Insteon Wireless Lighting Starter Kit

One Touch Mood Control

 Imagine this, your significant other is coming over late one night, or just getting off of work, and you want to make the night special for them. You've bought the flowers and the candles, you have a hot bath drawn and the dinner is ready to serve. Just when they have pulled into the driveway you realize that the lamps are inordinately bright. So you frantically dash from room to room in a vein and stereotypically sitcomesque frenzy attempting to hush the abrasive lights down to the "romantic"setting when you trip over your own clumsy feet and fracture your wrist. Now I know you're all thinking, "Gosh, that happens to me all the time!" Well my blundering left-footed friend, fret no more!

 We would like to thank Smarthome  for providing us with the Insteon Starter Kit. This affordable little setup could make the old way of turning on and off your lights go the way of the Dodo bird.

• What's Included?:
• Two SignaLinc RFs (3 Pronged)
• Two LampLinc V2 Dimmers (3 Pronged)
• One ControLinc V2 Tabletop Controller
• Instruction Manual
• Product Magazine

 Luckily for the unskilled handy-man the parts require no assembly and can be quickly set up in a matter of minutes!

Design and Features

SignaLinc RFs

  First we should look at the foundation of the product which happens to be the SignaLinc RFs. They form and strengthen the network of communication that will be needed for everything to work properly. These units feature an "Always On" port so that it doesn't waste a socket and you can plug anything into it as you normally would. The antenna can be adjusted left or right, but does not rotate, and can be pointed either toward the ground or the ceiling.

LampLinc V2 Dimmer

 Next we have the similar LampLinc V2 Dimmer plugs. These each feature two sockets, one "Always On" socket so that your regular appliances can still be used, and one "Controlled" socket that will respond to the commands of the Tabletop Controller. It should be noted that the "Controlled" socket can not accept regular appliances, instead it is a lamps only plug.

ControLinc V2 Tabletop

 Finally we have the ControLinc V2 Tabletop Controller. This is where all the action takes place. It sports a sleek black and grey design with soft buttons and up to five programmable channels. A flip-up prop so that it can either lie flat, or stand on end. It also has an LED light at the top so that it will let you know what it may or may not be thinking.

 I can not honestly say that the units are inconspicuous as they are somewhat bulky and in today's world with the proliferation of slick and modernistic televisions, monitors, and various out-of-the-way items one has to make sure they stay on the up and up in regards to being "low key". However the product is built with quality and it seems that should I smack it across a marble counter for fun it wouldn't bust into tiny synthetic pieces.

Performance and Testing

In A Harefooted Hurry

 The people at Insteon don't mess around when it comes to creating a product that is simple to use and can be set up quickly. I skimmed over the instructions (rather poorly because I'm a man) and had everything set up, just like they say, in about ten minutes.

 All you had to do was find two plugs that were useable, plug in the SignaLinc RFs and synch them up, then plug in your LampLinc Dimmers and program them to which ever channel on the Tabletop Controller you wanted. The process was extremely simple and fast. Hold a few buttons, wait for a flash and your done! Now if only our VCRs were that easy, oy vay!

 I did however run into a slight problem when setting up and synching the SignaLinc RFs in a bathroom that had been re-wired recently; however sockets in the rest of the home worked fine. You may find that odd wiring or similar issues could interfere or disrupt the X-10 signals.

T Minus Two Lamps, Houston

 Once I had everything installed I put my two lamps together so I could see all the dimming glory at once and commenced to an outrageous mania of button pressing.

 The five buttons across the top of the Tabletop Controller are marked as the "On" buttons and, once programmed, will turn on the lights associated with that particular channel. The five buttons across the bottom are marked as the "Off" buttons and will turn the associated lights off.

 To program them is very simple and only takes a moment. Once you've done this you will be the Puppet Master of all light bulbs, and only then will they learn to respect you. The Controller features an "All On" button which appropriately turns all the lights on, and an "All Off" button which does the opposite. It also has "Bright" and "Dim" buttons which, when held, will brighten or dim the lights. Both rows of buttons can also be programmed with an X10 address so that you can link up with an already existing X10 network

 In order to dim or brighten all the lights at once, all you have to do is press "All On" then hold the "Dim" or "Bright" button. To do the same with just one particular channel, or light, press the "On" button to the corresponding light and then proceed to dim or brighten. Basically the Controller pays attention to the channel or light that you selected last.

BoosterLinc Issues

 It should be noted that there has apparently been some problems with some of the older versions of BoosterLinc products interfering with the Insteon products. Also there is some word about existing X10 devices not working as properly after the installation of the Insteon product. There are solutions however and information can be found here on Smarthome's website.

Compatibility with Existing X10 Devices 

 Insteon also takes into account the fact that you may already have an X10 network set up in your home and they make it simple for you to switch all your existing devices over to the Insteon network so that you won't have to spend more money starting from scratch. However Insteon devices will only repeat Insteon signals and not X10 signals. More in-depth information can be found here.

Review Summary

 In all it seems that the Insteon Starter Kit is a nice gadget to have if you have a lot of lamps and you enjoy being able to have ultimate control over their brightness and activation from one central location. However, the kit only comes with two LampLinc Dimmers and you have five programmable buttons so you would have to spend an extra $90 ($30 per Dimmer) to be able to control up to a total of five lamps. As I had mentioned before the design is somewhat bulky but definitely built with quality. The color scheme is a neutral white, grey, and black and the installation is a breeze.  

• PROS 
• Manufactured with quality
• Extremely easy to install and program
• Compatible with existing X-10 network or devices
• Affordable starter kit to help you get started with X-10
  
  CONS
• Bulky design  
• Compatible with existing X-10, but may need additional devices to boost signal strength or re-programming to work properly.(depends on your old setup)

RATINGS

Product Available at: Smarthome 

 We would like to thank Smarthome for providing us with the Insteon Starter Kit for review and supporting the Geek community. Check out their site for a lot more interesting home automation products.