Keeping my X10 home control and automation system working has become like bailing water from an increasingly leaky ship. Long ago I added a phase bridge, and since then I've had to add more and more line filters, and still it gets flakier and flakier. So it was long past it's dump date, and many alternatives are now available. I've chosen to go with Insteon home control devices and the Indigo home control program which is one of the few to run on Mac.
Nevertheless, there also appears to me to be a conspiracy between Indigo and Insteon, and I am mad about it. I've just obtained Indigo, to work with my Insteon 2413U usb interface connected to my Kitchen mac (the computer I actually use, most of the time). Indigo supports X10 nominally, as does the 2413U. The problem is that Indigo does not support any mode of any device which transmits X10 RF signals. Notably Indigo does not support the CM17a "firecracker" interface. Nor does it support the RF transmitter mode of the CM15 Pro. If Indigo did support a transmitter, then the natural way to get the X10 signal out of a computer rich environment (and especially the kitchen, where I use my Mac) would not be through the noisy power line, but through RF broadcast and picked up by one or more X10 TM751 receivers or the like, which could be located close to (or even be) the X10 modules they are controlling. So the modern use of X10 is based more on RF transmission than power line transmission. THAT is what actually works nowadays. And Indigo doesn't support it, and the only discussion I've found of this rather significant support deficit is where in a support forum where somebody is clearly trying to use the CM15 Pro as a transmitter, and it isn't going anywhere, and the Indigo staff says nothing useful. Reading the fine print, which is hard to find, and you see that Indigo supports only the RF receiver mode of the CM15 Pro. Indigo does support X10 RF input, which would be an interesting way of continuing to use X10 RF remotes like the HR12A if I wanted to bother with it by creating macros. The reason why I didn't switch to Insteon 10 years ago was that Insteon had nothing comparable to the X10 HR12A, and despite finally adding the RF Mini Remotes sometime in the past 10 years, they still don't. The HR12A has 18 (!) buttons, nominally on/off for 8 devices and dim which could be applied to any of them. The best that Insteon has ever done is the Mini Remote which has 8 buttons, equivalent to less than half of the HR12A, though those buttons can be assigned to any "scene" and are not locked into particular device codes or dimmer usage. I've ordered a couple of Insteon Mini Remotes, in the 8 scene and 4 scene versions (they both have 8 assignable buttons so are essentially the same except for markings) so I can't say this yet definitively, but according to reviews they are not as physically robust as the old HR12A (which are like original AT&T phones from the 1970's, you can drop them on a hard floor and only the tacky label protector breaks off). The Insteon Mini Remotes are lightweight and cheap looking and yet rather expensive at $44.99 apiece. I recall paying around $9 for my 18 button HR12A's, a more than 10x better value per button.
It may have been good for Insteon that I didn't switch 10 years ago. If I had done so, I almost certainly would have quickly switched to Zwave or something else. Back then Insteon was still pushing mostly single band power line devices that are little or no better than X10 devices and may be worse. Boy have they gotten bad reviews! I can say the 2414U I tried to use last year was completely hopeless. But now Insteon is going dual band with everything, which is the way Insteon should always have been from the beginning. Except of course that the Mini Remotes are RF only, which is fine. Before the Mini Remotes, Insteon controllers were big and bulky and required power line connection. I had my fill of big bulky controllers requiring power line connection with the original X10 controllers in the 1980's and am not going back. (The old X10 plug-in controllers also required two button pushes for every operation, a significant challenge with the tiny and poorly arranged buttons they had. Before line noise prevented X10 from working hardly at all, the lousy interface design of X10 devices should have killed it. But there wasn't much competition in the bottom price ranges of home automation. And X10 is still cheaper than any alternative.) I kept waiting for Insteon to come out with a small battery powered RF remote, and then fell asleep waiting before they actually did.
Anyway, Indigo appears to be the best of current Mac offerings, and I'm going with it despite their being part of the Insteon conspiracy to increasingly unsupport X10 by unsupporting modern X10 usage.
And Insteon appears to me to have a better system than Zwave. Insteon is said by some to have better range. It is (now) dual band, which is a significant plus because not every device is well situated to receive RF. Insteon turns every device into a transmitter as part of it's mesh system. Zwave transmission follows a precomputed path of devices. This is similar to the differences in early networking systems. The free wheeling ethernet (similar in some respects to Insteon) won that contest handily, and not just because it doesn't require pre-computation, though that is a big plus too.
So despite my whining, I've bought 8 Insteon dual band modules, one dimmer SwitchLink, and two Mini Remotes. Add that I already have two professionally installed Insteon Keypadlinks, a 2413U, and Indigo. And it was about time.
Long ago I quit adding new features to my X10 home control system because even what I had wasn't working very well, and most new devices I tried to add didn't work at all. Now I hope to get back on the playing field, adding new devices and automation as new ideas occur to me.
Nevertheless, there also appears to me to be a conspiracy between Indigo and Insteon, and I am mad about it. I've just obtained Indigo, to work with my Insteon 2413U usb interface connected to my Kitchen mac (the computer I actually use, most of the time). Indigo supports X10 nominally, as does the 2413U. The problem is that Indigo does not support any mode of any device which transmits X10 RF signals. Notably Indigo does not support the CM17a "firecracker" interface. Nor does it support the RF transmitter mode of the CM15 Pro. If Indigo did support a transmitter, then the natural way to get the X10 signal out of a computer rich environment (and especially the kitchen, where I use my Mac) would not be through the noisy power line, but through RF broadcast and picked up by one or more X10 TM751 receivers or the like, which could be located close to (or even be) the X10 modules they are controlling. So the modern use of X10 is based more on RF transmission than power line transmission. THAT is what actually works nowadays. And Indigo doesn't support it, and the only discussion I've found of this rather significant support deficit is where in a support forum where somebody is clearly trying to use the CM15 Pro as a transmitter, and it isn't going anywhere, and the Indigo staff says nothing useful. Reading the fine print, which is hard to find, and you see that Indigo supports only the RF receiver mode of the CM15 Pro. Indigo does support X10 RF input, which would be an interesting way of continuing to use X10 RF remotes like the HR12A if I wanted to bother with it by creating macros. The reason why I didn't switch to Insteon 10 years ago was that Insteon had nothing comparable to the X10 HR12A, and despite finally adding the RF Mini Remotes sometime in the past 10 years, they still don't. The HR12A has 18 (!) buttons, nominally on/off for 8 devices and dim which could be applied to any of them. The best that Insteon has ever done is the Mini Remote which has 8 buttons, equivalent to less than half of the HR12A, though those buttons can be assigned to any "scene" and are not locked into particular device codes or dimmer usage. I've ordered a couple of Insteon Mini Remotes, in the 8 scene and 4 scene versions (they both have 8 assignable buttons so are essentially the same except for markings) so I can't say this yet definitively, but according to reviews they are not as physically robust as the old HR12A (which are like original AT&T phones from the 1970's, you can drop them on a hard floor and only the tacky label protector breaks off). The Insteon Mini Remotes are lightweight and cheap looking and yet rather expensive at $44.99 apiece. I recall paying around $9 for my 18 button HR12A's, a more than 10x better value per button.
It may have been good for Insteon that I didn't switch 10 years ago. If I had done so, I almost certainly would have quickly switched to Zwave or something else. Back then Insteon was still pushing mostly single band power line devices that are little or no better than X10 devices and may be worse. Boy have they gotten bad reviews! I can say the 2414U I tried to use last year was completely hopeless. But now Insteon is going dual band with everything, which is the way Insteon should always have been from the beginning. Except of course that the Mini Remotes are RF only, which is fine. Before the Mini Remotes, Insteon controllers were big and bulky and required power line connection. I had my fill of big bulky controllers requiring power line connection with the original X10 controllers in the 1980's and am not going back. (The old X10 plug-in controllers also required two button pushes for every operation, a significant challenge with the tiny and poorly arranged buttons they had. Before line noise prevented X10 from working hardly at all, the lousy interface design of X10 devices should have killed it. But there wasn't much competition in the bottom price ranges of home automation. And X10 is still cheaper than any alternative.) I kept waiting for Insteon to come out with a small battery powered RF remote, and then fell asleep waiting before they actually did.
Anyway, Indigo appears to be the best of current Mac offerings, and I'm going with it despite their being part of the Insteon conspiracy to increasingly unsupport X10 by unsupporting modern X10 usage.
And Insteon appears to me to have a better system than Zwave. Insteon is said by some to have better range. It is (now) dual band, which is a significant plus because not every device is well situated to receive RF. Insteon turns every device into a transmitter as part of it's mesh system. Zwave transmission follows a precomputed path of devices. This is similar to the differences in early networking systems. The free wheeling ethernet (similar in some respects to Insteon) won that contest handily, and not just because it doesn't require pre-computation, though that is a big plus too.
So despite my whining, I've bought 8 Insteon dual band modules, one dimmer SwitchLink, and two Mini Remotes. Add that I already have two professionally installed Insteon Keypadlinks, a 2413U, and Indigo. And it was about time.
Long ago I quit adding new features to my X10 home control system because even what I had wasn't working very well, and most new devices I tried to add didn't work at all. Now I hope to get back on the playing field, adding new devices and automation as new ideas occur to me.
No comments:
Post a Comment