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Getting Started with Insteon Home Control

Who says we can't multitask? On to Project 3!  We made a return trip to Best Buy, and learned the prices had essentially doubled on most of their SmartHome Insteon products.

(I must have happened across a huge sale last time - and I have before/after photos of the pricing to prove I wasn't imagining things!)

Anyway, I'm sure we'll be picking up most of this stuff at BBY, but in the meantime, it's off to eBay, where I picked up a 2414 SmartLinc central controller (retail $99) for $22. This will allow us to control all connected Insteon switches with an iOS device - which was the entire point of this enterprise from the start.

The dimmer switches will be a bit more expensive, at $40-50 each, retail - and our home theater room alone is going to require 4. And a couple of LampLincs to make sure our table lamps get with the program. Back to eBay!

We're also going to need (want) a KeyPadLinc in order to control "scenes" - i.e., "all on", "movie", and so on, directly from the wall switch. Can't always have the iPad in-hand.

One interesting aspect I've picked up from the Insteon marketing materials is that every single switch on the system is also a transmitter - meaning that as you add devices, your overall system gets stronger and more responsive. I'll keep updating as we add iOS automation to the home.  

***

As an aside - I was at a friend's house with Sonos last weekend.... really great stuff. I'm committing to AirPlay b/c it's cheaper and Apple-oriented.... but Sonos' incorporation of Sirius XM radio, Spotify, and your iTunes library is obviously a far, far better feature set, especially given that it's coming from a single Sonos app.

I haven't tried it yet, but I do understand that the Sirius XM app is AirPlay enabled. Anyone have any experience with AirPlay streaming of Sirius satellite radio?

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