Well Insteon outputs in Hex, and that gets really complicated. You can actually connect it to home assistant and then from there you could use a voice assistant, or you could connect it to Hubitat and from there you could use a voice assistant. Or let’s say you’re a Hubitat user and you have your Insteon connected and Hubitat goes out of business as well as Insteon, then you can use homebridge, and then there is a homebridge to Alexa integration. I explored that at one time as a contingency plan. Or you just stop using voice assistance altogether because they’re a pain in the rear.
1 Like
1 Like
Yeah, wrote a couple of drivers that were all raw hex code exchanges and spent more time figuring out what to send and deciphering the returns than I did writing the rest of the code.
1 Like
Just want to mention that there are Node-RED nodes for interacting with Insteon hubs over the LAN and directly to a PLM.
LAN integration:
PLM control:
For some reason, both of them seem to have downloaded a fair bit in the last week.
2 Likes
1 Like
Another reason some of the people can't communicate with their hub is that upon registering their hub with Insteon through the Insteon app, their default login and password was changed to an undisclosed login and password. I am still trying to get help figuring out how to access it short of factory reset (and a loss of my scenes that are still operational).
BTW, thank you for the information you have shared!
1 Like
Unfortunately, Factory reset is the only way. But you can rebuild the scenes via HTTP commands. You don’t need the app.
1 Like
@SmartHomePrimer As much as I tried I was never able to get [AS-IS] Insteon web socket diver to work on my Pi. What kind of $$$ do we need to come up with for a native open-source habitat solution? Maybe some ethereum?
It's not going to happen.
What trouble are you having getting it setup on the Raspberry Pi? I haven't done it in a long time, but I have done it before and I know others have too. Post where you're stuck and we'll see if we can assist.
1 Like
Please visit the first post again. I re-wrote the instructions with a focus on installing to a Raspberry Pi.
My suggestion would be to just start from the beginning. Much easier than fixing mistakes made from following the previous instructions.
1 Like
Awesome, will check it out this weekend. Thank you
1 Like
@SmartHomePrimer you are amazing.
I never thought this stuff would be used by anyone but you. It is amazing (and a little scary) to see how much action it has been getting.
2 Likes
All thanks go to you Chris. I’m just the messenger.
1 Like
@SmartHomePrimer
We have plenty of customer's attempting to use the Hubitat-C7 to control and utilize their Insteon devices.
Is there a method that wouldn't require server hosting or any other device, is it possible through drivers or hubiapps?
Thank You,
Camron
Hi Camron,
It's possible to control, but you won't get status in Hubitat without an intermediate listening to the messages that come from the Insteon hub (which are in Hex). There were drivers built that are still shared here, which simplify the sending of HTTP commands to the Insteon hub. But the problem is that when a switch is manually controlled, things are then out of sync from what the Hubitat hub knows about.
The node.js server is merely running the open source node package named Home Controller with some enhancements and a driver specifically for Hubitat to communicate with it. There was much work done on this some years ago, and this is what the SmartThings, Homebridge and OpenHab integrations were built upon. There's really no way around this bridging to still get status from Insteon now that their cloud server is gone. Every hub or service I can think of, such as Hubitat, ISY, SmartThings, Homebridge, OpenHab, Home Assistant, Homeboy, and Stringify, have used some kind of bridge, whether internal or external cloud API calls (now gone), in order to get device status from the Insteon hub or a PLM.
The most turnkey is Home Assistant, and while that can be connected to Hubitat with the community provided Home Assistant Device Bridge Integration, that isn't a great solution. The Home Assistant integration works, but it has real serious synchronization issues. I can manually toggle my Insteon dimmers on/off, and more than half the time it doesn't update its status.
One thought would be to build the node.js image once on a Raspberry Pi, and then just clone the microSD card and image it multiple times. There would be some manual configuration of the config.json file for each customer, but once it's setup, there's really no need to touch it. I can toggle my dimmers using the node.js server integration with Hubitat and watch the status instantly update over and over again without fail. It's just far superior to the state of the Home Assistant Insteon integration as of today. The only thing their solution has that the Hubitat node.js integration doesn't is the ability to control the device settings like Ramp rate and default dim level. That capability is now integrated in Home Assistant and will show up in the side bar when their Insteon integration is enabled as of HA version 2022.5.0
1 Like
Hello! Thank you so much for the post. I have been able to use the techniques described here to turn my devices on and off. However, I don't really understand the linking/unlinking process. The post shows how we can put the hub into linking mode and how to take it out of linking mode, but how do you actually tell it what device to link/unlink? Do I actually have to physically push a button on a device to unlink it from a group? I think the old Insteon app had a way to do this without actually have to click a button on a device to unlink (remove from a scene; is a group the same thing as a scene here?) I also wonder if there's anyway to stop scheduled scenes through the HTTP api.
Thanks
Yes , you have to click a button on the hub and then a button on the device. There is no way to link through HTTP commands. I have no idea whether it’s possible to stop the schedule. One thing you could do is to remove the device. Add it back and it should not be in the schedule.
@SmartHomePrimer or anyone else...if you're still interested in picking up some Insteon devices, I have tons I'll be looking to sell. I had a full Insteon setup in my condo when I lived downtown, and I was preparing to do the same for our house now that we're in the suburbs. I bought all the Insteon hardware but had not gotten around to installing it. Now with the recent developments, I'm not going down that path. With only one PLM, it's too much of a risk for me. So I have lots of on/off switches, dimmers, motion detectors, fanlincs, several keypads, etc, etc.
I loved the Insteon system, but I'm excited about new possibilities. The upside is moving away from Insteon (and corresponding the UDI ISY) is what brought me to Hubitat, and I'm loving it so far.
Thanks to all in this community helping Insteon users keep things alive...I know I'd be devestated if I had actually installed all of the hardware before the vanishing.
2 Likes
I realize that it is a bit off topic but is there a way to query my Insteon hub and get a list of addresses of devices that have been paired. I ask because many of my devices no longer have the sticker with the Insteon device ID. I do not have any ISY or other smarts in my Insteon setup.
Any ideas or thoughts will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
Insteon servers are back online under the new owners, so that’s one way (via the Insteon app).
Another way is via Home Assistant.
2 Likes
