I just found out about this "strategic decision" whilst chatting with a salesperson at Smarthome about the new FanLinc, who said:
We are slowly phasing out x10 compatibility in our devices though so any future revisions of this product will probably have no x10 support at all.
When I asked why Smarthome would want to eliminate one of Insteon's flagship features (X10 compatibility), I was told:
Because x10 has announced that they are no longer manufacturing or developing products.
He could not give me a link to any official announcement, and I expect that the news that was revealed within their department or the way it was interpreted was an oversimplified version of the actual initial communication from X10. I sent him the link to this article, and as expected, he had not seen it before:
http://forums.x10.com/index.php?topic=26297.0Personally, I think the X10 PLC protocol has a lot of life left in it. Yes, one must take precautions by installing filters and a repeater/phase coupler, and be prepared to tinker periodically. But Insteon also requires this (albeit to a lesser degree), and so do other solutions. Because X10 PLC is now an open standard and has been around so long, it has the best vendor support, best pricing, and largest variety of devices available. Since the protocol is simple and open, it's easy for people without a lot of money or experience to implement in their own designs. In my house, my X10 devices meet my expectations and work very well and I rarely have to troubleshoot. Despite the protocol's vintage, I don't see why I would switch to anything else. (I do understand, however, why the tinkering required might scare away newcomers.) I understand why it is difficult for X10, the company, to base their business on a system that they are no longer in complete control of, but it is still working for many other vendors. Leviton seems to still be going strong with their implementation of X10 in DHC and appears to be designing their own devices now (DHC Green Line) rather than just rebranding X10's products. Smarthome appeared to be capitalizing on the opportunity to fill the void X10 left when one of its factories closed last year by offering X10-only modules again, but it looks like those have all been recently pulled from the web site.
I've been adding some Insteon modules over time and appreciate how well Insteon and X10 devices have gotten along together, but the overwhelming majority of my devices are X10. Dropping X10 support is not the way to get me to jump on board with Insteon. One of the main reasons I invested in Insteon was to have the best of both worlds: the reliability and added features of Smarthome's devices and its next-generation protocol along with the openness and extensibility of X10. Now that this bond has been severed, the only way to make new Insteon devices work with X10 devices in the future is through a computer (or specialized standalone controller, if we ever see one). The lack of X10 support will just cause me to buy less Insteon devices and to seriously evaluate the scenarios under which I am using them now. In those situations where I am using both Insteon and X10 features of a single device, I can expect that functionality to be gone forever if the device ever breaks and needs to be replaced.
Just my position on the matter. I'm curious how many agree with me.
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Topic: New Insteon Modules maybe dropping X10 Support (Read 27724 times)