[SGVLUG] home automation -- WAS Re: Idea for New PC

[Matt Campbell]

Hi Claude, 

I have a mix of Insteon and traditional X10 equipment.  All the HVAC
material is the Smarthome high end stuff which is X10.  The older part of my
house is only wired 2 wire so it is all X10 while the parts of my house
where I have upgraded the wiring is all Insteon.

You can do the virtual circuits with the Insteon controllers too.  You just
program the controller to control a virtual device, then in your management
software set up a macro for that device to control the set of devices you
are interested in.  You can use this to have a couple old On/Off X10
switches control the damper in your attic and the attic fan when outside
temps are less than inside temps for example.

My wife is pretty good with the remotes, but just to make things easier we
have programmed our outside lights to come on an hour before dawn and just
after dusk and to turn themselves back off an hour later.

Matt

-----Original Message-----
From: sgvlug-bounces at sgvlug.net [mailto:sgvlug-bounces at sgvlug.net] On Behalf
Of Claude Felizardo
Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2008 6:43 PM
To: SGVLUG Discussion List.
Subject: [SGVLUG] home automation -- WAS Re: Idea for New PC

On Wed, Sep 24, 2008 at 5:04 PM, Matt Campbell <dvdmatt at gmail.com> wrote:
> <snip>

Hey Matt, did you install the newer Insteon stuff from Smarthome or their
older stuff that was X-10 compatible but looked better than the original
stuff sold by X-10.  We did a house remodel in 2001 so all of my gear is
pre-2005 so while Insteon is supposed to be "backwards"
compatible with X-10, from what I understand, you get none of the advantages
unless you replace the controllers.  I've got a bunch of KeypadLincs and
SwitchLincs that work fine but they don't make the old versions anymore.  To
make things really confusing they went and reused the names for the new line
which makes it difficult to find the old stuff.

What I like about the X-10 stuff is being able to add additional switches as
needed to create a 3-way or even 4-way virtual circuit.
Soon after the remodel, I installed a transmit-only KeypadLinc at the other
end of the living room that we also use to control the holiday
lights.   It uses the carrier line protocol so it's a little sluggish
but it mostly works.   Since then I have added two hard wired slaves
by the family room.  The dining room now has two switches and the main
kitchen light has three.  They react just like a regular switch - no delays,
no having to hit it multiple times due to electrical noise, they just work.

Now if i can only get my wife to use the correct switch when she's trying to
turn off all the outside lights instead of turning off all the indoor
lights.  This usually happens when one of the kids is in the bathroom...

claude