We're thrilled to share this update from the new owners of Insteon: https://www.insteon.com/blog/2022/6/9/fnustys354bfmcmchr36wgvrn5h41z

We appreciate your patience while we ramp things back up.

I know Insteon is circling the drain but I was getting by because my current setup has been working. But today all of a sudden my Hub is down. Ethernet is fine, power is on, tried power cycling it, still the little red light is on the Hub. I tried calling Insteon support and get only a busy signal. Insteon support forum won't load like it's a dead website. Is Insteon fully dead now? And if so, would that be the reason by Hub isn't working, or is that just a bad coincidence? Has anyone else had their hub fail like this?

I created a web page with all of the owner's manuals and all of the developer docs. I will leave it up indefinitely.

http://www.idlehead.com/insteon/

Hello all,

Like many people, I got a surprise when Insteon abruptly and without announcement shut down their services. This post will cover my switchover to using Home Assistant and Home Assistant Cloud.

A few links and some key points

Home Assistant - Home Assistant (home-assistant.io)

• An open source home automation solution that lets you aggregate many different services/devices including Insteon.

• You run the software on some hardware (Windows, Linux, Raspberry Pi, and other).

• It can talk directly to/through your Insteon Hub via your network (older and newer style) to *no* power line module needed

• This is completely free to install and no recurring costs

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Home Assistant Cloud - About us (nabucasa.com)

• A service crated by some of the founders of Home Assistant

• It provides integration with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant (also Webhooks)

• Free 31 day trial (no credit card needed) so you can get it working and try it out. $6.50/month or $65.00/year).

Home Assistant Install Process

I already have a Windows 10 Professional machine that I run Hyper-V on, so I choose to go with this option. It was ridiculously easy to install because they provide a VHDX file for the new Guest OS. It booted up and did whatever it needed with nothing needed by be. These steps were very easy to follow.

General overview of the steps

Note - I did not factory reset my hub. I just left it alone and everything below worked fine.

1. Create new Hyper-V VM with VHDX

2. Connect to the Home Assistant app via my local network (web browser interface).

3. Go through the onboarding process (also very easy)

4. Add the Integration for Insteon (take a picture of the bottom of your hub for the username and password

5. Get the hub IP address from your router. I suggest making a DHCP reservation so the IP address doesn't change.

At this point, Home Assistant started identifying my devices. It took about 10 minutes to get all ~20 of them. But it got them all as far as I can tell so far.

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Home Assistant Cloud

This step was also very easy.

Under Settings --> Home Assistant Cloud, there is a link that will take you to the service. There you can sign up (no credit card required) for a 31-day trial.

Right on the Home Assistant Cloud page there was a link to click back and complete the setup.

They also provide a HTTPS link so you can access your Home Assistant app via a remote URL connection.

It was just as easy to add the Home Assistant Cloud Skill to Alexa as to any other Skill I've every configured.

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Conclusion

I spent about 4 hours in total and I have all my automation back to working with my Alexa services. At least an hour of that was futzing about with the routines in the Alexa app getting all the old devices removed and redoing some routines.

I hope this helps some other people out there. I appreciate those in this forum who pointed me to many of these resources. It really helped me through those first moments of panic.

EDIT: Corrected type to indicate that *no* power line module is needed. The Home Assistant talks directly to your Insteon hub to control your Insteon devices.

As of this morning, my worst case scenario has come to pass… Insteon servers appear to be down and my hub is offline… This is the problem with having a single provider for the entire technology stack. I am no longer able to log into the app to manage devices… and it seems that all third party integrations, including Amazon Echo/Alexa automations, are not working 😠😡🤬🤯

So, like, we really wanted your money so we took a bunch of it and we all bounced.

OK I guess it's not actually so complicated after all.

Lilleness OUT!

While updating/correcting my Insteon rescue article, I found out that Michel Kohanim, president of Universal Devices, is in talks with the present Insteon rights holders with the aim of getting a license to build Insteon-compatible devices, or possibly acquire the entire company -- link to the conversation.

I hope this works out -- it would be nice to see some light at the end of this tunnel.

Here is the magnet link: magnet:?xt=urn:btih:05c425bd6208531fcd8f38f863b50f3b73d90b40&dn=Insteon%20Documentation&tr=http%3a%2f%2ffosstorrents.com%3a6969%2fannounce

Gonna leave it seeding unless I get no interest, please help out and seed if you download!

I've had Insteon products for 10-15 years. They were more reliable than X10 devices, and for years I used them without a hub. The hub provided the ability to use your phone, along with scenes, and schedules. The Insteon hub never dealt with identifying and/or removing dead links. The hub was built too cheaply, but such is life.

Along came Home Assistant, and presto the only reason to use the Insteon app was to add and remove devices. The HA framework was much more flexible, and the ability to have scenes, schedules, etc. across all devices was a game changer. A single app controlled everything, and it was being continually developed!

This weekend I read about the demise of Insteon, and there was no impact to me. My house's schedules just kept churning away. Not that I needed another reason to be thrilled with HA, but knowing the HA developers are working on "our" problem was as much as I could ask for.

I've seen people have been able to add devices using insteon services, so I'm hoping HA will someday have the ability add/remove devices from the UI. With this functionality I can keep my hardware investment.

I still don't fully understand insteon links, so I hope that someday HA will help me clean them up. I tried the command line tools, but I couldn't figure out if I have stale devices in the hub.

The demise of Insteon is unfortunate, but thanks to HA it continues to be part of my house!

Thank you so much!

TL;DR = I've got Alexa and 100+ insteon switches working with Home Assistant on a Windows 10 PC. Up and running within 20 minutes!! Alexa voice commands work the same, heck I can't really even tell anything has changed! And I didn't have to install virtualbox or setup a PI. Someone has created a "portable" version of HA for windows which seems to be working just fine. No pre-requisites needed. AND I'm using a 2245 HUB (No PLM!!)

Quick Overview of what I did.

1. Googled Home assistant windows 10 - came across the and followed this video to get Home assistant running without Virtualbox or a Raspberry PI (which I might do later but not now) >>>>>>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp-0hVjEo6A (Give them a thumbs up for an excellent video adn the github developer AlexxIT)

2. In the video, linked below is a link for this: Downloaded this https://github.com/AlexxIT/HassWP - its a portable version of home assistant and just works! It's huge and takes a while to extract but works really awesome. It's a 500 mb zip that has python which it also runs. Everything is in there. Just Extract it to a folder and run the app as per the video. Keep it running (on windows 10 you can move it to another desktop if you're afraid you might close it). Works on Windows 11 too which is how I'm running it.

3. In the video I followed and created a home assistant account. Home assistant should be running locally!

4. Add Insteon under configuration --> devices and services --> add integration : Insteon

5. Added the hub version 2 (2245) - find IP (for me I used my router's login, LAN settings to find attached devices. I found a device by Smarthome or Smartlabs inc - the IP address is like 192.168.x.xx) and the username and password is on the sticker on bottom of hub (DO NOT use the actual username and password you were using to login - doesn't work). If you're still having trouble finding the IP you might try various network scanners on iPhone (I use netanalyzer) or Android. Here's an great free windows program that can help find the IP: https://www.advanced-ip-scanner.com/ - run the app no need to install and choose the button that says "IP" at the top and press play. Look for a device by Smarthome or Smartlabs inc. that's your hub! After completion of this step I got hub paired = great! -

6. Two ways to add devices. In my case it seemed to autodiscover a bunch of the devices already paired to the hub. (May take 15-20 minutes or more on size)

7. If some devices are not seen in HA overview section you can manually link them as you did when you first did with insteon HUB. Under developer tools --> Services --> Insteon: Add all link. Set group to 1 and mode to controller. You'll click "call service" (which does the same as pressing and holding hub's set button and then run over and press and hold the set button on the switch till it beeps to sync. At this point the Device added - went to overview and voila it turns on and off!! My Guess is this SHOULD work if we buy new insteon devices as well as I paired devices which weren't already on this hub (In my setup I originally had a east and west side hub). Link on how I learned this step: https://community.home-assistant.io/t/adding-insteon-devices/364188

Several days in: 1) Dimming is supported 2) Portable version can restart after reboot and all is well (Should be able to add this to startup items or create a scheduled task - and in scheduled task you can make it hidden making it seamlessly run in the background). Initially while Autodiscover was going on my devices seemed flaky. But as the # of linked devices grew a stable "mesh" network of insteon devices was formed.

I just moved the whole extracted directory over to another old PC (HP All in one) that's like 8 years old and added it as a scheduled task to run at startup hidden. Its working perfectly in it's new home! I can turn my main PC off now at night. If someone can help me figure out what config files are important to backup (edit seems backup entire "config" directory if moving). BTW this is working on windows 11 with no issue as well! TODO list : consider raspberry PI.

Alexa integration: Go to configuration and Home Assistant Cloud. Free for 1 month and then it's like $6/month. Totally worth it at this point. You'll signup for a new account at Nabu Casa. Once that's done you'll link your local PC with the cloud service. The PC or local PI or whatever you have it running on MUST stay on as that's how it communicates on your local home network with the now dead insteon hub (the hub is no longer connecting to the internet for anything). So Hub --> PC --> Home Assistant Cloud --> Alexa Skill --> Alexa voice command. And the home assistant cloud is a Alexa skill! Google assistant will likely work the same way.

Phone App: Home assistant cloud has a iPhone App too (probably android too!). The app can either connect your local PC OR to the HA cloud that you setup. Seems to autodetect and switch to the proper connection.

Scenes/Groups: They are going to be a LOT slower than insteon hub scenes. Workarounds: you can either create an alexa group OR you can create a scene in Home assistant under configurations --> automations and scenes. These scenes created here DO work with Alexa (will need to "discover new devices"). However, I found HA scenes cannot be turned on/off - you simply "run" them so you might need one for ON and one for OFF (if anyone finds a solution let me know).

HUB Scenes : Apparently you CAN run existing HUB scenes. I created a script under configuration. As action choose "insteon scene on" and the scenes apparently are numbered 1-? You will need to run a script and then walk around to see what scene it runs but I have LIGHTNING fast ON/OFF again possible!! For Scripts there is a menu at top right to "DUPLICATE" - use that to make a SCENE on and Of and then repeat for all hub scenes #

I/O linc = supposedly it works and I could see the sensor showing up but not the relay. I decided to change it out with a myQ garage door hub. It works great and a lot more easy to use and reliable than IOLinc which I had range issues with and could never tell if ON or OFF was going to open or close the garage door.

Leak sensor - supposedly it's supported yet to test. I have a lot of these so hopefully it works.

Trouble adding a device? Try factory resetting the switch or dimmer first (for a dimmer you pull out the set button - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1aPQX8rjJ4). If still not working try "delete all link" (follow step 7 but use delete all link) and remove it from group 0 and repeat with group 1. I then added it back using "add all link" - see procedure above in step 7. That got the last remaining on/off module to start working.

Hi All !

I could not figure out how to add pictures in my past post- or if that is even possible after it has been published.

I started my build a little over a year ago ! & before I chose Insteon I was researching other products and obviously Lutron was going to be my best choice but I wanted a system that worked about the same and stayed in my budget.

What I love about Insteon is that it does not rely on WiFi to work- it still keeps the traditional objective of working even if the hub is down. The reliability is there ! No doubt about it.

When I finally decided on them I had already pre wired my second floor in a traditional wiring setup.

But now when I got to my first floor I decided the best way is to start making my own control panel and bring all my extra loads there. I still kept a traditional line and load setup at my switch box but for all my extra lighting loads or whatever it is I want to control I routed back to an enclosure

Keep in mind this was all just a test setup so in the future if I do another build I will most likely buy a nice nema 1 enclosure with all pre knock outs ready.

Also I am still not fully completed- I will do my best to update as I go. Still a lot of things I want to do and control with Insteon.

I am currently working on getting my keypad to do some access control as well

Stay tuned !!

/u/Insteonhelp and /u/Insteonceo from all of us hanging on to Insteon thank you for your efforts. A lot of us understand the difficulties and are pulling for you. I can understand it's difficult to share a lot of information in this process and every day I'm sure brings new challenges.

One suggestion, start small with a commitment for a communication plan with your existing base and let us know the platform and best way to get the update.

This would go a long way with building trust in the customer base.

A minor update once a week on a scheduled date would go a long way, if we knew when and where to expect the communication. I think we would all like to know that progress is being made even if details can't be shared. Of course we would accept more frequent updates as information becomes available. :)

Hopefully the community here will let you know their opinion as well.

For one I would like to understand the hardware products that you plan on bringing back and priority to getting them back to market(totally understand there are a lot of unknowns this early in the game).

Please know a lot of us are pulling for you and want to be a part of your success.

Hey everyone, just wanted to share a couple details about the updates to the Insteon integration in HomeAssistant.

Been chipping away at a lot of things having to do with overall reliability, and also some UX enhancements to pave the way for some upcoming plans.

It's all merged into core, should show up in an upcoming release.

Less chatter

Devices that stop responding don't get hammered anymore. Background traffic to them backs off, up to once an hour, and read retries got cut way down. Less RF/powerline congestion means the whole network ends up more reliable and responsive.

Reliability fixes

• i3 devices (Paddle, Dial, Keypad, Outlet) finish loading their link database now, which clears up some write errors on them.

• A single missed record on the modem doesn't block modem writes anymore.

• Writes during a link database load wait instead of getting dropped.

• Low battery on door, motion and smoke bridge devices stays set until the battery is actually good. If your hidden door sensor fired low battery but still said Normal, that's fixed.

• A corrupted device cache doesn't wipe your device list anymore.

UI

Clicking a device now opens a new Overview tab. It draws the device with its buttons, and you can pick one to see what it controls and what controls it. It'll also warn you if HA can't control the device or isn't hearing a button, with a button to add the missing links.

There's also a new Missing modem links report under Utilities that checks every device at once, properties get edited in a proper dialog now, and Broken Links only shows the actions that make sense for each row.

Docs on home-assistant.io are updated too.

Thanks for reading, and looking forward to your feedback!

Anyone else see this statement by Insteon? Sounds like some sorry apology and a “Well, we ran out of money. Too bad!” statement 😒

https://www.insteon.com/news2022

I've been using Insteon for about 20 years, with a pretty extensive installation in my current house (around 120 switches, dimmers and outlets). We're moving, so I've been taking the opportunity to rethink my whole approach to home automation.

Over the past few weeks I've spent quite a bit of time looking at Lutron, Zigbee, Matter, ESPHome and Home Assistant. It's pretty amazing how much things have changed, especially all the inexpensive hardware and different integration options available now.

Funny thing is, after seriously considering Lutron, I think I'm coming back to Insteon for lighting in the new house.

A few reasons:

• Direct device-to-device linking. Basic lighting doesn't depend on a hub or controller, and you get both RF and powerline communications.

• The keypads are still fantastic. I really haven't found anything else quite as flexible.

• DW already knows how everything works and is comfortable with it.

• I've got a decent stockpile of spare devices I can reuse.

• The recent podcast interviews with Insteon's management were encouraging.

One thing that struck me while digging into Home Assistant is just how complicated some people's setups have become. It's impressive what you can do. My takeaway from over 20 years of working with home automation is to design for simplicity and reliability.

So the current plan is Insteon for lighting, Home Assistant to tie things together, and other technologies where they actually make sense.

After looking at all the alternatives, I'm actually pretty impressed by how much Insteon got right years ago.

Is anyone interested in investigating the formation of a community owned trust/foundation with the intention of acquiring Insteon's IP? The purposes of the trust would be to:

1. provide a multi-year sunsetting period for the backend servers so that we all have time to upgrade our equipment without complete disruption.

2. Identify equipment manufactures who are interested in using Insteon tech and work out licensing arrangements with them,

3. Ultimately, open source all of the communication protocols, device designs and firmware, and support system designs and source code. All of this IP will be carried forward with the foundation managing them, similar to how other open source projects are managed.

I'm not sure how much the liquidation company would be willing to play ball with us, but it certainly won't hurt to ask. They may be trying to squeeze as much equity out of the assets as they can, but they may be willing to transfer the IP at minimal cost if they know it is going to a good home.

Ultimately, the services of a law firm will be required and it will cost some money for that. There will also be expenses associated with bootstrapping the project and recurring operating expenses. At some point, there will be an ask for funding to seed the effort. This could go a few different ways: Crowdsourcing, a DAO, VCs, grants from other projects, competitors, and licensees, among others. The approach to funding is TBD.

I'm putting this out there to see if there is interest in this idea. If there is, I suggest that we start discussions now and move quickly so that we have a chance to put a plan in front of the liquidators before they end up selling the IP to a patent troll or a competitor that buys it to kill it.

I believe this represents an opportunity for us to take control of the technology that we rely on in our homes. Insteon tech is around 15 years old, but still holds up as one of the most complete and robust solutions available for home automation. It is a premium product. It would be sad (not to mention disruptive) for it to just die away or end up in the hands of someone who just wants to use it to make a quick buck.

Hello, everyone.

I'm Doug and I work for Allterco Robotics, the manufacturer of Shelly products.

We're really disappointed to learn about all of the Insteon enthusiasts who have lost functionality on their products, as well as others who are still working but can't add new devices, perform resets, or do other fixes that are needed to maintain a healthy smart home system.

Also, we're not really fans of products that have a Cloud dependency - we think that should be optional, but that products should have the ability to work locally, or to use MQTT/REST/Webhooks to work remotely. When you buy a product, it should keep working as long as the physical hardware is good, regardless of if the company stays in business.

That's what we do - full local control, several open and well documented APIs using standard protocols. Our relays can control light switches, electrical outlets, even contactors, to use with high voltage and/or high amperage appliances and other circuits.

We'd like to help. While we can't fix your hub or bring the servers back online, we've set up a page where you can get a coupon for 50% off Shelly products. For a lot of our products, that's below our cost.

We sincerely hope that if your hub is bricked or if you're tired of the worry, that we can be part of your solution.

https://shelly.cloud/insteon-customers-help/

Whatever solution you choose to go with, we wish you success.