Insteon: Smarthomes For Everyone: The Do-It-Yourself Home Automation Technology [Paperback]

Matthew Strebe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2, 2009

INSTEON: Smarthomes for Everyone is the first book to cover the amazing new INSTEON home automation and control system. INSTEON works over your existing powerlines to reliably control lighting and appliances from any switch in your house. Setup path lighting, scene lighting, security and environment control with the touch of a button. Best of all, no computer expertise or electrical skills beyond basic Do-It-Yourself handyman skills are required! If you can replace an electrical switch, you can install an entire INSTEON home automation system yourself. INSTEON: Smarthomes for Everyone brings together everything the Do-It-Yourself homeowner needs to know about INSTEON in order to design and install a complete and reliable smarthome system. Smarthome technology is the wave of the future, and INSTEON is the low-cost, high-reliability leader in the field, with more installed systems than any other modern smarthome technology--even those costing many times more. For less than $1 per square foot, you can control all the lighting in your home as well as your audio/visual system, security system, sprinkers and irrigation. Turn off lights over the Internet! Close your garage door from Work! Shut off every light in your home from your nightstand--and lock all the doors! From beginner to expert, this book will guide you through the process with step-by-step instructions and leave you with a complete understanding of your system. Get more out of your home with INSTEON Smarthome technology.

Product Details

• Paperback: 324 pages
• Publisher: iUniverse (April 2, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1440133433
• ISBN-13: 978-1440133435
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #696,642 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Five stars for the book--one for the publisher--AMENDED, September 11, 2009

By 

Travis Miller - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Insteon: Smarthomes For Everyone: The Do-It-Yourself Home Automation Technology (Paperback)

This is a great book. The author is obviously very enthusiastic about this technology and its application, which makes for a pretty engaging read. As a fellow technologist, I particularly enjoyed the fact that he went into the theory behind how not only INSTEON but other competing home automation systems work and why INSTEON is a superior, less expensive, more reliable protocol than competitors. He takes you through the basics of electrical wiring and working with electric through planning your system, ideas for use cases, installation, and a fairly comprehensive (as of the writing) list of available categories of devices, as well as touching on lessons he learned from using INSTEON in his own home.

While the subject matter was very good, the execution was terrible--an outcome I blame solely on the publisher. They actually used gray (dithered) type instead of pure black, screen shots were too blurry to be recognizable until the last chapter, and there were far too many unforgivable spelling and grammatical mistakes (e.g. your vs. you're, etc.). I mean come on people, you're based in a big ten college town. I'm pretty sure you could hire some English major to edit your books for minimum wage. It was extremely distracting and disappointing--so much so that I will probably try to avoid this publisher in the future.

So, to sum it up: I would definitely recommend this book as an introduction if you are considering installing INSTEON or are even just interested in learning about how it works. You'll gain enough of an idea of what's possible to begin deciding how you want to accomplish automation tasks in your home and have a game plan for getting started, although if you're anything like me, you may wince a little while reading.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Good Introduction - Poor Publishing, February 17, 2010

By 

Dan Albarran (Bethesda, MD United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Insteon: Smarthomes For Everyone: The Do-It-Yourself Home Automation Technology (Paperback)

As much as I would like to rate solely the content of the book, one must consider the whole package. The book is an very good introduction to the topic of automating your home using INSTEON products. I did feel that the author was a bit biased in his comparison with other products (UPB,ZigBee, and X10) and would have liked to have seen his sources. The competitor comparison reads too much like it is written or contributed by Smart Labs. The book is filled with grammatical errors and the pictures are hard to see. The software screen prints in the book are impossible to read. They are blurry. Many of the photographs are too dark. One wonders where the quality control process was on this job. I have already contacted the publisher about the problem. I haven't heard back yet. The author does an excellent job presenting the basics of using INSTEON but does not go into depth. This is basically a very good beginning INSTEON book directed to end-consumers of INSTEON products. It is not a book for developers intending to integrate INSTEON in software solutions. If the publishing quality was better, I could see giving this book 4 stars.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Comprehensive and Informative!, June 20, 2009

By 

Steve Bicker (Scotts Valley, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Insteon: Smarthomes For Everyone: The Do-It-Yourself Home Automation Technology (Paperback)

While my motivation for buying this book might be different from most people; I bought it because I was looking for a business opportunity as opposed to a DIY/homeowner. Nonetheless, this is a very well thought-out book. It is written in a very easy-to-read style but still manages to convey concepts that are somewhat complex. Mr Strebe covers all the bases and compares Insteon to competing technologies, which is VERY important when considering any kind of major technological commitment. I would very much recommend this book for anyone looking at home automation for either business or home improvement.