Cost of switching to Insteon?

[Rick Steeves]

I've currently got a hybrid of X10 lights (power line) and X10 motion
and door sensors (RF). I've mostly decoupled RF from powerline (where
RF tells MH things, instead of directly turning things on and off).
Not surprisingly, the RF is fairly solid, but the powerline
occasionally wigs out until I trace down what thing is causing noise
on the line.

I keep reading about insteon, and am trying to figure out what I'd
need to buy for MH to replace all the powerline stuff. Really, I've
only got a half dozen light switches and a floodlight.  but higher
reliability would radically increase my WAF.

What would it take to get me up and running w/ insteon (component
wise)? also, my MH server is windows, is that a plus or a minus?

Rick


Rick Steeves
http://www.sinister.net

In reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within
a man than a secure future -  Alexander Supertramp


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[Marc MERLIN-7]

On Mon, Oct 26, 2009 at 08:26:43PM -0400, Rick Steeves wrote:
 
> I keep reading about insteon, and am trying to figure out what I'd
> need to buy for MH to replace all the powerline stuff. Really, I've
> only got a half dozen light switches and a floodlight.  but higher
> reliability would radically increase my WAF.
>
> What would it take to get me up and running w/ insteon (component
> wise)? also, my MH server is windows, is that a plus or a minus?

Insteon is not bulletproof, far from it, but it'll definitely do better than
X10.

You'll win with:
1) auto-retries (as many as you want for commands coming from your PC or 1
   to 3 from switch to switch commands)

2) rebroadcast/resend: insteon devices are supposed to synchronously resend
   any signal they receive to help it reach the ends of your power lines.
   This is supposed to help.
   (now, to be honest, I have plenty of time where switch toggles don't make
   it to keypadlinc LEDs on other switches, which is cosmetic, but
   aggravating for me)

3) state query (you can query state and fix it from the PC if needed)

But it's still using 5V and some devices plugged into your house can
definitely damage the signal if you don't put filters.

How much? If you're not a in a hurry look for insteon auctions on ebay,
although you might end up with lower switches that could have older
firmwares, but in most cases it won't matter.
If you count an average of $40 per device, you'll be about there (some are
more and less, depends on which ones you get).
If you get Ebay stuff, it'll be in the $20-$30 per device range.

Marc
--
"A mouse is a device used to point at the xterm you want to type in" - A.S.R.
Microsoft is to operating systems & security ....
                                      .... what McDonalds is to gourmet cooking
Home page: http://marc.merlins.org/ 

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