X10 to Insteon Translator is shipping!

["BruceR" <br@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I placed my order for the X10 to Insteon Translator along with the
Insteon starter kit and some other Insteon products and got confirmation
that it shipped today. I was pleasantly surprised by this as the
translator was not shown "in stock" yet on Smarthome's web site. I'll
report on it after I play with it next week.  I plan to install the
modules in some trouble spots around the house to give them a good
workout.  I will be using a JDS Stargate to control them. Stay tuned!

I'm really keeping my fingers crossed on this because Insteon seems, for
now, to offer a broader line of products at more reasonable prices than
the UPB stuff. I played with a UPB starter kit but didn't go far with it
since it couldn't be readily controlled by Stargate. In reading the
Insteon description it appears that it uses PLC at 131kHz, just 10kHz
higher than X10 signals. While that would seem to intimate that it would
be just as susceptible to "signal anomalies" I guess that the closed
loop operation, RF capability and different signal protocol is supposed
to get around that.

P.S. Stargate is now offering a firmware upgrade to support UPB but it
requires removal of the telephone/IVR board (thereby downgrading it to a
Stargate Lite) to do that. I rely too much on the telephone board to
remove it. Of course, there's the recently announced X10 to UPB
translator option if the Insteon stuff is a bust.

Happy Holidays to All!