I might be finished with UD...

[Toddimus]

I bought my first ISY994 almost 14 years ago.  Had a few Insteon modems die along the way (not UDI's fault), assumed it was just the cost of playing the geeky game.  Somewhere along the line, I think I must have had an ISY994 die along the way because I have an extra.  Can't really remember what happened there.  Now I have a Polisy Pro that initially just ran Polyglot integrations which have since been deprecated (more on that later).

About a year ago, I finally migrated my totally functional ISY994 system/programs/Z-wave network over to the Polisy.  It was supposed to be the bee's knees.  By the time I ended up migrating, there was a new and improved, bee's knees called the EISY.  I get it, they had to change suppliers for their uber-cheap imported box that can run the Java backend to maintain compatibility.  What initially pissed me off was that the recommended Zooz Z-stick was no longer supported on the "latest" version of ISY firmware on the now deprecated Polisy.  You can still use it but you can't upgrade to the latest versions of firmware because it's not supported.  Instead, you have to buy the MatterZ stick because that's the new thing and you just have to have it, or it won't work unless you stay on old firmware.  

Fast forward to now... My Polisy updated itself to v5.8.4 (I think) firmware apparently within the last few days/weeks.  I didn't do it.  Now, it needs rebooting every day.  My old Polyglot 2 integrations are dead.  I had a LOT of archaic ISY Java admin interface code programmed around those Polyglot integrations.  And now, you need a subscription to maintain connectivity to the system from the smart phone.

I get it.  The company needs to make money and needs to monetize this thing.  I totally get it.  I'm just not willing to buy an EISY (~$300) and a Zmatter (~$125) to replace the stuff that worked just fine until the ecosystem I had been using is suddenly deprecated. 

I just did the subscription for the next year for the portal.  I'm fine with a subscription.  I'd probably pay $50/year if it just worked and I didn't have to deal with it all the time.  But, alas it doesn't.  I had hoped I didn't need to babysit it.  But I do.  Why does the Insteon light take so long to react to a motion sensor when the Z-wave reacts immediately?  Why do I still occasionally get an all-on event?  Why does the Polisy reboot when the living room motion sensors have a bunch of triggers (can't I have a party in my living room)?? 

I think I'm done with UDI unless there's a clear path to a stable system that I can rely upon for at least a few years.  I wish it wasn't this way but I'm at my wit's end.  I'll likely be migrating control to either Home Assistant or OpenHAB (both of which I have run in parallel for many years).  I just find that I can't rely upon the Polisy and the ISY/Polyglot infrastructure anymore.  

To be honest, I'm bummed.  I'm not one to be a complainer or squeaky wheel.  I've tried to make the ISY work.  And I have ~50 Insteon devices in my house.  I have a ridiculous amount of time building ISY programs.  And I made some really cool automation stuff over the years.  But I realize this is the state of affairs.  I think I have to begin the process of migrating away.  It's just not stable anymore.  As I said, I'm bummed, or you could even say, disappointed.  

Please tell me I'm wrong and pull me off the edge because I'd love to just have an update and fix everything.  I just don't see it happening.  Especially on "old" Polisy hardware with Zooz Zstick.

[paulbates]

I've jumped ship on other HA integration solutions in the past 24 years 3 times because it didn't work out, to arrive at UDI/ISY. None of them are perfect, changes happen. Make the choice you need to make.

One of the best things UDI offer, not sure any of the competition does to anything close to... and it didn't see it listed as something you tried in your post....is submitting a ticket and getting UDI's high level support. 

[Guy Lavoie]

9 hours ago, Toddimus said:

Fast forward to now... My Polisy updated itself to v5.8.4 (I think) firmware apparently within the last few days/weeks.  I didn't do it.  Now, it needs rebooting every day. 

Maybe you got that bad 5.8.4_1 update the came out just about a week ago. Tried the rollback? Read this thread:

 

[gregkinney]

You're not wrong and I'm not going to pull you off the edge, however, I will say this is a 'grass is always greener' type of scenario. I had the same idea as you and attempted a switch to HA. I have also run HA for many years alongside ISY for the things the ISY coudn't do. The first thing I did was switch Zwave over to HA because ZW was SOOO bad on ISY. So many delays and missed commands. My experience with ZW on HA was that it was worse than ISY ZW. That is not everyone's experience but it was mine. The point of my story is that if you switch, it will fix some of your issues but it will create other issues. Sometimes it's worth it. I mean, the grass does come in different shades of green in different locations, right? Maybe it is a little greener for you somewhere else. Just know, it will likely not be a fix all. I continue to run ISY and HA in tandem as well as a RPi where I write my own little scripts that don't fit neatly into the ISY or HA box. I have decided this is the best approach - not cutting out any one ecosystem but using each one for their strengths.

[lilyoyo1]

I've tried most systems out there over the years and none really beat the isy family overall. It's not perfect but none are. Especially when it comes to insteon, there's no way im choosing HA over eisy/polisy. It's simply more elegant in the UD family of devices. The only controller that i've used thats better is control 4 but that like comparing a Rolls Royce to a Genesis (there's a reason for the difference in cost)

I use Radio Ra3 so I no longer use my polisy since it cannot control my RA3 keypad buttons (works with regular dimmers/switches). However, if it did, I would have upgraded my polisy to eisy to use with my Ra devices over Control 4. One thing i've learned in life is experience is the best teacher. Since you already have the hardware, give it a try. Make a back up of your eisy to make going back easier should you decide to. Swap over to HA and run that. If you like it better then stick with it. If not, you can always go back to your previous setup.

Edited Friday at 12:59 PM by lilyoyo1

[mmb]

A few thoughts.

For the most part my Polisy (EISY) handles mostly Insteon lighting as I find their switches are still the best by far.

My HA instance has been generally handling more automation tasks over time, mostly DHT ESP boards and Zigbee temperature sensors. I run a separate Zigbee controller on HA.

HA also pulls data from the Polisy for a very useful and dynamic dashboard. It's too bad Polisy can't do more in this area.

[firstone]

On 10/9/2024 at 12:04 AM, Toddimus said:

To be honest, I'm bummed.  I'm not one to be a complainer or squeaky wheel.  I've tried to make the ISY work.  And I have ~50 Insteon devices in my house.  I have a ridiculous amount of time building ISY programs.  And I made some really cool automation stuff over the years.  But I realize this is the state of affairs.  I think I have to begin the process of migrating away.  It's just not stable anymore.  As I said, I'm bummed, or you could even say, disappointed.  

I don't think anything out there does better Insteon integration. So unless you're willing to throw away your 50 Insteon devices, probably don't overreact and use UD's best feature - support. Open a ticket, give them time to work it out. 

Firmware instability is unfortunate, and, hopefully UD can address this in the future by not doing auto updates and/or controlling it better. But as a developer I can tell you this, no matter what your best effort is - the only way to avoid bugs is not to make any changes. This might have worked well with original ISY, but with constantly moving pgx and zwave, etc work, this, unfortunately, is not the case.