I know he is very proud of the business you have built. The progress you have made is remarkable and could only be accomplished by someone to whom failure was never an option. I remember the first devices you built, and I still have them.
You have built a line of products, second to no other. Even Lutron cannot match the Inovelli line. Anyone that knows your story will be amazed at your accomplishment. I am still trying to figure out how you managed to squeeze 180 hours of work in a week.
All those sleepless days, thousands of emails and phone calls, thousands of drawings, hundreds of prototypes and an unimaginable number of pens and pencils. We can only guess at the number of printers and paper you used.
And suddenly, there were teenagers in your house. We can only guess at the support you received from your family, friends and employees. We will never understand the work and hardships you went through to make this look easy. Like the man that invented bubble gum, I’m looking forward to see what comes next.
To the team that never gave up, never surrendered; Never said die. Congratulations! You have my sincere admiration.
It’s been a long time and a change of sales platforms - who can I contact to verify you still have my Project Limitless preorder and that it’s getting transferred over?
This is really cool and reminds me of one of my favorite Insteon devices: the KeyPadLinc. Had this been available just a few months ago I wouldn’t have purchased several tablets for the house because they replaced old KeyPadLincs that I could find no replacement for :(.
I am so excited to see this project. I bought my first home a few years ago and am getting ready to gut and modernize it. I was cringing at the steep price tag of the Lutron RadioRA 3 keypads and now I’m so glad that I won’t have to go that route, and that there will be an affordable, good quality alternative that runs on an open ecosystem, and even has some extra features (like the RGB lighting.)
Yes and we are going a step further and offering the same price if you’d like to order more as these will be more expensive. It’s the least we can do at this point!
This is a great point!
Yes, single load only – hopefully we can work on a dual-switch soon as I’ve been wanting that one as well (selfishly for my house too!)
Just so I’m clear are you saying that you’d like any button on the controller to have the ability to do 0-7? If so, then yes, I think that’s a great idea!
Great question!
The way we envision it is that the canopy module (Cheryl) will be a separate project, but it will work with this project (Walt) if you’d like it to.
Building on this, we used to have a Fan/Light switch that was easily one of our best sellers and still ranks #2 on our site for most searches.
We unfortunately had to discontinue it due to us cutting ties with that manufacturer because they didn’t want to fix the disconnection issues the switch was having among other things.
So, we started to brainstorm of ways we could bring that switch back and one of the ideas we had was to come out with a button controller (this project) that could also be used as the Fan/Light switch since the switch part of the product shown above was actually just a remote that would talk to the canopy module.
Said a different way, we wanted to minimize SKU’s (it’s hard to stay in stock and we’d like to narrow our focus on select SKU’s) and the best way to do that was to combine the Fan/Light switch with a Button Controller.
Hope that makes sense?
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Regarding whether or not they will be released at the same time, I think the canopy module will be released sooner than the button controller as the button controller is a very complex switch that has some very hefty firmware that will go into it whereas the canopy module is not that complicated and there are examples out in market already (non-smart) in addition to the one we made, so the team has a head start on it. Finally, we awarded the manufacturer who made our 2-1 switches and our new Fan switch this project, so 80% of the firmware is completed.
Thanks @Gary! When can I have you come to the office to be the official cheerleader, we (I) can certainly use it every now and then. I tell Courtney (who’s been here 4+ years) and Eric M who’s been my wingman from almost the beginning) that we’re going to have a crazy book (or movie) one day.
Some stories I could tell that would blow your mind. We’ve been beaten down, and beaten down hard, but we’ve persevered because of people like you and the community who have had our back over the past 7 years and I am truly grateful for it (and I know Courtney and Eric are too).
I’m looking forward to the next year or so – we have some awesome products on the horizon and it finally feels like we have some momentum behind us!
If you can’t find it in your order history, shoot me a PM and I can take a look for you. We transferred everything over to the latest platform, but if it’s not showing up, we have backups we can look into.
I’ll have to check this one out!
Nice! Congrats on the first house, even if it was a few years ago – still super exciting! Happy to get you some awesome switches to play with
@Eric_Inovelli I’m sure you remember the devices I use. And that I have been a Universal Devices customer long before you built Inovelli.
I use that particular line of switches, fan controllers and keypads for two very important reasons.
One, the fan controllers and keypads. No other company offers the product line.
Two, that particular product is capable of 100% operation even if the controller/hub should disconnect or fail.
I continue to read posts from people asking about 3-way switches. Why? With the proper equipment and a little thought, 3, 4, 5 or 10-way switching is simple. One switch controls the load and any number of other switches tell the load switch what to do.
That is a big reason I like keypads so much; there are 18 currently in my house. I have four keypads, side-by-side, on one wall that allows one to see which lights are on and also control those lights.
You should look into these and see what you can do.
I would welcome a chat some day and maybe i can offer a few ideas.
If the women don’t find you handsome, they should at least find you handy. Hang in there and Never Say Die.
Yes indeed! That was my dream scene controller, until Insteon went under. Never bought into Insteon (thankfully). I was frustrated that there was nothing similar on the market.
Me too, I’m on the tail end of a large addition, and I am hoping this product will be ready within the year so I can install these through the house. As a firmware engineer who is currently building a house, this really is the dream lighting control product for me.
As far as feature requests go:
The tactile feel of the keys is important to me, having a substantial tactile click (not necessarily loud) and a decent amount of key travel would be my preference. This is one of the things I dislike about the scene controller Zooz makes, they feel weak.
The ability to order engraved and/or printed keys is a must for me (doesn’t have to be available from day 1, but label makers really ruin the aesthetic). I believe Insteon sold a packs of keys with premade common words, and then you could pay more for custom ones.
Most anything can be done with automation servers, so I’m not sure your firmware would need specialization for this; but I intend to configure audio control through these. Being able to use volume up/down, next/previous, and play/pause for built-in speakers and home theaters with a matching switch is very appealing.
The Insteon controllers were notorious for dying at regular intervals from cheap electrolytics which were subjected to higher temps by proximity to power components. So I guess don’t cheap out on caps
Can you elaborate here? Are you suggesting these switches don’t need 3-Way capability? Sorry, kids just started school and I’m running on hardly any sleep lol.
Yeah definitely, I appreciate it! I think this is also a fun forum to discuss a lot of these ideas because they often lead to people piling on and taking the ideas to the next level!
I fixed our toilet last night, so I have that going for me!
Good news, the initial timeline has these out in May – going with the normal Inovelli timeline of being late, a year seems within reach haha!
Agree (not regarding the Zooz, I’ve never felt that one, so I don’t know, I’ll take your word on it!) – I think it needs to have a premium feel to it.
Not sure if you have any of our current switches, but is that the feel you’re looking for?
Also agree – I’m working on it, but these engravers seem like they don’t want to sell me anything. I’ve set up multiple appointments, but they all flake out. Really weird.
Good news, this is a hard requirement from the B2B company that is funding this one – they deal with a lot of audio/visual installations and want these to control volume on various devices.
Yes. That is exactly what I am telling you. I will try to explain how it works but i think a drawing will explain it better.
A typical three-way switch has power coming to one switch (A) and the load on the other switch (B).
The wiring between A and B is typically 14-3. Three 14 gauge wires, normall Black, White and Red, and one bare copper for ground.
For this example, the power comes in at A and the load is on B.
Remove the three-way switch, A.
Connect all the White wires together.
Connect the Black power to the Black going to B.
Cap off the Red wire.
At this point you may connect the switch of your choice. Black to Black and White to White. Cap off the switch output lead, Red, as it will not be used.
Remove the three-way switch, B.
Using the switch of your choice,
Connect all the White wires together.
Connect the Black lead from your switch to the Black coming from A.
Cap off the Red wire coming from A.
Connect the Red switch lead to the Black wire going to the lights (load).
At this point, the new switch, B, is the only controller of the lights.
Open the application that controls the “Hub Of Your Choice” and set up switch A. Set A to be a ‘controller’ for B and a ‘responder’ of B.
Now set switch B to be a ‘responder’ of A and a ‘controller’ for A.
By now you see that B actually controls the light and it responds to A, to set the light. You may now add additional switches that communicate with B to set the light.
This is a great way to add three-way capability to an area where no three-way wiring exists. This will work in most houses built in the U.S., within the last 70 years.
Note. I tried to write this as my brother taught me. If there are any mistakes, they are his.
It sounds like you’re describing Association (Z-Wave) or binding (Zigbee), both of which are possible on Inovelli switches. However there is a significant cost difference (nearly double) between buying a second smart switch and buying a cheap Aux switch (which does require the 3 way terminal and the extra traveler wire). You still get scene control, and the config button, just no led bar. And as a bonus, it’s one less switch you have to manage on your network and update. This adds up significantly when you have many independent 3 ways in a house or some locations with lots of switches (I have 1 with 5 and 1 with 6) controlling the same load.
For those reasons, I would argue that it’s still justifiable to keep the hardwired Aux switch 3 way functionality with these switches.
There is no need to argue your point. I simply explained to my long time friend how it is possible.
I would no more argue that this method is better, than argue that Z-Wave or Zigbee is better than Insteon. Or that the Samsung SmartThings controller is better than the Universal Devices eisy.
People use what can afford and what they like. I have been playing this game far too long to argue the politics and religion of others. I know what I like and I know what works.
When it comes to Control and Automation there are as many devices as there are forms of chocolate. Ask any 99 users which are the ones to choose, you will get 100 different answers. It is all subjective and we all have an opinion.
Yeah, agree w/@rohan. Cost aside, there are Inovelli users that don’t have a hub that supports Zigbee binding or Zwave association and want a 3-way capability. So from a business standpoint, you wouldn’t want to exclude those users.
And there are many users that prefer the ease and reliability of a WIRED 3-way solution. Even if the hub has one capability or the other, binding and association aren’t ground balls. Just look around here and you’ll find a ton of users that have issues with those implementations.
My post isn’t about cost so there is no need to argure thst point. It is about an alternate wotking solution. I am not here to argue otherwise.
I have 20 or more switches operating this way and i do not have issues. In fact, I can completely disconnect the controller and every switch and light will continue to function as desired.
This isn’t difficult, this isn’t about cost. It is about technology and what can be accomplished with hardware and forethought.
