The sensors are marginal. Much better technology out there now. The dimmers are really good, but I would like to see the ability to smooth dim in an updated product. They handle that in the device hardware right now, so setting a desired level always has to be sent and then executed on the device.
Yeeaaahhh.... interesting. Well all my Insteon devices are in a box in my basement.
While the Insteon network was/is very reliable and fast (for plug in devices) configuring the system is not as easy as HE and too limited.
The sensors were not that good. Could never rely on a door contact to notify me in a timely manner if at all.
Not that impressed with their software/app.
Too late... I'm completely switched over to Zigbee and HE.
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That didn't take long. Smart move on their part. $39.95 for a year access and $69.95 for two years. It's reasonably priced, and I think most non-technical users will probably bite if they haven't already moved on.
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Or they'll get angry like Wink users did
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Oh I'm certain someone will blow a gasket, but they didn't do any bait and switch here. New owners, never promised free. It's all on the table. My opinion is this has been executed about as cleanly by the new owners as it could have possibly been.
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Agreed. The couple Insteon owners I know are happy to be operational again.
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The only thing I might have thought of doing differently is let the community know via reddit or something what was being planned so that fewer people would have hurried off for other solutions. Word would probably have spread quickly. But of course I don't know if the takeover was too sensitive business wise and might have been wrecked if they said anything too soon.
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This purchase/takeover occurred after people had moved to other platforms.
Yeah, I meant when they first thought of it, which was likely some way in advance of it being brought back online. But probably they had to keep it quiet.
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The difference to me is that Wink very prominently displayed and advertised "NO FEES EVER". I am not aware of Insteon doing so.
I am still annoyed about the whole Wink situation, how a pretty good system was run into the ground by that stupid "musical artist" (I use that term loosely) who purchased Wink. But luckily Hubitat was around and many of us made the switch.
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Equally luckily, Hubitat had radios to support z-wave and zigbee devices. I still have a bunch of my z-wave devices from when I used Wink.
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Same. I have all my devices from Wink on Hubitat. (Caseta, Zwave and Zigbee)
The only thing I can think of that didn't work on Hubitat was the Lutron Connected Bulb Remote. But it was a moot point because the Lutron Bridge made Picos truly amazing on Hubitat. I probably should sell that Lutron CBR to some poor shmuck that is still on Wink.
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I’d hang on to it. Wouldn’t surprise me if it was supported down the road. And it’s not like they take much room. Btw, they are also useful to reset zigbee bulbs.
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I still have 6 of them. Actually put one back into service recently with the Hue Bridge for a closet light, where a Pico just wasn’t necessary.
They do work as button controllers in Home Assistant, so I could also use them there and map back to Hubitat if I want.
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Well, I have started transitioning over to other platforms, but many of my Insteon devices are still in the walls. So, after seeing the news of the resurrection, I plugged my hub back in and it green-lighted in seconds! Much faster than ever before! They at least seem to have very solid server connections.
I honestly believe this will only buy me time to convert... unless they release some tools, or API's or whatever it takes to be able to bridge to Hubitat and somehow use these awesome rules/apps and all to drive Insteon devices!
One solution is Node_red; there is a set of Insteon nodes
I have looked at NR a little bit, it looks like it can do almost anything in nearly every environment, even in industrial platforms. I used to run systems in Delta Orcaview under the Bacnet platform, and also did a little SCADA work. Had I known of NR then I may have adopted it for several routines.
I believe that @starcom! However, where I am now I am trying to keep things as simple as possible. It looks like Node Red needs to have a dedicated machine environment in which to run. Simple cheap stuff like Rpi or nano box, but that is another layer of complexity.
If I am mistaken regarding this I hope someone will learn me up betterer, 'cause NodeRed looks pretty cool otherwise!
Node-Red is very simple. I use RPi4 for various extensions that easily integrate w HE. I even still have all outside lights X10 (using Mochad) and HE Mochad app/drivers. There's a large HE group running NR.
I too run Node-Red on a RPi4 along with my Homebridge and some other custom stuff (e.g. BLE beacon scanner for presence detection)...handles it all fine.
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This is how I bridge my Insteon stuff to HE. Been running local only for years. Works great. If you’re going to add another computer like a RPi, might as well use this integration.
