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Post by the light works on May 30, 2017 2:30:58 GMT
Looked at the Lutron and Z-Wave products but decided to give Insteon a try. While Lutron seems to generally have higher ratings as far as their communications protocol goes, Insteon has a lot more variety of products and at a somewhat lower cost. Lutron also seems better suited for whole house applications but I just want to control one room. I ordered a bunch of Insteon stuff from Amazon. I'll let you know how it works out after I have the system set up. I've only done service on Radio RA systems. besides individual dimmers, the Lutron product I've done the most with is Grafik Eye, which is really more of a room by room system than a whole house system.
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Post by silverdragon on May 30, 2017 9:13:38 GMT
I have been using a set of radio controlled plug sockets in my home for years now... You get a short-range remote control and a set of four plugs as a starter kit, and expand as needed, you can fit as many plugs to one button as you want, you just press the "learn" and the required button on the remote, and it "pairs" the two. Ours look a LOT like this, may be the very set, cant remember... original from "Walmart" ASDA IIRC?.. Anyway, two problems... 1] battery life in the remote. Cary a spare in the house, guaranteed it will finally run out of poof at 1am on a dark and stormy night.... and pressing it harder doesnt always work?... 2] Power cuts, if you loose all mains power, the plugs themselves have no battery back memory and may loose the learnt code. Other than that, as each remote is given a unique random "key", the chances of getting interference from next door is million-to-one, and they work rather well. From my seat in front room, I can switch on outside lights that are from a plug in the kitchen, and thats through a chimney stack, so the range is just about good enough. Just keep the remote where you can find it?.. Ours is "Bluetacked" in place on a side-table.
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Post by GTCGreg on May 30, 2017 13:41:27 GMT
I have been using a set of radio controlled plug sockets in my home for years now... You get a short-range remote control and a set of four plugs as a starter kit, and expand as needed, you can fit as many plugs to one button as you want, you just press the "learn" and the required button on the remote, and it "pairs" the two. Ours look a LOT like this, may be the very set, cant remember... original from "Walmart" ASDA IIRC?.. Anyway, two problems... 1] battery life in the remote. Cary a spare in the house, guaranteed it will finally run out of poof at 1am on a dark and stormy night.... and pressing it harder doesnt always work?... 2] Power cuts, if you loose all mains power, the plugs themselves have no battery back memory and may loose the learnt code. Other than that, as each remote is given a unique random "key", the chances of getting interference from next door is million-to-one, and they work rather well. From my seat in front room, I can switch on outside lights that are from a plug in the kitchen, and thats through a chimney stack, so the range is just about good enough. Just keep the remote where you can find it?.. Ours is "Bluetacked" in place on a side-table. I have a two sets of those that are packed away with the Christmas decorations. I use them at Christmas to control the lighted decorations both inside and outside the house. They work perfectly for that. The system I need for our media room requires both free standing dimmer modules and also hard wired switch units. I also need to get more than three channels on a remote. The Insteon system offers an eight channel remote plus a lot of other options such as computer, smart phone and internet control, not that I want that, but who knows in the future. The only question is how well it is going to work.
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Post by GTCGreg on Jun 4, 2017 17:55:23 GMT
Receive the Insteon system and replace my old X-10 system with it. Everything was easy to program and seems to work perfectly. It has a lot more features than I think I will ever need, but you never know, I may someday want to turn on my pool light while big game hunting in Africa.
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Post by darryjr on Dec 19, 2022 19:25:55 GMT
Has anyone used quality smart LED light bulbs? If so, can you recommend me?
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Post by denirojason on Dec 19, 2022 20:05:29 GMT
Opting for an intelligent house was the best decision of my life, as I have total control of the entire house thru my phone. In the beginning, I had trouble finding quality smart items so I could have complete trust that they won't break in the first year of usage. Opting for an intelligent house was the best decision of my life, as I have total control of the entire house thru my phone. In the beginning, I had trouble finding quality smart items so I could have complete trust that they won't break in the first year of usage. It all started with a smart LED light bulb from amazon. My entire house is full of intelligent items that facilitate my family's life. Not everyone is ready to trust these technologies, so I recommend you start slowly. Let me know about your progress.
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Post by GTCGreg on Dec 19, 2022 20:29:28 GMT
Here’s a suggestion. Stay away from anything that requires a cloud-based server to operate. There are many smart house control devices ( plugs, switches, bulbs, dimmers) that will operate directly through Wi-Fi or Bluetooth and do not require you to sign up with an external server.
The problem with the cloud-based servers is that you’re at the mercy of whoever manufactured the device. They can start to charge you monthly fees or raise the fees or just decide to go out of the business and shut down the server, leaving you holding a bunch of useless bricks. That happened to me with Insteon. They decided they were no longer going to support their smart home devices and shut down their server leaving me with over $1000 worth of useless devices. I’ll never make that mistake again.
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Post by the light works on Dec 20, 2022 2:16:09 GMT
Here’s a suggestion. Stay away from anything that requires a cloud-based server to operate. There are many smart house control devices ( plugs, switches, bulbs, dimmers) that will operate directly through Wi-Fi or Bluetooth and do not require you to sign up with an external server. The problem with the cloud-based servers is that you’re at the mercy of whoever manufactured the device. They can start to charge you monthly fees or raise the fees or just decide to go out of the business and shut down the server, leaving you holding a bunch of useless bricks. That happened to me with Insteon. They decided they were no longer going to support their smart home devices and shut down their server leaving me with over $1000 worth of useless devices. I’ll never make that mistake again. so that was about 5 years of use? why do I get the idea those two oompa loompas are sitting side by side in a spam farm.
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Post by GTCGreg on Dec 20, 2022 2:47:59 GMT
why do I get the idea those two oompa loompas are sitting side by side in a spam farm. Maybe because they came out of nowhere, both posted about the same time and have cartoon characters for avatars? But that said, I see no reason for their spam. Yeah, that was about a year ago. Got about 5 years out of the Insteon. Worked great and then one day everything just stopped. When I checked, it was because they shut down the server. I replaced everything with a strictly WiFi based system that required no hub or external cloud server. About a month after I replaced everything, I got an email from someone that bought out Insteon and they said that for $20/month my Insteon devices would work again. At that point, I had already switched everything over. Like I said, I had about $1000 invested in Insteon. Education isn't cheap, but I learned my lesson.
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Post by the light works on Dec 20, 2022 4:37:24 GMT
why do I get the idea those two oompa loompas are sitting side by side in a spam farm. Maybe because they came out of nowhere, both posted about the same time and have cartoon characters for avatars? But that said, I see no reason for their spam. Yeah, that was about a year ago. Got about 5 years out of the Insteon. Worked great and then one day everything just stopped. When I checked, it was because they shut down the server. I replaced everything with a strictly WiFi based system that required no hub or external cloud server. About a month after I replaced everything, I got an email from someone that bought out Insteon and they said that for $20/month my Insteon devices would work again. At that point, I had already switched everything over. Like I said, I had about $1000 invested in Insteon. Education isn't cheap, but I learned my lesson. i prefer self contained hardware. why would I want to rely on an internet connection for my lights to work?
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Post by GTCGreg on Dec 20, 2022 5:03:09 GMT
Maybe because they came out of nowhere, both posted about the same time and have cartoon characters for avatars? But that said, I see no reason for their spam. Yeah, that was about a year ago. Got about 5 years out of the Insteon. Worked great and then one day everything just stopped. When I checked, it was because they shut down the server. I replaced everything with a strictly WiFi based system that required no hub or external cloud server. About a month after I replaced everything, I got an email from someone that bought out Insteon and they said that for $20/month my Insteon devices would work again. At that point, I had already switched everything over. Like I said, I had about $1000 invested in Insteon. Education isn't cheap, but I learned my lesson. i prefer self contained hardware. why would I want to rely on an internet connection for my lights to work? I've never trusted internet based anything. This only confirmed my reluctance. Sometimes it's hard to beat a toggle switch. But then I couldn't say; "Hey Alexa, set the dining room lights to 40%"
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Post by the light works on Dec 20, 2022 14:34:51 GMT
i prefer self contained hardware. why would I want to rely on an internet connection for my lights to work? I've never trusted internet based anything. This only confirmed my reluctance. Sometimes it's hard to beat a toggle switch. But then I couldn't say; "Hey Alexa, set the dining room lights to 40%" unless you named a child alexa.
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Post by GTCGreg on Dec 20, 2022 14:36:43 GMT
I've never trusted internet based anything. This only confirmed my reluctance. Sometimes it's hard to beat a toggle switch. But then I couldn't say; "Hey Alexa, set the dining room lights to 40%" unless you named a child alexa. I’d say everyone named Alexa would have a strong case for a class action lawsuit.
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Post by the light works on Dec 20, 2022 15:07:33 GMT
it occurred to me to wonder what percentage of people buying into voice automation are technophiles, and what percentage wish they could order a person around like that.
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Post by wvengineer on Dec 20, 2022 16:33:56 GMT
why do I get the idea those two oompa loompas are sitting side by side in a spam farm. Random person comes out of nowhere to ask a leading question, 2nd random person comes out of nowhere immediately afterwards to answer with an advertisement to the previous question. Yeah, smells like a setup.
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Post by the light works on Dec 20, 2022 17:19:46 GMT
why do I get the idea those two oompa loompas are sitting side by side in a spam farm. Random person comes out of nowhere to ask a leading question, 2nd random person comes out of nowhere immediately afterwards to answer with an advertisement to the previous question. Yeah, smells like a setup. on a 5 year old thread, no less.
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