Perceptive Automation's Indigo Home Automation software paired with a Smarthome PowerLinc 2414U USB INSTEON/X10 power line interface is working quite well. Running on an iMac with Leopard OS X 10.5.7, the software is full featured with very good log files that distinguish it from the SimpleHomeNet EZSrve (EZServe). Indigo is a welcome relief after struggling with the EZSrve for almost two years.
UPDATE: June 6, 2009 -- No problems after initial configuration. One nice feature of INSTEON is its module to module communication which adds to its "instant on" behavior. Indigo can be a central server with all control requests processed by it but this takes about 2 seconds to process. Indigo can also be used to build module-to-module links in the INSTEON devices just like the EZSrve. This results in faster operation and provides control capability outside Indigo in case Indigo is not running.
All the timers worked last night. The X10 to INSTEON triggers work so X10 controllers can be used to operate INSTEON modules. Everything is working as it should.
The logging on Indigo is great. It revealed a problem with a wireless INSTEON controller. There seemed to be an endless list of empty link records to unload. The RemoteLinc had to be reset to factory because Indigo couldn't get past the downloading of empty records. Now the RemoteLinc is suspect as being part of the EZSrve issues. The EZSrve has no logging however and so all difficulties are in the blind.
I hope to factory reset all INSTEON modules today to get rid of the EZSrve links and then pursue the module to module links. Perhaps Indigo will store those links even if it won't create the links.
Indigo is really a client server architecture. The client on the MacBook Pro is the same client as on the iMac where the server is running. Screen sharing was used to configure Indigo but it all, except applescript, could have been done from the MacBook Pro.
The Indigo Touch iPhone app is spectacular. Download from the iTunes App Store.
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