insteonhttp://www.brooklynrowhouse.com/taxonomy/term/1/atom/feed2008-07-26T11:54:24-04:00Insteon, A Year Later.http://www.brooklynrowhouse.com/node/1292008-09-01T01:01:10-04:002008-10-09T14:16:17-04:00SteveInsteon. While cleaning up the blog today I ran across a comment I'd made promising to write about my experience with Insteon after a year of living with it. That was like 18 months ago so I'm a bit late.
The summary? It's been flawless. About the best thing I can say about a technology is that it works so well you forget that it's technology. You turn on a conventional light switch; you expect it to work. It's been pretty much the same with Insteon.
The problems I had with Insteon initially reduced to two things: a very noisy powerline LAN for my Slingbox and I didn't have enough Insteon devices in my network to provide a reliable communications cloud. After retiring the problematic Slingbox (the Worst Customer Support Ever) and adding more Insteon switches, my problems disappeared.
]]>Insteon. While cleaning up the blog today I ran across a comment I'd made promising to write about my experience with Insteon after a year of living with it. That was like 18 months ago so I'm a bit late.
The summary? It's been flawless. About the best thing I can say about a technology is that it works so well you forget that it's technology. You turn on a conventional light switch; you expect it to work. It's been pretty much the same with Insteon.
The problems I had with Insteon initially reduced to two things: a very noisy powerline LAN for my Slingbox and I didn't have enough Insteon devices in my network to provide a reliable communications cloud. After retiring the problematic Slingbox (the Worst Customer Support Ever) and adding more Insteon switches, my problems disappeared.
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Since then, everything just works. The lights go on when they're supposed to, dim when they're supposed to and shut down for the night at the appropriate time. No more wondering if I turned off the 700 watts of shop lighting in the basement just as I'm dozing off. Insteon will get it if I didn't.
Consider this a 100% positive review of Insteon from one who's experienced with it. I was pleased to read that Insteon is burying the pricier competition, like Zigbee and Z-Wave. It's not often that I pick the right horse.
Insteon has a bunch of new devices for me to play with. I plan to pick up their low voltage control device for a couple of ideas I've got in mind. And, at last, there's finally some open source development happening with Insteon. The latter is the best news because it's been the hobbyist/enthusiast world that's driven the home automation market and found so many interesting applications for it.
In other news, I got word today that I might get called for CHF's Gustav relief effort in the next couple of days. It's unlikely unless my client decides to deploy the referral and transportation management software I built for them this year, TRMS. They're spitballing ideas how to use it in disaster relief. I'm not sure how it would apply but in case they do, I'm the only one who knows how to set it up so...
In real life, I own a software development company and my main client the past couple of years is Children's Health Fund (CHF), a large charity begun in 1987 by singer Paul Simon and pediatrician and director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness, Dr. Irwin Redlener. A media bulletin was released today committing the organization to Gustav relief.
After Katrina/Rita, CHF had some of the first medical units in place providing aid to victims of these terrible hurricanes, even while FEMA was still looking for its boots. CHF owns a fleet of MMUs (mobile medical units), basically large trucks which are portable docs-in-a-box, providing both emergency and routine wellness care.
CHF does terrific work and the CHF folks are some of the most amazing people I've met. Unfortunately, they've spoiled me from ever wanting to build another pet deodorizing e-commerce site again.
]]>Robot, robothttp://www.brooklynrowhouse.com/node/872007-07-05T13:31:20-04:002007-07-05T13:56:48-04:00Steve
Robot, robot arms and legs
Teeth, bones, hair, its all there
Robot, robot arms and legs
Battery's dead, head's dead.
(Mechanical man, mechanical man!)
Whenever I muck with my home automation hardware this song plays over and over again in my head. It's pretty maddening.
Sitting on my dining room table since last Thanksgiving was a small pile of boxes containing Insteon controllers, in-wall dimmers, relays and the like that have been waiting patiently for me to complete the master bedroom renovation. I was intending to do client work over the Fourth but after sixteen consecutive days of building database stored procedures I needed a break! So I assembled my tools and got busy making that pile smaller.
Anyone who has read the X10 primer I posted here knows that I'm a nut for home automation gear. And anyone who has read my blog knows that I've been very faithful with renovating and reproducing the original assets in this old house. But you can keep your Chicago Electric rotary and push button switches and your old pull chain fixtures. I want my electrical system state-of-the-art!
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Robot, robot arms and legs
Teeth, bones, hair, its all there
Robot, robot arms and legs
Battery's dead, head's dead.
(Mechanical man, mechanical man!)
Whenever I muck with my home automation hardware this song plays over and over again in my head. It's pretty maddening.
Sitting on my dining room table since last Thanksgiving was a small pile of boxes containing Insteon controllers, in-wall dimmers, relays and the like that have been waiting patiently for me to complete the master bedroom renovation. I was intending to do client work over the Fourth but after sixteen consecutive days of building database stored procedures I needed a break! So I assembled my tools and got busy making that pile smaller.
Anyone who has read the X10 primer I posted here knows that I'm a nut for home automation gear. And anyone who has read my blog knows that I've been very faithful with renovating and reproducing the original assets in this old house. But you can keep your Chicago Electric rotary and push button switches and your old pull chain fixtures. I want my electrical system state-of-the-art!
In fact, even my five year-old X10 installation had turned out to be... well... so five years ago. Insteon was the way to go now. I won't delve into the problems I had with X10. Anyone who's worked with X10 protocol knows what they are and I harped about them plenty in my X10 primer. Bottom line, I was ready to trade those X10 aggravations for a whole new set of exciting problems.
Fortunately, upgrading an existing X10 installation to Insteon isn't much more involved than replacing a switch. And of course writing a big check to SmartHome.com, my drug dealer.
While I was removing the old X10 switches and relays I was reminded once again how flimsy and hobby-grade this stuff is. Insteon devices even feel more substantial and professional. The controllers are smaller than their X10 counterparts, which is really nice because X10 devices hog the outlet box and don't leave much room for wiring. Overall, Insteon is just nicely designed, technically and ergonomically. Insteon switches have a pale lavender backlight displaying the switch status. I've never understood the logic behind X10 switches only showing a status light when they're activated. It's when you're stumbling around a dark room that you need a light to find the switch!
One of Insteon's biggest strengths however is that you can do all your programming from a seat in front of your computer. With X10 you have to run around the house removing switch plates to change codes, and it's exponentially worse if you have X10 receivers buried in a ceiling box with a 50-pound fan between you and it.
Here is the brains behind an Insteon household installation: the HouseLinc desktop software.
From here programming a device is just a matter of dragging a controller to a responding device and then clicking "Save all changes to INSTEON network". Done. Installing a new Insteon device is a bit more involved. You can let the software "spider" your house looking for new devices. But this process can take ten minutes or more and it invariably gets confused over a device or two, disabling them.
Or you can type in the hexadecimal identifier code for the new device, select a device type from the pulldown and force Houselinc to accept it. However, you still need to have Houselinc read the device's internal link database with "Rediscover device", which again can leave you with a disabled Insteon device.
After a couple of hours trying to get the software to recognize the Insteon switch for my kitchen extension sconces, I reloaded the software and it found it. HouseLinc is very much a piece of software-in-progress so there are some rough edges. Fortunately, it automatically downloads updates every time you load it.
You also use the same process to set up your timers, which automatically control selected devices. For instance, I want my outside lights and the "whorehouse lights" in my dining room to go on thirty minutes before sunset. Here it is:
And here's my timer list. Note that at midnight I want to turn off the outside lights and dim the inside lights to 30% (which is actually brighter than it sounds because they're CFL bulbs).
All in all, I'm very happy with Insteon. And with Smarthome too (you'll find their ad in the right hand navigation here).
]]>Insteon Rides Againhttp://www.brooklynrowhouse.com/node/352006-12-10T12:10:20-05:002006-12-10T12:10:20-05:00SteveInsteon home automation network here. A couple of months ago I posted an X10 and Insteon home automation primer. At that point I was just getting into upgrading my problematic X10 stuff here with the newer, wireless Insteon hardware from SmartHome and didn't know how well this stuff would work or what problems I'd find. However I was fed up with X10's flakiness and Insteon looked like an improvement, at least on paper.
I ran into problems with Insteon from the git-go, mostly devices that either didn't work or worked only part-time. I was ready to go back to the toggle switch world. But I decided to forge ahead with the upgrade anyway. I'm glad I did because things magically started working.
]]>Insteon home automation network here. A couple of months ago I posted an X10 and Insteon home automation primer. At that point I was just getting into upgrading my problematic X10 stuff here with the newer, wireless Insteon hardware from SmartHome and didn't know how well this stuff would work or what problems I'd find. However I was fed up with X10's flakiness and Insteon looked like an improvement, at least on paper.
I ran into problems with Insteon from the git-go, mostly devices that either didn't work or worked only part-time. I was ready to go back to the toggle switch world. But I decided to forge ahead with the upgrade anyway. I'm glad I did because things magically started working.
I guess what Insteon says is true: the more Insteon devices you have in your network the more reliable it becomes. That's because each Insteon device is also a repeater. For the technophobes, a repeater receives a message and retransmits it for other devices. For the hardcore technophobes, it's like a chain letter, albeit one that floods the network in under 1/10th of a second. The more repeaters in your house, the more reliable Insteon's communications gets.
For instance, last week I did my outdoor Christmas lights. They plug into an outlet inside the garage. I didn't want to have to walk down two flights of stairs, through my very dusty shop and into my cold garage every evening to turn them on and off so I plugged them into a LampLinc device. Then I could control them from the laptop in my office using Insteon's HouseLinc software. Problem was, when I told HouseLinc to "discover" the LampLinc device it couldn't find it on my network. Rats!
Then my kitchen light X10 switch suddenly broke so I replaced it with an Insteon controller. When I went into HouseLinc to add it to the network, voila, there were my Christmas lights too! Since then I've added a couple of more Insteon devices and it's been rock solid reliable ever since.
With two exceptions, that is. Some appliances generate a storm of RF (radio frequency noise) which can interfere with Insteon's wireless operation. X10 suffers from this too, although to a much greater degree than Insteon. My Dewalt battery charger and SlingLink powerline LAN caused any Insteon devices located on the same circuit to go deaf. However, I noticed that after I added a couple of more Insteon devices to the network that the battery charger seems to affect Insteon only occasionally. No matter. The charger will be back downstairs in my shop in a few weeks.
Insteon tells you up front that regardless of the size of your installation you need to install a pair of dedicated repeaters to the network. I did so. But there's one other essential product you need: the aforementioned HouseLinc software and companion USB controller. After learning the software I can't imagine trying to program an Insteon network without it. From your computer you can literally reprogram every Insteon device in the house. When you add a new Insteon device you tell HouseLinc to go look for it. In fact, it automatically "discovers" all unconfigured Insteon devices on your network.
But the software is capable of much more. Check this out:
This is HouseLinc's Events screen, which lets you create some pretty complex macros. The screen is self-explanatory however it lets you do stuff with Insteon devices that can't be done without it. For instance, you could program your bedroom lights so that two quick presses will turn off all Insteon devices in the house. Or two quick presses of your entryway Insteon switch will turn on selected lights throughout the house, turn on music in the living room and even (with appropriate hardware) raise the thermostat on the furnace.
HouseLinc also lets you create timed events to, for instance, turn on the porch light and entryway light thirty minutes before sundown. HouseLinc knows your latitude and longitude and it knows the date and time so it knows when sundown occurs in your area.
I also love the fact that I can program every dimmable light to "ramp up" to a preset brightness over, say, 1.5 seconds. Besides the theatrical effect, a light bulb's lifespan increases significantly if it's raised gently to full power. I haven't replaced a single halogen bulb in my kitchen ceiling in almost six years thanks to X10's "soft start".
Anyway, I'm pretty pleased with Insteon so far. I've still got a bunch more devices to install so I'll post updates then.
]]>When Robots Attackhttp://www.brooklynrowhouse.com/node/252006-10-21T11:00:58-04:002006-10-21T11:00:58-04:00Stevesome articles about X10 and my trials and tribs with it so I won't repeat them here.
I love having my house turn its own lights on/off. I like setting up whole-house lighting schemes, available at the touch of a button. But truthfully, X10 is a lot like owning a 1970s-vintage Triumph motorcycle. You run it for a while, then you spend a whole lot of time fixing it. X10 devices will work fine for years only to suddenly stop responding to commands. After hours of sleuthing you find that it's because the battery charger for your new camera is generating a noise storm on your household wiring.
]]>some articles about X10 and my trials and tribs with it so I won't repeat them here.
I love having my house turn its own lights on/off. I like setting up whole-house lighting schemes, available at the touch of a button. But truthfully, X10 is a lot like owning a 1970s-vintage Triumph motorcycle. You run it for a while, then you spend a whole lot of time fixing it. X10 devices will work fine for years only to suddenly stop responding to commands. After hours of sleuthing you find that it's because the battery charger for your new camera is generating a noise storm on your household wiring.
As a product, X10 is almost as old as that Triumph. Like the Triumph, X10 was also invented in the UK, as was the notorious Lucas Electric Ltd, which was a large part of Meriden Triumph's downfall. If you're not a Brit motorhead and have never heard of Lucas, it's probably best summed up by a Lucas teeshirt I've got. On one side is the slogan: "A gentleman doesn't motor about after dark!" On the other is a Triumph headlight switch with the markings: Off, Flicker, Dim.
Anyway, that's why I was excited by a new home automation protocol that hit the market last year: Insteon. The best part is that it's cross-compatible with X10. However Insteon's core protocol is 900 MHz wireless. Besides meaning no more problems with noisy household electrical devices causing my lights to freak out I can upgrade my existing X10 network gradually. Also, each Insteon device comes with its own globally-unique address, much like the MAC address in an Ethernet card. Programming Insteon hardware is just a matter of putting two or more devices into "link mode" and they magically find each other.
During a particularly hot and humid week here in Brooklyn this summer, I arrived home one night to find my outside lights flickering like a haunted house and my neighbors debating whether or not they should call the fire department. The culprit was yet another flakey X10 switch. I replaced it with a spare and that one lasted two days.
Fed up, I ordered an Insteon relay switch from Smarthome. It was noticeably better constructed. And it did the trick. After giving it a couple of months' testing, I decided to replace all my X10 gear with Insteon. Two weeks ago I placed a large order with Smarthome. Last night, I converted the two master bedroom overhead lights and wall switch from X10 to Insteon wireless. The wall switch looks really cool too! Blue backlit buttons. Nice, firm action.
Problem solved? Sorta. One of the issues here is that almost all the ceiling lights in this house were originally pullchain fixtures. That's usually not a problem with home automation hardware like this. You just bury an X10/Insteon receiver in the ceiling electrical box with the light, wire the lighting fixture to it and add a transmitter switch to the wall. Then you link them together.
The installation went smoothly, although it meant having to remove and reinstall a heavy ceiling fan/light. What didn't go so well was turning off those lights for the night. I hit the two buttons together and the switch locked up like a Windows 95 machine. The only way to unlock the switch was to literally reboot it, or what Insteon calls "activating the air gap". You pull out a tiny little switch for 10 seconds and push it back in. That didn't fix it either, leastwise not for a few minutes. Then it just started working again. Bizarre. I was very concerned that I'd have to take down the ceiling lights again to relink those receivers to the wall switch.
Fortunately, Smarthome makes some software which lets you do this linking via a home computer over the USB bus to an Insteon wall controller. I've ordered that. I know I'm gonna need it, probably sooner than later. Sigh.
One of the other problems is that the scheduling software that comes with the wall controller, or rather what you download from Smarthome's site later, can only be programmed by... you guessed it... activating the link mode on the device. Which means getting back into the ceiling. Crap!! However, after some hacking I found that the scheduling software uses XML to store its device configuration. That means I can (probably) program those devices manually in a text editor. We'll see.
(Two hours later: yup. Copying the Timer Software's XML <DEVICE>..</DEVICE> block, replacing the ADDRESS and incrementing the Device ID appears to work. At last, some good news.)
]]>Insteon - The Next Generationhttp://www.brooklynrowhouse.com/x10/page52006-08-24T20:34:38-04:002008-07-26T11:54:24-04:00Steve
In the past few years new technologies challenging X10's low cost and DIY-ability have become available. With the exception of dark horses like UPB, HomePlug, CeBus and a couple of others, and of course the hyper-expensive dedicated control line stuff, most newer home automation devices have abandoned problematic powerline protocols and adopted short-range wireless. The latter group includes Insteon, ZigBee, Z-Wave and Bluetooth. Wireless has become so reliable, pervasive and the hardware has gotten small enough that wireless is a natural for home automation.
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In the past few years new technologies challenging X10's low cost and DIY-ability have become available. With the exception of dark horses like UPB, HomePlug, CeBus and a couple of others, and of course the hyper-expensive dedicated control line stuff, most newer home automation devices have abandoned problematic powerline protocols and adopted short-range wireless. The latter group includes Insteon, ZigBee, Z-Wave and Bluetooth. Wireless has become so reliable, pervasive and the hardware has gotten small enough that wireless is a natural for home automation.
However, most of the above are pretty slim in terms product lines and only one manufacturer offers an upgrade path for existing X10 owners: Insteon.
Insteon supports dual-mode protocol. It communicates in wireless mode at 131.65 KHz with other Insteon devices but can also be configured to generate X10 commands over the powerline. This was a brilliant marketing idea because it means that millions of X10 users can upgrade to the superior communications protocol of wireless while still maintaining backwards compatibility with their existing X10 infratructure. As your existing X10 devices flake out, and they eventually will, they can be replaced with Insteon.
Why is Insteon superior to X10?
Insteon is dual mode. It sends signals both through the air (RF) and over the home's electrical wires via X10 protocol.
Like an Ethernet card's MAC address, every Insteon device has its own unique ID. Device conflicts are virtually impossible.
Every Insteon device is a repeater. While it's highly recommended to use an Insteon repeater/bridge in your installation, if you have enough Insteon devices in your network you may not need the repeaters.
Every Insteon message is confirmed. The transmitter automatically retries a command until the receiver confirms that it got the message. Conversely, X10 is an open loop -- the transmitter doesn't know if the receiver got the message, which sometimes leads to multiple button presses.
Insteon messages take less than 5 / 100ths of a second to get through so things turn "on" instantly (Insteon = instant-on).
No central controller or networking setup is required - a simple plug-n-tap™ is all that is required to link one Insteon product to another.
Unlike X10, all Insteon devices can be remotely programmed from a PC -- no removing switch plates to manually change addresses.
What bears special attention is "Every Insteon is a repeater". Insteon is peer-to-peer. That's important because the more Insteon devices you add to your network, the more reliable communications becomes. Unfortunately it doesn't do a thing for your X10-only devices. They will still be stuck listening to the powerline. This is why I said earlier that you should try to buy Insteon-compatible X10 devices.
Within the next few years, X10 will probably be deprecated and replaced by a new mainstream household automation protocol. From my inexpert perspective, Insteon is the top contender, if only because it's the only bridging technology for millions of existing X10 users. Wi-fi has a shot but, so far, no manufacturer has gotten behind it.
The summary? It's been flawless. About the best thing I can say about a technology is that it works so well you forget that it's technology. You turn on a conventional light switch; you expect it to work. It's been pretty much the same with Insteon.
In other news, I got word today that I might get called for CHF's Gustav relief effort in the next couple of days. It's unlikely unless my client decides to deploy the referral and transportation management software I built for them this year, TRMS. They're spitballing ideas how to use it in disaster relief. I'm not sure how it would apply but in case they do, I'm the only one who knows how to set it up so...
Sitting on my dining room table since last Thanksgiving was a small pile of boxes containing Insteon controllers, in-wall dimmers, relays and the like that have been waiting patiently for me to complete the master bedroom renovation. I was intending to do client work over the Fourth but after sixteen consecutive days of building database stored procedures I needed a break! So I assembled my tools and got busy making that pile smaller.
Fortunately, upgrading an existing X10 installation to Insteon isn't much more involved than replacing a switch. And of course writing a big check to SmartHome.com, my drug dealer.
This is HouseLinc's Events screen, which lets you create some pretty complex macros. The screen is self-explanatory however it lets you do stuff with Insteon devices that can't be done without it. For instance, you could program your bedroom lights so that two quick presses will turn off all Insteon devices in the house. Or two quick presses of your entryway Insteon switch will turn on selected lights throughout the house, turn on music in the living room and even (with appropriate hardware) raise the thermostat on the furnace.
Fortunately, Smarthome makes some software which lets you do this linking via a home computer over the USB bus to an Insteon wall controller. I've ordered that. I know I'm gonna need it, probably sooner than later. Sigh.