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Anyone used Insteon SwitchLinc relay?

Cobra6

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I want to be able to to turn on the lights outside my detached garage from inside my house, and I am looking at Insteon technology -

But there is a lot of different stuff - it looks like I need a SwitchLinc relay, but I am not sure how to wire my lights - does the relay wire in like a three-way switch?

Has anyone out there utilized this?

Thanks for any help. I am just now starting my homework on this implementation.
 
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Teken

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Jan 2, 2010
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The Bad Lands
I want to be able to to turn on the lights outside my detached garage from inside my house, and I am looking at Insteon technology -

But there is a lot of different stuff - it looks like I need a SwitchLinc relay, but I am not sure how to wire my lights - does the relay wire in like a three-way switch?

Has anyone out there utilized this?

Thanks for any help. I am just now starting my homework on this implementation.

1. You will need to have either a dual band relay, or use a pair of AP's (Access Points to bridge both legs of the single phase electrical system.

2. You require a neutral at both points.

3. You will NOT use the traveler wires but simply cap them off. As the action of on / off is done via electronics.
 

Max Headroom

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Jun 1, 2011
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How are the lights wired right now? Are they on a different subpanel than the main house? Most of the insteon units send the controls over the power lines, but some of the units do both the RF and power line. It's probably best to take a look at that first as that could make a different in the insteon units that you could use. You should be able to get it working, just need to know which of the items that you need to buy for it to work.

If you didn't want to do that you could look at the Lutron, that's all wireless as far as I know and is fairy easy to setup

The other option would be the ones that run the zwave wireless, such as the ones by GE and Leviton. Those seem to me to have more different types of products, so if you wanted to tie a motion sensor in with that it might be easier.

I think any of those would work well - if that's all you are going to do with it, go with the lease expense set you can find and it should take care of. But the big thing about this stuff is that you just keep wanted to expand it. First thing you do is the outside garage, and next think you know you can turn of the kitchen light from your bedroom, then all of a sudden you throw a garage door control in the mix, next thing you know you are using your smartphone to turn on all your lights when you are minute or two away from home. Some of the stuff you can do with it is "cool", but once I started installing mine, I kept finding things that made things easier for me - groups lights in the kitchen together instead of having to toggle 3 different switches, etc.

So really, any of them will work, just take a look around and see if makes sense and you think you would want to expand your system beyond that one controller and what you would like to do with it. That would probably dictate what you want to buy. I find it really handy to be able to turn the porch light on and off from the living room, but that's just my preference. I've got a mix on the insteon and z-wave, and both have worked like champs.
 
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Cobra6

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Well,
right now I only need these lights, but I am planning a wireless garage door opener next -
I am wiring my detached garage right now, so I am trying to get this in right before I get drywall up.

I will look at the Lutron website more today - thanks.
 

AussieDan

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Syracuse, NY
If you want to go with the SwitchLinc, the 4th pic on this page shows how you would want to hook it up.
2476sside4big.jpg

The left-hand box shows the setup in the house, the right hand the garage. You would connect the garage outlets to the black (traveler), white (neutral) and ground wires coming from the house.

You can create the same setup with Insteon ICON switches and save $10/switch, there is a great walkthrough here.
 
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Cobra6

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If you want to go with the SwitchLinc, the 4th pic on this page shows how you would want to hook it up.
The left-hand box shows the setup in the house, the right hand the garage. You would connect the garage outlets to the black (traveler), white (neutral) and ground wires coming from the house.

You can create the same setup with Insteon ICON switches and save $10/switch, there is a great walkthrough here.

Thanks - that should get me right in the game - I think there is so much info on the SmartHome site it was hard to find what I was looking for.
 
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Zick

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If you really want to get into Insteon, check out this site; http://forum.universal-devices.com/
A Lot of good information and help over there.

Btw, when we build our house we did the entire thing with Insteon. So basically any switch can control any light and it's completely customizable. We also have an ISY and PLM so everything is programmed via the computer and can also setup programs to turn anything on/off whenever we like.
 

AussieDan

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No worries Cobra6, I've been interested in home automation for a while but haven't had the chance to play with it yet since we're hoping to move soon.

Zick your setup sounds awesome, I'll definitely have to check out that link.
 

ixlr8

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I did use X-10 and switched over to Insteon and an ISY/PLM controller, best move I have made as far as home automation. I have a 6 button Insteon keypad set up in the house so that I can turn off the lights in my shop. With the keypad, I can also open/close the garage doors and the indicator light on the controlling button indicates if the door is open or closed. Which is nice since I can't see the garage doors on the shop from inside the house. The ISY/PLM is not needed to make all this work.. but it sure makes setting it up much easier. There is a little bit of a programming learning curve with the ISY, but I think it is worth it. I think between the ISY/PLM and Insteon modules I might have $250.00 in the system. The surprising thing, I am presently powering the shop with an 100ft extension cord run from the house and it all works fine.
 

Dusty Floor

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Feb 20, 2011
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Cobra6 - the info AussieDan shows is for converting an existing 3way switch setup. If that's what you have, follow that diagram. If you have a single switch, you simply replace it with the Insteon switch, although you'll need a neutral (white) wire in addition to the hot that is being switched. The remote switch can be an in-wall keypad, a single Insteon switch (with the load wire capped off), or a table-top keypad. Depending on distance and whether you are on the same "leg" of your panel, you may or may not need dual-band devices (the dual-band devices transmit both over the powerline and via RF). Unless you are willing to experiment, I'd start with two dual-band devices. There are a lot of knowledgeable people at the forum that Zick links to if you want to ask specific questions about your setup.
 

AussieDan

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Yeah in his other thread Cobra6 explained that he is trying to add a garage door opener in his garage that currently has only a 3-way switched lighting circuit. By switching over to the Insteon setup as described one of the existing switched travelers will become a regular hot wire and be able to feed the insteon switch controlling his lights along with the new garage door opener receptacle. You're absolutely correct that he could use any insteon-compatible controller at the house end to replicate the current 3-way switching configuration.

I'm not an expert on when dual-band control is needed, but in this situation with a single hot wire between the 2 switches it seems like it might be overkill.
 
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Cobra6

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Well - I went back to review all the details and get this circuit in - Dusty hit the nail on the head - this is a new circuit I am about to set up - I didn't even realize that setup was for add-on to and existing circuit.

I want to set up a new circuit so I can turn on my outside lights on my detached garage from my house (60 feet away) without running a hard wire through my concrete patio. I have not wired the lights in my new garage yet - I am just finishing up all the other wiring, and I need to go ahead and order the Insteon switches so they will get here by the weekend.

Looks like I can just wire in a single Insteon switch on my garage, and add a switch with power in my house - I don't want to get fancy yet -

I will be adding a wireless garage door opener on my house attached garage - but it will probably be in the spring.
 

gatchel

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Dec 12, 2009
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West of King of Prussia, PA
Well - I went back to review all the details and get this circuit in - Dusty hit the nail on the head - this is a new circuit I am about to set up - I didn't even realize that setup was for add-on to and existing circuit.

I want to set up a new circuit so I can turn on my outside lights on my detached garage from my house (60 feet away) without running a hard wire through my concrete patio. I have not wired the lights in my new garage yet - I am just finishing up all the other wiring, and I need to go ahead and order the Insteon switches so they will get here by the weekend.

Looks like I can just wire in a single Insteon switch on my garage, and add a switch with power in my house - I don't want to get fancy yet -

I will be adding a wireless garage door opener on my house attached garage - but it will probably be in the spring.

I would suggest using a Keypadlinc in the house so that you can have 6 or 8 devices that are controlled, just in case you want to expand in the future. I have 3 Insteon switches in the gararge for exterior lighting. There is about 70 feet of cable between the house and the garage and the switches work very well.
 
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