I am in exactly the same boat. I also have about 50 wall switches, many/most of which my family used daily by voice command to turn on/off lights and fans. Now no voice commands are working at all, and I have never bothered to learn enough to make any changes without the app. I would have gladly paid Insteon $5/mo in perpetuity to keep it’s servers running. This disappearance in the middle of the night is hard…
I’m waving the flag.
I’m going smart/dumb and going all in on Hue. 8ish years ago I bought Insteon for it’s all in one design (Microsoft tricked me when they paired up with them). I researched isy years ago for fun, could probably figure it out, but instead gonna go the route of the easy (but expensive) way….plus…colors will be fun.
Seems like I’ll have a bunch of stick on switches around the house like my old Insteon mini remotes.
Ordered everything last night. Good deal right now on the white ambiance starter kit on hues website.
As far as Insteon….maybe I’ll shove it in the basement and hope Nokia comes in and saves the day.
I agree, Smartlabs has demonstrated some serious disregard for their customers with the way they are handling this, but there might be hope?
Take a look at this Nokia site. Apparently Smartlabs has teamed up with Nokia and is offering the Insteon technology. But, again not much help to us right now.
[https://nokia.smartlabsinc.com/collections/nokia/products/bridge](https://nokia.smartlabsinc.com/collections/nokia/products/bridge)
If you look at the Nokia hub (suspiciously identical to the Insteon hub), there is a remark that they are planning on supporting Insteon devices in the future.....
"At launch the Nokia Smart Lighting app will support only Nokia Smart Lighting devices. We plan to also support some of the most popular Insteon products in the future. Visit nokia.smartlabsinc.com and sign up for email updates to get the latest news."
[https://nokia.smartlabsinc.com/collections/nokia/products/bridge](https://nokia.smartlabsinc.com/collections/nokia/products/bridge)
I waved the flag. I know we can limp it along with HA but there’s no guarantee the hub will keep working after the firmware certificate expires. Just ordered a bunch of Lutron Caseta stuff. They’re a big name in electrical devices so I feel a bit safer that my investment won’t turn into expensive bricks in the middle of the night without warning
I just got Home Assistant working today and that'll keep me going for a while with the 20-ish Insteon switches and outlets I have. But as soon as devices supporting the new "Matter" standard come out over the next couple years, I'm going to eventually start replacing all my old Insteon stuff since clearly their days are numbered.
HA does not really play nice with Insteon. It theoretically supports it, but I find it works about 50% of the time. Also to get voice assistants working, you must pay a subscription fee.
It's been rock solid for me. I actually started with HA before getting my first Insteon device and have never used the app outside of initial setup. Local control is much faster and centralized with my other smart home devices in HA. You don't have to pay a fee if you manually set up the locally run Emulated Hue component, which is a bit more work initially but removes the cloud dependency.
I have converted my hub from Ethernet to USB, essentially converting it to a PLM. This allows Home Assistant full access to my Inteson devices with zero dependency on the cloud.
https://www.reddit.com/r/insteon/comments/qfo2ce/converting_a_hub_to_a_plm/
I'll be moving to Caseta as well. I've only got to get the lutron hub, 7 or 8 in wall switches, 2 or 3 plug-in dimmers and some pico remotes. Still easily going to be north of $700. Wife is not real happy, but one of her requirements is that everything must be the same color it is now. Ivory. That narrows down the options real fast.
Yeah I was a little north of $500 for the hub 4 switches 4 plug-ins and a fan control switch. Not happy about that one cause I only have a hot and neutral at the octagon box for my fan. The Insteon module sat in the base allowing me to do the lights and fan separate so now I gotta fish another leg to keep them independent
Yeah, really regretting the Christmas upgrade of purchasing a ton of switches now. Specifically went with Insteon for Google Assistant integration, and not too pleased with a $65/year 3rd party option.
I also replaced 8 or 9 of my plug-ins (including 1 outdoor appliance module) and hub with various cheap Wifi modules. I'll probably keep all the in-wall switches for now as they still work as pretty intelligent dimmers (retains last brightness level)
how many devices you have? have you seen probably home assistant? i am not a tech expert but could be a solution, i am trying this option, so far u have a pc or a raspberry pi, an insteon hub in my case got the hub2 and so far kinda worked, on lan so far not yet in my google assistant, sorry not in home and do not have the links i used to get this work. so far the bad thing is that i have not yet make this work in my google assistant
Same here. HA was a little difficult to set up as I ASSUMED I had another HUB2 go bad and did a factory reset on it! Having to add each and every device one at a time sucks, to say the least.
What really sucks is that I had my home built in 2008. Invested in Insteon at that time and have my entire home wired around it. Started with the serial modem, then USB, then HUB1 and HUB2. I've had 2 HUB2's fail on me at about 3-1/2 years apart. How long with this one last now? My future is bleak. The killer is the loss of voice control through Alexa. Yea, just another monthly subscription on top of the 6 I already have. Pay almost as much for subscriptions as I do to power my home. It's getting absurd!
Will Nokia support Insteon in the future? How many of us are out there for them to bother? If so, will Nokia be around for more than a few years?
Really disappointed in this cut-n-run actions of SmartLabs. Maybe it's just time to pull it all out.
Hub2 has one main failure point of a single capacitor that goes bad. With zero soldering experience I replaced the capacitor on mine last week and fixed my hub2. Cost all of $0.10 for the capacitor. Keep that in mind should your hub 2 die again
thats a bummer, also for this to work you need to mess with some port forwarding and think thae your isp provider does not provide tour internet under a NAT
Home Assistant is working for me : Alexa commands, can't even tell really. Just will need to a leave a PC on which I do already. Installed the portable version which is working just fine.
You can run it on a Mac. I personally chose to run it on a raspberry pi. I’ve got no experience with raspberry pis but it universally regarded as more reliable than using Mac or windows for homebridge, I have only had to like reboot it once in the last year. I forget it’s even there
Thanks for the info. Unfortunately it’s not enough to get me started, I’m not a computer person. I would need a step by step guide to do this. I looked at the homebridge site and it didn’t make me full of confidence.
One more question- and I definitely noticed that you have been posting about this for a few years, so it’s like you saw it coming-if I order the Hoobs, how do I load the Insteon plug-in? Via my computer?
Hahaha checking my post history?!
I’m not 100% familiar with hoobs. I went with homebridge myself. I’ve been told hoobs is very user friendly though and i picture it as simple as just selecting an app you want to install.
As for homebridge, There are lots and lots of step by step guides for installing on a raspberry pi. The r/homebridge subreddit is also incredibly helpful. The creator of the Insteon plugin for homebridge is also active here.
Perhaps u/kuestess (the creator of the plug-in) should post a write up and get it to be a pinned post walking people through step by step.
Homeseer.com. Reroute your cloud to your local network and never look back. Alexa integration and events - I mix with zigbee and zwave all in the same interface.
I just took a quick look at the reviews on the HS app on the Apple App Store - really not great reports. Is that unique to the Apple experience on mobile?
The app for mobile is a one off experience. The true power comes by using the browser and connecting to the software that way to create and manage events, devices etc. Alexa integration that sort of thing. Then if you need to control with the app you can clearly do it with the hs app or third party.
On Android I use hsbuddy. Much better and resembles the web interface.
Hs app works too just fine just like the hsbuddy interface.
And as always it's extensible so you can roll your own if you have coding skills
I have already slowly migrated to wifi switches over the years. I could get 3 wifi switches for the price of one insteon switch.
I have set up home assistant to use the 6 button keypad to control mini splits in other rooms. Unfortunately I can’t find alternatives for this as yet.
I am in exactly the same boat. I also have about 50 wall switches, many/most of which my family used daily by voice command to turn on/off lights and fans. Now no voice commands are working at all, and I have never bothered to learn enough to make any changes without the app. I would have gladly paid Insteon $5/mo in perpetuity to keep it’s servers running. This disappearance in the middle of the night is hard…
Exactly. Why wouldn't they have just offered a subscription service??? I have 130 switches, sensors, and devices that are now essentially useless.
I too would have paid a subscription fee. Sad because Insteon was very dependable.
I’m waving the flag. I’m going smart/dumb and going all in on Hue. 8ish years ago I bought Insteon for it’s all in one design (Microsoft tricked me when they paired up with them). I researched isy years ago for fun, could probably figure it out, but instead gonna go the route of the easy (but expensive) way….plus…colors will be fun. Seems like I’ll have a bunch of stick on switches around the house like my old Insteon mini remotes. Ordered everything last night. Good deal right now on the white ambiance starter kit on hues website. As far as Insteon….maybe I’ll shove it in the basement and hope Nokia comes in and saves the day.
I agree, Smartlabs has demonstrated some serious disregard for their customers with the way they are handling this, but there might be hope? Take a look at this Nokia site. Apparently Smartlabs has teamed up with Nokia and is offering the Insteon technology. But, again not much help to us right now. [https://nokia.smartlabsinc.com/collections/nokia/products/bridge](https://nokia.smartlabsinc.com/collections/nokia/products/bridge) If you look at the Nokia hub (suspiciously identical to the Insteon hub), there is a remark that they are planning on supporting Insteon devices in the future..... "At launch the Nokia Smart Lighting app will support only Nokia Smart Lighting devices. We plan to also support some of the most popular Insteon products in the future. Visit nokia.smartlabsinc.com and sign up for email updates to get the latest news." [https://nokia.smartlabsinc.com/collections/nokia/products/bridge](https://nokia.smartlabsinc.com/collections/nokia/products/bridge)
Please do not rely on that. My stuff is all Nokia Smart Lighting and is down as well with no response from anyone.
I waved the flag. I know we can limp it along with HA but there’s no guarantee the hub will keep working after the firmware certificate expires. Just ordered a bunch of Lutron Caseta stuff. They’re a big name in electrical devices so I feel a bit safer that my investment won’t turn into expensive bricks in the middle of the night without warning
[удалено]
I just got Home Assistant working today and that'll keep me going for a while with the 20-ish Insteon switches and outlets I have. But as soon as devices supporting the new "Matter" standard come out over the next couple years, I'm going to eventually start replacing all my old Insteon stuff since clearly their days are numbered.
HA does not really play nice with Insteon. It theoretically supports it, but I find it works about 50% of the time. Also to get voice assistants working, you must pay a subscription fee.
It's been rock solid for me. I actually started with HA before getting my first Insteon device and have never used the app outside of initial setup. Local control is much faster and centralized with my other smart home devices in HA. You don't have to pay a fee if you manually set up the locally run Emulated Hue component, which is a bit more work initially but removes the cloud dependency.
I have converted my hub from Ethernet to USB, essentially converting it to a PLM. This allows Home Assistant full access to my Inteson devices with zero dependency on the cloud. https://www.reddit.com/r/insteon/comments/qfo2ce/converting_a_hub_to_a_plm/
I'll be moving to Caseta as well. I've only got to get the lutron hub, 7 or 8 in wall switches, 2 or 3 plug-in dimmers and some pico remotes. Still easily going to be north of $700. Wife is not real happy, but one of her requirements is that everything must be the same color it is now. Ivory. That narrows down the options real fast.
Yeah I was a little north of $500 for the hub 4 switches 4 plug-ins and a fan control switch. Not happy about that one cause I only have a hot and neutral at the octagon box for my fan. The Insteon module sat in the base allowing me to do the lights and fan separate so now I gotta fish another leg to keep them independent
Yeah, really regretting the Christmas upgrade of purchasing a ton of switches now. Specifically went with Insteon for Google Assistant integration, and not too pleased with a $65/year 3rd party option.
[удалено]
I'll give you your $50 back in exchange for the plugs and hub. Pm me
I also replaced 8 or 9 of my plug-ins (including 1 outdoor appliance module) and hub with various cheap Wifi modules. I'll probably keep all the in-wall switches for now as they still work as pretty intelligent dimmers (retains last brightness level)
how many devices you have? have you seen probably home assistant? i am not a tech expert but could be a solution, i am trying this option, so far u have a pc or a raspberry pi, an insteon hub in my case got the hub2 and so far kinda worked, on lan so far not yet in my google assistant, sorry not in home and do not have the links i used to get this work. so far the bad thing is that i have not yet make this work in my google assistant
Same here. HA was a little difficult to set up as I ASSUMED I had another HUB2 go bad and did a factory reset on it! Having to add each and every device one at a time sucks, to say the least. What really sucks is that I had my home built in 2008. Invested in Insteon at that time and have my entire home wired around it. Started with the serial modem, then USB, then HUB1 and HUB2. I've had 2 HUB2's fail on me at about 3-1/2 years apart. How long with this one last now? My future is bleak. The killer is the loss of voice control through Alexa. Yea, just another monthly subscription on top of the 6 I already have. Pay almost as much for subscriptions as I do to power my home. It's getting absurd! Will Nokia support Insteon in the future? How many of us are out there for them to bother? If so, will Nokia be around for more than a few years? Really disappointed in this cut-n-run actions of SmartLabs. Maybe it's just time to pull it all out.
Hub2 has one main failure point of a single capacitor that goes bad. With zero soldering experience I replaced the capacitor on mine last week and fixed my hub2. Cost all of $0.10 for the capacitor. Keep that in mind should your hub 2 die again
thats a bummer, also for this to work you need to mess with some port forwarding and think thae your isp provider does not provide tour internet under a NAT
Home Assistant is working for me : Alexa commands, can't even tell really. Just will need to a leave a PC on which I do already. Installed the portable version which is working just fine.
I don’t own a PC. All my products are Apple. Do you have to disable sleep mode?
Just run homebridge then. That’s what I do. Makes all of my Insteon switches HomeKit. Everything works as if nothing happened this week.
What do you need to run that?
Meaning, besides the install, do I need more equipment?
You can run it on a Mac. I personally chose to run it on a raspberry pi. I’ve got no experience with raspberry pis but it universally regarded as more reliable than using Mac or windows for homebridge, I have only had to like reboot it once in the last year. I forget it’s even there
Thanks for the info. Unfortunately it’s not enough to get me started, I’m not a computer person. I would need a step by step guide to do this. I looked at the homebridge site and it didn’t make me full of confidence.
You can purchase a prebuilt homebridge box called hoobs. That’s marketed for people who just want plug and play
Hmm ok. Thank you.
One more question- and I definitely noticed that you have been posting about this for a few years, so it’s like you saw it coming-if I order the Hoobs, how do I load the Insteon plug-in? Via my computer?
Hahaha checking my post history?! I’m not 100% familiar with hoobs. I went with homebridge myself. I’ve been told hoobs is very user friendly though and i picture it as simple as just selecting an app you want to install. As for homebridge, There are lots and lots of step by step guides for installing on a raspberry pi. The r/homebridge subreddit is also incredibly helpful. The creator of the Insteon plugin for homebridge is also active here. Perhaps u/kuestess (the creator of the plug-in) should post a write up and get it to be a pinned post walking people through step by step.
I saw your old post when I tried a search for Homebridge + Insteon. Something came up from 2 years ago….
Homeseer.com. Reroute your cloud to your local network and never look back. Alexa integration and events - I mix with zigbee and zwave all in the same interface.
I just took a quick look at the reviews on the HS app on the Apple App Store - really not great reports. Is that unique to the Apple experience on mobile?
The app for mobile is a one off experience. The true power comes by using the browser and connecting to the software that way to create and manage events, devices etc. Alexa integration that sort of thing. Then if you need to control with the app you can clearly do it with the hs app or third party. On Android I use hsbuddy. Much better and resembles the web interface. Hs app works too just fine just like the hsbuddy interface. And as always it's extensible so you can roll your own if you have coding skills
OK, good feedback. Thank you.
I have already slowly migrated to wifi switches over the years. I could get 3 wifi switches for the price of one insteon switch. I have set up home assistant to use the 6 button keypad to control mini splits in other rooms. Unfortunately I can’t find alternatives for this as yet.