Simple one room light control

I want to control two lamps and two overhead lights with separate switches with Roomie. Do I really shave to buy the $$$ ISY-99i ? I get the Insteon components and their cost but having to add another $300 for the ISY-99i is cost prohibitive. Has anyone developed a simpler way to accomplish this? Obviously I'm a newbie to light automation but am comfortable with any wiring tasks that are necessary. Thanks in advance.

Every lighting solution has a controller that costs something. At the low end, even the Philips Hue requires a relatively expensive controller. The good news is that the controller controls many devices and allows lots of expansion with all of these systems.

At some point there will be good options in the direct point to point control devices such as myube.co/, but that's still a ways off at the moment.

The least expensive solution is the Smartlabs #2242 Hub at about $130. Smartlabs is the source of all Insteon...... The hub will allow you to set up your lights, as well as control them with an iOS app on the LAN or WAN. The ISY-991 and it's variants are more robust and essentially take the place of a Smartlabs' software offering "HouseLinc". I am not sure if the ISY offers more features than the 2242 when used with Roomie. I use the 2242.

As an important note, the Insteon Hub is not currently integrated with Roomie. (Not to say you couldn't add it as a custom device of course.) Meanwhile, the ISY99 Insteon products are extensively integrated in Roomie with support almost equal to our Lutron Radio RA 2 support including all of the new Room Automation, room synchronization, sliders for brightness, etc.

m.bestbuy.com/m/e/product/detail ... 8639328882

 

if I'm not mistaken Roomie supports the smartlinc included with that kit... The kit also inclueds a lamplinc and a phase bridge...

Roomie, can you expand a little more on the difference between RadioRA 2 and the ISY994i integration? I'm looking at doing 4 Insteon dimmers in my HT. Are there any drawback to Insteon vs RadioRA 2?

The differences between those two are very minor. Radio RA 2 clearly identifies shades to us. So with that system, we automatically generate shade controls using the proper shade icons, etc. for opening and closing drapes/shades whenever we generate a new Virtual Remote for automation. The ISY system does not tell us about those, so that's the primary difference. There are other smaller differences, but in terms of user noticeable features, that's it.

Thank you.

Thanks for the quick response! Looks like ill go with insteon then.

Actually, I was not quite correct. The least expensive solution for Insteon is to use a 2412N SmartLinc (which is supported) for $99, plus the free Smartlabs iOS app and the 2477D dimmer switches. I actually have the Roomie events turn off my room lights as part of the event turn on process. Don't get me wrong, the Insteon support is minimal, but it does work.

Note that the difference between the 2412 and everything else is quite vast. Night and day. You will get quite a bit more functionality out of Roomie and your devices with an ISY or Lutron system. The 2412 is very minimalist first-generation.

Thank you.