It’s the chip shortage. I ran into similar issues with Z-Wave and waiting on the USB stick for Insteon.
My original decision was to go with Z-Wave whenever possible, since that’s a standard that doesn’t depend on one company and not proprietary. I ended up getting mostly Insteon Micro-Dimmers for our house. I can’t remember the reasoning, but it could have been price and availability at the time. Insteon works, but it seems like when it has a problem, there aren’t ways around it. (Right now I’ve lost connection with my garage door opener, it seems permanent and it just isn’t coming back and I can’t be sure of a good way to disconnect it. Apparently I have to disconnect from the PLM, but on doing that, I don’t see how to delete it from HA.)
I’ve got two microdimmers, and they’re great. Except, that is, when I have to press a button on them. Both require that I stand on a ladder, support a lamp, press the button, and handle my phone at the same time.
Quick add to this thread. I’m currently migrating from Homeseer to HA and have two Insteon hubs, one for each system. I’m going to migrate devices one at a time as I create the appropriate automations for what I move over.
In the HS world, there’s a plugin for Insteon that lets you add a device directly by it’s hex address. When my Insteon USB stick died, I installed the hub (which of course has a different hex) and connected HS to it via ip+name+pass. Once it was configured, I went through each device and manually added them into HS by just specifying the hex of the device.
It seemed a little “iffy” to me that I could literally take over a device via it’s hex address, but it worked for me and allowed me to migrate everything to a new hub without having to press the program button on each device. Some of my devices are microswitches inside metal j-boxes in the attic, so it was a relief not to have to go around and press each device button.
Hmm, I see. Even in the HS days I noticed a short delay before lights activated from mini remote button presses. Are you suggesting to create insteon based scenes (I think this is done in the phone app?) and then use HA to just trigger those scenes? I agree that sounds like it’s insteon<->insteon and may be faster.
It’s interesting that I’ve been using insteon for years and have never created insteon scenes, I’ve only used HS or HA to trigger events/automations.
Be sure to reserve the DHCP issued address for the hub in your router. If your hub gets a different IP address after a reboot HA will no longer connect to it.
I added about 50 devices and I have about 100+ on HA. What a great piece of software! Thanks for the awesome work as we were stuck with the insteon company our of business. I’m using hub 2245 (v2). Originally in my setup I had 2 hubs, but now with insteon gone, I’m using one with HA and the other has been powered down and removed as a backup for future use
Questions:
when adding does anyone know what is the difference between Group 0 and Group 1?
I have one switch that won’t turn ON with the ON button in HA, but if I dim it to any setting including 100% it works!
I have a few switches that turn off but the status doesn’t update correctly (guessing that might be a insteon range issue of some sort?)
Is there a possibility of supporting multiple hubs?
With Insteon gone I thought I was up the creek without a paddle. I installed Home Assistant on a Raspberry Pi and since I had factory reset my Insteon Hub 2245-222 I thought I was lost. Your explanation was direct and easy to follow. THANK YOU!!!
It worked for me.I installed HA on my Synology NAS. My hub lost the connections to the hub after I reset it. Following your instructions I was able to call them back individually by pressing their settings buttons and using the HA Call service button.
With the demise of Insteon this capability is critical. I’m not an expert in HA since I just installed it. I have tried the override method and the device shows up correctly in HA but HA can’t control it. I have also tried the Services method using the below and the same thing happens. It shows up but doesn’t work. Has anyone had any success? Thanks in advance.
service: Insteon: Add all links
Group: 0
Mode: Controller
Need some help! Went through the process of ordering an odriod N2+, installed HA, and got everything installed. Trying to follow the suggestions through this thread, but I must be doing something wrong.
The “call service” button turns green temporarily and I’ve gone to set the insteon switch to pair, but it’s not discovering the device. What am I doing wrong?
I am curious what was user error. ?? I m fighting HA to get my insteon devices included. tforbesss seems to have done what you suggested with out success
Thanks Hal. This worked great! Just migrated over to HA after Insteon closed down and I am trying to learn it all. As you said, I first thought the way to add the devices that weren’t auto discovered in the initial setup was to use the Manual Override to add devices, which as you said did not work. Then found your instructions which worked perfectly.
The middle now would allow you to set it like you want to be in the group.
The last part is picking the group. This is where I am working now and this should be better. There is no map between what you want to call the group and the internal group number.
What is missing (and easy) is the button that adds the device to the scene.
Of course then you have to go to the device and link it.
Pushing in the set button.
Ideally you dial to some group number and it shows all the devices in the group … or?
Looking for What people would like to see here.
Hal this just saved me a ton of messing around. I was able to add 22 items in 30 minutes, thanks a bunch! I think this post deserves a bump to the top for others that might need it like I did.
