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I just remodeled and used this - http://www.insteon.com

Every plug, light switch, door sensors, HVAC, cameras. Simple iPhone application to control. Single hub controller everything talks to.

This does not have all the bells and whistles that the zwave, zigby, et.al. have but it just works. They do support HomeKit from Apple but not for all devices yet (door sensors).

Same company that did the original X10 stuff for automation in the 80s.

Not unhappy.



Does it require full internet access to work? That's my biggest gripe with my Nest thermostat: it requires a round-trip through their server just to control the temperature, even when I'm on the same network.


The Insteon Hub is cloud-based, generally, it uses an app to talk to their web server. Individual components don't have any network capability, just the hub. It is, however, possible to use local software with an adapter with Insteon, though they don't give it a lot of attention anymore, because they want to compete with the trendy new companies on the block.

I use Insteon completely locally running software I wrote more or less myself on my desktop PC.


Link please?


Link to what specifically?


I was under the impression there is a doc someplace that talks about the local interface. My google foo failed me.


The links between devices works without internet. So you can program X switches to do the same thing, or a sensor to trigger an action.

The app needs internet access to talk to the hub.

There is documentation and code to do it without the internet.




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