Re: [PLUG] more on the Insteon shutdown

[Rich Freeman via plug <plug@lists.phillylinux.org>]

On Mon, Apr 25, 2022 at 1:01 PM Keith C. Perry via plug
<plug@lists.phillylinux.org> wrote:
>
> there is nothing wrong with z-wave, zigbee, wifi or even Insteon.

I haven't taken a look at the options recently, but at the time I went
with Insteon the main reasons I did were:

1. Combined powerline and wireless signaling, which is more robust if
you don't have a ton of devices.
2. Every wireless device can repeat any signal from any other device.
This wasn't the case with many of the competitors.

One issue at the time (which was a few years ago) was that some of the
mesh-based protocols had a number of sub-standards for different kinds
of devices with different levels of capabilities.  Not all devices
could repeat signals from any other device.  This did help keep the
cost down as a compliant device could just ignore messages it didn't
understand.  However, this makes the mesh less robust, because if your
lightswitches can't repeat signals intended for your dimmers then your
dimmers all have to be within range of each other to talk directly
(just an arbitrary made-up example).

Maybe that is less of an issue today.  Anytime you're dealing with
mesh technology though you need to give thought to whether everything
will be able to reach everything else.

The big downside to Insteon at the time was cost - while anything
could relay a signal for anything else over both power and wireless,
you were paying upwards of $50 per wall switch/etc.

-- 
Rich
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