Re: Insteon Observations

[Marc_F_Hult <MFHult@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 15 Dec 2006 14:03:59 -0500, "Dennis Brothers"
<brothers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
<4ug9t4F18co1vU1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:

>
>My house was built in the early fifties.  And the sixties.  And the
>seventies.  And the eighties.  The house is now about 4000 square feet,
>about 90 feet end-to-end, and has an "interesting" mix of wiring styles.  My
>HA computer is at one end of the house, a long distance from most of the
>stuff it controls.  X-10 was always marginal, even with an array of phase
>couplers, boosters, filters, all the usual stuff.  I've been completely
>Insteon for about a year now, and power-line control has been absolutely
>reliable.  I was using my own HomeSeer plug-in until the disk problems; when
>I rebuilt the system I installed the "official" HomeSeer Insteon plugin.
>
>My biggest reservation about Insteon right now is the physical reliability
>of the devices.  Out of thirty or so SwitchLincs, I've got two SwitchLinc
>Relays with bad rocker contacts - one won't turn on; the other won't turn
>off.  Both work fine under power line control.  Even more alarming is that
>I've had three or four LampLincs die when bulbs they were controlling burned
>out.
>
>All of my Insteon stuff is early production; I'm about to get all the failed
>devices replaced under warranty - I'll see if anything's improved,
>quality-wise.
>

Dennis' experiences are similar to mine. One of the V2 dimmers that SmartHome
sent to replace an original version that could be coaxed into flickering had a
bad SPST switch. This is ironic because the hardware itself looks to
exceptionally well designed and built -- gold-flashed pcb traces, labeled and
heat-shrunk leads, clean, residue free soldering, and seemingly high-quality
components.

Our setup depends on locally linked 2-way and three-way switches. They work
wunnerfully and are trivial to set up.  Very occasionally, when I'm at the top
of the stairs and simultaneously hit both the local switch for the light on
the 2nd floor and the linked switch for the light on the first floor, the
linked switch won't turn on and I have to hit it again. This doesn't happen if
there is even a slight delay between hitting switches or if I _dim_ up or
down.  Also the  INSTEON ON-OFF (relay) wall switch that controls the
fluorescent T4's in the basement has a spit second delay when pressed even
though it directly controls the load (not linked).

These are very minor quibbles compared to any and all X-10 tactile/feedback
experiences I've had over the years. One could leave these INSTEON switches in
place (eg when selling a home) without anyone knowing that they were
automated. They look and work for all the world like Lutron Decora manual
dimmers that cost just as much as INSTEON ICON dimmers. This by itself is a
substantial virtue in my negative, previous experience with selling an X-10-
equipped home. In other words, these work great as "manual switches that can
be automated". I don't think that anyone could ever say that with a straight
face about X10's X-10.

... Marc
Marc_F_Hult
www.ECOntrol.org