Homekit Enabled Wall Switches

[Vel]

Hi All,

I made a post on here a few months ago regarding a cheap way to purchase homekit enabled GU10's and a member advised me that it may work out cheaper to replace the wall switches instead of the bulbs.

So I was looking at the Insteon and Lutron solutions, as suggested in that post. In terms of practicallity, I much prefer the Insteon, and it's wall pads that have additional buttons that allow you to control additional scenes, and not just the light that particular switch was originally hooked up to.

However, I have been reading reviews and people seem to slate the Insteon Homekit hub, so I was wondering if anyone could help me with any of the following:

• Does anyone have the Insteon products as well as the Homekit hub, if so, is it as bad as everyone makes out?
• Is it possible to get the Insteon wall pads, but sync them to another homekit enabled hub, which is maybe more reliable than Insteon's?
• Are there any other companies that make homekit enabled wall pads/switches that I should consider before buying.

Thanks in advance.

Vel

 

[xraydoc]

Hi All,

I made a post on here a few months ago regarding a cheap way to purchase homekit enabled GU10's and a member advised me that it may work out cheaper to replace the wall switches instead of the bulbs.

So I was looking at the Insteon and Lutron solutions, as suggested in that post. In terms of practicallity, I much prefer the Insteon, and it's wall pads that have additional buttons that allow you to control additional scenes, and not just the light that particular switch was originally hooked up to.

However, I have been reading reviews and people seem to slate the Insteon Homekit hub, so I was wondering if anyone could help me with any of the following:

• Does anyone have the Insteon products as well as the Homekit hub, if so, is it as bad as everyone makes out?
• Is it possible to get the Insteon wall pads, but sync them to another homekit enabled hub, which is maybe more reliable than Insteon's?
• Are there any other companies that make homekit enabled wall pads/switches that I should consider before buying.

Thanks in advance.

Vel

You can't use Insteon wall switches with other hubs, say for example the Lutron hub. The Lutron hub only talks to the Lutron switches and Insteon's hub only talks to the Insteon switches. Though you can have a combination of both in your home and still have them both work with HomeKit/Siri.

I have Lutron all over my house (plus a bunch of Hue smart bulbs in places where I either can't or don't want to replace the wall switches). They work extremely well, but they can't activate different scenes by tapping on them.

You could though program an action so if a certain light goes on, then activate a specific action.

My plan, once iOS 10 is released, is to buy a couple iPad minis to use as a scene controller in certain main rooms. And if strategically placed, they'll provide "Hey, Siri..." voice control without pulling out one's phone or talking to your watch.