Run HouseLinc2 and HCA simultaneously?

[kg09]

I have just recently changed from X10 ActiveHome to HouseLinc2 and Insteon devices and unfortunately, I have only now stumbled on HCA. Since I have about 80 scences programmed in HL2, I do not find anywhere that they could be "imported" into HCA. Is that possible.
the reason for considering to change already to HCA is the possibility of being able to run @home and @away events
Alternatively, could I run HL2 and HCA simultaneously on the same computer, running of course different devices through the same USB interface?

[kjbbasic]

I've run HL2 and HCA off the same computer BUT using two different PLMs, a 2412U for HCA and a 2412UH for HL2. HCA I think will run off of the 2412UH...but I only did a quick test of this at one point and it seemed to be working. I've run both programs (using 2 PLMs) at the same time with seemingly no ill effects, but I usually try and avoid that and just fire up one at a time. Running both off the same PLM...not sure about this.

I've often setup scenes via HL2, then added the devices to HCA (just basic device setup so HCA knows a device with that address exists...) and used the "Network Capture" feature to "import" the scene info into HCA. It seems to work quite well. Just be careful if you use the Network Clean feature...it sometimes reports things (links) that need to be "cleaned" (removed by default) that are really ok. I usually rerun the capture on those devices to try and verify if there is an issue plus, obviously, review what it's reporting as a problem before I take any action (if any).

HCA can also try and spider your network to discover new devices but, like I said, I usually just do a quick add of the device in HCA then do the capture to get the scene/link info.

Hope this helps.

[kg09]

Thanks kjbbasic; your comments give me the confidence to move ahead
one question though, what is the difference between 2412U for HCA and a 2412UH ? on the Smarthome site I see only that U is the PLM only, while UH is what appears the same PLM with the HL2 software.

[kjbbasic]

Based on what I've read and some experience with running both; the 2412U and 2412UH are essentially the same but the 2412UH supposedly has some firmware changes that HL2 requires. So HL2 will apparently not not run with the 2412U (never tried it myself), it requires the UH. Other programs seem to run fine with either the U or UH....from my brief experience with running HCA via either plus what I've read on other forums this seems to be the case.

As to specifically what the differences in tech details are, I don't know...and why they chose to do/sell both??? $$$

..but if someone else knows I'd be curious!

...and now the 2413U and 2413UH are in the mix...dual band stuff...