Has Smarthome finally cracked the "more hassle than its worth" problem that dogs home automation? Their new INSTEON Hub certainly looks like it might (but it is not shipping yet).
The price is right ($129) and it appears to just be a sleek, quiet box that you control using an iOS or Android device. No monthly fees, and there seems to be a smidgeon of scheduled event and notification support, too. Those of us used to the total control and flexibility that a PC-based system offers might feel this is too simplistic, but my gut reaction is that this could be exactly what the average person would consider. I'm very much looking forward to seeing how this develops.
I'm 5 days into using Insteon and love it. I'm looking forward to the Hub. Do you know if it's for sale anywhere? Can't figure out how to buy it.
Posted by: Edjose | November 21, 2012 at 06:06 AM
It is not shipping yet, but you can order at the Smarthome website. Just click the big green "Add to Cart" button.
Posted by: Gordon Meyer | November 21, 2012 at 10:32 AM
Hello guys,
I'm hesitating to buy a Insteon setup, however I've seen a bunch of medium reviews, seems that the web interface provided by the Central Controller is super slow and not user friendly. I would have your opinion on that.
It seems that this Hub is basically here to solve that, at least the user interface, because if you look in the video, pretty much every time they perform an action, they cut the video to avoid to show the delay. Have you guys tried the Hub yet?
This technology is not open source and there no API, I think it could be a big plus because the community could improve it!
Finally do you have any opinion about an alternative brand?
Thanks
Posted by: Sylvain Kalache | November 26, 2012 at 08:50 PM
The Hub isn't shipping yet, so I would guess that many of the reviews you've seen are for other controllers. None of the home automation protocols are open source, so while your point is good, it's not fair to hold that against INSTEON per se.
Posted by: Gordon Meyer | November 26, 2012 at 09:37 PM
"None of the home automation protocols are open source".
Never generalize :) -- UPB http://www.pulseworx.com/downloads/upb/UPBDescriptionv1.4.pdf
Open sourced Home Automation PC software: http://www.pytomation.com
Posted by: Jason Sharpee | December 08, 2012 at 04:32 AM
Documented does not equal Open Source. :) UPB is proprietary, but it is nice that they've documented the protocol instead of making people reverse engineer it.
There are some good open source controller programs, that's for certain.
Thanks for your comment!
Posted by: Gordon Meyer | December 08, 2012 at 02:44 PM