Insteon	Zwave
Rating: 5 out of 5	Rating: 3 out of 5

The promise of home automation is enticing. Press a button, watch the curtains close, lights dim and your favorite movie play – What’s not to like?

Helping to bring this orchestra of technology to the forefront is the decreasing cost of devices offered by a variety of vendors. You can still spend upwards of $50,000 on an integrated home automation system, but those are advanced systems installed by those with more money than time. If you’re like me however - with the opposite situation – then devices such as Insteon, Zigbee and Z-Wave should peak your interest.

The reality of prior home automation (also called domotics) has been sketchy, with the reliability of signals being subpar, some devices in your house not able to see other devices and a masters degree in computer science required to create and operate the software correctly.

One of the early producers of affordable home automation (and arguably the most popular) is X10. While X10 brought new concepts and abilities to the forefront of many people’s minds, the above mentioned reliability issues plagued the standard, causing many to abandon their investments entirely. After all, how many times can you press a button that is supposed to shut off a light, but doesn’t, before you get up and switch it off manually? (The answer is 10, followed by some profanities as you get up...)

NetLinc

Rating: 3 out of 5

Summary: While I’m not convinced that the newly released NetLinc is a replacement for the PowerLinc Modem and a good software package, it likely fills another role in that it provides incredibly easy access to view your house cameras on a wide range of devices including the iPod Touch, iPhone or any computer with internet access. The fact that it offers Insteon control and is relatively cheap is a bonus.

Smarthome just sent out an email talking about the release of the new NetLinc product, as well as an Insteon motion sensor and an outdoor 220v switch. I follow the home automation scene fairly carefully, and in the past lack of devices has been one of the few downfalls of Insteon so when several new products are released I’m curious to find out how they compare.

First, the NetLinc – This device is primarily designed as an interface between your home automation devices (lights, appliances, sprinklers etc) and any web-enabled device. Smarthome seems to think the most popular use for this will be using your iPhone or iPod Touch to control your appliances, since they now have several packages which include a free iPod Touch. While I think it’s great that the NetLinc supports mobile technologies, and the interface on the iPod/iPhone looks quite usable, I’m just not sure how much use most people will get out of this beyond the cool factor.

IR543 X10 Infrared Controller

Rating: 5 out of 5

IR543 X10 Infrared Controller Mini Review

Which came first, the infrared remote or the X-10 devices? Well, it doesn’t really matter, because either way you now need them to talk to each other. While there are a few options that you can buy, none are as inexpensive and readily available as the X10 IR-543. The simple receiver takes an infrared command, sent by any device capable of sending the correct sequence (universal remotes, Harmony remotes, laptops, PDA’s, Media Centers and PVR’s, just to name a few) and translates this command into a signal which is sent via the powerline to control an X-10 device.

Setup is simple, and requires nothing more than plugging the IR543 into the wall and ensuring that the placement within your room is visible from where the signal is being sent (as Infrared is line of sight). Advanced configurations may require using a small screwdriver or knife-tip to select the appropriate housecode (Default selection is housecode ‘A’) however this is only for the buttons on the top of the unit, as infrared commands sent can be preceeded with the housecode (for example, a typical infrared command sequence would be:

PowerLinc Modem (2412s)

Rating: 4 out of 5

You may be looking to take your Insteon installation to the next level, or perhaps you’re just getting started with home automation and want to ensure you have all the pieces necessary to realize your vision. Either way, you need a way for your computer to send Insteon commands, and the PowerLinc serial modem is just that.

For a bit of background, Insteon computer interfaces originally came in two flavors: USB, with an integrated “memory” of settings and the serial version, which is essentially a direct link between the computer and the powerline. The USB interface, which is sometimes referred to as the PLC (PowerLinc Controller) was the preferred device initially, as USB is the dominant interface on today’s computers. As developers attempted to work with the PLC however, the integrated memory began to cause erratic behavior and for a variety of reasons (some political, some technical) the serial interface began to become the favorite with its simplistic style of interaction.

For the average Insteon purchaser, this all boils down to two things: