18, 2022 by Techman

[nowandthen]

I don't want a bunch of emails that have nothing to report. I hate companies that bombard me with emails. Those of us following this thread know (or should know) that Ken is trying to get the company going. I think we need to cut him some slack and be patient. Hopefully, when there is real news, we will get an email. Real news meaning, we have Switchlincs in stock, we have serial PLMs in stock, etc. And, hopefully, we licensed the PLM to UDI.

[Dub]

15 minutes ago, nowandthen said:

I don't want a bunch of emails that have nothing to report. I hate companies that bombard me with emails. Those of us following this thread know (or should know) that Ken is trying to get the company going. I think we need to cut him some slack and be patient. Hopefully, when there is real news, we will get an email. Real news meaning, we have Switchlincs in stock, we have serial PLMs in stock, etc. And, hopefully, we licensed the PLM to UDI.

I'm with you on this.  I hope everyone can be patient.  I think Ken and team got the most critical piece and quickest up first.  The cloud service.  I can only imagine the daily headaches they are having trying to pull the company out of the ditch maybe even the cliff it was ran into.  The last update I saw said it would be months before seeing newly manufactured hardware, but there was some existing inventory they were working on the logistics of it.   I think months is understandable with the time it will take to get the manufacturing processes back in order, get the chips, and get them on the slow boat.  If anyone hasn't read on the chip manufacturing process, it can take a while for just the chips to be made(my assumption is this process applies to the same types of chips Insteon needs as the article I read).

 

The one thing I would like to see communicated is what equipment they are bringing back.

[MrBill]

16 hours ago, WHaas said:

The one thing I would like to see communicated is what equipment they are bringing back.

I agree.  I sent them a feedback last week on that subject exactly.  I even suggested they divide the old product list into four groups 1) Priority 2) second wave 3) maybe's 4) "for sure not returning" and publish those lists.  I even suggested that if it generates an avalanche of additional feedback that that was not really a bad thing because people are talking about it and they may learn something.

18 hours ago, Techman said:

@MrBill

Seems he's focused on the Hub subscriber email list and not the general newsletter list that he offered on the site and that some of us signed up for.

I've sent several emails to Insteon support but never received a reply. I think he needs a good PR / Website person to reach out to the entire Insteon user base.

At the bottom of this page is the newsletter signup option

      Store — Insteon

I'm quite sure there is a misstep or two along the way.  They appear to be trying tho.   It's only been 40 days since the deal closed.  There is no doubt the most important thing to do was return the hub servers to online state.   Second priority was dealing with Chinese companies to restart manufacturing.  Have you ever dealt with a Chinese Company?  I have, they are masters of telling you what they perceive that you want to hear and then trying to adjust reality to meet the commitment they made when they told you what you wanted to hear.

The newsletter signup option appears in the footer on every page on the insteon.com site.  I did point out the email signup link on the bottom of the front page, but at that point I hadn't yet noticed it's actually an element of the page footer and thus appears on every page, thanks for pointing that out!

Edited July 19, 2022 by MrBill

[Michel Kohanim]

At the huge rate of PLM deaths per week, I hope a) PLMs were included in the order and b) months does not mean years.

With kind regards,

Michel

[Dub]

8 hours ago, MrBill said:

I agree.  I sent them a feedback last week on that subject exactly.  I even suggested they divide the old product list into four groups 1) Priority 2) second wave 3) maybe's 4) "for sure not returning" and publish those lists.  I even suggested that if it generates an avalanche of additional feedback that that was not really a bad thing because people are talking about it and they may learn something.

Thank you for sending this feedback.  I had been wondering the best way to approach that.  And I think this is perfect.  I hope the team listens and does this.  You are right about it creating an opportunity for feedback and right now I think that feedback should be considered gold as they rebuild the business.

I had a link on an email to provide feed and if I can find it I will suggest this too.

Do you know of a prefered method to send the feedback?

[Techman]

4 hours ago, WHaas said:

Thank you for sending this feedback.  I had been wondering the best way to approach that.  And I think this is perfect.  I hope the team listens and does this.  You are right about it creating an opportunity for feedback and right now I think that feedback should be considered gold as they rebuild the business.

I had a link on an email to provide feed and if I can find it I will suggest this too.

Do you know of a prefered method to send the feedback?

Support@insteon.com

Not sure if they will respond, but this is the address they posted on their web page

[Dub]

7 hours ago, Techman said:

Support@insteon.com

Thank you @TechmanI will try that as well.  I'm not being judgmental on this as I know they can't respond to every request, but some comments on Reddit make it seem like a black hole over there right now.  I'm pulling for their success and don't want to overload them.  I did go ahead last night and use the link in the first email that Ken F sent and it was a web submission form....I'm not sure where that lands.

[MrBill]

14 hours ago, WHaas said:

Thank you for sending this feedback.  I had been wondering the best way to approach that.  And I think this is perfect.  I hope the team listens and does this.  You are right about it creating an opportunity for feedback and right now I think that feedback should be considered gold as they rebuild the business.

I had a link on an email to provide feed and if I can find it I will suggest this too.

Do you know of a prefered method to send the feedback?

https://www.insteon.com/feedback-forms/

2 hours ago, WHaas said:

I did go ahead last night and use the link in the first email that Ken F sent and it was a web submission form....I'm not sure where that lands.

probably the same.

 

FWIW, maybe it was pure coincidence, but I also sent them a feedback a week or 10 days before the sent the email to the smarthome list suggesting they do exactly that.  I said, "I'm not a hub customer but I have a large Insteon system that I've had for many years utilizing a PLM and I'm not receiving your updates, you should perhaps include the smarthome purchasers list."  magicially a week or 10 days later they sent an email to the smarthome list.  

I agree tho, they could at least have an auto-responder that says thanks for the feedback.  We read all, respond to as many as possible, but can't answer everything.

[PBeyard]

Folks' list of what devices they consider most important it likely to vary, but I'd be shocked if PLMs weren't high on most lists. They need to focus on getting those stocked, then they need to work out how to greatly improve their reliability. Whether that's an internal redesign or licensing that to someone with a good track record, perhaps whose name begins with 'U' and ends with 'niversal Devices'.

MrBill, your sig gave me a chuckle!

[PBeyard]

I received a July 28, 2022 update from "Ken" at Insteon. It does not appear on the blog at their site yet.

The bullet:

• Subscribe to the hub by 8/1 to avoid service interruption.
• They are moving to a new e-commerce platform and expect to have on-hand inventory for sale starting mid-August.
• They have placed orders for new product but the lead time is much longer and no specifics were offered.
• They are migrating to a new and more robust customer support system and are working the customer support backlog.
• They are actively recruiting employees
• A forum is available at https://forum.insteon.com. I had to create a new login and there are not many threads at the present time; I saw no "forum.smarthome.com" content.
• They intend to offer surveys about usage for the purpose of prioritizing their efforts.

Edited July 29, 2022 by PBeyard

[larryllix]

Sure would be nice for Ken to run a thread here, so people can feel 'homey' with him and develop that trust feel that makes UDI so great.

Nothing like users feeling like they are part of an Insteon family, as well as the ISY family, for a comfortable feel they can 'write home' about.

Welcome Uncle Ken!

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[RPerrault]

not a good omen

[larryllix]

It's either McAfee or Pfizer always trying to tell us we need them for something.

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