While my X-1o system is maturing, I have often lamented the lack of a real non-geek, non-X-10 user, user friendly interface for it. I mean for me, it is easy, but for say, my fiance, or other family, it is not quite as easy.
X-10 interfaces devices are housecode limited, or sequential or both, and frankly just not all that user friendly.
The Icon remote solves SOME of those problems, but is RF and even then not all THAT user friendly for a newbie.
I found, for me, a solution. Insteon multiple switch controllers. These come is 6 and 8 button flavor, and a 6 button can be converted to an 8 button. These switches are designed to control one wired device, and the remaining buttons act as a PLC controller... but they can be individually addressed to different house codes!!!!!!!
Insteon makes a little plastic table top switch enclosure. You do not use the line control of the first button, and it makes a switch become a PLC controller.... with not only individual HC and UC addresses, but with LED backights to show status of the modules addressed! WAY COOL.
Here are some pix. I had added some of the available buttons to the controller to semi customize it (custom buttons are available as some cost ($7 ea) and I added color to the led's backlighting.
The first pic is of the unit with everything off, the leds are low to backlight the selections
The next pic shows some devices ON, not all selected from the unit, but it acting as a monitor.
The last two are closeups of the buttons.
Author
Topic: Insteon Multiple Button Switches used as Tabletop PLC remotes (Read 10328 times)