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Insteon sale 5-25-17 to 5-29-17

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    Insteon sale 5-25-17 to 5-29-17

    Smarthome.com is having a storewide sale which includes lots of Insteon products between 5-25 and 5-29. Use code E17MEM at checkout.

    Here is another code for 5% off. No idea if they can be used together. E17WUBZ

    #2
    With the zwave dimmers getting much better recently, I'm not sure insteon has any benefit anymore. Zwave and zigbee won. I suspect insteon is losing customers faster than they are gaining them. I think they are ultimately doomed

    Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk

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      #3
      Originally posted by Ltek View Post
      With the zwave dimmers getting much better recently, I'm not sure insteon has any benefit anymore. Zwave and zigbee won. I suspect insteon is losing customers faster than they are gaining them. I think they are ultimately doomed

      Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk
      I'm not so sure I agree it has caught up. You can configure insteon devices to work in complexes scenes without a controller and if you have a controller independently of it. Yes things like the insteon hub and the isy make it easier to create scenes and use one device to control another, but you don't need it. Z-wave has associations, but as far as I know you need some kind of controller to set them up.

      I also like the insteon supports dim up/down from one controller to all responders and they are pretty much in sync.

      I'm not saying insteon is better, it's still different enough that I use both depending on any given use case. For instance I love the KeypadLincs and Fanlincs. I've yet to find an acceptable z-wave equivalent that would work if my main controller went down. On the other side I'm loving the idea of the new z-wave multi taps on the switches.

      Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

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        #4
        I certainly would not argue that Insteon is the leader in which protocol will prevail. I made my decision about 10 years ago and have an investment in switches that I'm not willing to walk away from. As I have identified use cases that need a new switch or outlet, I have bought more.

        I'm actually looking forward to the day when I find a use case where z-wave would be the best choice. I realize I would have to spend $40 on a z-stick type device but I'm willing. Just haven't found anything yet.

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          #5
          Originally posted by logbuilder View Post
          I certainly would not argue that Insteon is the leader in which protocol will prevail. I made my decision about 10 years ago and have an investment in switches that I'm not willing to walk away from. As I have identified use cases that need a new switch or outlet, I have bought more.

          I'm actually looking forward to the day when I find a use case where z-wave would be the best choice. I realize I would have to spend $40 on a z-stick type device but I'm willing. Just haven't found anything yet.
          I think you phrased it better than me. I don't think that Insteon is technically a leader in the HA space. As I stated I think they are just "different" and really, is different really that bad? it adds competition, which is good. Hopefully as z-wave adds features Insteon also will pick those up and vice versa. While I understand having too many "standards" can be a bad thing, having a few in this space where at least we have controllers who can talk to all of them, isn't necessarily a bad thing.

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            #6
            I feel an ideological battle coming on ... but hope not. Most new technologies improve the overall level of HA sophistication.

            I'll position myself right off the bat: I've invested in Insteon since I looked into HA in 2006 and have never regretted it since. Why?
            • Faster protocol
            • Simpler protocol
            • Plugin support (thanks to Mark S.)
            • Cost of devices

            But I'm always attracted to new technologies. So why haven't I embarked on the Zwave bandwagon? Answer - It's network topology and compatibility issues many have reported time and time again.

            Insteon is, and always has been, a mesh network, dual band at that (RF and power line). Look at the Insteon forums: how many pet peeves?

            What makes me wonder about the future of Insteon? Evolution. One example: I need for our new house a 2017 era thermostat; what are my choices for an Insteon protocol supported devices? 2441TH. That's more 2000 style. Another example: KeypadLincs; great device, tons of functionality, but looks? again from the 2000 era. Why have we not seen a programmable phone size display that can lodge in an electrical box, enabled with the Insteon protocol, at a consumer price point? I can buy a small factor tablet (7") for 80$ CDN (65$ US): where's the problem you think?

            Vision... All of the current HA suppliers have a very narrow scope of their offering, sad. I think we need one of the big ones (Google, Amazon, ???) to move into HA territory, and they are, but slowly, apparently with (still) no wide vision of HA.

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              #7
              I have zero Insteon and zero Zwave issues in my 3 level - having 2 different Veras, a Wink, and now SmartStick+ ... all placed in the basement. But frequently hae Zigbee issues, it is just way slower than Zwave - at least the 36 zigbee lights across all 3 floors of my 3886sqft home.

              I've used Insteon since BEFORE they had RF and, other than poor quality PLMs (3 died in 10ish years) very few issues. I've had about 5 dimmers, or 25 or so, die in 10 years.

              I got rid of my Keypadlincs a long time ago and only have dimmers... many are still old Powerline only versions. I use ISY as the interface.

              I've always said ISY dimmers were best-of-breed - only in the past few months has any dimmer rivaled it, now with the brand new Leviton & Homeseer switches finally catching up feature wise - though, I dont have any so no idea on quality.

              I'm not getting rid of my Insteon but once my reserve supply runs out I wont be buying any more - probably every. Zwave is king of HA and that will not likely change anytime soon.

              A while back I thought Apple (I don't own any apple devices) might buy Insteon - that would be the best thing for Insteon since I saw Zwave was going to dominate. But, I feel that unless a big company (Google, Amazon, Apple, etc) buy them - Insteon will in the archives just like X10 of HA in 5 years from now... there will still be a small set of users but no new ones jumping on, only old ones jumping off.

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                #8
                So, this being an Insteon forum, what are your expectations when posting that you will get rid of Insteon once your "reserve supply runs out" and promoting "Zwave is king of HA"?

                Wouldn't it be more appropriate to post on the other forums? I'm not sure what's the point, but would welcome your thoughts.

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                  #9
                  I have to say that my continued support of Insteon is largely due to Mark's work. I came to the HS game late but with an already installed based of Insteon devices. They all migrated just as expected to HS3 with the plugin. It is solid and reliable.

                  Thank you Mark!

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