[Hai-users] Smarthome Insteon vs. HAI UPB

[Justin Matlock]

A follow up... I received an email from SmartHome MFG:

³Unfortunately, wire-in modules with INSTEON technology are only a concept
at this time. HAI is not developing product with INSTEON at the moment, and
they have not told us if they plan on doing so.²

I asked him about the TW-523 replacement module that has been rumored, but
he didn¹t say anything about it.  I¹m really curious how it¹s going to
³translate² the X10 into INSTEON addressing.  I have a feeling there will be
a PC application that will Œlink¹ X10 addresses and commands from the panel
into INSTEON addresses and scenes.

I really want to go with INSTEON because of the reliability, speed, and the
looks (they¹re just plain neat looking/feeling switches).  Plus I like how
they handle scenes versus the HAI ³rooms/master² concept.  I *really* want
wire-in modules for individual recessed lighting control, but I suppose I
can do some wiring tricks to hide the switches.  *cough*

43 switches, eh?  That¹s impressive.  I thought I was doing pretty good with
32.  

I¹m hoping they release an INSTEON SwitchLinc Timer relay switch... The X10
versions are awesome for things like closet lights and bathroom vent fans.
:)

J


From: Doug Burton <dougburton at earthlink.net>
Reply-To: <dougburton at earthlink.net>
Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 14:18:37 -0700
To: 'Justin Matlock' <jmat at shutdown.net>, <hai-users at tssi.com>
Subject: RE: [Hai-users] Smarthome Insteon vs. HAI UPB

Justin,
 
I¹m in the similar boat as you.  My system is mostly HAI based on the
controller, with a tie into HAL 2000 for voice access.  Just switched all 43
wall switches in my house from x-10 switchlinks to the New Insteons.  I love
the insteons, as you said its seems so far to work 100% of the time! Each
and every time.
 
The backward compatibility with x-10 means my HAI still talks to them.  But
I¹m hoping HAI will indeed support the Insteon protocol so we get even more
reliability between HAI controlling the switches via Insteon protocols.
 
Clues as well on how the actual Insteon protocol will work when it comes to
Non X-10 addressing.  But on the x-10 side, these insteons are a snap to
address and link.
 
Doug
 


From: hai-users-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:hai-users-bounces at tssi.com] On
Behalf Of Justin Matlock
Sent: Thursday, July 28, 2005 12:50 PM
To: hai-users at tssi.com
Subject: [Hai-users] Smarthome Insteon vs. HAI UPB
 
Okay... So there seem to be a lot of new technologies out there these days
that are replacing X10.

HAI just started shipping their UPB dimmers, and SmartHome just started
shipping their Insteon SwitchLinc dimmers.

Other than the obvious ³HAI supports their own switches in firmware² issue
(I suspect they¹ll be adding Insteon support), does anyone have any opinions
on either switch type?  I¹ve got such a mix right now ‹ ACT, Compose,
SwitchLinc ‹ and I need to start consolidating to a single brand/type
because of the weird mismatches between brands (as far as scenes/etc goes).

I¹ve played with Insteon ‹ I just ordered (but have yet to install) two
dimmer switches.  I¹ve been playing with the actual lamp modules for quite
some time now, and have been very impressed with the reliability (they turn
on *every* time I hit the button) and the scenes.  Also, the X10
compatibility makes them work with my existing HAI OP2 without adding any
extra modules.  In fact, they act just like regular SwitchLinc 2-way
switches when you program an X10 address into them.

What would be the benefit to going with HAI-UPB products?  It¹s not price,
since UPB is more expensive than Insteon switches (even via Worthington);
they¹re about equals on that.  Insteon has better looking switches (IMHO),
and the ability to change the LED color pipes is a really nifty (but
useless) feature that I like.

Rather than use straightforward scenes, it looks like HAI has adopted the
weird Compose Œrooms¹ concept, which I still haven¹t found terribly useful.
It seems much easier to just assign individual addresses to each scene like
SwitchLinc and Insteon do...  On the flipside, perhaps I¹m not understanding
exactly how to implement the HAI-UPB scene/room/master functions...

Of course, I have no idea how Insteon will integrate with the OP2 (or if it
will) since it doesn¹t have visible addressing (there¹s no ³a1², ³a2², etc).
But SmartHome says the home controller will be able to ³download² the scene
information from the existing switches in the house once an interface is
installed (no idea how they plan on doing that one)...

Comments?  Thoughts?

Justin 


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