How Dual Band devices interact with other Insteon devices

[jwshome2]

I want to check an assumption I have always made about how Insteon dual-band devices work with other devices on the Insteon network. I have a large Insteon network - perhaps 40 or 50 devices - and some are dual band and some are not. I'm trying to decide whether or not to upgrade some or all of the older switches and lamplincs to dual band.

I'm assuming that if I have a roomfull of older devices and I add one or two dual-band devices that this will improve the reliability of all the devices in the room to some extent. In other words, all the devices will receive powerline commands, but if there is a lot of noise on the line, the dualband devices will also receive wireless commands and will rebroadcast those commands. These rebroadcasts will be physically much closer to the switches in the room than the PLM, and thus less likely to suffer from interference (unless, of course, the interference is coming from within the room).

If this assumption is correct, then I don't need to replace all the devices in the room, just a few - and ideally, lamplincs would be the easiest as they require no wiring.

Is my assumption correct?

Thanks in advance for any help, and apologies if this is the wrong forum. I thought there used to be an Insteon Hardware forum but I can no longer find it.

[UltimateInternet]

many years ago I bought non dual band switchlincs and have since improved the reliability of the signals by scattering dual band switch lincs into the mix. I did it "one per outlet" and left the other switchlincs that only used the powerline.

What happened in the insteon log (marks) is that some of the switchlinc commands began to shift to the left in the hop counts but not like I would have expected. So moving them didn't really help in my situation as much as I expected but I can see an improvement overall with the "gradual hop shift."

I have so many dual bands in my house now that I'll probably go back and switch the rest out (ocd) but for now everything works just as it should with the mixture and would have worked before my swaps the same.

So if you're not adding them anyway, I personally wouldn't waste the time unless you are getting 3 hop counts or something like that on a device.

[mnsandler]

I have a mix of dual-band, rf only, and powerline only devices. I would only replace non dual-band devices if they are failing or you having trouble communicating with them.

[jwshome2]

Just to make sure I understand, I think what you are saying is:

1. The system works the way I described it, and
2. The improvement in signalling is not worth replacing the devices

Is that correct?

Thanks.

[mnsandler]

Just to make sure I understand, I think what you are saying is:

1. The system works the way I described it, and
2. The improvement in signalling is not worth replacing the devices

Is that correct?

Thanks.

yes, would agree with 1 and 2 above.