achilles heel: 2413U

i have an Insteon 2413U. I suspect most people using Indigo+Insteon do also. This device is both the central master device in the Insteon mesh as well as the interface used by Indigo. I've had at least two (I think three) interface units go bad over the years in my system. Other friends and family who use Insteon have had the same experience, so this is not a fluke. My current one is old (>5yrs).

If mine dies tomorrow, I can't get a replacement - not from Smarthome, not from Amazon, not from E-bay - not new, not used, not refurbished. In fact, I'm starting to doubt whether there will be any new more new Insteon-brand devices manufactured and sold.

I know repair by replacing some of the components on the circuit board is sometimes a fix, and I'd probably attempt that.

Any chance Indigo will support the Nokia Lighting Smart Bridge? Are there any other known alternatives?

What do people see as the best long-term path for keeping legacy network of Insteon devices alive in a future world where other HA and IoT stuff moves to Matter - will there be enough market for someone to make a "bridge" device that makes legacy Insteon (and maybe z-wave) devices show up in a Matter network?

I don't feel ready to simply "write-off" my Insteon devices, of which I have a large number and many are "built-in" to some degree.

[matt (support)]

Actually, just yesterday someone posted the PowerLinc's were back in stock (and on sale).

must have sold out quickly. they're out of stock again now, it appears.

At one time, Universal Devices had an agreement with Smarthome to produce a heavier duty version of the 2413S for use with the ISY994i (the lower case ‘i’ literally stands for Insteon). They were all set to go into production when Smarthome pulled out of licensing the code to them, and then ghosting them. Michel Kohanim at UDI has been advising Insteon users to consider moving on to alternatives for awhile now.

And who can blame him? Smarthome has done nothing to promote their own brand while refusing to cooperate with the entities that do, namely Indigo Domotics, UDI, and Smarthome’s own customers.

On UDI’s forum, there’s an (extremely) long thread on this subject. The most useful point in the whole spiel is that X10/Insteon style power line communication, while useful at the time, goes all to hell when you have a bunch of noisy switching power wall warts and filters in the way. PLC is a technology whose time has come and gone.

Personally, the only thing keeping me from switching is the Fanlinc/Keypadlinc combo; I have five of them installed and see nothing on the market that matches them. They also seem to be some of the only things they still manage to have in stock sometimes. I have a spare 2413U on hand, but when that goes I’m gonna have a bad day.

The Nokia partnership has the odor of a Hail Mary play, one last shot before the liquidation. At that point, maybe someone can scarf up the code base for cheap and a niche player could keep us supplied with 2413s, but I wouldn’t count on it. If someone new to home automation were to visit me, and were impressed enough with my setup to ask my advice, and I hope someone from Smarthome is reading this, I would definitely not recommend Insteon. Not as if they could actually purchase any


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I see Insteon 2448A7 seems to have at least some sparse availability (Ebay).

[jay (support)]

Personally, the only thing keeping me from switching is the Fanlinc/Keypadlinc combo; I have five of them installed and see nothing on the market that matches them.

Same with me, until I found the Inovelli Fan Switch. I'm now Insteon free (except for testing of course). The only issue now is the Z-Wave chip shortage from Sigma - lots of Z-Wave manufacturers are having supply issues because of this. And the Z-Wave 700 series fiasco isn't helping apparently.

[jay (support)]

Any chance Indigo will support the Nokia Lighting Smart Bridge? Are there any other known alternatives?

There is no information about that hub and whether it will have an API. But, honestly, even if it does, it's likely that the work to Indigo would be significant, and it's unlikely that we would undertake it. We've been saying for years now that users should consider beginning to migrate away from Insteon - we don't really see a long-term future.

What do people see as the best long-term path for keeping legacy network of Insteon devices alive in a future world where other HA and IoT stuff moves to Matter - will there be enough market for someone to make a "bridge" device that makes legacy Insteon (and maybe z-wave) devices show up in a Matter network?[/quote]

At this point, Insteon is pretty irrelevant to the discussion. Z-Wave will live on for a good long time given it's current installed base and the sheer number of companies manufacturing devices using the technology. Matter will be another protocol that's (hopefully) much better than Zigbee in terms of adoption and provisioning given it's open source nature. That is our fervent hope, but we've heard all the promises before, we we're watching with a healthy dose of skepticism.

Personally, the only thing keeping me from switching is the Fanlinc/Keypadlinc combo; I have five of them installed and see nothing on the market that matches them.

Same with me, until I found the Inovelli Fan Switch. I'm now Insteon free (except for testing of course). The only issue now is the Z-Wave chip shortage from Sigma - lots of Z-Wave manufacturers are having supply issues because of this. And the Z-Wave 700 series fiasco isn't helping apparently.

Thanks Jay, I hadn’t seen this before. Inovelli is a company I want to see succeed, being Michigan-based as I am. I’ll have to look into this.


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