Version 7 Insteon

Insteon is a new technology from SmartHome Design. This new powerline carrier technology facilitates much better communication between devices, keypads, and a home automation system.

I've used HCA 7 for a few months. The software is great and accomplishes all my tasks. I've changed all my X10 devices to Insteon and everything works flawlessly. I did not have that reliability before.
-- Lawrence D. MBA, MD

HCA 7 supports Insteon in these ways:

	HCA communicates over the powerline using the USB Insteon PowerLinc V2 Controller.
	You can directly control any device. On, Off, and Dim operations supported.
	Status can be queried for any device.
	You can create HCA program triggers based upon Insteon keypad or switch action
	You can use Insteon devices in HCA schedules and programs.
	Using HCA power failure recovery, you can provide better control over individual devices than what the devices can do themselves.
	Supports using the 2414U PowerLinc for legacy X10 sends and receives.

But while all this is great stuff, the bigger picture is where it's at. HCA supports multiple automation interfaces simultaneously. This means that with HCA you can bridge between the Insteon, UPB, wireless, and X10 worlds. All you need do is attach a wireless interface, an X10 interface, and a UPB interface and HCA can receive and transmit to each type of device and provide the bridge you need.

Do you need to use motion sensors to control Insteon devices? No problem! HCA can receive wireless motion sensor transmissions (using the W800RF32) and then transmit commands to the Insteon devices using the PowerLinc.

Do you have some X10 devices, some Insteon devices, and some UPB devices? HCA can receive commands from Insteon keypads and run programs to send commands to X10 and UPB devices. Or receive X10 commands and transmit Insteon commands. Or have programs and groups that manipulate all these device types.

Using HCA, a fully functional automation solution can be built from those components that you need - choosing the best parts from all the automation worlds.

All the HCA features relating to UPB are in appendix 15 of the User Guide. The full User Guide and Appendixes are available for download here

Since the User Guide and Appendixes files are large, if you want just the Insteon information, appendix 15 can be downloaded here:

Appendix 15 Microsoft Word format	a15_Insteon.doc (273 kb)
Appendix 15 PDF format	a15_Insteon.pdf (215 kb)

We know that no one likes to read documentation. But UPB is complex and we strongly suggest you read this appendix. Please do so - it is fairly painless.

A few notes on the 2414U Insteon PowerLinc:

HCA can use the 2414U to send and receive both Insteon and X10 commands. X10 support is, however, not as good in some areas as other X10 interfaces. What's not as good? Two things: Dimming for the oldest type of X10 devices - LM465 - and those devices that use extended command sequences - the LM14, AM14, and some Leviton devices. If you have many of these devices and you also want to use Insteon you may want to consider using the 2414U for Insteon and a CM11 or LynX-10PLC for X10 commands.

HCA 7.0 doesn't support downloading of schedules and programs to the 2414U PowerLinc memory like we do with the 1132CU PowerLinc.

Insteon support is in both HCA Standard, HCA Plus and in HCA Pro.