Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length

Author Topic: Surprised not to see a child board for the ISY/EISY  (Read 4042 times)

glacier991

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Helpful Post Rating: 11
  • Posts: 132
Surprised not to see a child board for the ISY/EISY
« on: February 10, 2024, 07:14:53 PM »

Maybe we all tend to think our choices have more merit than is actually the case...but I think that moving my X10 system onto the Universal Devices ISY994i in 2017 and now it's successor EISY was one of the best HA decisions I have made. I am honestly surprised to note it is not even mentioned here.
It is an Alexa skill, so easily integrates into the voice control world. X10 plays nicely. It has over75 plug ins and an active forum and good customer support.
I know a number of members here are also UD users, but the lack of comment on it as a forward looking place for X10 is striking.
Ok, rant over. I respect folks right to make their own choices, just prefer they have a full picture.
« Last Edit: February 10, 2024, 07:32:00 PM by glacier991 »
Logged

Brian H

  • Community Organizer
  • Hero Member
  • ***
  • Helpful Post Rating: 305
  • Posts: 13295
Re: Surprised not to see a child board for the ISY/EISY
« Reply #1 on: February 11, 2024, 06:29:45 AM »

Since the Insteon protocol had X10 support in the early start up days. UDI did also include X10 in their products.
I was a member of the now gone Insteon Developers Group.
Later hardware revisions dropped X10 support. Officially and some still had it but it was not official and could disappear at any revision.
You are one of the few (at least reporting it) X10 system users having a ISY99i, ISY994i, Polisy or eisy and using it with X10.
UDI did enhance the X10 support with the optional A10/X10 firmware add on. That I added myself.
Some here are using the Smartenit Harmony Gateway and X10.

Unfortunately. Many have said X10 is dying and stay away from it for new installation.
Many of the X10 vendors are also gone and I do miss their fine products.
« Last Edit: February 11, 2024, 06:53:39 AM by Brian H »
Logged

Tuicemen

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • ****
  • Helpful Post Rating: 283
  • Posts: 10523
  • I don't work for X10, I use it successfuly!
Re: Surprised not to see a child board for the ISY/EISY
« Reply #2 on: February 11, 2024, 07:16:44 AM »

Adding a isy/eisy child board can be done however as Brian H has stated very few users of these have reported using it for x10.
If you pm me about your ideas for the child board I can set one up.  >!
Logged
Please Read Topic:
General Forum Etiquette
Before you post!

brobin

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Helpful Post Rating: 160
  • Posts: 1460
Re: Surprised not to see a child board for the ISY/EISY
« Reply #3 on: February 11, 2024, 12:20:53 PM »

As a former user of an ISY 994i I have nothing but praise for the company and their products.  When I built my home in Hawaii I started with X10 and a Stargate but but due to signal issues that no amount of remediation would solve, migrated to Insteon as soon as it was released. This was in pre XTB-IIR days.  When Insteon was released they offered 50% off to dealers to launch the product so I signed on as a dealer and replaced all my switches and modules.  Insteon offered an X10-to-Insteon 'translator' so my Stargate could still control everything. The translator finally failed and had been discontinued so I bought an ISY early version and upgraded it to the newer one later. It worked great and it remained in the home when we sold it.

During that time we built a second home in Texas and I equipped it with all the Leviton DHC & SmartHome X10 switches and the Stargate that I'd pulled out of the Hawaii home. By that time the XTB-IIR was available and reliability was virtually 100%.

If I were in the market for a new controller today for X10 I'd happily buy the EISY controller.  However, my Stagate (and spares) will almost certainly outlive me.  That said, once Yolink releases their dimmable lamp modules I may take another look since the EISY can support Yolink too and would let me control everything with one device instead of the mixture I have to manage now.

Bottom line, I would welcome an EISY topic!
Logged

glacier991

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Helpful Post Rating: 11
  • Posts: 132
Re: Surprised not to see a child board for the ISY/EISY
« Reply #4 on: February 11, 2024, 04:52:46 PM »

Like brobin, my forays into X10 started long ago. I joined this board in 2010, but had already been an X10 user for about 30 years by then. The lure of Home Automation was a bug that bit me in my first home, back in the late 70's - when the X10 ads were mostly hype and the cameras they hawked showed pictures of bikini clad girls next door (creepy in retropect).

I encountered the usual line noise problems (still the biggest X10 drawback) and managed to solve them, mostly.

In the 1990's I built a 2nd home near Donner Summit CA (30 foot annual snowfall). I hired a contractor to shell it and finished it myself - lots of time to tinker with adding HA. I sort of became an X-10 junky, and enjoyed the effort and time to conquer things using X-10... a common thread amongst us all here I suspect. My house had mainly baseboard heat and I discovered the X-10 on/off modules and managed to control all my heaters. I lived 100 miles away and it was nice to be able to turn on heat  to arrive to a warm house, and in spite of the poor cameras, also see if the driveway had been plowed, etc. Back then I used the LogMeIn app to enable that..

At this time there was not a lot of competition, and I stayed pretty much purely X-10 (with the boxes of interesting HA junk to prove it).

About year 2000 I had a new abode post divorce, and again with a little time on my hands, engaged in more HA adventures. This time using some Insteon, and exploring voice control in it's infancy (thank you Bill Johns). Added irrigation via a beautiful little X-10 irrigation controller, and explored Insteon keypad setups, and geofencing.

The system matured to a point where I was able to move on to other things and let it just run itself.

In 2017 I relocated to NW Montana where I inherited a 3000 sq ft home that had been very badly damaged by a number of broken water pipes that ran for an extended time undetected. While it gave me  a task I had not anticipated, it also allowed major remodelling, and a change to wire large portions of the house in ethernet.

When it came time to add HA... I encountered a ton of line noise issues - finally causing me to get an XTB-RII... it was a game changer. Along with a previously purchased WGL572 receiver with an 523XTB feeding the power line, and a few filters, my X-10 reliability was ultimately what is today - 100%!!

Meanwhile I had discovered that there were not really any new X-10 devices reaching the marketplace, but quite a few ZWave devices, and I decided to change to a Universal Devices ISY. Along came the idea of a nodeserver and I built an early Raspberry Pi Nodeserver - I was able to integrate (as an example) my wireless tags into programs (with X10 even).

My remodel projects finally overtook my HA play, and the ISY ran preTty much flawlessly for the years from 2018 to the present.

In the interim the HA scene changed considerably, and more and more integration was presenting itself. UD for its part came out with a nodeserver called Policy, and then replaced the ISY with a newer model called EISY, which (with the X10 module with I had with the ISY and for which I thank Brian H for developing and getting into the UD stable) I am very used to the ISY/EISY programming and use and so it was logical for me to make this small jump.The Policy was essentially built into the new Eisy, so integration became more or less native.

I will admit that as I entered the Zwave world, I found some dogs in terms of devices, but I also note they are definitely getting better. I still use quite a number of X-10 devices, but also find that where X-10 still excels (especially with the now discontinued WGL572 rf receiver, which I am lucky to own)  is in remote control. I have not found anything easier, better or cheaper anywhere.

The one thing I wish I had was a better interface - there was a mobile interface someone devised called Agave and it was sweet - but only usable on Mobile devices (Android/iPhone). However the developer moved on to other things and it has fallen behind, to the point I abandoned it.

So, I thought maybe there might be other who share my situation/interests and other users who could discuss their situations and what they like in terms of User Interfaces that might work with UD Eisy. I admit the Home Assistant interface looks nice... but I really do not want to try and run side by side controllers. [I still have AHP on my computer, but mainly to print labels for my palmpad keypads  ;)]

I think that as HA moves on, there is room for X-10, but unless there are better line noise solutions than presently exist and newer devices reach the market, we, the old guard, may be a dying breed. >*<

Chris
« Last Edit: February 11, 2024, 08:11:21 PM by glacier991 »
Logged

brobin

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Helpful Post Rating: 160
  • Posts: 1460
Re: Surprised not to see a child board for the ISY/EISY
« Reply #5 on: February 11, 2024, 06:44:24 PM »

I know that there's an add-on for EISY to control Lutron Caseta but I didn't see anything for the Lutron Homeworks QS. If there were, I'd probably jump in as I think it can handle everything else I need including Yolink.
« Last Edit: February 13, 2024, 12:04:41 PM by brobin »
Logged

glacier991

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Helpful Post Rating: 11
  • Posts: 132
Re: Surprised not to see a child board for the ISY/EISY
« Reply #6 on: February 12, 2024, 05:15:02 PM »

From what I read, homeworks is a highly proprietary system and requires some hard wiring. I think it is very unlikely you will ever see a Homeworks plug in - for any third party controllers.
Logged

brobin

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Helpful Post Rating: 160
  • Posts: 1460
Re: Surprised not to see a child board for the ISY/EISY
« Reply #7 on: February 13, 2024, 12:27:13 AM »

HomeSeer has a plug-in for Homeworks QS that has enthusiastic reviews. I actually bought a HomeSeer but returned it when I found that the X10 plug-in no longer is supported in HS4.  If a Homeworks QS plug-in worked with EISY my order would be placed instantly!

Here's a description of the HS QS plug-in. No wiring required except to plug a cable into a port in the QS equipment. It basically emulated a keypad.
https://shop.homeseer.com/products/lutron-qs-plug-in-for-hs3?_pos=1&_sid=2e6c8031f&_ss=r
« Last Edit: February 13, 2024, 12:05:21 PM by brobin »
Logged

glacier991

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Helpful Post Rating: 11
  • Posts: 132
Re: Surprised not to see a child board for the ISY/EISY
« Reply #8 on: February 13, 2024, 12:52:53 AM »

Well, there ya go.

I will put a bug in UD's ear. They however do not create most of their plug-ins. May be an opening for this developer to create one.
Logged

Tuicemen

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • ****
  • Helpful Post Rating: 283
  • Posts: 10523
  • I don't work for X10, I use it successfuly!
Re: Surprised not to see a child board for the ISY/EISY
« Reply #9 on: February 13, 2024, 09:46:39 AM »

A new child board has been created.
Hopefully  this will help find related topics. >!
Logged
Please Read Topic:
General Forum Etiquette
Before you post!

Brian H

  • Community Organizer
  • Hero Member
  • ***
  • Helpful Post Rating: 305
  • Posts: 13295
Re: Surprised not to see a child board for the ISY/EISY
« Reply #10 on: February 13, 2024, 10:26:35 AM »

Thank you for the new child section here.
I am sure it will be a good change.
Logged

glacier991

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Helpful Post Rating: 11
  • Posts: 132
Re: Surprised not to see a child board for the ISY/EISY
« Reply #11 on: February 13, 2024, 07:36:27 PM »

Thank you Tuiceman.

For my kick off posting there I will put together a post an how I am using X-10 deployed in the UD controller world. I for one would benefit from seeing other's uses and experiences as well.
Logged

glacier991

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Helpful Post Rating: 11
  • Posts: 132
Re: Surprised not to see a child board for the ISY/EISY
« Reply #12 on: February 16, 2024, 08:40:02 PM »

For brobin:  I am afvised that the Lutron Caseta plug-in for EISY does support the RA3 Dimmers and switches.... FWIW.
Logged

brobin

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Helpful Post Rating: 160
  • Posts: 1460
Re: Surprised not to see a child board for the ISY/EISY
« Reply #13 on: February 17, 2024, 01:10:10 AM »

For brobin:  I am afvised that the Lutron Caseta plug-in for EISY does support the RA3 Dimmers and switches.... FWIW.
Thanks for looking into that.  The Homeworks QS is different in that it doesn't use dimmers and switches.  All loads are hardwired back to the Homeworks QS cabinets which contain modules that switch multiple loads and are controlled by a processor. There's a communications bus that runs to keypads where switches would be.  The buttons are programmable for whatever loads and/or scenes you want to create.  Any third party systems essentially have to emulate keypad buttons.   
Logged

glacier991

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Helpful Post Rating: 11
  • Posts: 132
Re: Surprised not to see a child board for the ISY/EISY
« Reply #14 on: February 18, 2024, 02:01:32 PM »

Here is what the description of the Caseta plugin for EISY says:

Integrate with Lutron's Caséta Wireless systems. Designed specifically to work with the Smart Bridge but should also work with Smart Bridge Pro and possibly RA2 Select. Supports Shades, Pico Remotes Dimmers, Switches, Plugs and Occupancy Sensors.
Logged
 

X10.com | About X10 | X10 Security Systems | Cameras| Package Deals
© Copyright 2014-2016 X10.com All rights reserved.