Re: Insteon Review

[Ralph <no-spam@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dave Houston wrote:
> My enthusiasm is waning.
>
> I have now seen a few complete failures - cases where the target module
> never responded and the controller LED flashed for several seconds. There
> have been several other cases where the target responded but only after 3-4
> seconds.
>
> The ESM1 was plugged into the target circuit and it showed nothing during
> the failures which was an indication that the RF link wasn't working. It
> turned out that I had repositioned one unit (to avoid the bright LED which
> really is annoying when looked at head-on) and had the antennas oriented
> badly but this is with the RF units only 8' apart. I think this will be
> tough to troubleshoot without dedicated diagnostic tools to indicate both RF
> and PLC activity. In fairness, in a permanent installation the antenna
> orientation is unlikely to change - but I suggest the RF units be within a
> few feet of each other. And, it may well be that they have diagnostics in
> the firmware that can only be triggered by a PC interface.
>
> My test setup is less than ideal as the only way I have to send a signal is
> by pressing buttons on the tabletop controller. I could devise more rigorous
> and automated tests with a PC interface to send/receive and with a 900MHz RF
> receiver to indicate whether a failure was related to RF or PLC. But then I
> would be the only one to ever know the results given their license terms. :(
>
> Over the week-end I will try to come up with a way to generate some noise on
> the powerline and see how the system handles that. Then, I'll be returning
> the kit to the dealer who loaned it to me.
If your RF range is only a few feet, you've probably got some 900MHz
interference. I had exactly that problem and changed the "channel" on
the interfering equipment and now have no RF issues. It's a design error
that Insteon can't change it's frequency or do spread spectrum. OTOH, it
seems to me that the whole RF coupling is not a big deal, why not just
use a wired bridge?