Re: Insteon vs UPB vs Zwave

[Marc F Hult <MFHult@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sat, 18 Feb 2006 19:32:56 -0800, "Jonesy" <Jonsey@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
message  <43f7e7ce$0$15443$6d36acad@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:

>Looking for some thoughts here.  We want to have a central controller like
>the HAI we have now, and not a PC in a new home we going to be building.
We
>don't want to go to Centralite due to dependence on a single vendor and non
>standard wiring. Ditto for single vendor on ALC, and HAI seems to be
>downplaying them in favor of UPB products.
>
>I've done X-10 for years, and understand ALL of its issues.  Is UPB that
>much better?  Also worried about the long term success of Zwave without a
>controller like Elk or HAI supporting it directly.  I've read the Insteon
>white paper.  While lower cost, like Zwave I don't see a controller really
>stepping up to support it either, except a PC.  Not stuck on HAI either and
>am willing to look at others like the Elk.
>

I've ponied up for about 25 INSTEON devices and so far have mostly positive
reactions. SmartHome as a company is quite responsive. The developer
documentation is extensive and well done. Construction of devices is
excellent to the point of overboard (gold plated solder pads that are
unused, heat-shrink labels on wires, etc.)

Principal obstacles for my use at this time are with the 3rd-party software
drivers.

The HomeSeer 2.0 driver is still very incomplete and buggy but is working
well enough in my house with seven outlet modules (but not with wall
switches)

Elk MG1 Gold now supports INSTEON but I don't know how well.  I will try the
ELK MG1-INSTEON combination in April. I'll be very curious to see if INSTEON
can cope with two interfaces (one via ELK MG1 and one via PC + Homeseer).


..  Marc
Marc_F_Hult
www.ECONtrol.org