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GQuack
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| Posted: December 14 2013 at 12:37 | IP Logged
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Greetings all you HA experts. This post is not seeking so much specific technical advice but an attempt to help set what I think of as the right direction in home automation. I now have 2 weeks under my belt. I have an Insteon hub up and running, have installed the Insteon iOS app on my ipad and installed both Homelinc and PowerHome on my PC. I have only installed a couple of Insteon dimmers and an Insteon keypad for control as my training lab. I want to be sure I understand all the parts and pieces before I go crazy and find out later I went down a path that was not advisable. I expect to stay with Insteon as much as possible until I feel fully confident and ready to branch out.
Clearly on this forum there are a number of folks well versed in the world of software development and I myself come from that background although not in this specific world. As we know in the software world there are always 50 ways to do something but usually only 1 or 2 "right" ways to do it and that certainly seems to follow in this space.
Here is my initial train of thought and I hope any of you will help validate or correct my path or bring up other considerations.
For very basic activities (turn lights on and off, scenes for a simple combination of lights or other similar scenes that are typically tied to a keypad or simple control) - use the Insteon iOS app to set up.
For more complex scenes involving multiple combinations of lights or similar - use the Homelinc app to set up and tie to a keypad or similar control.
PowerHome to me seems like the tool to use for those tasks that are truly home automation and more "hands off" where you may want to monitor specific activities and based on the results of those activities trigger one or more other activities, timed events, etc.
Using PowerHome for things like basic user controlled lights feels a little like using a sledge hammer to pound in a nail.
The thing about this general approach that I am none too thrilled about is not having a single source of every configuration or activity going on or perhaps I am not yet skilled enough in PowerHome to know that capability is indeed already built into PowerHome if I just know where to look.
Let's hear from you experts and thanks in advance for your sage advice.
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TonyNo
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Joined: December 05 2001
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| Posted: December 14 2013 at 17:32 | IP Logged
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Your approach sounds reasonable.
Until recently, I've been running *everything* through PowerHome (almost since it was introduced). As long as the server stays up and is healthy, you are fine. ;)
My server died, so, I bought an ISY to hold me over until I can rebuild. I'm still missing a lot, but, basic functionality has been restored. I also bought an X10-RF-to-Insteon bridge to tie in my X10 motion sensors. I had hoped it would also see my X10 door/window sensors, but, it does not.
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dhoward
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| Posted: December 14 2013 at 17:48 | IP Logged
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gquack,
As Tony pointed out, nothing wrong with your approach. I would think you *could* use PowerHome for everything if that was your desire. When dealing with Insteon, you've got both the control aspect and the linking aspect. The linking is usually the most complicated and getting the links setup the way you like is usually the most time consuming. When mention scenes, do you mean Insteon scenes where sending a single Insteon command turns on multiple lights at varying levels and ramprates or a scene where multiple Insteon lights are individually (sequentially) controlled? If the former, PowerHome should be able to handle this for you (as well as HouseLinc). I am not familiar with the IOS Insteon app so not really sure of its capabilities.
One issue you may have with your current approach though is each system not knowing the "links" that have been programmed into your Insteon devices. If you create insteon links with the IOS app or HouseLinc, PowerHome will not be aware of them (unless you do a full database scan) and will not work properly without it (PH will not know what levels to set and if you try to create a link with PowerHome, it will overwrite an existing link). The synchronization issue will be very critical.
If the IOS is just a basic "control" app without linking capabilities, then there should be no issue using it with PowerHome or HouseLinc and I would expect it to probably have a nicer interface. Its been years since Ive had a working copy of HouseLinc so I don't know if it has any capability to interface with IOS. PowerHome doesn't have a native IOS app but you could certainly use the PH web interface to effect control through IOS or Android devices (this is what I do). I wouldn't expect the web interface to be as "pretty" as a native IOS app but it should be perfectly functional.
Your bigger issues will most likely occur trying to use HouseLinc and PowerHome together. I know there are some here who do it (Lee? [:]]) so they would have to comment on the issues they have.
Using PowerHome just to simply turn a light on or off is overkill but once you start doing the simple stuff you very quickly want to get into the more complicated stuff so it wouldn't hurt to use PowerHome for everything.
If you have any specific how-to questions, definitely ask it here and Im sure you'll get a lot of info.
Dave.
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BeachBum
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Joined: April 11 2007
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| Posted: December 14 2013 at 21:42 | IP Logged
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I believe the truest advice comes from Dave....
dhoward wrote:
gquack,
Using PowerHome just to simply turn a light on or off is overkill but once you start doing the simple stuff you very quickly want to get into the more complicated stuff so it wouldn't hurt to use PowerHome for everything.
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Pete - X10 Oldie
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GQuack
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| Posted: December 15 2013 at 11:28 | IP Logged
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Thanks for the comments. My preference would be to use one tool for everything so PowerHome seems to be the way to go long term. I'm not yet at a point where I plan to keep my PC running 24x7 but I will get there and absolutely have that intent once we move into our retirement home. My plan there is to have a server running PowerHome along with media services, etc.
Dave, you mentioned the PowerHome web interface. I've read numerous posts about that capability so if anyone can point me in the direction of documentation of how to do that, I will embark down that path on my road to learning. I feel at this point a bit like the movie The Matrix where I stare at the Powerhome Insteon explorer and watch the acks go by but have no idea of what to do next. I have no idea how to even set up the simplest tasks like turning a light on or off. Documentation seems to be "thin" yet all of you have figured out how to move forward and so shall I over time.
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BeachBum
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| Posted: December 15 2013 at 15:24 | IP Logged
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Welcome to the club... I was in the same boat when I started but with the support of this forum it should ramp you up quickly. The learning curve is fairly steep but will smooth out as the more you get into it. In the beginning little things like comas and quotes used or not used or in the wrong place will probably haunt you until you get the feel of it. And the documentation well that's a task some of us have addressed but it is so massive and changing that most of us rely on the forum and hope someone else evented the wheel.
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dhoward
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| Posted: December 16 2013 at 21:30 | IP Logged
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gquack,
To setup the PH web server, open PowerHome Explorer and navigate to PowerHome->Setup->Web. Here you can enable it with most of the defaults just to get going. Remember, any changes to the "Setup" section of the PowerHome Explorer require either a restart or reinit to take effect.
Dave.
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Topic: Using the right tool for the right job
