I have had an Amazon echo since the beta and have really enjoyed it but the one thing I was hoping for more than anything was integration with my Insteon home control system. As of last weekend I got my wish and after some simple setup I basically spent the rest of the weekend flexing my inner (there is definitely no outer) Tony Stark.
Although the step is pretty simple and Smarthome has done a great job, there are a couple of tips on how to get the most from it.
The Echo requires that you have the latest version of the Insteon Hub (2245-222)
I had to upgrade to the new hub but they have an upgrade discount right now. If you don't have an existing hub you can skip ahead. If you do, then you will need to manually add all your devices top the new one as there is no way to transfer the setup from your old hub. However it only took me an evening to set it up the same.
TIP: Add the new Hub to your existing account. It is not obvious but you need to go to Settings->House Management->Add a House in the App. Do this before you plug it in as it will ask you to scan the label on the bottom of the hub. Then you should have them both running in parallel with two phones or tablets, each one set to a different house again by using Settings->House Management in each app. You can now go alphabetically device by device on each app side by side and add devices by ID from the comfort of your couch and you don't need to walk all round the house pressing set buttons. Only exception are sensors which require you to put them in link mode and cannot be added by ID. Remember to replicate all your alert settings and schedules too.
TIP: You may want to take the opportunity of renaming your devices during this process as this will make the Echo's job simpler when it comes to controlling them with your voice. Fro example, if you have "kitchen lights" and "kitchen cabinet lights" then Alexa says she has multiple device matches as they sound similar. Changing it to "kitchen spots" and "kitchen cabinets" seems to have solved the issue for me so far.
TIP: At some point you will want to turn off your old hub. Make sure you have set all of your apps to point to the new hub otherwise the app gets stuck looking for the old hub and won't let you pick the new one. I have yet to work out how to delete it from the App and make the new one the default.
You are also going to need an Amazon Echo
It is now a simple job of adding your Hub to the Echo's list of connected devices. A quick scan and it finds all your devices, though it can only control lights and plug modules right now so no setting the thermostat or asking if there are any doors or windows open. Hopefully that is in the works. You will want to have it forget all the devices it cannot control as that will improve the issue with name conflict when controlling it. However if you do that, the next time you need to scan the hub, maybe because you changed a device name or added a new one, it will find them all again so you may want to hold off until it is all stable.
Unfortunately the echo cannot read scenes from the hub but you can setup groups in the Echo app and then use those to control multiple devices. Cannot begin to explain how cool it is to say "Alexa, turn on Deck Evening" and see the lights come on, yard lights, fountain, etc. It is nothing you couldn't do with a single key press before but somehow it is way cooler and more impressive to just say it, and definitely quicker than opening an app or walking over to a keypad. My favorite scene I have created so far is Whole House. With a single request you can turn off everything!
Does it work perfectly? Not quite yet. Sometimes it says it cannot control certain devices or they are not responding. That can cause a scene like the Whole House one to fail and that can be frustrating. Clearly voice control is the future but it is also available here and now.
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