Multiple EISY

[lalang]

Can I have more than one EISY on the same account? I have number of Insteon devices in three buildings. I have one EISY with a serial PLM now. I works alright, but the farther away I get from the PLM the less it works. I was thinking about adding 2 EISY’s with separate PLM’s. Can I control all three EISY with one UD app?

[Guy Lavoie]

I can choose between my eisy and Polisy directly on the app, at least for local access. If you're accessing them through the portal, they will likely each need their own account.

If the number of devices is limited in two of the buildings, you could use one eisy as a "master" (the one with most devices), and use the networking module to send REST commands to the other two. It would require more programming, but would make it look more like one large system, all controllable from one account.

Edited February 4 by Guy Lavoie

[paulbates]

There's some things to think about with multiple PLMs and eISYs:

• Insteon devices need to be on one or the other, but not both eISYs
• The 2 PLMs won't be aware of each other, the chance of traffic collisions will go up
• If you have Home Automation functions that will cross the 2 eISYs, it's a bit technical to get them to talk. The way I know how to do it is Network Resources that set a variable in the other eISY. Possible, but debugging can get tricky. 

It might be possible to solve the Insteon communications problems directly.

Can you describe the buildings at a high level, how big, what they're made of and how far apart? I had a detached garage at my last house and I had a 2 band device like an appliance module plugged in on the house side of the garage that was in signal range of switchlincs in the house... I need that because I had iolincs in the garage that were single band. Maybe the same would work here.

[lalang]

I have a 4000 sq ft house with a dozen insteon wall switches all work fine. I have a pool house that is 90 ft away from the PLM. In the pool house there is on-off modules for the pool pump/heater along with a number of wall switches. They work fine. Where I lose control is in the pavilion which is 125 ft away from the pool house. I was thinking about the 2nd EISY in the pool house. I hope this makes sense.

[Guy Lavoie]

1 minute ago, lalang said:

Where I lose control is in the pavilion which is 125 ft away from the pool house. I was thinking about the 2nd EISY in the pool house. I hope this makes sense.

What do you have in the pavilion that needs to be controlled, and how many? Does your IP network work well there, wifi or wired? If so, there might be IP based devices that you could use instead of Insteon for that location.

[paulbates]

Another option in yosmart / yolink. One of their features is reliable, long range (1/4 mile) communications. There's a great, well supported plugin for eisy.

I use yolink temp/humid sensors in my fridges/freezers and also control venting for our master bath. I use a plug in module to monitor our dryer and turn on the fan when its on. I also use their smoke/co sensors tied to virtualarm.com monitoring.

The also have switches and outlets, depending on what you're controlling as @Guy Lavoie asked

Yolink is neither expensive or difficult to set up, maintain. It complements an ISY/Insteon where it does things like this better, yet still run by iox programs on the same eisy

Edited February 4 by paulbates

[Geddy]

@lalang looks like @Guy Lavoie and @paulbates are giving great options and information.

One question I have is how's the power service out to the pavilion location? Is it on a different power supply or is it a branch off the main power supply from the house? Since Insteon uses power line communication in addition to the RF signal it's possible you need a powerline booster (of some sort) to attempt to increase the signal going out to the pavilion. 

If the power is from a separate feed there would need to be a way to bridge to that feed or keep it as second eisy. It's kind of overkill if you're only going to have a few devices in that area so it might be better to look at how power and range can be improved to get the Insteon signal out to the pavilion or look for an alternate option (if just for a few devices). 

Others know a lot more about how the signals work. I'm just asking the question about how power gets out to the area. If you're running Insteon devices out there now and it's hit & miss then you just need to get a better path for the Insteon signal to get out there. If it's completely unavailable then it's probably a different power supply and fewer options.