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[Brian H]

Looks like another Home Automation System bites the dust. Including any support at all.
https://www.cnet.com/news/lowes-pulls-the-plug-on-the-iris-smart-home-platform/

[m82a1pa]

I got an email from them yesterday.  They're sending a $100 Visa card after i applied online.

[Tuicemen]

News like this just reinforces my decision not to jump the X10 ship.

[JeffVolp]

That is always the risk when you have to rely on something outside your home that you don't own yourself.

Jeff

[HA Dave]

Is anyone really surprised?

We've discussed that here before. Many.... maybe even MOST of the current brands will fail during this new golden age of Home Automation. But as the [linked] story pointed out:

In theory, customers could find another hub to talk to their sensors. The Iris by Lowe's site offers Samsung's SmartThings as a comparable replacement that should work with a few Iris sensors.

Samsung.... seems to be trying to be the "one" (and I have read of a Samsung Hub App that allows the use of a CM19A). I think overall.... seeing the paring-down of the many, many, WiFi offerings..... isn't at all a bad thing for us Home Automation users who don't mind a bit of mix-and-match. Why shouldn't we be free to buy the best and or least expensive brand of motion sensor from one maker.... and the best door sensor from another manufacture. And buy [smart] light bulbs locality, while buying big brand name light switches (for other applications) on-line. I think.... IMHO... it's all going to work out fine.   

News like this just reinforces my decision not to jump the X10 ship.

If not even a single soul "jumps ship".... from X10.... we will likely see their doors close once again. Every store (even on-line stores) need to expand their customer base and sell new products. No sales... no profits. A reason to keep using X10 won't be enough. X10 needs new products, and ways to exploit new [automation] technologies. Free markets always produce winners and losers.... or maybe better put... winning in a free market requires successful efforts. Iris failed because of it's limited sale's space (Lowes) would be my guess.

[bkenobi]

Dang, I guess I missed my chance to give another cloud based solution a try while I was working on my locally controlled setup.   

[HA Dave]

Dang, I guess I missed my chance to give another cloud based solution a try......

Don't worry. I promise you... the Internet isn't really the fad so many old guys say it is. You'll have a lifetime of chances to advance your system to the next (current) generation.

[HA Dave]

BTW.… polls are showing the Amazon Echo/devices Super Bowl Commercial titled Not Everything Makes the cut… was one of the most popular commercials. The commercial emphasizes exactly what I posted earlier. Amazon is EXPANDING their market for Home Automation Uses. It's NOT just deciding to stay with ONLY using X10 because you don't care to voice order dog food via an Echo device. There isn't a lot of X10 microwaves out there! And what NEW automation tech is X10 developing in their labs...… TODAY?!?!?

[arizona480]

News like this just reinforces my decision not to jump the X10 ship.

Me too.  I think the main reason why you would shy away from x10 in 2019 is because many devices cause noise that kill the x10 signals.  But the investment of the noise filters is not too bad in $$$, it's more the patience and strategy to set everything up so it works properly.

[Tuicemen]

The cost of replacing all ones X10 devices usually out weighs the cost of making a x10 setup reliable.
 Most all protocols have their draw backs but when using devices that depend solely on a outside server have the draw back of becoming bricks.

[arizona480]

Do any of the "modern" (whole) home automation devices have "dumb" remotes like x10 does that do not rely on any modern electronic devices?

[bkenobi]

Nope, not generally.  The only way to control one's device is through your phone or some other internet based server cloud.  You can hack some of the off the shelf devices to enable local control through your own network (iTead is the most popular) or possibly 433MHz remote (iTead is the only I know of).  It is possible to build your own devices based on ESP8266 modules, but the iTead devices are really pretty well made from what I've seen and read.  I only have 1 and haven't done much with it yet, but I do like the look and feel of the one I have.  If you do go with theirs, you can use any local HA software on your network to control your system should your internet connection be spotty or down for some reason.

[racerfern]

Do any of the "modern" (whole) home automation devices have "dumb" remotes like x10 does that do not rely on any modern electronic devices?

My Homeseer system is in-house... my house. Sure there are parts that communicate to a cloud for various reasons but none that are essential to the operation of my whole house automation. The essential functions of lighting, notifications, basic security, all the events (almost 200 of them), etc. all kept local.

I do access the cloud for Geo-fencing and a couple of superfluous things like Google Home integration. I don't consider voice control a requirement although I do use it. I have the equivalent of palmpads all around the house that allow a myriad of events (macros) to be carried out without needing to be connected to anything other than the main PC and the z-net, zigbee, CM15A controller.

I even keep my router out of my home network loop so that if cable goes down, I'm still up and running. Although the router has 4 ports, I use only one which goes to a network switcher not to a PC.

[bkenobi]

I do access the cloud for Geo-fencing and a couple of superfluous things like Google Home integration. I don't consider voice control a requirement although I do use it. I have the equivalent of palmpads all around the house that allow a myriad of events (macros) to be carried out without needing to be connected to anything other than the main PC and the z-net, zigbee, CM15A controller.

Ok, well I guess it depends on what you would consider a "modern" system/device.  Since Z-wave, zigbee, Insteon, etc have been around for several years, I didn't think we were considering those in the list.  I assumed the definition of "modern" was cloud based.  If we are talking about anything outside of X10 then sure, there's lots of options available.  Iris was one of them (I think it was Zigbee but Z-Wave is just a closed standard mesh network similar to Zigbee).  Sticking to the z- options, you have all the light bulbs, but then you also could choose the cloud based ones too.  I don't know how they compare on a price point as they always looked pricey for anything more than a single bulb lamp.

And actually, I think most people knew Iris was going under a while back when Lowes cleared out the first round of their equipment.  I was surprised when the kept selling the second gen for so long when my local Lowes had shrunk the display to almost nothing.  The second gen hubs were kinda cool in that they could do Bluetooth, WiFi, Z-Wave, and Zigbee as well as a couple smaller standards.  I picked up the HD version before they went under a couple years back, but it didn't work well so I returned it.  My Lowes still has a whole section for Nest and others, so there are still options.

[racerfern]

Ok, well I guess it depends on what you would consider a "modern" system/device.

It's not so much the protocol as to how it's implemented and innovated, to me anyways. IMO, the best part of AHP/X10 was macros. It meant ease of automation plain and simple. AHP is dead but other software that can still control X10 devices with easy to create "macros" could easily keep X10 going strong. Of course for me, HomeSeer comes to mind. Homegenie is fine as long as I don't need to write scripts. That doesn't mean I shouldn't use it, it means someone needs to make it easy for me and probably thousands others to use.

We're back to X10 teaming up with some company that will extend the life of X10 for another dozen years. It's unfortunate that Smartthings or Philips Hue have to access the mothership because either of those could be the backbone of a good system albeit cloud based.

The only "modern" systems/devices would be those that communicate via WiFi or Bluetooth I suppose.