5 ms·

A new day for Insteon

230 points by fortran77 4y ago

blockarchitech 4y ago
Huh. This comes suspiciously after Home Assistant/NabuCasa rolls out their insteon integration.
- ocdtrekkie 4y ago
  HA has had some form of Insteon integration for close to a decade. But I think a lot of the improvements in it recently has been to help new migrants from the Insteon Hub market cope.
- ink_13 4y ago
  I set up Home Assistant for my parents after their Insteon system turned into a brick. It did a great job of controlling everything, but it seems to think there's an extra sunset at 4:17PM every day which has made scheduling a challenge.
  - tass 4y ago
    The recommended way to automate based on sunset/sunrise is to use sun elevation. That may solve your issue. I’d be happy to share some yaml from my setup, if you like
    - karlshea 4y ago
      This is good to know, and now that you say it makes total sense. Can you share that yaml?
      - tass 4y ago
        Looks like I replaced most of what I have with blueprints, though here’s an example of a simple blueprint that just turns something on at your specified sun elevation: https://gist.github.com/CyanAutomation/1b8bafd033f73e3c24e42e8f381ff906 https://gist.github.com/CyanAutomation/1b8bafd033f73e3c24e42... Important bit is near the bottom, the trigger and condition sections. It’s possible you could find a blueprint that replaces whatever you were trying to do on your own, too.
        karlshea 4y ago
        Thanks!
- azinman2 4y ago
  What is the suspicion?
InsaneOstrich 4y ago
Good for them. I don't use any of their products, but I'm rooting for them
teeray 4y ago
I wonder how much the acquisition was
- ocdtrekkie 4y ago
  It is sizeable enough that another company interested in it, Universal Devices (which makes a hub that can interact with Insteon devices) bid for it and lost. But it's also a former VP of the old company who has apparently bought it, so I am kinda interested in the story of how that happened.
pedalpete 4y ago
For those missing context, Insteon is a smart home company that shut down suddenly a few weeks ago without notice to it's users, essentially bricking peoples smart homes. Good for Ken and the team to take this on. I'm not an insteon user, but I hope one of the first tasks they take on is to either open source the servers, or update the system to be able to work offline, should they decide to kill the service in the future. The lack of concern for it's users and the way Insteon was shutdown probably had a large negative impact on the smart home industry. Thanks to these dedicated fans, it hopefully has a happy ending
- kome 4y ago
  wow, this is so absurd from my point of view. i am glad my home is not smart.
  - tinco 4y ago
    You do realize the worst case scenario for this stuff is that the house is no longer smart right?
    - synu 4y ago
      I'd feel worse about the wasted time and money.
      - vineyardmike 4y ago
        sunk cost. you got to enjoy the smart home for some period of time, just not forever. yea its totally annoying, but its not wasted entirely. Many people I know with smart home stuff enjoy the tinkering a bit, and find its another thing to be restless about and fiddle with, and don't "set and forget" anyways.
        synu 4y ago
        If I spent a lot of time and money making something and someone else immediately broke it I’m not sure I would be as satisfied with the experience alone of having invested time and money in it as you, but I have to say theres something to be said for having that incredible level of optimism and ability to stay positive.
myrandomcomment 4y ago
I have a whole house of this stuff. We are talking 100s of plugs, lights, sensors, etc. I picked them because they have been around forever - like 30+ years (started with the X10 stuff) so I hoped they where a safe bet. One day everything stopped working, the remote control part via the application and automation that depended on their Hub being online. I had the hub. Ugh. Okay I had the USB serial adapter also sitting around. Installed Homebridge with the "Homebridge Platform Insteonlocal" plugin on an old PINE64 board. Used it to delete the links to the old hub and connect everything to the USB serial modem (the "modem" keeps the DB of the things it can talk to). Everything works great again and I can even use Apple HomeKit. I received an email today from Ken saying they are going to do the right thing but they need to move to a subscription model for like ~$40 per year. I am fine with that in the sense they should have done that a long time ago to sort their $$$ issues. At this point I am going to stick with the local solution - remember the HomeKit stuff gives me remote access - that the hub+app gave. The HW itself it really decent and always has been. It would be great if it became available again. I am worried about something failing at this point as the eBay pricing is crazy town right now. The 8 button remote that was $30 is going $200+. The remote links to their wireless protocol and pairs locally with all the devices. You do not need anything online for it to work. To be clear - they have powerline protocol and wireless protocol that allows devices to be paired (or more then a pair) with each other locally and locally programed. It is really cool stuff given it is 20+ years old and just works.
- donatj 4y ago
  X10, now there’s a name I have not heard in a while. Shortly after college, I had planned on X10-ing up my whole home for really no good reason other than it being neat and I had watched a video series (pre-YouTube, dvd) on controlling it programmatically. Life happened and I never got around to it. I’m glad I didn’t now lol, I’m sure I’d still have that junk around the house.
  - ghaff 4y ago
    I moved into a very old house about 25 years and there was a distinct shortage of light/outlet switches. I got a bunch of X10 gear which I used for a while. Over time most of the electrical was redone so I mostly didn't have a need for it any longer. (I still have one set of lights in the bedroom that don't have a switch but I switched that out to an Alexa-controlled plug a few years ago.
sharmin123 4y ago
pcdoodle 4y ago
The amazing thing about insteon is that it does not need a central controller. The devices have relationships with each other (that you can setup by tapping the wall switches themselves). I actually stopped using a central controller years ago and just appreciate being able to turn off everything in the home from my front entry.
thrusong 4y ago
My PHP-controlled home cinema uses the Insteon Hub locally, so it kept working after the abrupt shutdown. I was worried about having to move to a new home automation system as parts died (I'm on my second Hub in seven years). Overall, it's been a really reliable system with decent dimmers and plugs so this is good news to me. I've thought about open sourcing it but I'd ideally like to do it in a way where it can't be monetized by a third-party. That's a post for another day. Cinema in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7YEVGWJjvI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7YEVGWJjvI
panda88888 4y ago
I got an email from them and the plan forward is to charge annual subscription for cloud services at $40/year or $70 for 2 years.
desro 4y ago
This is great news! As a former customer, I wish the new owners all the best luck possible.

230 points by fortran77 4y ago

blockarchitech 4y ago

Huh. This comes suspiciously after Home Assistant/NabuCasa rolls out their insteon integration.

ocdtrekkie 4y ago
HA has had some form of Insteon integration for close to a decade. But I think a lot of the improvements in it recently has been to help new migrants from the Insteon Hub market cope.
ink_13 4y ago
I set up Home Assistant for my parents after their Insteon system turned into a brick. It did a great job of controlling everything, but it seems to think there's an extra sunset at 4:17PM every day which has made scheduling a challenge.
- tass 4y ago
  The recommended way to automate based on sunset/sunrise is to use sun elevation. That may solve your issue. I’d be happy to share some yaml from my setup, if you like
  - karlshea 4y ago
    This is good to know, and now that you say it makes total sense. Can you share that yaml?
    - tass 4y ago
      Looks like I replaced most of what I have with blueprints, though here’s an example of a simple blueprint that just turns something on at your specified sun elevation: https://gist.github.com/CyanAutomation/1b8bafd033f73e3c24e42e8f381ff906 https://gist.github.com/CyanAutomation/1b8bafd033f73e3c24e42... Important bit is near the bottom, the trigger and condition sections. It’s possible you could find a blueprint that replaces whatever you were trying to do on your own, too.
      - karlshea 4y ago
        Thanks!
azinman2 4y ago
What is the suspicion?

InsaneOstrich 4y ago

Good for them. I don't use any of their products, but I'm rooting for them

teeray 4y ago

I wonder how much the acquisition was

ocdtrekkie 4y ago
It is sizeable enough that another company interested in it, Universal Devices (which makes a hub that can interact with Insteon devices) bid for it and lost. But it's also a former VP of the old company who has apparently bought it, so I am kinda interested in the story of how that happened.

pedalpete 4y ago

For those missing context, Insteon is a smart home company that shut down suddenly a few weeks ago without notice to it's users, essentially bricking peoples smart homes. Good for Ken and the team to take this on. I'm not an insteon user, but I hope one of the first tasks they take on is to either open source the servers, or update the system to be able to work offline, should they decide to kill the service in the future. The lack of concern for it's users and the way Insteon was shutdown probably had a large negative impact on the smart home industry. Thanks to these dedicated fans, it hopefully has a happy ending

kome 4y ago
wow, this is so absurd from my point of view. i am glad my home is not smart.
- tinco 4y ago
  You do realize the worst case scenario for this stuff is that the house is no longer smart right?
  - synu 4y ago
    I'd feel worse about the wasted time and money.
    - vineyardmike 4y ago
      sunk cost. you got to enjoy the smart home for some period of time, just not forever. yea its totally annoying, but its not wasted entirely. Many people I know with smart home stuff enjoy the tinkering a bit, and find its another thing to be restless about and fiddle with, and don't "set and forget" anyways.
      - synu 4y ago
        If I spent a lot of time and money making something and someone else immediately broke it I’m not sure I would be as satisfied with the experience alone of having invested time and money in it as you, but I have to say theres something to be said for having that incredible level of optimism and ability to stay positive.

myrandomcomment 4y ago

I have a whole house of this stuff. We are talking 100s of plugs, lights, sensors, etc. I picked them because they have been around forever - like 30+ years (started with the X10 stuff) so I hoped they where a safe bet. One day everything stopped working, the remote control part via the application and automation that depended on their Hub being online. I had the hub. Ugh. Okay I had the USB serial adapter also sitting around. Installed Homebridge with the "Homebridge Platform Insteonlocal" plugin on an old PINE64 board. Used it to delete the links to the old hub and connect everything to the USB serial modem (the "modem" keeps the DB of the things it can talk to). Everything works great again and I can even use Apple HomeKit. I received an email today from Ken saying they are going to do the right thing but they need to move to a subscription model for like ~$40 per year. I am fine with that in the sense they should have done that a long time ago to sort their $$$ issues. At this point I am going to stick with the local solution - remember the HomeKit stuff gives me remote access - that the hub+app gave. The HW itself it really decent and always has been. It would be great if it became available again. I am worried about something failing at this point as the eBay pricing is crazy town right now. The 8 button remote that was $30 is going $200+. The remote links to their wireless protocol and pairs locally with all the devices. You do not need anything online for it to work. To be clear - they have powerline protocol and wireless protocol that allows devices to be paired (or more then a pair) with each other locally and locally programed. It is really cool stuff given it is 20+ years old and just works.

donatj 4y ago
X10, now there’s a name I have not heard in a while. Shortly after college, I had planned on X10-ing up my whole home for really no good reason other than it being neat and I had watched a video series (pre-YouTube, dvd) on controlling it programmatically. Life happened and I never got around to it. I’m glad I didn’t now lol, I’m sure I’d still have that junk around the house.
- ghaff 4y ago
  I moved into a very old house about 25 years and there was a distinct shortage of light/outlet switches. I got a bunch of X10 gear which I used for a while. Over time most of the electrical was redone so I mostly didn't have a need for it any longer. (I still have one set of lights in the bedroom that don't have a switch but I switched that out to an Alexa-controlled plug a few years ago.

sharmin123 4y ago

pcdoodle 4y ago

The amazing thing about insteon is that it does not need a central controller. The devices have relationships with each other (that you can setup by tapping the wall switches themselves). I actually stopped using a central controller years ago and just appreciate being able to turn off everything in the home from my front entry.

thrusong 4y ago

My PHP-controlled home cinema uses the Insteon Hub locally, so it kept working after the abrupt shutdown. I was worried about having to move to a new home automation system as parts died (I'm on my second Hub in seven years). Overall, it's been a really reliable system with decent dimmers and plugs so this is good news to me. I've thought about open sourcing it but I'd ideally like to do it in a way where it can't be monetized by a third-party. That's a post for another day. Cinema in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7YEVGWJjvI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7YEVGWJjvI

panda88888 4y ago

I got an email from them and the plan forward is to charge annual subscription for cloud services at $40/year or $70 for 2 years.

desro 4y ago

This is great news! As a former customer, I wish the new owners all the best luck possible.