Insteon (Smarthome Device Manager)

bjlamarca · Post by **bjlamarca** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 2:32 pm

My SDM stopped comunicating with my PowerLinkV2. Before I start troubleshoooting:

Scott, I was wondering if we are going to see a plugin-in for the Insteon PLM any time soon.

Post by **ScottBot** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 3:46 pm

I've had the PLM sitting next to me just waiting. I'm currently writing a plugin for another device. When that is complete, the PLM will be next.

For the PLM, I plan on having a beta test period since it controls so many different devices (some of which I don't own). But it will be at least a month until I the development starts on it.

roussell · Post by **roussell** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 6:59 pm

Okay Scott, my curiosity is killing me... That's two references in one day to a new plug-in due out soon... Any hints???? What new toy do I get to go out and purchase to support this mystery plug-in?

Terry

Post by **ScottBot** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 9:24 pm

It's for the Global Cache IRE. Its a small and simple IR receiver.

bjlamarca · Post by **bjlamarca** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 1:56 pm

Sign me up for the PLM beta

jkish · Post by **jkish** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 10:37 pm

I'm thinking about getting started with Insteon - I have no lighting controls now.

Would the PLM product be the best place to start (once there is a driver)?

Post by **ScottBot** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 1:52 pm

If you're not in too much of a hurry

The USB controller is about the same price as the PLM. But I would welcome another beta tester for the PLM.

jkish · Post by **jkish** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 2:43 pm

Not in a big hurry - I've lived without it for this long...

I would be happy to be a beta tester. Give me a heads up when it might be time to go purchase some hardware.

My first toe in the water is just to be able to use HouseBot to control my landscape lighting transformers based on turning on at Sunset and turning off at midnight.

Post by **ScottBot** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 5:02 pm

FYI, if you want to be on the beta, please see this post.

Naylia · Post by **Naylia** » Wed Oct 24, 2007 11:09 pm

This might be a newbie question...

The Insteon plugin and the SDM are listed as two separate items in the install menu. Do I need both? Is there documentation on what the SDM is/does? Is it just a Smarthome software interface that Housebot interfaces through to control the hardware? thanks!

Naylia · Post by **Naylia** » Wed Oct 24, 2007 11:51 pm

I seem to have found the answer myself:

An example of a Manager App that encapsulates these functions is Smarthome’s Device Manager (DM), a Windows program that connects to an INSTEON network via a PowerLincTM Controller (PLC). DM handles all the intricacies involved with sending and receiving INSTEON messages via a PLC. To the outside world, it exposes an interface that developers can connect their own custom top-level application layers to.

I suspect I should install this....unless the plug-in can interface directly to the PLC???

roussell · Post by **roussell** » Thu Oct 25, 2007 8:19 am

Sadly, you need the SDM in addition to the plugin. The SDM provides the hooks into the Insteon PLC that the plugin uses. I'm not sure which version comes with the plugin, but I've had the least amount of problems with SDM version .308. If that's not the included version, you can find it on the 'net pretty easily.

Scott is working on interfacing HB with the new Insteon PLM. When that is complete, it will allow HB to speak Insteon without the SDM, and that is a very good thing.

Terry