Re: Insteon Review

["RF Dude" <post@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dave:

You can try to do various tests, see how fast Insteon compares with X10 over
a bridge, etc.  But from a purely subjective perspective, Insteon seems a
lot faster than X10.  Under ideal conditions, I can press a button on my
palm pad and have the outdoor motion on 0.6 seconds later.  Realistically,
some devices take longer if they are on the other 120V leg of the house and
have to wait for the repeater to do its thing....  or not work at all if
there is interference.  For instance, it took three ATX power supplies on my
old computer before I found one that didn't cause interference.  How about
coming home and finding a light turned on for no apparent reason... in the
middle of the day.  So I got into the 2-way stuff.  I noticed that it takes
my KeyPadlinc almost 1 second to turn on a Switchlinc Relay, the LED gets
the status back about 2 seconds from the initial key press and keeps
flashing for 3.5 seconds after key press until the active repeater finishes
doing its thing.  Thats a lot of slow data moving around on my power lines.

I programmed one key on the Insteon Tabletop controller to send both an
Insteon command and an X10 command.  Why?  A larger room with table and wall
lamps all controlled together.  Really neat!  Press the button to turn on
the lights and the Insteon LightLinc is very quick (like you say, 0.2
seconds) followed by the X10 wall switch/lamp shortly thereafter.

Insteon will likely shine when applied to macro's or automation.  While on a
one for one command, the difference isn't big, delay would grow significant
with X10 if trying to do a series of commands in rapid succession.  Now add
2-way and it is no contest in favour of Insteon.

I opened up one of the units.  Quality looks an order of magnitude better
than X10.

So I have expectations for a Insteon version of the PowerLinc, and
KeyPadLinc followed later by other useful modules.  When more gadgets are
available, the power of Insteon will be much more useful.  Until the new
products come, I agree that the differences aren't too exciting.

Keep testing and let us know what you find.

RF Dude