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INSTEON seems a good candidate to replace old-school technology X10. Especially, if it’ll take into account compatibility between them. I see the only one disadvantage of INSTEON - it isn’t adopted to European electricity standard yet. But I hope it’ll be done soon. But now I’d like to introduce you three cool INSTEON devices.

INSTEON 8 Button Keypad Countdown Timer with Dimmer allows to define countdown timers to switch ON/OFF lighting. There are 8 predefined timers from 2 minutes to 4 hours and they can be applied not only lines connected to the device but to every INSTEON device in your home. Additionally, keypad can be used as a dimmer to set comfort level of the light.

INSTEON Thermostat Adapter offers a simple way to add Venstar T1700 thermostat into your INSTEON network. As advantage it might to expand 1-Day Programmable thermostat functionality by creation and storing scenarios on the central controller.

INSTEON KeypadLinc Dimmer w/ Amber LEDs combines two devices in one: In-wall controller and 400-watt dimmer. It allows to monitor and control six different devices or sets of devices and easily create whole-house lighting scenes. Mounting into Tabletop Enclosure gives you possibility to have a portable controller which can be plugged it into any indoor outlet.

Well, I really like to have European version of INSTEON devices. Especially after INSTEON interface was added into LinuxMCE.

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INSTEON Thermostat Adapter offers a simple and efficient way to add your Totaline / Venstar thermostat into your INSTEON network. It’s plugged into the jack on the bottom the thermostat and should be linked to the INSTEON controller, using INSTEON’s simple Plug-n-Tap setup. After that you’ll able to control the temperature from the controller and receive back its current value.

The INSTEON Thermostat Adapter doesn’t require battery. It’s powered by the thermostat. Just note that the INSTEON Thermostat Adapter is not compatible with X10.

The INSTEON Thermostat Adapter is expected to be available from 15/02/2008 at price $99.99.

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According to SmartLabs, Inc., founder and CEO Joe Dada INSTEON devices will be available in the UK and European market:

We will be entering the UK/Euro market with INSTEON either directly, or with one or more partners. Any input that we could get from your readers as to customer preferences (e.g. which products are most desireable) would be greatly helpful.

It’s very good news. Especially after Dan developed his GSD LinuxMCE interface for EZBridge and PLM.

[via AutomatedHome]

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Recently I wrote about releasing of beta version of LinuxMCE and INSTEON integration. That integration is implemented as GSD and uses EZBridge to connect INSTEON network to PC. Now I found test code which allows to use another INSTEON adapter PLM. So, you can wait till 0710 will be released or test that functionality now to help developers find bugs and improve it before new version will be out.

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LinuxMCE promised to include into coming version 0710 integration with INSTEON. Unfortunately, the release is delayed a bit (there is too much work, hopefully it’ll be at the end of December) but the INSTEON interface you can test even now. It’s implemented as Generic Serial Device (GSD) in Ruby and available in that forum thread. To be able play with it you have to have EZBridge, at least one INSTEON device and know how to add a new GSD device in LinuxMCE. All found bugs, problems, suggestion can be posted the same forum topic.

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