This hasn’t been a good week for the smart home as yet another connected device service seems to have disappeared. It appears anyone using Insteon products has faced a dead-end as the company’s cloud service has gone silent. So too has the company up to this point. What are Insteon device owners and service users to do?
The first thing is: If you have an Insteon hub, make sure you don’t factory reset it! Doing so can render your Insteon hub useless because it won’t be able to connect to the Insteon servers. There is currently only one way to current restore your hub and it requires one of our specific recommendations below. Even so, I’d be cautious and think twice before resetting an Insteon hub. 
Image courtesy of InsteonNext is to consider one of two options: Either plan to replace your hardware or try to integrate your current devices with another platform. I’ll focus on the latter here because if you’re going to swap out your Insteon system, that will certainly solve your issue. Well, it will effectively remove your issue since you won’t be relying on Insteon for anything.
It’s worth noting that Universal Devices sells an Insteon hub that relies mostly on local control. The only cloud usage is for integrations such as voice assistants. It’s a $259 purchase but would let you reuse your current Insteon gear. I used one of these back in 2010 and it was rock solid for me with my Insteon devices.
So what integration options do you have with your current gear?
It’s going to vary by your specific devices, sensors, and other hardware of course, but there are some reasonably good choices.
You could switch over to Home Assistant, which I recently just featured as a result of the latest software update. It’s really good. You’ll need a Raspberry Pi and the free Home Assistant software, which will become the new “brains” of your smart home. Once you’re all set up, you can follow these directions from Reddit to integrate your supported Insteon gear. It’s a relatively simple process. In fact, that’s one of the aspects I pointed out with the newest software: Home Assistant setup is finally a user-friendly, quick process. Even the Insteon integration setup appears to be straightforward.
A similar solution would be to purchase a HOOBS box, which stands for HomeBridge Out Of the Box. This is another self-managed hub system that I’ve reviewed in the past, although it’s geared more towards Apple HomeKit integration. However, the company does have an Insteon integration that it’s currently touting as a result of the current situation.
The integration is a plugin, which you can view the details of here, and is similar to how Home Assistant connects with Insteon. A HOOBS hub costs $229.99 but if you have compatible hardware, such as Raspberry Pi, you can get the software for a suggested $10 donation. HOOBS currently has more than 2,000 plugins so aside from your Insteon gear, you’ll have a wide range of support for other devices.
Those who have one of three specific Insteon products can also opt for OpenHAB software. You’ll need an Insteon PowerLinc Modem (PLM), a legacy Insteon Hub 2242-222, or the current 2245-222 Insteon Hub.
If you do have one of these, you can download the OpenHAB software for free. Like the other options, it can run on a Raspberry Pi. However, you can also choose to run it on a Windows PC, macOS, Linux, or a Docker container.
The folks at HomeSeer recently touted their Insteon compatibility and provide full details on the integration process. The company offers a HomeSeer smart hub with support for Z-Wave, various digital assistants, and hundreds of smart home products. Best of all, the price is only $139.99.
Finally is the $109.95 Hubitat hub, which I took for a spin a ways back. I’ve noticed that the hub has been upgraded and updated over time with more functionality since I last looked. And it’s more local-control oriented compared to some of its peers. While there isn’t native Insteon support, there is a community plugin available for Insteon devices. Hubitat also works with Zigbee, Z-Wave, Bluetooth, and WiFi devices.
Clearly, there is a range of options to manage this bad situation. And your decision will likely depend on how much you’ve already invested in the Insteon product line.
If it were me and I only had a few Insteon devices, I’d lean towards using a completely different platform. I’m all in on HomeKit, mainly because we use iOS and because the connected devices we use are rock solid when it comes to stability. I also appreciate the security aspects Apple bakes in, particularly with their connected camera options.
Were we Android users, I’d lean towards Google Home followed by Amazon Alexa as a platform, although SmartThings is still a viable and good option. Samsung no longer makes its own hub hardware but Aeotec has filled that gap if you want a new hub for $124.99.
On the other hand, if I had invested hundreds and hundreds into Insteon gear, I’d likely try one of the above-mentioned self-managed hub options. It’s a less expensive way to keep using the old devices and given that most of the solutions are open-source software, I’d expect them to be around for years to come.
Updated at 10:20 am to add information about restoring an Insteon hub.
I’ve had an Insteon system throughout my house for 5 years. It was (and still is) the best hardware for putting smart switches into every junction box throughout a house. Using low band radio frequency and powerline communication makes the system more reliable as more devices are added to the network. Z wave is a slower communication protocol. And who really want upwards of 40-100 or even more light switches all talking over WiFi? I have yet to have a single wired in device die, save my Insteon hub, which was replaced early on under warranty and has been fine since. Even with Insteon’s terrible app and quirky cloud service, the hardware always performed top notch. There really isn’t a more superior hardware choice you can run out and buy at the moment for a whole-house level integration. I’ve seen other savvy users on your site have already found workarounds. My workaround was HomeSeer. And what’s shocking is that my system seems to be even faster and more responsive than before using a local server in the house to control it all. I guess I feel compelled to share my experience in all of this because I know there are a lot of frustrated folks out there who don’t know what to do. One thing is for sure…a smart home system deployed in junction boxes throughout your house and physically wired into the home’s 110V system is not the same as just deciding to replace a smart coffee pot, or a Ring doorbell camera. That is why this whole situation is so wrong. I think the lesson I have learned here is that future wise, I will never invest in a whole house smart-switch system UNLESS it has the open end capability to be used with other third party means of control. So for the foreseeable future, there is zero reason for me to abandon use of the Insteon system I have in place. 🙂
Good points. I’m just ready to move on from Insteon at this point. It’s going to be expensive, but I’ve been gearing up for it for a while.
I like your lesson about an open source solution. My lesson is not to rely on a single provider for every single smart switch, outlet, bulb, and device in my home. I’m now using no less than 6 different platforms. With Amazon, I’m able to control them all from one place and setup routines to make them work together. I’m pretty satisfied.
Hello Kyle,
I have several insteon light switches, and smart outlets installed in my home. These were set up with Alexa to allow voice control on most lamps, and all outdoor lighting. Now they are useless, except for the locations that can still function as manual switches.
From your comment (“So for the foreseeable future, there is zero reason for me to abandon use of the Insteon system I have in place.”) it sounds like you have an alternative solution in mind. If so, would you please share your thoughts?
Greg
The short answer…I set up HomeSeer. It is a local server that runs in your house. It is software you can run on a computer or just buy a dedicated HomeSeer box. It completely takes the place of the Insteon app and their front end that never was great. I’m amazed at how well it works and it gives you back all the control/programming abilities/Alexa and Google home integration back. It talks directly to your Insteon Hub on the local LAN. I almost feel compelled to make a self-help YT video on this because I got it working in an hour with zero previous HomeSeer experience.
What about new devices. Was just getting ready to program a system. Just moved and the house had some insteon dimmers. Removed them and installed a Lutron system from my old house. Took the insteon and purchased a few more and some keypads and installed them in my old house. Tried to login today to add the new devices and are unable to do so. Do any of the solutions mentioned here allow you to add new devices? need mainly to be able to program the keypads to control other dimmers that are on remote locations. could not care less about app or cloud integration. but need to be able to program those keypads.
I was curious if the only way to set up HomeSeer is directly to the Insteon hub not to the devices? I guess I ask this because I’m a little concerned at this point investing in to HomeSeer and then having my Insteon hub crashing down the road. I trust my Insteon devices more than my Hub. Thanks
Thanks very much, Kyle. You provide very useful information. You state that it runs on a local server. Are you able to access the insteon devices via IOS – an iPhone?
Hi Kyle,
Maybe you can help me? I have 4 Insteon inline switches connected to exhaust fans on my roof. I either need to change out those switches or buy a Hoops or Homeseer box and connect my Insteon hub. Looks like Homeseer is out of stock until may 6th?
1. What do you think is the fastest and easiest solution? Homeseer, Hoobs, Habitat, Hardware change out?
2. If I were going to change out systems, what is a good alternative brand for new 20A inline switches?
Thanks!
Mark
You mentioned homeseer which I am unfamiliar with is reasonable to be able to get back to operating my insteon devices in conjunction with Alexa ? [email protected]
“Z wave is a slower communication protocol. And who really want upwards of 40-100 or even more light switches all talking over WiFi?” – I have well over 40 Z-Wave devices in my home automation. I use Hubitat and its all LOCAL … no WiFi, no relying on the Cloud and its VERY fast!!!
Don’t worry, be happy. Just fire up Home Assistant, integrate your hub, and you will be just fine. Everything will work just as before, and there will be ton’s of Insteon hardware available on EBay for a long time.
I have three Insteon equipped houses and have had my primary running for over 15 years. Several years ago I abandoned the Insteon hub and switched to a Universal Devices ISY994. The ISY does not require any outside connection except of course for remote control and monitoring which is direst internet. My system will continue to work as long as I can keep my devices working and with much more control and functionality than any management system that has been offered by Insteon. So sorry to hear about their problems and hope someone picks up the pieces and continues making compatible devices.
Nice write up!
I’ve been an Insteon user since 2006, and love it. I’ve considered alternative solutions over the years, but so far I haven’t found find anything that meets my needs like a Insteon. I’ve used the Universal Devices controller to program and interact with my devices for years and definitely recommend it.
I am concerned with where to go from here, though. Eventually need more devices and am hopeful that something new and better will come out.
I just switched over 80 insteon devices to z-wave. Zooz is a good way to go. Go look at http://www.thesmartesthouse.com They have almost everything you’ll need to make the switch. I’m selling my old insteon switches on ebay and will actually make money on the switchover. They are paying over retail on most Insteon switches. I sold a USB PLM for $520. wow! I’m using my ISY994i with z-wave….finally, I am Insteon free.
Great article, thanks! I was all-in with Insteon for many years (well before Alexa) with about 70 devices, but I started incorporating other smarthome tech into my home a couple of years ago. It seemed like they were being left behind as competition heated up. They started dropping products and their new app didn’t support their entire existing lineup. It felt like they would go away.
I didn’t expect this sudden exit without warning, but here we are. I’m going to migrate my entire home to a variety of more popular smarthome devices, rather than choosing a single provider. This experience has taught me to diversify. The beauty of voice assistants like Alexa is that they act as a central hub, allowing a single point of control- either by voice or through the app.
There are some things I will miss about Insteon, but I’m finding alternative solutions for nearly all of my unique setups.
Apparently I just use products and have not paid much attention to what was going on in the smart home world. I have about 15 insteon devices and about the same number of WEMO devices. I have no idea what to do at this point. so much of what is being talked about is above my head. (acronyms that escape me) I can get up to speed but need guidence. I do not use apple devices or OS in my business or my home so don’t want to go in that direction. I have 5 Alexa devices (1 hub and 4 dots) and have loved using them with both the insteon and the WEMO devices. I have some small older computers that I could use for a server, but am not sure what to do now that I have pressed the button on the back of my insteon HUB… thought I was doing the right thing… apparently not! (2245-222) Not having heard or read a single mention of WEMO worries me as well… do ALL OF YOU know something that I don’t? Also I hear something about a new protocol or standard that may be near at hand that put the final nail in the coffin for insteon, but I have heard nothing about this and don’t want to start replacing or trying to solve current issues only to have to do it again soon. right now all the switches still work manually, and while that is not preferred, I can handle it until I can obtain enough advice to map a plan forward. Thanks to all of you for postings that help me formulate better questions and thought for trying to move forward. Eric
The new standard which will hopefully be coming by the end of this year is Matter. All of the big players are working on it as a joint project, including Amazon, Apple, Google, Philips Hue and a bunch of others, including
Belkin/WeMo. The goal is to make it easy for products from different brands to work together with apps from several different brands. And of course with all the major smart speakers. It’s going to be really helpful if it happens, but it’s not here yet, and in the home automation space you can’t count on anything which isn’t actually available yet. But it’s a hopeful direction.
Also, it doesn’t mean that all models of those brands will work with matter and it doesn’t mean that devices you already have will. For example, Philips hue has said that they are going to update existing hue bridge devices to work with matter so their branded smart lightbulbs will, even the old ones. But WeMo has said that they will release new devices that work with matter, their old ones will not.
Consumer Reports has a good overview article on matter for everyday customers that you might find interesting. It doesn’t assume any particular technical knowledge.
https://www.consumerreports.org/smart-home/matter-smart-home-standard-faq-a9475777045/
In your particular situation, it depends on how complicated the routines and schedules are that you have set up for your 15 Insteon devices.
If your routines are not particularly complicated, that is they are just simple if/then statements based on time of day or maybe coming and going, for now I would just replace your Insteon devices with ones that work with Alexa now. They may not all work with matter in the future, so I wouldn’t spend a whole lot of money on each individual device, just the minimum to get acceptable functionality and safety, but it should tide you over until we know more about what will be available in 2023.
If your current routines are complex, like if statements with “and“ and “or” and multi layer logic, then you will have to make a decision about which of the more sophisticated platforms you want to go to. And that’s going to take a lot more research.
I am individual who owners over 60 insteon devices i have been adding over the last 14 years, in the past year i had been attempting add about 12 doz more devices but were waiting for white ones. So I am desperate to find some sort of system that would compatible with insteon that i can combine with Alexa . I tried HOOBS that was disaster, spent over 9 hrs and nothing worked. I am returning it tomorrow. I hope somebody has something out there that is simple and can handle both the devices and the interface with Alexa, if I had to I would change over to google or apple if I had to. I am also an age in life where i am older and have lost some my earlier computer skills so I can’t handle a complicate interface setup. Hopefully some one can recommend something that is achievable
HOOBS is primarily intended to bring devices into HomeKit, so if you were using it with HomeKit, it should’ve been functional if not necessarily simple to set up. If you were trying to use it without HomeKit, I don’t know what results you would get.
There are other options, particularly homeseer, home assistant, and hubitat, but all of those are intended for power users and are at least as complex as Hoobs was. At the moment there just isn’t anything simple to give you a new interface to your existing Insteon hub. And you need the existing Insteon hub because it’s the only thing that has a radio that can talk to your Insteon switches, because Insteon used a proprietary communication protocol. Everything else people are talking about is just a way of attaching a new app to the existing Insteon hub. It’s not replacing the hub all together.
So your situation is definitely one of the most challenging. You have a lot of Insteon devices but you want a simple plug and play solution. And unfortunately that just doesn’t exist right now.
If you can wait, I think it’s entirely possible that within 30 to 60 days there will be some Products developed that simplify the whole process for people with a lot of Insteon equipment but who don’t want to do all the technical setup themselves. There’s obviously going to be a market for that. Maybe even somebody like Best Buy will put it together as a service. It doesn’t exist yet, and the current chip shortage may complicate the situation as well, but I do think there’s a possibility that we will see some come to market, and pretty quickly.
Other than that I would suggest checking with the Reddit subforum on Insteon to keep track of any new products and services that third parties develop.
Thanks, I contacted HomeSeer today, they seem to actually have access to a software program that was developed for Insteon, prior to the development of their hubs, so it was developed to handle all the Insteon features, it works with in conjunction with their interface which will work with Alexa, I may have to enter all the six digit identifiers that are on each device, it will take time and effort, hopefully but unlikely they are on the front of device but I doubt it. I have a couple of switches that i have as spares that i check out to see how they are actually located. Some of the devices that i set upas scenes still seem to be in operation and are functioning. But obviously none of the devises are presently recognized by Alexa. Which was they way we would initiate everything. But with dependency of Alexa over the last several years, i have also realized that i t was required to have every switch listed, so it removes the need to enter the address of each my three way and my four way switches that we wired and installed when the house was built. We have Alexa’s in every room, and use it as normal way turn on our lights, thermostats, TV’s as well as to handle all the scenes we maintain for different social situations. When first started using Alexa my wife thought was ridiculous way of handling every thing but as time went by, it became the norm to operate everything we basically have. We don’t use for fans which we have in most rooms but just about use it for everything else.
Thank you for responding and if this actually works out i will keep the site posted if it works and is practical way to resolve, Cost was $339 for software and interface due next week. Hopefully this will get our hoe back to normal
Homeseer does have that and many people are happy with it as an add-on integration to Insteon. Just remember that you still need to have a working Insteon hub/bridge because homeseer doesn’t have the radio needed to communicate with the Insteon switches. So the Homeseer device will be able to communicate with the Insteon hub and can bring that information into the Homeseer app and over to Alexa. But it can’t talk directly to the Insteon switches.
So Homeseer is giving you a replacement for the now missing Insteon app and Insteon/Alexa integration, but it’s not actually replacing your existing Insteon hub, it’s an add on to it. It should work for as long as that Insteon hub lasts. I hope it goes well for you.
I agree, nothing will ever be as beneficial as the services that we received from Insteon, they provided us all a free cloud service, continued to provide updates to that service at no cost to us, as well continue to update it’s product line. We were very fortunate to have the them. But we have to accept that they are gone, and the only way some would take over their operation, is to have charge it customers a yearly subscription service for their hub cloud service. If they had tried that approach they still might be in operation, but they were also impact with there inability to get hardware product to sell or there credit dried up as well that they couldn’t secure hardware to sell. Let’s face they had two phase operation, they provide really could hardware product that they charged a reasonable cost for and and cloud service that we all utilized for free.
I’m thankful for my many Z-wave products that are still working after 22 years. I moved from Houselinc and X-10 after getting a few of these new fangled Z-wave modules from Intermatic. I set up Homeseer on my computer and thought WOW!
Now after going from homeseer 1.0 to Wink to SmartThings, to Home Assistant and back to Homeseer 4.0 again. My original gadgetry are still working. Even the Intermatic Handy and Master controllers.
Focus on the industry standard based devices and buy your controllers for them. Don’t buy into a platform and buy devices for it.
Has anyone figured out a way to program individual insteon devices without the Insteon app?
Things like controlling the dimming rate, ramping level, brightness of the brightness LEDs on dimmers, …
Some of us are exploring other systems and it would be beneficial to others if we post how successful we are in exploring these alternatives as we move forward.
Universal Devices isy994i is the best solution for Insteon devices. I have used it for years. It’s not cloud dependent integrates with Amazon Alexa and IFTTT and is capable of simple to complex programming.
Glen, does this give you remote access to the thermostat and wifi cameras?
Yes, you can access thermostats but not cameras via the UD mobile app. You will have to use a different app for the cameras.
I had an ISY, just another *hardware* layer as I viewed it as the GUI is not meant for end users, it is meant for developers. Now I have not looked lately at ISY from a GUI perspective, but Home Assistant you build your own.
If you have an Insteon Hub/PLM and Home Assistant you have all you need. And it can be many different ones. Like if I use my phone … look like this, web browser in the house … look like that. My wife has her own looks and PADs mounted to walls … all look slightly different. DIfferent GUI, different skins …
It is the reason why ISY is an “integration” to Home Assistant, it is much more than switch control. It can process web requests, integrate to my stereo, start Spotify and play it in 4 zones and Pandora for my wife in the Kitchen. Bus schedules, energy management.
It all depends on what you want to do.
To me … ISY = control devices, Home Assistant = control life
In my own experience, HomeSeer can do just that. You can factory reset everything. Then add Insteon devices back just like you were setting them up new the first time. HomeSeer has the ability to not only talk directly to an Insteon Hub, but can also talk to your individual devices and program them. I have an extensive Insteon setup in my house. HomeSeer has it back up and running 100% as before, if not better. With also the support to add, remove, and program Insteon devices.
No. Homeseer cannot talk directly to Insteon devices. It requires a Hub/PLM to communicate. If you believe what you wrote, please show me a configuration with a Homeseer Hub and only Insteon switches. Disconnect your Hub/PLM from everything and turn on the light. Would love to see that.
Homeseer -> Insteon Hub/PLM -> Insteon Switches. This is true.
Homeseer -> Insteon Switches. This is false.
There is nothing in the marketplace (yet) that speaks the proprietary protocol used by Insteon on the powerline or RF. Nothing. Hence the word “proprietary”.
If you think otherwise your can of course note the huge red warning on their site to not reset your hub and also their FAQ question:
Why do I still need my Insteon Hub?
You’ll need something that broadcasts “Insteon” commands directly to your Insteon devices. This is what your Insteon hub does. Note that the red light on the hub will continue to stay red. That’s OK!
I know what the HUB is, but wnat is the PLM? thanks e
PowerLinc Modem … so gets Serial commands and converts them to send on the powerline to devices (and also RF). The Hub is a PLM really. It just provided a different GUI for interacting with the devices. The Hub is ethernet based. The PLM has USB or RS232 interfaces and plugs into the wall. There is also a USB stick version which is only RF as it does not plug into the wireline.
Good descriptions and diagram here to understand: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insteon
You can program a switch to switch for a fixed scenario, linking switch to switch. the quick start guide that comes with a switch explains.
Make a Keypad a controler
1 Tap Keypad button of choice
2 Press and hold keypad set button until beeps (flashes green)
3 Turn responder keypad on
4 press and hold responder set button until it double beeps.
You have linked buttons for a fixed scene.
The manuals are still up on insteons website.
Class Action lawsuit ?
You can try, but it’s likely that their terms of service, which every customer agrees to when they set up an account, included language saying that they could withdraw any features at any time. That’s just typical in the industry today.
Those clauses have held up with previous companies, including Revolv, Iris, Wink, Staples Connect, and the ADT/SmartThings dual logo security system. All were discontinued or converted from a free to a paid service, and courts held that the terms of service were legal and applied. No class action suits were allowed to move forward.
Here’s the phrase from the current Samsung SmartThings terms of service, as an example:
“ CHANGE | We may, at any time:
1. Change, add, suspend, or remove features from our Services.”
That’s what people agree to when they create a smartthings account, although of course a lot of people don’t read the fine print. And as I mentioned, it’s pretty typical of the entire home automation industry in the US.
There may be individual states that have different laws that apply, I don’t know. And the laws might be different in other countries. But in the US, I don’t think a class action can move forward if there’s a similar phrase in the Insteon terms of service.
Greetings JD – it appears you have a good knowledge base of the current home automation industry. I only have about 20 Insteon devices and at this point in time, don’t care to through good money at a system that someday will run out of resources. What system would you recommend for someone planning to purchase all new equipment – taking into account the soon-to-be-release MATTER integration.? Thank you – Ron
Different things will work for different people.
I have a long and boring post over at the SmartThings community that lists out the questions I ask someone who is just getting started if you’re interested in that sort of thing.
https://community.smartthings.com/t/top-level-priorities-checklist-what-to-consider-before-you-start-selecting-smart-home-devices-2019/159332
As far as Matter, no one knows for sure what it will deliver once it’s actually released, but if that’s really important to you and you are looking to start from scratch, I think the 3 safest choices right now would be:
1) Amazon Alexa routines. As Long as your rules requirements are simple, you could just go with an Amazon based system for now. Keep it simple, choose devices with good safety certifications, work with their routines. That platform will support Matter so even if the individual devices you select don’t, you’ll be able to combine them with other devices that do once matter is available. You’ll have a very wide choice of devices, it’s just that you can’t build really complex rules. Just Basic if/then and simple time schedules. As of this writing, You’re also limited to a total of 99 routines.
2) if you already use iOS devices and you’re willing to get a HomePod mini, apple’s HomeKit is a good choice both for now and for the future. They’ve already announced strong matter support. The basic app just does basic rules, but by using the “Shortcuts“ feature you can build much more complex logic. Meross and Aqara both offer a good line of budget devices for HomeKit now. If you don’t already use iOS devices, I don’t think it’s worth the cost, but if you do, this is an option worth considering for many people. You won’t have as many device choices as you have with more complex platforms, so again, different things work for different people.
3) if matter support is really important to you and you don’t use iOS devices now, and you are looking for a simple inexpensive system but you don’t want to use Alexa, I think it’s worth considering aqara. They’ve already committed to matter support for some of their most popular hubs, they have a wide range of devices, and very good prices. There is a US cloud available for some of their hubs if you don’t want to use a Chinese cloud system. They work with both Android and iOS.
https://www.aqara.com/us/news/article/1435803030171693056
You can also use a combination of these three if you have iOS devices, or a combination of Aqara and Alexa if you don’t.
These options aren’t for everybody. People who don’t mind tinkering and are looking for something much more sophisticated and powerful will want to look at some of the other alternatives that have already been mentioned in this thread, including home assistant, Homeseer, and hubitat. But I believe none of those have committed to matter support yet. That doesn’t mean they won’t do it, but it means we just don’t know yet.
I’m am engineer: I like all these systems and several more when they are well-matched to a particular household’s needs. They all have their own pluses and minuses.
So there’s no one-size-fits-all answer, but I do think most people can find a home automation system that they will be pretty happy with as long as they take the time to do their own research first. But you do have to dig deep and talk to the people already using the system. They pretty much all use the same buzzwords these days, but it’s the details that determine what it will be able to do for you on an every day basis.
WOW – very good information that you have shared – Thank you!! I currently have 30 Insteon switches and modules in my home and several Wyze cameras. I have programmed several lighting scenes, but no routines todate. I am leaning more toward options #1 and 2. I was considering Z-wave protocol, but after reading up on Thread, now thinking about moving in that direction. It appears to give some of the best that Zigbee and Z-Wave have to offer. Voice commands are important in my household. We have 7 Alexa devices and 2 Home Mini Pods. Of the current devices that work with Thread, I was leaning toward Aqara and WeMo. It appears that the WeMo devices can accept voice commands from Alexa, Google and Home Kit. I would greatly appreciate your thoughts on the above and if I am pointed in the right direction. Thanks again, Ron
Heaving just gone through one of largest class action suits in the state of South Carolina, this will probably not create much satisfaction to us the purchasers of the product. While we are all have been harmed by the situation, but we have to assume this dealt with a firm filing bankruptcy and that is legal process that is acceptable in court of law. We are not truly creditors that haven’t been paid debts. Which are usually the first to be given assets of company, we were never guaranteed the us of their services forever and we didn’t actually pay them yearly service charge for maintaining their cloud service. So it would seem to to be difficult to justify what are losses are for. no business actually provides it purchasers a guarantee of operation. I personally have laid out a significant amount through the 16 years that insteon exited once i have over 60 devices that i purchased but doing those years i did receive a significant beneficial Service for their product for over a decade at no additional cost other than the purchase of devices, that still function, but can no longer operate to the extent that once offered but we never paid for. I will truly miss the in convince of insteon no longer being available. But I can’t figure how they are at fault, for closing up operation for a service that they were not charging us for. Maybe the most of us including me thought this was never going to end, and i as others should hav tried to find a backup to operate my devices through my own computers as opposed to relying on a private corporations cloud service, All cloud revives that i know of charge a subscription cost to their uses we never paid anything for that service just the cost of a device that was more costly than similar device that didn’t have the interface benefits we received.
Stephen:
> and i as others should have tried to find a backup to operate my devices through my own computers as opposed to relying on a private corporations cloud service
But you can. What cannot you operate today that you could do in the past.
Yes, you cannot change the IP address, login or password of the main Hub/PLM. Those were not exposed. Scheduled tasks, scenes, operating the switches/lights and most everything in those can be done today and could have been done for many, many years without the Insteon cloud service.
I actually had quite time, getting something up and running to get me close to what I had with Insteon which all knew was very simple system to run, with a limited amount of technical knowledge to develop a fairly sophisticated operational system.
I actually tried three new systems in attempt to get it all back and operating as it was before the plug was pulled by Smart Home. I started out with HOOBS since most of our computer devices were MAC systems, though I also use two Window computers. That was a 9 hour total disaster possibly while I have always considered myself a reasonably skilled computer user. I really knew very little of DOS knowledge.
Then I heard a lot about the benefits of HomeSeer, and dove into that, but while probably works for many people, in my attempt to set it up it reminded very much like my early days, of setting up a PC. Where there was a very limited of actual directions, and a lot of confusion with the software that was provided, especially with HS4 software, many of us have jump to YouTube to get an understanding how to install new items, however all the videos dealt with the previous software version, of software which is not owned or developed by HomeSeer, though they sell it and tell you this is a third party software. So their technical support only deals with their hardware. The YouTube videos deal with the HS3 software which looks completely different and was extremely difficult for someone like me who has some computer knowledge as user but not as developer or has a savvy understanding of program terms that i never had worked through on daily basis. To seek help I had to join forum where the software developer was part of, but I could never actually post questions or conversation directly to him. I spent 6 hrs on my initial attempt to set everything up and three days in frustration on the forum not getting direct assistance.
I was truly at wits end, I live in very large 55 over community that has over 18000 residents so I went on their Facebook site to see if I was the only user of insteon, actually discovered a few others, one who was up in operating on Home Assistant, but he is running a dedicated laptop as a 24/7 server, it also had run on Linux. We have a very large Computer Club in our community. I am a member and had a lot of friends that were more technical than my self, but most were stomped by my issue, but one who understood my concerns, and helped set up Raspberry PI device, which allowed me to interface directly with my router. Home Assistant as well as HomeSeer both utilize this device as means of operating and communicating with the Insteon Hub.
Once I set up the Homeassistant software on card or USB attached to the Raspberry PI device, it immediately recognized and spoke to my Insteon HUb, down loaded almost every insteon device in less than hour. The only issue each device was identified by the six digit number address that insteon places on front of every device they make. Something that I rarely ever paid attention to except when I installed insteon outlet devices. When I installed them in the past.
My next step was to put all those address on excel sheet and walked around my home to hitting each on switch on my download homeassistant app on my iPad, or phone turning those devices on. Once I determined each device’s location I then inidated what room or location of device was jotted it down on my excel sheet as well had column to indicate the common name I had used on insteon software when named it previously. This is also essential if you wish to utilize Alexa or any other interface to later operate the device by voice.
This all took me less than 2 hrs, next was how to you upload Raspberry PI which is just a chip card, and not computer to Alexa. Well Homeassistant actually has a significant amount of options under there configuration tab. The top tab is for iCloud upload. When you go to skills under Alexa, hit skills, and type in Homeassistant to recognize the devices it actually is for the iCloud that I just mentioned that is on Homeassistant. They have yearly charge or monthly ($65 yrly $6.5 mthly) 30 days free initially. But that cloud service uploads all the devices from Homeassistant and then downloads, the devices and scenes that I created withe normal names on Alexa from there you have actually activated each device so Alexa then recognize it.
With that your almost where you were before insteon, went away not extremely difficult to get it up and running, I am still not completely where I was previously. I still have learn to install time triggers, but actually all my previous time schedules were still on my Hub. But it would be helpful to learn how homeassistant operates that as well
I had a significant amount of scenes previously and they had to be on the hub as well. But I am at this stage not sure how they can be activated, and unfortunately since I can’t get into my Insteon app I can’t even attempt to name my scenes with similar names since I don’t recall exactly which devices created, but it’s something for me to work on.
I would appreciate it if anyone out there who has found a way of bring up there old insteon scenes might clue me in our to retrieve them
The last thing about Homeassistant is that is free, except for hardware which is either a raspberry Pi. Or Linux computer, i when you go through the software it it really very similar to insteon in using very simple terms. They seem to have write that you can obtain on any issue you need help on.
Good luck to all you out there that have had similar problems as I have had hopefully this will help you resolve your problems
> I had a significant amount of scenes previously and they had to be on the hub as well. But I am at this stage not sure how they can be activated, and unfortunately since I can’t get into my Insteon app I can’t even attempt to name my scenes with similar names since I don’t recall exactly which devices created, but it’s something for me to work on.
Insteon scenes have a number, you need only that number since you say you are using Home Assistant. HA provides services called “insteon.scene_on” and “insteon.service_off”. If you know the number, it is all you need to turn on and off scenes.
If you wish some help, feel free to contact me at kevin.brown (at) riocrest.com and I am more than happy to help you.
Keep watch (at least) on this thread: https://community.home-assistant.io/t/insteon-control-panel/234145/290
There I have posted some screens which can help a person to understand scenes and how to use them.
Kevin, thank for your offer and I will be contact with you towards the end of this week, still have few tasks, I am sure I can probably handle before that that need attending regarding this process.
Kevin,
I am about 70-75% back in operation though there are numerous issues that are frustrating me still on really a challenge for me to move forward or able to resolve. I am truly a 75 year old novice who along the way of living with a rather simple Insteon system have lost many of the skills that I previously had. A lot like my Home Assistant and my up load insteon devices.
I have found a number of device addresses that were not uploaded on my Home Assistant Device list. I assume there should be some way to manually upload them but I haven’t found anything on YouTube or by googling to tell me how to do it.
I know that my Insteon Hub holds all my scenes that are develoaded into it. That’s because almost all my time/scheduled scenes usually appear each day, While they don’t always come on or go off every day as scheduled I feel I can learn to live with them as they are. However, if those schemes exist, my non-scheduled ones obviously are stored in that Hub, but I have no idea how to activate them or get them uploaded to Home Assistant. Nor am I skilled enough at this time to develop them on home assistant at this time. Maybe after watching numerous YouTube videos I may someday concur this. However, one of the other problems I have with that process is there are so many revisions (updates) to Home Assistant that many of these YouTube videos and google descriptions that I look up aren’t the same as my present Home Assistant causing confusion.
I know I could probably handle some issues by editing the Logs, through UI but that is really a stretch for me presently to tackle. But someday I will get there.
I am confused why my Home Assistant Dashboard doesn’t reflect my rooms (cards) that i enter, or locate devices into them. No matter what I try to do to resolve this. These rooms do not appear, and some devices aren’t listed on my dashboard anywhere. Though I can find them by going to configuration and then tabbing on Devices Tab, find the insteon plugin and go to devices and they are listed.
I know in the future I will someday be able to develop scenes on HA similar to my Insteon scenes, I am just not there yet.
I don’t understand why insteon scenes uploaded to Alexa but HA scenes are not, I have been working my way through Alexa groups but they in no way compare to what I had on Alexa under Insteon. But I can learn to live with the limitations. I also discovered something new on Alexa, I can ask her to shut down all light and they all go off, except that items that HA list as switches do not.
There is still a long way for me to go, but on April 22, I never thought I would ever find a way to get where I am today. I am truly great full to be where I am now. I will always miss my true Insteon system.
If any of you who are actually reading this and have some insight to resolve any of the issues I have raised. I would appreciate a reply.
Thank you.
The things like “Rooms” that existed in the Insteon App were with the App’s data and not exposed to Home Assistant. Instead, you can put devices into Home Assistant Area’s. If you open any switch/light you can expand the Advanced Settings, you can assign or change the Area in which you wish to gather the devices together.
If you have devices that are not appearing, you should google “Home Assistant Insteon manual override device”
To turn on/off insteon scenes you create an automation which calls the service “insteon.scene_on” or “insteon.scene_off”. You need to know the scene number which since the insteon app is down, it can be a bit difficult. You can see scene numbers in the Home Assistant All-Link Database for a particular device. Of course, one device may be in many scenes. The scene number is typically > 20. Other scene numbers like 0,1,2-8 have special meaning and correspond to Responder, Controller and muylti-button devices.
I’ve had Insteon since it was brand new and was a registered developer. This level of unethical move is par for the course for Insteon. As soon as I got the developer kit, I realized this is a company that overpromises to the point of borderline fraud.
Aside from the wild overpromises of the software, the hardware was just bad. I had several switches just die over the years. Several hubs died over the years. Since there were few alternatives I kept replacing with their devices, but now this. Can’t say it’s out of character for such an unethical company. At least now there are many viable alternatives.
There are two conversations here that people should separate or understand that they are separate.
1) Can I use some other product/hub/software to control my Insteon devices now? The answer to that is a resounding yes. I use Home Assistant and Nabu Casa and Alexa. All functions perfectly. But ask your self how that works:
My voice -> Alexa -> Nabu Casa -> My Home Assistant Server -> Insteon Hub -> Insteon device or scene. This is really no different that many of the other things people mention on here .. ISY, Homeseer, etc. While all their advice and thoughts are great, they amount to a GUI for you to control the Hub/PLM/USB. They are not replacements, they are just add ons.
2) What if the device in my home that is used to speak to switches (my Insteon Hub, my PLM, or my USB stick) fails. You are screwed unless you can find a new one. Why? The Hub/PLM/USB uses a closed, proprietary communication to tell your light to turn on. WIthout a Hub or PLM or USB the only thing that will work is the buttons for your light … nothing else.
Unless someone can convince the now exited managers of SmartLabs to open source the proprietary code, no one can build a new Hub/PLM/USB controller.
I used to worry about what to do if the hub breaks. Now that they will be in even more short supply. It has a reputation for being the first thing to quit. I should know, because my first Insteon hub died after 18 months and they replaced it at the time under warranty for free. What causes the hub to notoriously die is one little capacitor on it’s board. It is a well known, documented defect. But there is an excellent YT video you can watch on how to swap this one faulty component with a better replacement. If you can hold a soldering iron, you can easily fix a broken Insteon Hub. Ebay literally has a service you can buy where you send in your hub and they fix it for you. So anyone out there with a broken hub…DONT THROW IT AWAY! Even a broken hub could be sold for money at this point since no more are going to be made and they can be easily fixed.
Does anyone have experience with leak detectors and garage door opener‘s from Insteon? Besides the switches I have, I need to integrate the alarms that the leak detectors will send to my phone, or at least used to go to my phone before insteon shut down.
ISY. Universal devices http://www.universal-devices.com – It controls all of the Insteon devices plus has a new NodeServer system which allows almost any smart device. I am a long time user and have even developed mobile apps that use it. It is a fantastic product. I wish it had more attention.
No it doesn’t. It controls the device that interacts with your Insteon netowk. It controls you Hub/PLM/USB. It does not control *your devices*. It one of those fail and you have no backup device, your switches are as dumb as a simple toggle switch.
HI James…per your comment April 21, are you saying that a Universal Device ISY994 can replace my dead Insteon 2245-222 hub? …to turn on/off light switches on schedules?
Thank you,
John in Toronto.
Just to jump in on your question. The ISY will do everything the hub will do and I think much more but you will need the Insteon power line modem to connect it to all your switches. The issue is getting hold of one of these. The schematic is published but the important bit is an Insteon custom chip which is probably unobtainable.
Regarding Insteon you don’t seem to mention the Universal Devices controller ISY994 controller. This is fully compatible with Insteon and far superior in my opinion. I have been using an Insteon setup with the ISY controller for way over 10 years (about 50 switches now) without any issues so I never even noticed the demise of Insteon. This is sad news as the functionality of Insteon switches seems far superior to than anything else out there.
John.
An ISSY994 is worthless without an Insteon Hub/PLM/USB. Do not promote this to folks because you cannot put an ISSY in your house and make it control the light switches in your house without one of those devices.
Not true. ISY994i will control insteon switches without a hub. My Insteon hub is currently unplugged and ISY still controls them. It just doesn’t have native control to integrate with Alexa (which is my current pain point.)
Just re-read your post. I do have it connected via a PLM, which IS required to make things work. I just also had the Hub layered in to make the Alexa connection.
Yes. Lol. ISY does not speak Insteon protocol messages on RF or Wireline to control switches. Nothing does but Insteon Hub/PLM.
I appreciate all these recommendations! Every room in my house has Insteon light switches and I had all the scenes set up for Alexa to turn on and off lights. Does anyone know if any of the above recommendations will work with Alexa?
I believe all of the options discussed so far do have their own integration with Alexa, including Homeseer, Home Assistant, HOOBS, and Hubitat. However, the exact features can vary and it may also depend on the specific features of the device being controlled. In addition, historically a few home automation platforms have required a paid subscription to use their cloud services, which includes their Alexa integration.
So I’m afraid this is just something you’ll have to research individually. The general answer will be yes, they have Alexa integration, but the details can vary as to exactly what’s included in that integration and whether it costs anything extra.
I can speak for Home Assistant. I already had all my Insteon devices (approximately 70) setup through Home Assistant. I also had the Alexa Insteon skill set up on my Alexa’s. When Insteon’s site went down, I paid for Nabu Casa (Home Assistant’s Web Service). I removed the Insteon skill from Alexa and added the “Home Assistant” skill and linked to my Nabu Casa account.
That whole process took 10 minutes and all my Insteon devices where back on Alexa. And because Nabu Casa is the connection to Home Assistant, this has the benefit of the Home Assistant GUI immediately updating if I tell Alexa to turn something on/off. And it’s not only the Insteon benefits. I have Dayton Audio DAX88 multizone music systems, other music servers, Meater thermometers, Tuya devices, etc. I have been removing most of these “skills” from Alexa and just using the “Home Assistant” skill.
Hi,
What about your insteon scenes and schedules? Thanks
I haven’t set up any Alexa functions on the ISY but it looks possible see https://wiki.universal-devices.com/index.php?title=ISY_Portal_Amazon_Echo_Integration_V3
All my scenes are either controlled from a wall keypad or by sunset and sunrise event times. Hope this helps.
John.
I have had X10 then Insteon installed for over a decade in my home. I have had a few of the modules begin to fail in the past couple of years and replacements were either hard to find or stupid expensive. So, rather than spend $60 for a dimmer switch, I decided to try wifi wall dimmers to see if the performance met the hype. For the same $60, I bought a 4 pack of these switches from Amazon and installed 3 of them. I was shocked at how easy they were to install and setup and they have performed flawlessly. It was my plan to begin phaseout of my insteon devices as they died since these wifi units were so reliable. Then the insteon shutdown happened. After evaluating other options, I went back to Amazon, bought 21 wifi devices in total to replace everything and it cost me only $235. Three hours later, my entire house was back up and running including with full Alexa integration and duplicating all the scenes that I had running in my Insteon hub, all created in a simple phone app . Never missed a beat.
These devices use a miniscule amount of wifi bandwidth and my 200 megabit internet service handled everything with no issues. I am sure that some of these scenarios laid out in this article will ultimately work, but many will require an additional investment in a hardware technology that is no longer supported. I chose not to overthink it and went the wifi route and it worked out great for me. Just my two cents…
I agree there seems to be solutions to resolve this situation, Kyle wrote me directly and I really appreciate his insight on how resolve this matter which I am trying to follow. If it successful, I will sent an acknowledgment once i actually go through the process.
However, the success of Insteon all these years, I believe that it allowed people such as me, who had some knowledge of computers, an understanding automation to continue to increase their home automation with a very simple process. In fact prior to companies such Insteon, their was a significant amount of smart home experts who opened businesses to allow novice homeowners the ability to set up smart homes. Those businesses died out, when companies such Insteon made it very simple to expand smart devices in homes with the only addition of hubs, and smart apps which were made available through google or Apple app stores. As time went on the ability to enhance your smart home became even easier with, introduction of SiRI, ALexa, and Google home Hub. These three with their ability to link with smart home devices brought smart home devices to such a simple level that any novice could develops smart home systems. It actually shrunk the market of smart home consultants who really went to more of whole house automation directed more to the A/V home applications.
Now the failure of companies such as Insteon, and maybe even other firms that offer similar services such as Insteon, and their are plenty of those that depend upon cloud services to support the use of ease of operation of these smart hardware devices. However these services have always been provided initially as cost free, but as time has evolved they actually add additional cost to the companies because they become a life time expense to them in their overhead operating cost. The only way for them to handle that increasing overhead is to charge a subscription cost associated with their cloud services. Apple, google and many other companies have chosen that route to what was once free. My intention is to try to utilize a company such HomeSeer that also provides a cloud service, but also allows me the ability to have back up plan of home server availability to place the data on my home computer if no longer continue to provide cloud service capabilities or close up as Insteon. I never thought as many of us that Insteon would close there doors, and probably if they didn’t go through the world wide effects of the pandemic they would not have suffered through the difficulty of obtaining the hardware products they developed and sold that were made entirely in China.
I used to worry about what to do if the hub breaks. Now that they will be in even more short supply. It has a reputation for being the first thing to quit. I should know, because my first Insteon hub died after 18 months and they replaced it at the time under warranty for free. What causes the hub to notoriously die is one little capacitor on it’s board. It is a well known, documented defect. But there is an excellent YT video you can watch on how to swap this one faulty component with a better replacement. If you can hold a soldering iron, you can easily fix a broken Insteon Hub. Ebay literally has a service you can buy where you send in your hub and they fix it for you. So anyone out there with a broken hub…DONT THROW IT AWAY! Even a broken hub could be sold for money at this point since no more are going to be made and they can be easily fixed.
A link on Canada’s AARTECH store for all things home automation have just posted a good article about Insteon hub alternatives.
https://www.aartech.ca/insteon-alternatives
This is a comprehensive set of options and guidelines. It looks like the Universal devices hub ISY994 is being superseded by the POLISY hub which appears to be significantly more powerful with more connectivity options.
John.
Funny how many times this must be said but people need to really know and not read.
An ISY is NOT A REPLACEMENT for an insteon hub. Nothing is. There are only three devices that can speak directy to insteon devices in your home — the Insteon Hub, an Insteon PLM or an Insteon USB device.
If you do not have one of those three devices and you have an ISY … you cannot control diddlesquat in the Insteon world.
Stop posting other’s people’s hype. The system does not work that way. It truely is simple yet closed.
You can implement any one of 100s of things — Home Assistant, Hubitat, ISY, many others.
they send simple ASCII commands to an Insteon Hub/PLM/USB. Inside that device, the Insteon chip converts it to proper signals to control a device.
An ISY cannot control a switch. It controls a Hub to tell the switch what to do.
It is NOT a replacement. It is merely another layer.
Or better, if you believe your ISY can control your devices without a Hub/PLM/USB then unplug that device (and send it to me for free). I’ll take it off your hands because it obviously was doing nothing.
The Insteon PLM directly connects to the ISY994 so that the ISY can issue Insteon commands over the power lines and via RF. So you will need a PLM. If you don’t have one they may be difficult to get now. They are prone to capacitor failures in the power supply section but this is simple to repair so even a broken one may be good to get hold of. There are repair guides on line.
John
Not exactly. Th ISY issues commands to the PLM. If it didn’t, no one would need a PLM from Insteon.
An ISY says “Turn on 2d1236” to the PLM.
The PLM then sends “ojkhsrfijhefdiuye5ijberwjhgvsdfuiygbwierffb8-isdvb” down the wire (I know that is simplified and ridiculous but it is to make a point).
No ISY in the world sends “ojkhsrfijhefdiuye5ijberwjhgvsdfuiygbwierffb8-isdvb” down the wire, It can’t.
insteon hub possible workaround.
I am planning on evaluating the samsung hub to see if if will allow me to use the switches from insteon.
any one else try to using it?
https://www.samsung.com/us/support/troubleshooting/TSG01109841/
The Samsung SmartThings hub or its newer replacement, the Aeotec “works as a SmartThings hub” hub can control zwave switches, but not switches that used the proprietary Insteon protocol. So as always, the first rule of home automation applies: “the model number matters.“
Smartthings has a very active user community forum at http://community.smartthings.com if you’d like to talk to people who are using the platform.
Better said, it can likely control the device that controls the switches … meaning if you have a hub or a PLM, it can more than likely control that hub/plm which in turn speaks to the switches. This is no different than Home Assistant or using pyinsteon or other software-based controls.
Unfortunately at present I don’t believe there is an active smartthings/Insteon integration of any kind.
Smartthings is in the middle of a huge transition with a complete rewrite of their base architecture. Many of the old integrations will be going away, and even the way they were created is going away.
Under the new architecture, it is now the responsibility of the device manufacturer to create and maintain the integration. Which obviously Insteon is not going to be doing. So smartthings has published its API but is leaving it up to the other side of the equation to do the heavy lifting.
That’s why I don’t think there’s any way under the new architecture to bring the Insteon protocol Devices into the smartthings app without going through an intermediary like home assistant or hubitat, so for the purposes of this specific discussion, I don’t think it’s an equal candidate for now.
I know there has been some discussion of the Insteon shutdown over on the SmartThings forum, but no one there has suggested the non zwave devices could be brought into SmartThings directly.
Good point, didn;t know that exactly but sure. I am a Home Assistant fan though and not Smartthings knowledgeable. I just look at it like this … if it can be controlled via REST or direct through Python or through some serial/wireless protocol, then one can do it with Home Assistant. Many of those integrations are already built (like Insteon). You still need the communication device (read hub/plm) if the devices are proprietary.
After Iris was killed off, I had to throw all my no longer supported deviced, cameras, etc into the trash. Later Hubitat said they’d be supporting those devices. I was mad, at the whole situation, and it cost me a lot of money.
I would have gladly paid $1.99 a month for the Insteon service had they asked. I have over 70 devices and I also had a hub go out early. I suspect it was due to overheating so on the replacement I drilled holes in the case to let the heat out, so far so good.
I cannot believe they simply shut down the service with NO warning or communication or better yet a published alternative like what is being discussed here. In the meantime I have a few spare devices but they won’t last forever so need to start thinking about new system.
I’ve used Insteon devices since 2007 – In our new house I was nervous about going Insteon because it did look as if they were in trouble. I’ve got at least 20 devices including 5 FanLincs installed, three of them on our lanai controlled by a single keypad. I couldn’t find anything else that would let me control multiple fans in the same room without having a wall full of switches. No one else makes a Keypad with backlit legend-able keys. Any scenes I had setup are still working, but I had a few more I was looking to build and hadn’t gotten to. I liked using the app from time to time and I’d also like to get schedules back up. How do the 3rd party hubs build scenes? Are the scenes stored in the devices the way the Insteon hub did it, or do the devices simply respond to commands? My hub should still be okay and I’ve got a spare in the box, I think I’ve got an old PLM somewhere too. Any tips are greatly appreciated!
maybe time to reverse-engineer the devices
I came into Insteon about 15 years ago. I was getting rid of all things cloud in my house the past 4 years and I always cringed at the $4,000 I have invested in a totally Insteon home. A year ago I went so far as to add about $600 worth of hardware to complete it. When I moved to a brand new home 5 years ago I always knew this house would have to be put back to dumb home to sell it one day, but Insteon became integrated into my life. My hub quit working and I mentioned it over this past weekend to my wife. She came out to where I was working in the garage about 15 minutes later and delivered me the bad news. I went through all the feelings one has for a deal like that. Last night I pulled out the recovery box. It contained all the hardware I removed from my new house when I smartified it. Today and the rest of this week I will be putting the house back. 50 devices. It is really to take a house and completely rewire it. There is no pride in having a ton of dead tech in my house. Sure I tried the HomeSeer out yesterday. Yes it works to an extent. A lot of things simply don’t. I consider it all e-waste at this point.
Oh, and all things smart home are dead to me. This space has no industry standards yet. I think Insteon contributed to the mess that was created in the future of the technology. I am 60 years old, I have seen this in my life far too many times. Done.
If my Insteon Hub is dead – is there an alternative hub one can buy to use the hard wired Insteon devices already installed in the house?
Describe “dead”. Does it light up with a red light or not at all?
If it is not at all, it could be a simple failure of a transistor. There are many online videos showing how to replace them. If you are not comfortable with this then feel free to contact me for making offers for hubs and switches.
If it lights up but is “red” this is likely because the cloud service has closed down. There is nothing wrong with the device and there are many paths to be able to interact with and use the hub without their cloud service.
I am using Home Assistant. A few kinks aside, you can still add, remove devices and control them.
Thank you. Since my post I figured out the red light is a result of the cloud service being down. I have been exploring the best option to get things back up and running. Home Assistant seems like a good option. Is it true that with Home Assistant you would need to purchase their subscription service to have voice controls with Alexa?
The generic answer to that is “no”.
You could get Home Assistant running secure (via https) and build out custom skills in Amazon Developer account and set up AWS Lambda access. See https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/alexa/
But you can also pay $65/year (I think, US) and not do anything special. When Insteon died it took me 15 mins to set things up with Nabu Casa (Home Assistant’s Cloud). With that you get so much more than attempting to do it yourself IMHO. Not only did I remove Alexa’s Insteon skill but I am removing many, many others now. Like I had Broadlink, Ring, Tuya, Vizio TV, Spotify, Pandora … I am slowing ridding myself of all these as they are all controllable things by Home Assistant linked to my Nabu Casa account.
But that is me, you can decide yourself.
You do not need to have Nabu Casa to have Alexa drive Home Assistant, but then you need to write all your own Alexa skills through basically your own cloud (which is Amazon and Lambda services).
I have seen many advisories saying DO NOT FACTORY RESET YOUR INSTEON HUB. Well, of course I did. Is there any hope of resuscitating my Insteon hub if I get another hub that can interface with an Insteon hub?
You can rebuild/relink devices using Home Assistant. I am beta testing the newest software now and bought another hub just so I can test out the process.
Does anyone here have an opinion on the Home Assistant Yellow hardware? First product won’t ship for maybe several months but it seems like it might be worth waiting for.
I took a older laptop I had and installed Linux and use Home Assistant Core in a virtual environment. I prefer this to anything else (for now) but you could also (try) and get a Raspberry PI 4 and “roll your own”.
I went down my path because it was $0 because I already had equipment lying around. And it already had large hard disk and fast chip, internet wired and could be used to run other things like Kodi right on the same box.
Personally, I wait to evaluate these kind of devices until they are actually shipping. Too many gotchas that aren’t visible just from the initial descriptions. 🤔
If you have the time to wait and you want to see if it’s a good candidate once it does finally arrive, I think that makes sense.
Kevin, I appreciate your persistence in keeping this forum faithful to how these alternate solutions work with Insteon. Since Insteon is out of business do you think it’s “open territory” for any of these home automation companies to now use and incorporate Insteon’s proprietary language into their system?
I am not a lawyer. But if I had the knowledge to do it and the funds, I would certainly hack and give it away.
The interesting thing here is for folks to understand a very simple thing (yet it is really very complex) … a wall switch in your house understands and responds to some message. That message can come to the switch in various ways. Some systems use wireless, others RF, others are waves on the actual powerline themselves (termed wireline). Those “messages” can be open or “proprietary”.
Insteon uses either or both RF and wireline to communicate to the actual switch. Despite their demise, IMHO it was the best thing ever. It is like a huge mesh, RF and powerline, the more devices you add the more strong the network. And because there is no wireless 2.4ghz involved, not interference and god forbid worse, imagine having a larger home with 100 devices all on wireless.
Anyone on any forum anywhere telling you Hubitat or Smartthings or Product XYZ “controls your switches” is wrong and has no concept. It controls the Insteon Hub/PLM that controls your switches. It is that simple. People have had software in place for many, many years that can control the Hub/PLM. “pyinsteon” and many other applications can send the ASCII message to the Hub/PLM to tell it what to send down the line, that is fully documented and open. What is not is the message between the Hub and the switch.
Now, to your question … I do not think any “company” will do it. It is too legally problematic to do such a thing, even if it can be done. So because the actual message to the switch via RF and/or wireline is proprietary, and they have left the building with the plans, there may be no way to recover. Except … there are smarter minds than me out there, people that could likely RF sniff and crack it and then build that into some code in some device. Maybe not, maybe that message in the chip is encoded and decoded on the physical device and what goes between is not crackable. I do not know.
I do not see much difference between this and say some old car or microwave or who knows what. How many times have we had devices fail and find out there are no replacement parts because no one makes it anymore.
What do you do then?
For my part, I have some extra parts for repairing Hubs. I just bought two extra hubs on E-Bay before the idiots stormed in and (laughing) now people are bidding $500 for a USB controller (fools). I have several hubs and a few PLMs just in case and that means unless someone cracks stuff, I likely have 8+ years. That is a long time.
Longer than most cars operate nowadays.
I know this wasn’t addressed to me but IP is seen as an asset by the holding company. So just getting to it is problematic. But, given the right to repair laws in various countries (like Canada), it cannot be unreasonably withheld given a price. That’s if someone (or some company) really cares enough to jump in financially.
Chris and Kevin, good points. You’d think the IP proprietary protocol would have monetary value to what’s left of Insteon’s assets. Even if that is the only asset left. Unfortunately, legal snarls may keep it locked up so long that people will lose favor in resurrecting the “messaging” protocol for Insteon devices.
It would be nice if there was a law that allows the technology to be open territory if it is deemed abandoned by its proprietor. If such a law exists and could be exorcised in less than 6 months or a year then there is hope for reverse engineering for an open-source protocol. Any lawyers out there?
Why do I give a s__t? Yea I have a lot of Insteon devices and have replaced some early model switches and the hub but it’s simply great mesh technology. Everything I have still works even without Wi-Fi or the hub, albeit; however, not through the Insteon app. So I will hang around a while and use an overlay but will hold out hope that the Insteon protocol gets picked up somewhere and used again. Ha, “long live Insteon”.
Steve, totally agree with you on all points. FIrstly, it was the best technology in this environment, not only because of the way it meshed together but always the quality of the physical devices. They just felt high-quality.
Everything of course works still in house. And I use Home Assistant and was an early adopter of their stuff. So my whole insteon installation with 80+ devices is still fine, even through Alexa. I say “Alexa, turn on Dogs” and 8 lights come on outside so my dogs can do their nightly thing.
I am working on some new interfaces for Home Assistant to make things easier in the transition for people that still want to create insteon scenes and such. It is all possible right now, albeit the GUI is not perfect.
I have three Hubs now in my possession. Bought a few extras on E-Bay. I laugh daily at posts here where people say just get “XYZ” and all your switches work … it really is unclear to me they actually believe that statement or do not understand that the ability to speak to the Insteon Hub/PLM has existed in many apps for a long time. I will from now on encourage all of them (postage paid by me) to send me their Hub/PLM because they imply they do not need it.
Legally or better yet morally, I would hope someone gets access to the proprietary code to build out the chips that actually control switches. It is one technology that should survive. I may be biased but it is way beyond Z-Wave or Zigbee in stability, implementation and quality.
I have a house full of Insteon devices and have never used the Insteon cloud stuff: they all work locally.
In my case, I’ve used Indigo software as a local server, and it works like a charm, including their iOS app.
Check it out, it’s pretty straightforward to set up and way cheaper than replacing all those devices. And indigo is multi-protocol so over time you can easily migrate to devices that use other protocols as your Insteon devices die.
https://www.indigodomo.com/
It speaks to the Insteon Hub /PLM, it does not speak to your light switch. As I have said 1,000 times in this thread … if you do not believe that, unplug your Insteon Hub/PLM and try. It will turn on … nothing.
All things in the world speak to the Hub/PLM and if you do not have one … you have nothing.
And just to be *very clear*, this is copied right from their website:
How does Indigo talk to Insteon devices?
The Insteon protocol is a proprietary technology that uses both RF and power line communication. This means that there has to be some kind of translation device that can connect your Mac to the Insteon network so that communication is possible from apps like Indigo. We built our Insteon integration around the various USB (serial) interfaces: PowerLinc 2413U, 2413S (requires a third party RS232 serial to USB adaptor), Insteon Portable USB Adaptor (2448A7), and some older interfaces like the PowerLinc 2412U/2412S. You must have one of these devices in order for Indigo to communicate with your Insteon devices.
Please note the tast sentence …
“You must have one of these devices in order for Indigo to communicate with your Insteon devices.”
Very true, but with the addition of one device, you can be back up and running. Either the 2413U PLM or the INSTEON Portable USB Adapter (2448A7) (the latter as long as the computer is near enough to an Insteon RF device) will work, and then you don’t have to depend on the cloud.
Home assistant has a full featured Insteon integration that talks to the Insteon hub locally.
Its free and runs on multiple platforms including a raspberry pi.
Here is a link
https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/2022/04/19/for-insteon-users/
SMART HOME AUTOMATION – NEED SOME ADVICE. I have been using Insteon light switches for over 25 years – on 4/19/22, the company folded and shut down its servers. I am now looking for a new system/protocol to control my home lights/devices. I am thinking about migrating to Homekit and purchasing controls with THREAD protocol and MATTER compliant. I would appreciate any advice about this platform and which brand controllers (Lutron, Wemo, Aqara etc) should I go with. Thanks so much!!
I would never argue with new solutions moving forward. Matter-compliance means diddle right now as it isn;t really released.
And when you start streaming three movies and your lights partially function, maybe someone will rethunk it.
I am no expert, maybe it works. But I hear IP … and I cough.
I run IP scanner in my home right now and I get 50+ things … TVs, DirecTV devices, Alexas, Vonage modems, computers, phones, …
Add 100 light switches? No. I don’t think so.
But maybe it will be so flawless and I am wrong.
The real question is why are you looking to not use Insteon. OK, they shut down and maybe likely will not make new devices. But your devices still work. In fact they work perfectly. There are 100s of ways to control them … different apps, other ways through even web and Alexa/Google.
You do have a system that has a single pojnt of failure. Protect yourslef against that in short term ad think through what you want to do in the future.
Hi Kevin – I am not an expert in this field – only know what I read. Thread devices connect via wifi or Ethernet and up to 250 units with multiple hops. I only plan on using 30-40 devices in my home, so not worried about speed. My understanding is that the latency on Thread devices is very low and the mesh systems does a great job in connections. So why do I want to get of my Insteon devices? I only have about 25 switches. Does not make sense for me to invest in a jump hub for smart home technology that will soon be obsolete.
Thread is an 802.15.4 radio standard, same as zigbee, separate from Wifi. It just replaces Zigbee’s software layer for thread’s IP based one. That said, you’re better off going with less expensive Zigbee ones, since any zigbee controller border router will become a matter bridge. Echo, smartthings, Hue, IKEA, HomeA, Homeseer. Matter Won’t make anything obsolete anytime soon. Our 20 year old Zwave and zigbee will still work.
Hi Lawrence- thank you for taking the time to respond. I am still a little fuzzy between going with Zigbee products vs Thread products. To some up what you stated, my understanding is that Thread offers slightly less latency and you can use multiple border routers (Home Pod Mini devices – for which currently I have two) to help improve the mesh network. Both protocols appear to have very good signal range, but Zigbee does offer a greater number of connections over Thread. To your point, Matter will run on top of Zigbee, as well as Thread. So, you are recommending Zigbee over Thread since their products are less expensive, and there are currently more – manufactures that make Zigbee protocol units? Correct? May I ask which Zigbee manufacturer you would recommend – thank you again – Ron
Thread can often confuse Border Routers for Hubs (Smartthings, Hue Bridge, Echos) and repeating devices, (smart plugs and devices that repeat)
As far as brands I use almost any brand. Some devices like buttons and sensors, can be problematic with some hubs. Bulbs, Plugs and others seem to be rock solid no matter what I pair them with. When I get a new device, I usually go around testing with all my different zigbee hubs to make sure Amazon and Google sees them properly. I have Border Router controllers from SmartThings, Ikea, Sengled, Hue, Aqara, and DIY with homeseer and Home Assistant on a Raspberry Pi.
I like color RGBW bulbs from Sengled, White bulbs from Ikea, smartplugs, from Sengled, Sonnoff and ThirdReality.
If you are not using Apple Homekit, get IKEA’s Tradfri Gateway. It allowed me to pair any device to it so far and expose them to Alexa and Google. Homekit will only accept first party devices. But I can pair hue, sengled, sonoff, third reality, seedan, as well as Ikeas own devices to their hub.
Thanks again Lawrence for taking the time to further explain. Since I am setting up my home automation “from scratch”, I was considering Home Kit since it is a little more secure. That said, you are instead recommending anything that uses Zigbee protocol – is that correct?
I tried HOOB it was either too complicated but after 9 hrs, I gave , i then purchased HomeSeer Troller Plus and HS4 software, it was easier until i had to add devices spent 6 hrs a lot f question their technical support could only address hardware not software issue because was actually third party that they sold, finally in less than two hrs i was able to install HomeAssistance a totally free software with the aid of Raspberry PI board and storage disk, it worked detected all but three of my devices. It was simple and quick. No its not Insteon’s app or program but everything is now working Finally after two weeks of total misery. Maybe some day someone will purchase Insteon priority system and I will surely go back to it but i will always keep HomeAssistant as back up
Not that I would ever recommend Home Asst. but I followed this guy’s tutorial on getting Hass to talk to Queen Alexa. It took about two hours pausing and stopping the video to follow along, but I finally got it. My HA set up went from 2002 to 2022.
HA does have its own homekit bridge built in, for siri but if you want Alexa and Google you have to jump through some big hoops. This should get anyone’s abandoned hardware working again long enough to replace.
https://youtu.be/Ww2LI59IQ0A
Lets hope Matter launches before Artemis 1.
I can’t believe that more people aren’t mentioning the Universal Devices ISY994i. I’ve been using it for years and it works great. Of course, I still need the Insteon PLM as an interface, but with the ISY994i I can add, remove, configure and program all the features of the devices. I never even owned an Insteon hub. There is also an Alexa skill that works with the ISY so all my voice commands still work perfectly too. I currently have over 100 Insteon devices in my house, but for the last couple of years I have been unable to buy any new ones so I have started using a few zWave devices. Great thing about the ISY, it works with zWave too. The zWave devices are a litlle harder to set up and don’t seem to react as quickly as the Insteon devices, but they work. I am adding a very large addition to my house right now and wish that I could still get the Insteon devices, but hopefully zWave is up to the task. I will probably be adding another 20-30 switches and I hope they all play well together. Since the ISY works with both, I can just replace any failed Insteon devices with an equivalent zWave device.
For all those that follow Home Assistant, today the newest version was released. It contains a full control panel to set all properties like ramp rates, led brightness, resume dim, key beep for Insteon devices. Scenes can also be managed, a better GUI should be coming. Of course voice control can be used through Amazon Alexa or Google.
While this has existed for sometime as an add-on, it is not part of the Home Assistant.
I meant it is *now* part of Home Assistant core software.
I just updated my Home Assistant and almost all my previous Insteon devices are not up and running on Alexa, I continue to feel a little better after two weeks of hell, tried to return my HOOBS 4 device today, It cost $22 to ship to Canada, in addition requires some form that has to be filled for Switzland, that I was unable to get filled out. So anyone considering a HOOBS device beware it also cost me $20 to get it shipped to me in the first place and oh yes they warned me they may charge me 25% restocking fee.
Stephen:
You said: “I just updated my Home Assistant and almost all my previous Insteon devices are not up and running on Alexa”
Did you mean are up and running or?
The issue is that Insteon stopped manufacturing the PLM. That’s what has a hub (even a third party one) communicate with the switches. You can replace the hub but any hub needs a PLM. People have had their PLMs fail and have bought repair kits and prices for a PLM on eBay have shot up drasticalky. With systems worth hundreds or thousands, someone should be reverse engineering the PLM and selling it!
The reverse engineering can’t be done legally until the company that owns the intellectual property releases it for open use. And that normally comes at the very end of a bankruptcy/dissolution process, because the people overseeing a bankruptcy are legally obliged to try to get the maximum financial value out of the assets the company owns, including any intellectual property, in order to try and get as much as possible for the creditors who have not yet been paid.
That did happen eventually with the Lowe’s Iris system, which was a pleasant surprise, and Lowe’s first generation devices, which use a proprietary protocol, can now work with a Hubitat hub, for example.
For right now, potentially the most financial value will be in keeping secrets secret and enforcing legal patents and copyrights and trademarks in an attempt to sell the Insteon platform as a whole. And that does sometimes happen, as happened with Wink.
So until they are sure they can’t sell the whole thing as a package, it won’t be possible to legally reverse engineer the PLM.
If the bankruptcy overseers end up deciding that there essentially is zero dollar value in the intellectual property, then they may release it for public use, as eventually happened with Iris. But I would expect that decision to be maybe 10 months away, and then another six months for the reverse engineering to get going.
And of course part of the problem is that every day that goes by is a day another instant customer decides to switch to a different platform altogether, so the value of the intellectual property keeps going down.
The market system means we get a lot more choices to pick from, but it also means somebody owns most of those choices and intends to make a profit from them. And that ownership tends to tie up the proprietary options as they reach end of life.
We will just have to wait and see what happens.
With the above alternative hubs or devices to replace a 2245-222 Hub what is needed? A PLM modem?
or can you just use one of the options or devices above without the insteon Hub?
Example if you go the Rasberry Pi what else is required besides the Rasberry?
1. HOOBs do you just need the HOOBs or is there some other device that is requried to connect the HOOBs to your smart home?
2. Universal Device is another device needed when using this?
3. HomeSeer?
4. Hubitat?
Basically my question is do you only need to buy one of the above? Or are there other things needed to complete the replacement of the Insteon hub no longer working?
I understand the Rasberry Pi needs to be assembled and software loaded.
Just don’t want to consider the items and find out there are other costs for things needed for each option.
Thank you
Hoobs is just a bridge between Apple’s HomeKit and another system. So for that one you would need a working HomeKit setup and a working Insteon hub.
For most of the others, it’s similar. Some can communicate to some models of Insteon devices using the Insteon PLM, like ISY.
Others, like Hubitat, have an integration for a working Insteon hub.
So you just have to research each individual candidate to see what integration options it offers. But they will all require at a minimum either a working Insteon hub or an Insteon PLM. And the exact insteon devices and features that you will be able to bring into the new platform do vary.
For more detailed discussion I suggest trying one of the Insteon user Facebook groups or the sub Reddit on Insteon.
https://www.reddit.com/r/insteon/
I should also add that on some of the platforms you have to pay extra for the software to do the integration while on others you don’t. So again, research on each individual candidate is needed, there’s no one answer.
Insteon is gone and will be missed. I was the first certified Insteon install in Central Florida and for a long time the only certified installer in Central Florida. My whole house is full of Insteon devices. I’ve been out of the business for some time. The only client I keep is a quadriplegic woman who depends on automation. I’ve sent her switches because she can’t find any. These are the unseen people that will be really impacted by this. I’ve been running Home Assistant for about 6 months and love that I can integrate all my devices. Within the last couple of months, I’ve been migrating to Zigbee switches and light bulbs. Today I pulled about 90% of the wall plugs and replaced them with Zigbee plugs or bulbs, I really love the bulbs. As the wall switches and keypads fail I will replace them with Zigbee or Z-Wave switches. The transition hasn’t been painful. I’m working with my only client to give her some alternative.
I myself am quadriparetic (wheelchair user, limited hand function) and definitely understand the differences between home automation as a hobby and home automation as a necessity for independence.
If your client already has an iPhone or iPad, I would suggest researching a combination of Apple HomeKit and Amazon Alexa, or even just HomeKit as a possible candidate.
Apple has been strongly committed to accessibility for years, and their voice navigation options work quite well, much better than most competing platforms.
The cost of individual devices has come down significantly in the last two years, particularly with the participation of Aqara and Meross. And at $99: the HomePod mini makes a good hub/smart speaker.
Lutron Caseta is an excellent light switch option.
Different things will work for different people, and if she is already committed to Android phones then it’s probably not worth switching. But I know many people who are wheelchair users who find HomeKit a good platform for reliability and accessibility. So just one more possibility to consider.
Todd Stabelfeldt (the “quadfather”) is one of Apple’s accessibility consultants and has a number of videos on his HomeKit experiences.
Huh? They are back and will be better than ever with a subscription. I also now have Hoobs and can use my Apple Watch to change stuff. It’s better than before!
With Home Assistant and some knowledge the whole Insteon Cloud is worthless. As it is for Hoobs and many other applications. The only things you can’t do (which has been commicated to Insteon with absolutely no support or response) is changing a hub to a fixed IP (mind-boggling but OK), changing the user name or password. You canot map scenes to common names as they are managed in the cloud bbut you can wipe them and manage them in your own product of choice.
In reality, this is how it should be. “Insteon” or whatever their name will be should make products. Sell products. No one wants to rely on Cloud services for *anything*.
As someone who is quadriparetic, I need voice control for my home automation.
While there are a few local voice control options under $5,000 (Amazon Alexa offers a very limited set), most modern voice control including Alexa, Siri, and Google Home do natural language processing in the cloud.
For me, that convenience is worth it. So I do use cloud options for voice control.
If the Internet is out, which happens a few times a year where I live, I can still use voice navigation on my tablet connected to the local Wi-Fi with the Apple HomeKit app. It doesn’t work with the Samsung SmartThings app, unfortunately, or on my android tablet.
The other thing that the cloud is useful for is remote access when you are away from home, like being able to unlock the door for a dog walker or a guest who arrives early. Or being able to view security camera video.
So it just comes down to what you need. Some people don’t need the cloud at all. Some want it for natural language voice processing. Some want it for away from home actions. It’s a personal choice.
Personally, I like the HomeKit approach where everything runs locally except the smart speaker and away from home actions. but that’s just me.
I have 50+ insteon devices no longer installed. Can provide the light including switches, wall outlets, in line controllers, fan devices, door sensors , etc. entire box for $250. Shipping costs by buyer.
Looks like Insteon is back. A group of people bought it out and are bringing it back. Visit Insteon.com
Maybe it’s mentioned here, too many posts to check, but the best Insteon hub is the Universal Devices ISY-99i. While not as user friendly out of the box, it is far more powerful, with a programming language to boot, and with their new Polisy box you can integrate just about any smart home tech into one device. Shame on the author for not mentioning it.
No Insteon server needed.
It appears you may not have had time to read the article, let alone the posts. The article was written a year ago just after the Insteon cloud abruptly shut down, so the exact choices available are a little different now, but the very first option that the author mentions is a link to the Universal Devices site. So that was already covered.
“ It’s worth noting that Universal Devices sells an Insteon hub that relies mostly on local control. The only cloud usage is for integrations such as voice assistants. It’s a $259 purchase but would let you reuse your current Insteon gear. I used one of these back in 2010 and it was rock solid for me with my Insteon devices.”
Probably the best Insteon hub at the present time is the eisy replacing Polisy I think. https://www.universal-devices.com/product/eisy-home/
This is the latest generation of the ISY controller. “Description
eisy | home is our 7th generation home automation controller and energy management system. It’s called eisy because it’s based on the same rock-solid ISY technology as its predecessors while also restructured for ease of configuration and use through our fantastic UD Mobile App. eisy is packed with power and flexibility and it’s so cute that some of us call it ‘cutie’! You don’t believe it? Checkout this video.”
It does not replace a Hub or PLM. That is still required. ISY or Polisy does not speak insteon on the wire or RF. It speaks to one of these devices that speaks on the wire or RF to Insteon devices.
Just to emphasize this point. See https://wiki.universal-devices.com/index.php?title=Polisy:User_Guide#INSTEON_Support
Step #1: Connect the PLM to the ISY/POLISY (This is the Insteon PLM).
Now, Polisy is a fine hub, but so are many others. I prefer Home Assistant as it is totally open source and can as much as possible be all local. I say as much as possible because things like “Alexa” do require integration (although Home Assistant now has voice control that is all local without using one of these devices, only your phone). And my Home Assistant sits on a spare laptop that was gathering dust = total cost of $0.
Surprise to you all but Insteon is alive and well, and has been up and operating for months, and has started to sell insteon devices on line
It’s not a surprise, it was mentioned in this thread in July 2022, as you can see above.
Again, this article was written almost a year ago, back in April 2022. And only resurfaced today because someone added a new comment to the thread.
Does Home assistant need a PLM?
Of course it does. Anything Insteon needs a PLM or Hub. Insteon communications on the powerline and via RF are proprietary. that is Insteon secret sauce. A PLM (or Hub which is a PLM) pushes out and responds to signals sent at the zero line of a fluctuating signal. Insteon devices pick that up and send it out to other devices until the desired device is triggered.
But this is on a powerline (if you have dual devices that are powerline and RF). So it is super fast, can reach the entire house in no time.
Home Assistant is no different than Polisy really. Home Assistant takes your command and sends that to the PLM which makes it into an Insteon signal and sends it out. I had an ISY for a long time and had it fully integrated albeit that was several years ago. I found Home Assistant and would never go back. While it more of a developer’s environment, this is what makes it attractive. Just peeking at my status, I see that I have 800 entities managed (TVs, Network devices, switches, lights, stereos, music controllers, vacuums, printers, etc.) about 80 of those are insteon. The GUI is far more modern in Flex and Material Design to build beautiful, custom dashboards that look professional on phone, Pad and computer.
You can buy a prebuilt Home Assistant device (just like Polisy) or you can build your own on PI, Docker container, or like in my case an existing computer. That computer also can run Kodi server, Volumio server and just about anything else Linux.