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    New HomeSeer User, a little confused

    Hi Everyone

    So i am a little confused about how I should think about my ISY relative to Home Seer.

    1) For Insteon devices it looks like this plug is the muts nuts and is awesome, so good there.

    2) For z-wave devices I am unclear if should include the home seer as a secondary controller to my ISY (like i have done for Vera and SmartThings). What are the pros / cons of inlcuding the HomeSeer as a secondary controller vs using this plugin to expose the ISY to the HomeSeer? Is there a community consensus on approach?

    3) i am very confused about room names, i have all my ISY devices in folders named by room (no floor), they all hang off the ISY node in the ISY UI. I enabled set HomeSeer Room to = folder and saved but none of my devices in homeseer get a room - was i supposed to fill something in? I note in the manual it talks about naming devices in ISY with colons in name - i have never done that?

    Any pointers gratefully accepted.

    Alex

    #2
    Originally posted by scyto View Post
    Hi Everyone

    So i am a little confused about how I should think about my ISY relative to Home Seer.

    1) For Insteon devices it looks like this plug is the muts nuts and is awesome, so good there.

    2) For z-wave devices I am unclear if should include the home seer as a secondary controller to my ISY (like i have done for Vera and SmartThings). What are the pros / cons of inlcuding the HomeSeer as a secondary controller vs using this plugin to expose the ISY to the HomeSeer? Is there a community consensus on approach?

    3) i am very confused about room names, i have all my ISY devices in folders named by room (no floor), they all hang off the ISY node in the ISY UI. I enabled set HomeSeer Room to = folder and saved but none of my devices in homeseer get a room - was i supposed to fill something in? I note in the manual it talks about naming devices in ISY with colons in name - i have never done that?

    Any pointers gratefully accepted.

    Alex
    Sorry I can't help with the ISY questions... but for the others, maybe.

    For z-wave I use HomeSeer as my primary for a couple reasons. Good device support and ability to use multiple remote controllers (z-net).

    As for the Room and Floor you can change those. I was confused at first and saw one someone's posting that they were different in their screenshots and so I asked about it.

    Go to: Tools -> Setup -> Custom

    look at the section "Device Location Display Options"

    You can rename the labels to whatever you want. I've copied others and I use "Function" and "Room"

    Comment


      #3
      Originally posted by scyto View Post
      Hi Everyone

      3) i am very confused about room names, i have all my ISY devices in folders named by room (no floor), they all hang off the ISY node in the ISY UI. I enabled set HomeSeer Room to = folder and saved but none of my devices in homeseer get a room - was i supposed to fill something in? I note in the manual it talks about naming devices in ISY with colons in name - i have never done that?

      Any pointers gratefully accepted.

      Alex
      Hi Alex,

      I can't really speak to #2 as I only have the ISY as my z-wave controller.

      For the room names, they should change to the folder names if you restart the plug-in. The plug-in will look at those settings and update the devices when it starts up.

      The ability to parse room/floor information from the device name (with the values separated by a character like the ':' is a hold over from way back when the ISY didn't have support for folders. Now days, it's better just to map the folders (and parent folder) to the HS room/floor.
      --
      Bob Paauwe
      ISYInsteon Plug-in
      http://www.bobsplace.com/ISYInsteon/

      Comment


        #4
        Z-wave versus Insteon

        For people who use both Insteon and Z-wave, which do you prefer? When you add new lighting, do you use Z-wave or Insteon?

        I don't have any Z-wave, but I've been looking at some of the Zwave devices out there and trying to decide if another layer of complexity is warranted or just trouble. . .

        Tim

        Comment


          #5
          How does Insteon work? Is it wireless? Powerline? What frequency if wireless?

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by timlacey View Post
            For people who use both Insteon and Z-wave, which do you prefer? When you add new lighting, do you use Z-wave or Insteon?

            I don't have any Z-wave, but I've been looking at some of the Zwave devices out there and trying to decide if another layer of complexity is warranted or just trouble. . .

            Tim
            Funny... I've been thinking the same about trying out Insteon...

            Comment


              #7
              I use both Z-wave and Insteon/ISY. There are some devices in Insteon that aren't available in Z-Wave and the other way around. Like the Keypadlinc that insteon has is very nice and the ceiling fan controller at the time didn't have a counterpart in the z-wave world. On the z-wave side you have lots more choices and around motion sensors I have better luck with Z-wave and the older x10 ones.

              Most of my Insteon devices are dualband which means they both use the powerline and wireless and I have had good luck with them once enough devices are added to get good coverage. I have had more failures on Insteon devices although nothing recent and they do improve the revisions of their hardware and the newer ones seem much better. The PLM/Modem though I have had issues with a couple times and normally it needs to have the capacitors replace which I have done and I keep a spare PLM or two on hand. The ISY/Insteon makes it pretty easy to replace the PLM it just takes a bit of time for it to rebuild all the links. Also adding Insteon devices is easier with just putting in the code that is on the device so no need to move the controller close to the device.

              If I started from scratch right now I would probably do the same of having a mix of both but would probably start with Z-wave again because of the additional devices/choices that are available. Although I do really like the Keypadlincs and the Fanlinc that Insteon makes.

              Jeff

              Comment


                #8
                Thanks all, i agree the keypadlincs are great.

                It doesn't sound like anyone has an opinion of smy options:

                1) keep zwave on ISY and surface to HS via plugin
                2) keep zwave on ISY as primary and include HS zwave as secondary (filter pluging to not sent zwave items via plugin)
                3) move zwave from ISY to HS

                the 3rd option seems like a non starter to me until the if/when i mgrate programs in ISY to HS events

                So new topic... ISY programs vs HS events - debate....

                Comment


                  #9
                  My plug-in's support for z-wave devices is, well ... basic is probably the right word. Devices like switches, outlets, and locks seem to work well, I'm not sure about thermostats, I think they mostly work. I just added support for some multi-function devices.

                  So how best to control everything will vary. In my case, I only have a couple of z-wave devices and mainly use it for locks. For this, letting the ISY manage the z-wave devices and interact with them through my plug-in works.

                  However, if my house was mostly z-wave with only a small number of Insteon devices, I'd probably want to have HS be the primary z-wave controller. I'm not sure it would even make sense to have an ISY in this case. For something in between, it would likely depend on the individual situation.

                  ISY programs vs. HS events:

                  I don't think I would replace ISY programs with HS events, but there are certainly cases where HS events are going to be either the only choice or the better choice. If a devices is only managed by HS, then you're only going to be able to use HS triggers/events with it.

                  Now for complicated logic, it may be easier to implement that in a scripting language on HS than with the ISY's programming interface. But again, that something that will be up to the individual and their comfort level with each.
                  --
                  Bob Paauwe
                  ISYInsteon Plug-in
                  http://www.bobsplace.com/ISYInsteon/

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by bpwwer View Post

                    Now for complicated logic, it may be easier to implement that in a scripting language on HS than with the ISY's programming interface. But again, that something that will be up to the individual and their comfort level with each.
                    Indeed, scripting is not an option for me, coding is something i just seem to fail to grasp :-(

                    Thanks for the info on z-wave, I think that validates my approach of using HS as secondary controller, this gives it full access to the z-wave capabilities with only a few limitations. This leads me to a feature ask.

                    It would be nice quality of life thing to set a flag that would stop the z-wave devices ever being created. I know I can use the hide for the individual devices but that is a slog when my types looks like this: (ideally a global flag to turn off different types would be nice , but not essential).

                    ISY Devices: 238
                    Unique Devices: 214
                    - Flex Your Power: 1
                    - ISY Module: 1
                    - Keypad Dimmer Dual-Band, 6 Button 2334-232 V4.3: 3
                    - LampLinc Dimmer, Dual-Band 2457D2 V4.3: 1
                    - Leak Sensor - US (915 MHz) 2852-222 V4.1: 2
                    - Motion Sensor - US (915 MHZ) 2842-222 V4.1: 1
                    - Network Bridge V4.10: 1
                    - Node Server: 85
                    - RemoteLinc 2 Keypad, 4 Scnene 2444A2xx4 V3.7: 1
                    - Security V4.3(17): 1
                    - SwitchLinc Dimmer Dual-Band 2477D V4.1: 30
                    - Unknown ZWave device [4.7.1.0]: 8
                    - ZWave Access Control [4.64.3.0]: 3
                    - ZWave Binary Sensor [4.32.1.0]: 3
                    - ZWave Dimmer Device [4.17.1.0]: 8
                    - ZWave Relay Device [4.16.1.0]: 58
                    - ZWave Relay Device [4.16.5.0]: 2
                    - ZWave slave repeater [4.15.1.0]: 1
                    - ZWave Static Controller [2.2.0.0]: 2
                    - ZWave Static Controller [2.2.1.0]: 1
                    - ZWave Static Controller [2.2.7.0]: 1
                    Scenes: 25
                    Programs: 27
                    Network Resources: 6
                    Modules: 4
                    Variables: 6

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Originally posted by tome10 View Post
                      How does Insteon work? Is it wireless? Powerline? What frequency if wireless?
                      RF, Poweline or both (known as dualband).
                      Frequencies vary by country IIRC
                      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insteon

                      advantage of insteon is the scene defintions are store on the devices, means complex scenes can work without need for hub to be online - i use this feature for the keypadlinc 6 button controller/dimmer.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        My train of thought was having Insteon which is wireless (Unknown Freq), and then building out zwave which is wireless, you may run into interference. zwave is 900mhz I think. Then, anything with double-taps is nice for flexibility which only the HS brand light switches support, and my ZRC90 remotes supports double tap.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Originally posted by tome10 View Post
                          My train of thought was having Insteon which is wireless (Unknown Freq), and then building out zwave which is wireless, you may run into interference. zwave is 900mhz I think. Then, anything with double-taps is nice for flexibility which only the HS brand light switches support, and my ZRC90 remotes supports double tap.
                          It's not unknown (though it varies by region and different sites cannot make their mind up) did you look at link i sent? and i have seen no interference remember FCC tests for that and required devices not to be affected. I have insteon dimmers and z-wave switches in the same wall box as an example. You do know all cell phones on a particular band all operate at the same frequency?

                          You are worrying about things you don't need to worry about.

                          Now Microwave ovens and interference.... thats another matter....

                          any hoo

                          zwave in USA is
                          908.4 Mhz
                          908.42 Mhz
                          916 Mhz

                          Insteon USA is
                          915 Mhz

                          Remember .5 of a Mhz is a huge seperation (think of FM radion stations) so insteon is well seperated from z-wave.


                          if you are interested in this rathole start here http://cache.insteon.com/documentati...on_details.pdf
                          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z-Wave
                          https://www.smarthome.com/insteon-vs-z-wave.html

                          yeah i know that last one says they are both on 915 in the table - but as the main body text says "Insteon Compatibility with Z-Wave Insteon and Z-Wave radios are invisible to each other because they both use narrowband FSK radios but on different frequencies. The situation is similar to two different FM radio stations at different points on the radio dial. In the U.S., Z-Wave radios are tuned to 908.42 MHz while Insteon uses 915.00 MHz. In Europe Z-Wave uses 868.42 MHz and 921.42 MHz in Australia. Insteon uses 869.85 MHz in Europe and 921.00 MHz in Australia, so there is no interference. Insteon and Z-Wave radios do not interfere with each other. This allows Insteon and Z-Wave devices to co-exist in the same or neighboring networks and even to interact with appropriate interoperable network control devices."
                          Last edited by scyto; June 15, 2018, 05:05 PM.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            This may have been mentioned, but if so I missed it. Which one has the best "reach" or distance between nodes? I have one light switch about 140 feet from the house, wondering whether Z-Wave or Insteon (or neither) would be reachable from the HS6. ?

                            Comment

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