ControlLinc & Plug-in

[Oman]

From a master controller perspective (HA) it is a major pain in the butt. UPB would have the exact same issue *if* they had not come out first with a central management and programming application (UPStart). Because HA applications can load the programming for the entire system from a central database it becomes a reasonable task to understand how every part of that system is going to react to any command and update appropriately.

SmartHome has indicated that they see this as an issue and will at some point try to fix it with a centralized management application. Until then each HA application has to support a certain amount of internal link and database management. It is actually hard to do it right, and doing it wrong can do ugly stuff to your system that is hard to diagnose and fix. From the beta code I've been testing from the other vendors - no one has it right.

Jon

Jon,
This sounds like a serious design flaw. Is it?

[brothers]

Hmmm... For another project, I started out with a central object model of an Insteon "system" (typically, a house), which keeps itself updated by polling devices in the background. I didn't bother integrating this with my HS plugin, because all I was interested in was turning lights on and off, and didn't want to put a lot of effort into the plugin (I really just wanted all my lights to work). Maybe it's time to re-think that decision...

- Dennis Brothers

[Oman]

Yep, add to that the ability to software link both masters and slaves because you can't reach the PLC in the closet, and then of course link removal when a device goes bad or has to be replaced, etc, etc. Quite a bit of work compared to other solutions.

Jon

Hmmm... For another project, I started out with a central object model of an Insteon "system" (typically, a house), which keeps itself updated by polling devices in the background. I didn't bother integrating this with my HS plugin, because all I was interested in was turning lights on and off, and didn't want to put a lot of effort into the plugin (I really just wanted all my lights to work). Maybe it's time to re-think that decision...

- Dennis Brothers

[brothers]

You know, there's an interesting software application out there that's aces at modeling complex interconnected networks, and has an SDK that lets you add code to node and connector objects. You can probably guess which one I'm talking about. Biggest drawback is that it's a multi-hundred dollar application. I don't recall whether there's any kind of deal where you could license and redistribute just the "engine", but it's worth looking into.
- Dennis Brothers

[jhimmel]

Use a W800 or RFXCom to receive RF commands. You can then have an event fire off any Insteon or any other device commands you want without clogging up the powerline with X10.

Jon

Jon, have you actually tried this?
Received my W800 yesterday, and paid for the plugin. Unfortunately, it is working absolutely horribly.

The problem is, it is having a terrible time decoding the received RF. It is far less reliable than my old X10 plug-in PLC receiver.

For instance, it decodes a "B-1" button press most of the time, but "B-5" almost NEVER gets recognized, and the detailed debugging log returns -

[Oman]

This is what about 99% of the W800 and/or MR26a users do.

You are getting lots of RF noise. Usually this is generated by the computer. You may not have seen it before because your RF/PLC transciever was located away from the computer. The other thing that can cause that is a crummy USB to RS232 converter. Lately the RFID unit available has been a major culpret when it comes to RF noise as well.

Just try moving the W800 away from any RF noise source. The W800 itself can pick up noise as well as the antenna. DON'T plug it directly into a serial port on the back of the computer as some people have done.

Once you get it away from the noise I think you will be impressed with the range you can get.

Jon

Jon, have you actually tried this?
Received my W800 yesterday, and paid for the plugin. Unfortunately, it is working absolutely horribly.

The problem is, it is having a terrible time decoding the received RF. It is far less reliable than my old X10 plug-in PLC receiver.

For instance, it decodes a "B-1" button press most of the time, but "B-5" almost NEVER gets recognized, and the detailed debugging log returns -