ISY Platform becoming unnecessary?

[Geddy]

8 minutes ago, ShawnW said:

I'm sure this wasn't your point - but (the 'new') Insteon has those in stock and shipping now. I just test-purchased and received an order of several devices from them and all went well.

@NFLnut is talking about remotes. Those are not in stock and not on the list of expected items (what was shared on the Nov webinar). 
 

indeed, many have been ordering new devices from them and they are hoping to have lots more as time goes on. I hope they can make it work for a long time to come. 
 

 

[ShawnW]

On 11/21/2022 at 7:09 AM, x046866x said:

I recently set up a new ecobee thermostat to replace a faulty Insteon 2441TH.  I wanted to set up the ecobee on the ISY994 and was going to do so with the polyglot.  The install of the Node server failed but it is because of an known error with Polyglot 2.x.  I've tried, for some time, to purchase a Polisy but to no avail.  I figured I'd be patient and wait for the eisy and set everything up there.....but that is still at least another month out (and continues to be delayed, so my confidence in 2022 availability is not high).

I know this was not your point, but I can't help but point out that you can buy new (brand new, NOS) Insteon Thermostat's on ebay right now for $40. Many of them. Infact, I bought one as a backup which showed up yesterday....brand new.

As for the point you were trying to make, I don't see your depressing future. Long ago UDI had a Z-Wave card which I've used to expand including to replace a few Insteon devices, though Insteon is still better and more reliable communicationally. My ZMatter board shipped yesterday! How people can complain about this being too far away and waiting for new Matter product is beyond me. It's exciting and its happening now - and UDI has shipped us controlling boards BEFORE the first Matter product hit the floor! How incredible are they?!?!?!?!?

[ShawnW]

4 minutes ago, Geddy said:

@NFLnut is talking about remotes. Those are not in stock and not on the list of expected items (what was shared on the Nov webinar).

Whoops!!

Sorry, I thought he was talking about the in-wall 8-button. My bad.

As to your other comment, yes I hope the new ownership is able to transition the company beyond the rush of people purchasing to plug their Insteon leaks. I've always thought their exclusive technology and high price/expensive packaging were hurting them, not helping. Until they figure it out, I'm going to finally learn what a Ployglot node server is

[NFLnut]

15 hours ago, ShawnW said:

I'm sure this wasn't your point - but (the 'new') Insteon has those in stock and shipping now. I just test-purchased and received an order of several devices from them and all went well.

I looked for the mini-remotes (2342-2) but have not seen them on their site. I would buy several today if I saw them.

[NFLnut]

15 hours ago, ShawnW said:

Until they figure it out, I'm going to finally learn what a Ployglot node server is

Yep. Hence the reason I am buying an eisy. I never bought the Polisy because I was pretty happy with the ISY994 and didn't really understand Polyglot (still really don't ..) until I found out that because of my old Z-wave board, I can't upgrade past 5.02. And then, several of my Insteon devices went belly up and they were gone. By then, the Polisy's were no longer available. And I'll need to add a ZMatter board.

Edited December 2, 2022 by NFLnut

[x046866x]

Thank you everyone for some great feedback!  There are a lot of great thoughts and ideas in this thread.

I placed the pre-order on my eisy earlier today and am eager to get it installed!  Some questions I have that probably deserve (if they don't already have) their own thread are:

• Do I "move" my ISY994 to the new eisy on day one or run them in parallel for a period of time until all is off the ISY?  I'm thinking the latter.  (note: I will re-implement all the Polygot immediately and that will free up an older Pi for other use).
• I have a 2413S with RJ45 (I use Ethernet cable between the ISY and modem).  I'm hoping the PLM kit will be back in stock soon?
• I read there was a discount for members.  I am a member and signed in, but saw no discount.  Did I miss a button anywhere?
• The USB based Z-matter seems awkward to be hanging out of the back of the eisy.  Especially with the antenna's adding weight to the very end of the unit.  Will this not place undue strain on the USB port?

Looking forward to tinkering!

[Bumbershoot]

1 hour ago, x046866x said:

Thank you everyone for some great feedback!  There are a lot of great thoughts and ideas in this thread.

I placed the pre-order on my eisy earlier today and am eager to get it installed!  Some questions I have that probably deserve (if they don't already have) their own thread are:

• Do I "move" my ISY994 to the new eisy on day one or run them in parallel for a period of time until all is off the ISY?  I'm thinking the latter.  (note: I will re-implement all the Polygot immediately and that will free up an older Pi for other use).
• I have a 2413S with RJ45 (I use Ethernet cable between the ISY and modem).  I'm hoping the PLM kit will be back in stock soon?
• I read there was a discount for members.  I am a member and signed in, but saw no discount.  Did I miss a button anywhere?
• The USB based Z-matter seems awkward to be hanging out of the back of the eisy.  Especially with the antenna's adding weight to the very end of the unit.  Will this not place undue strain on the USB port?

Looking forward to tinkering!

• I don't think running an eisy and an ISY994 in parallel is easy to do or even a good idea.  I don't think you should have devices on two different controllers, as I suspect that havoc would ensue.  You could move one room at a time, being sure to remove the devices from the ISY prior to setting them up on your eisy, but what do you do about your programs and scenes in that scenario?  There isn't any way to get an eisy and ISY994 to share live data, that I know of.
• With the exception of Z-Wave, it's a comparative cinch (once you get your PLM installed on your eisy) to simply restore a backup of your ISY994 onto your eisy, and migrate your Polyglot to the new device.  After today, it may even be simple to migrate Z-Wave if things go well with the expected firmware update.
• I think the discount is for developers, not general users -- at least that's the way it has been.
• Good point about the strain on the USB port.  I obviously don't have any information, but I'll bet that the quality of the boards inside the eisy, as well as the quality of the case itself will be sufficient to support the board to where it won't be a significant point of failure - unless of course, a big mammal steps on it...

[x046866x]

2 hours ago, Bumbershoot said:

• I don't think running an eisy and an ISY994 in parallel is easy to do or even a good idea.  I don't think you should have devices on two different controllers, as I suspect that havoc would ensue.  You could move one room at a time, being sure to remove the devices from the ISY prior to setting them up on your eisy, but what do you do about your programs and scenes in that scenario?  There isn't any way to get an eisy and ISY994 to share live data, that I know of.
• With the exception of Z-Wave, it's a comparative cinch (once you get your PLM installed on your eisy) to simply restore a backup of your ISY994 onto your eisy, and migrate your Polyglot to the new device.  After today, it may even be simple to migrate Z-Wave if things go well with the expected firmware update.
• I think the discount is for developers, not general users -- at least that's the way it has been.
• Good point about the strain on the USB port.  I obviously don't have any information, but I'll bet that the quality of the boards inside the eisy, as well as the quality of the case itself will be sufficient to support the board to where it won't be a significant point of failure - unless of course, a big mammal steps on it...

• Agreed that having the same device in two controllers would be a potential nightmare.  I was thinking I would run them both in parallel until I peel everything off from one to the other, but if there is a waterfall backup/restore solution I'm good with that (appears there is).
• Developer discount: Ah...I should polish my development chops up a bit, but that may take a while .  I seem to remember that qualification now that you mention it.  NBD.
• Interesting point about Z-wave.  The integration works rather well in the ISY today, but I forgot it was a separate module.  I'll need to send UD a few more bucks.
  • I purchased a SkyConnect to add to my HA server.  Not sure where these would be redundant.  The SkyConnect does not support Z-wave (and I have several) and I am using the ISY for my current Z-wave connectivity.  Hmmmmmmm.....
• If I'm sending them some more $...ideally they'll have the cabling for the 2413S available also (they didn't this morning).
• While I am a much bigger mammal that I should be I will make every effort to ensure I am not the reason we test that potential failure point....no promises though.

 

Got a great E-mail from UD introducing the eisy.  Still reading, but hopefully it'll have answers as well....maybe even to questions I haven't thought of yet.  It mentions installing HA, but I'm in the same camp as someone previous in this thread and would rather that remain on its own processor...unless there is benefit there I don't see yet.

 

[RPerrault]

omg don't tell that i posted - i was told not to until i use topic sentences and have grammarly parse my posts

not sure if anything else does this - but the 'replace device with...' function is invaluable for me - i have well over 100 insteon devices and at least as many scenes - lots of keypad among the insteon devices - craplincs being craplincs, ud makes replacing devices easy

and - the setup - once you grasp the bizarre controler/responder lingo, ud makes the setup easy

ud has saved my life many times - but the 'nodes' are not supported by ud - hope the beer truck does not take out the support for the node you rely on - i am not saying its a bad approach (allowing 3rd party developers) but its not like you are able to call a company for support

odd that people think ud devices are simple - there is a learning curve and its a unix based os - not that unix is bad - its good for some applications - but its not an apple pc - people keep wanting graphical interfaces and sound and hdmi and crap to make it into an apple os - which completely eliminates the advantage unix has - its not a 'just buy a box' - ud devices are not about apple graphical interfaces - ud devices are about the setup and execution - ud devices belong in an equipment closet, no matter how pretty they make it - functionality adds complexity and points of failure and security risk - and size - i think ud is doing that right - its a workhorse that does not need attention - not an apple

minimizing points of failure is good but until you have a hot standby system...ud does not do this 

bmercer's (at least that is who i credit) worked on the echo integration was fantastic - voice control is great - with the echo routines, i finally got my wish - 'turn the lights on' is device dependent - i also learned that i don't need ecobee thermostats interfaced to the isy - as i said, i am not 'a real home automation' nerd because i don't try to control others with motion sensors and guessing what others need - i call that parlor tricks but evidently its 'true home automation' 

ud devices are a bargain if you replace a craplinc 

[ShawnW]

On 12/13/2022 at 7:40 AM, x046866x said:

• The USB based Z-matter seems awkward to be hanging out of the back of the eisy.  Especially with the antenna's adding weight to the very end of the unit.  Will this not place undue strain on the USB port?

Hi.

  This was brought up in another thread, so I asked if we could use a short "USB extension cord", and Michel responded that that would work. Should be a great solution for this issue.

Shawn

[TRI0N]

On 11/23/2022 at 11:03 AM, beninsteon said:

What OS is eisy running? 

It would certainly be nice to have HA (and other software like pihole, samba server, etc) run concurrently on the same box. Could be marketed as the ultimate smarthome hardware.

Ben

Why on earth would you want to run SAMBA on a Home Automation System? I guess security isn't your main concern to have a Windows Network cross over being using on your Linux Box. I would figure you would want to be NIST Compliant a much as possible on your automation box leaving SAMBA and any other network services on a systems that has IDS and firewalls to go through.

If you're just playing around then okay dokay.

Edited January 20, 2023 by TRI0N