Is Insteon Better than X10 for Home Automation?

Paul Carver writes "Smarthome has been advertising Insteon for a while now, but I haven't bought any of it, yet. I've accumulated a fair amount of X10 products over the years, including Smarthome branded signal boosters, signal couplers, noise blockers, and troubleshooting tools. Even so, I'm pretty much fed up with X10. Nothing I've bought has succeeded in making my X10 system more than 'just barely acceptable' and 'better than nothing but not by much'. A Google search for Insteon doesn't turn up much other than their own advertisements and a couple of vaguely positive but not detailed reviews. Is this new technology going to take off? What's the community's consensus on home automation?"

Insteon hard to find but X-10?

[mackil]

If Insteon is better, I hope they are able to market themselves well. If only Insteon had an ad campaign like the one X-10 had going for a long while. I can remember when every single pop-up window was an X-10 ad (before Firefox :). I guess it worked since it appears the author of this post can't find any competitors.... ahh memory lane...

Star Trek Voice Command light switch

[Anonymous Coward]

Forget all those fancy light automation kits, all you need is the Star Trek one http://www.smarthome.com/2017.html [smarthome.com] which gives you the power of voice commands such as "Computer, off"; simultaneously turning off the lights and your female partner.

Try X11

[MobyDisk]

Dude, I didn't RTFA, but you really need to upgrade to X11. [x.org] I haven't used X10 [wikipedia.org] since the 80s.

My Version Of Home Automation....

[JustASlashDotGuy]

My home is automated.... I call it having a wife. Everyday when I come home from work, my home
automation system has already cleaned the house and cooked me dinner. Granted, the upkeep on such a
system is quite expensive sometimes, but it's worth it for the most part.

I'm already planning on the Mark 2 home automation system referred to as 'children' in a couple of
years. This system takes a bit longer to train, but runs on peanuts.. or well.. maybe jelly beans.

Re:Star Trek Voice Command light switch

[TubeSteak]

I had one of those, but it was broken.

Like you said, both the computer and female partner would get turned off, but only the computer would get turned back on.

I even RTFM...

Re:Too bad for them

[MustardMan]

Were you dropped on your head as a child? Man, you know, wal-mart sells underwear, and I really hate the business practices of wal-mart, so I'm not wearing underwear anymore.

Re:I need a solution for...

[Solder Fumes]

So, an underground pirahna tank that drops salesmen in and plays a sound file of your evil laughter as the trapdoor slams shut?

Re:Too bad for them

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not wearing underwear anymore.

I find your ideas intriguing and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

Re:Wherefore home automation?

[raddan]

All you need now is the robot car driving itself in and out of the driveway and the proxy teenager sneaking out of the house at ungodly hours, and it'll be perfect.

My experience with X10

[commodoresloat]

I bought some X10 automation equipment several years ago when they were advertising a special deal -- for $10, you got a basic automation system; add another $5 for connectors to other devices. No cameras were included; just the basic automation stuff and you plug in whatever devices you want switched. $15 seemed like a good deal to get into the automation game, and when I got the stuff, I looked at the stuff in the boxes, looked at the instructions, and put the boxes in the storage room to look at later. This was about 8 years ago, so I feel confident in my ability to offer the following evaluation based on having X10 for this long:

Price: 95%! $15 is not too much to spend.
Ease of use: 100%! X10 does very well here; since I never really took it out of box or tried to install it on anything, it was very easy to use. Simply put it in the garage and forget about it.
Functionality: 1% based entirely on the ability to write this review, which is the only real use I've gotten out of this device.

All in all, a decent buy; I can definitely recommend it if you don't have any other use for $15.

Re:X is better then X10

[Bruce Perens]

After waking up in the middle of the night to find every light in the house on (twice) when I only had X10, Insteon has been a blessing.

That was me.

No, really. A long time ago I lived in an apartment court. About 40 units around a swimming pool. One time I took my X10 controller and sent the "All lights on" code to each of the 16 house codes. After a particular house code, I heard a woman scream in terror. At the top of her lungs. Really dramatic.

I decided to find other pursuits.

However, I have thought of doing that on the freuqency of the X10 RF controllers, with high power, somewhere where I can see thousands of lit suburban windows.

Bruce

needs more.. popups!

[binarybum]

Well I'm not going to take Insteon seriously unless they start throwing a lot more popups my way. Maybe you're having trouble because you're not using your X10 gear the right way - I never really read into it, but from the popups I ascertained that X10 cameras were for spying on scantily clad models - is that what you mean by "home automation"?

Re:I need a solution for...

[Anonymous Coward]

• detect an animal in my trap outdoors
  
• close the door to my trap
  
• detect the trap door closing

I know the Jehova's Witnesses can be a bit of a drag, but really, I think that's a bit excessive.

Re:Here's a grammar for Slashtroturf.

[Chosen Reject]

Ooh. I love Mad libs.

Extend as you please: "PEPSI" has been advertising "DRAIN-O" for some time. I have not bought into it yet, but my friends tell me "DRUNKEST" and "SILLIEST". In contrast, "SAM'S CHOICE" "LIQUID PLUMR" is "YOUR FATHER SMELLED OF ELDERBERRIES" and "Vous bummes, il y a un poison dans bibliotheque". What does the community think? Is "DRAIN-O" going to change the world forever?

Redundant? That's not redundant.

[Anonymous Coward]

This is redundant:

I bought some X10 automation equipment several years ago when they were advertising a special deal -- for $10, you got a basic automation system; add another $5 for connectors to other devices. No cameras were included; just the basic automation stuff and you plug in whatever devices you want switched. $15 seemed like a good deal to get into the automation game, and when I got the stuff, I looked at the stuff in the boxes, looked at the instructions, and put the boxes in the storage room to look at later. This was about 8 years ago, so I feel confident in my ability to offer the following evaluation based on having X10 for this long:

Price: 95%! $15 is not too much to spend.
Ease of use: 100%! X10 does very well here; since I never really took it out of box or tried to install it on anything, it was very easy to use. Simply put it in the garage and forget about it.
Functionality: 1% based entirely on the ability to write this review, which is the only real use I've gotten out of this device.

All in all, a decent buy; I can definitely recommend it if you don't have any other use for $15.

Re:X is better then X10

[dugjohnson]

I was thinking that your scenario might generate some concern, but not the scream. Her husband returning unexpectedly....hmmmmm.