Re: Insteon now or wait?

[nobody@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Dave Houston)]

I think you need to re-read my posts re Insteon. I was the first person to
post a "hands on" review of Insteon to CHA and I gave it very good marks
(but with the disclaimer that SmartHome and the engineer who designed
Insteon have poor track records). I have reason to believe that Bruce and
some of the others who have tried Insteon have done so based on my positive
review.

I still have a positive opinion of the Insteon concept and technology but
also still worry that SmartHome and the designer will screw it up by cutting
corners to cut costs. The current flicker problem experienced by some users
looks like they may have done just that.

I'm currently working on a DIY translator that will do what you want (and
much more). It is probably a couple of months away.

However, I'd suggest you first find the root cause(s) of your X-10 woes.
Insteon will have trouble with CFLs that output noise and will also be
bothered (perhaps to a lesser degree) by the same signal sinks. The Insteon
carrier is 131.65kHz as opposed to X-10's 120kHz so they will be affected by
the same things. If you don't already have an ESM1 meter, my advice is to
get one. It can eliminate most of the guesswork when troubleshooting.

As for hardwired motion sensor controlled lights acting up, that would seem
to indicate your problems are not all related to X-10.

As Bruce can tell you, once you reach a critical mass of Insteon devices,
your X-10 performance will deteriorate because the two-way Insteon devices
act as signal sinks to the X-10 signals.

I'd wait until the flicker problem is resolved.

"Bill Stock" <me7@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>I've read a few of the Insteon threads, both supporters (Bruce R) and
>naysayers (Dave H). I've also read about the recent recalls for warmness.
>Heh, can't be much worse than my CP290 (RIP) warmness.
>
>My X10 setup has been going to hell in a hand-basket over the past year,
>lights not responding, sending one code and getting another (?) and motion
>sensor lights (hardwired) turning on during the day when they should not. A
>lot of these problems are due to new CFL lights, but I'm also starting to
>suspect my Ocelot is acting up, although it says it's fine. As for sending
>one code and getting another, it' either some code hidden somewhere I've
>forgotten about or a wonky coupler/repeater. Either way I'm going to have to
>spend some time and $$s to get it working again.
>
>So I thought I might replace some of the X10 modules with Insteons to try
>and improve the CFL problems. But the Insteons only repeat Insteon codes,
>not X10 codes. So unless I have a Translator for the Ocelot I don't see much
>value in upgrading now. I did check the Smarthome site for a translator, but
>it looks like it was never produced.
>
>