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

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.

As much as I would like to rate solely the content of the book, one must consider the whole package. The book is a 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.

This was helpful for me to get a feel for how these networks work. Overall, the book was not written all that well and it's scope in narrow. I bought two books on this topic. The other was better, but still poorly structured and written. It was call Home Automations Made Easy. I would get that book for sure over the Smarthomes book. Just be warned, it really does not have any good introduction to how all this parts work. It starts with a 101 class on house writing and amps, volts and currents. Neither book has a good intro chapter that talks about all the ways these networks can work, do, function. You only figure that out by reading the entire books.

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.

In the late 90’s I played around with X-10, but I have not used home automation since. I picked up Brewer’s book, “Home Automation Made Easy,” but saw Matthew Strebe’s book on Insteon. Strebe has a great writing style, as I had read two of his prior books, “From Serf to Surfer,” and “Firewalls 24seven.”I picked up both Brewer’s book and Strebe’s “Insteon: Smarthomes For Everyone,” and glad I did. I was not originally sold on Insteon, but Matt builds a good case. He provides some great solutions, and things to look out for. If you are new to Home Automation or getting back into it, this is a great text.

The content is alright, though I was hoping for some more advanced information. It would be a good introduction for someone who knows next to nothing about Insteon. The quality of publishing was terrible, though. The images in the book are all blurry and dark, and any text within an image is completely unreadable. If you have even a basic understanding of Insteon, this book is not worth it.

Very interesting book. I learned a lot from it.Why wouldn't they proof read the thing before going to print? No excuse for that.

Interesting read.

Insteon as a system is not well documented. I spent a lot of time figuring out how different components work and which ones I would need in certain situations. This book resolves that very well. The author is a computer geek but not an Insteon employee, and he wrote the book as a result of first-hand experience installing Insteon products. His text is easy to read and understand.The real proof will come in about six months' time when I finish building my new house that will contain more than $4,000-worth of Insteon automation. If I remember, I'll come back and update this review at that time!

Very well written.Loosing it's purpose nowaday with all the wireless technologies coming on their way.But it was very practical to make a great set up of my Power House.