Hello, my wife and I bought a house earlier this year with a custom in ground pool and attached spa and waterfall so I'm fairly new to the whole pool world. I'm currently using the newest Insteon hub for home automation and am wondering if there's any way to interface with my Pentair EasyTouch control panel from my Insteon hub in order to control things like turning on and off the hot tub, getting notifications when it reaches certain temperatures, as well as controlling the pump and auxiliary pump for controlling water features. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Controlling Pentair EasyTouch With Insteon?
- Thread starter btreezy
- Start date
No expert here, but I have an EasyTouch8 (ET) and also run Insteon. I've not considered mixing the two because the ET seems to just do a very nice job and it has schedules capabilities. I'll qualify that by saying that the part that makes it very easy is the Screen Logic interface (also from Pentair for iOS and Android) for the EasyTouch. It's a few hundred bucks if your ET isn't too old - just something to consider looking at if you don't mind spending more money. You can then control everything from your phone, but it is still not integrated with your Insteon.
On to what you have asked about though - Insteon makes some low voltage controls for drapes, sprinkler systems, etc. You might be able to integrate those to control part of the pool (use low voltage to trigger the relays), but I'm not aware of how to get temperature readings back out of the ET to the Insteon system for further logic decisions and actions. The mother board on the ET can take logic commands from an outside device (it does it from the Screen Logic and Pool side or indoor mounted remotes) - you'd have to know and decipher those signals - and then learn how to make Insteon duplicate those signals for you. I've not seen anything around that would do that out of the box.
What Insteon controller do you use? I use the ISY device from Universal devices and really use it just for lighting control. I've got about 40 switches through the house, fully automated for dusk, dawn, etc. I say this because as much as I like automation I'm just OK with each being tailored to what it does best and have not yearned for a single place to control it all. The Screen Logic is so simple and straight forward I can't imagine anyone else doing it better, I really like it's ease of use. I've got a Honeywell thermostat, and just use schedules and it's independent phone interface (I already gave up on Nest). Same with my alarm and music system - I just use their dedicated app. I just keep all of my apps in one folder and use them for what each is designed to do best. Would it be cool to hit one button and turn the spa on, adjust the temp inside and turn on music outside - yes would be very cool, but I haven't seen anyone control it all and do it well. The Amazon Echo (has an interface for Insteon) and Homekit I guess are trying, but nothing is mature enough.
On to what you have asked about though - Insteon makes some low voltage controls for drapes, sprinkler systems, etc. You might be able to integrate those to control part of the pool (use low voltage to trigger the relays), but I'm not aware of how to get temperature readings back out of the ET to the Insteon system for further logic decisions and actions. The mother board on the ET can take logic commands from an outside device (it does it from the Screen Logic and Pool side or indoor mounted remotes) - you'd have to know and decipher those signals - and then learn how to make Insteon duplicate those signals for you. I've not seen anything around that would do that out of the box.
What Insteon controller do you use? I use the ISY device from Universal devices and really use it just for lighting control. I've got about 40 switches through the house, fully automated for dusk, dawn, etc. I say this because as much as I like automation I'm just OK with each being tailored to what it does best and have not yearned for a single place to control it all. The Screen Logic is so simple and straight forward I can't imagine anyone else doing it better, I really like it's ease of use. I've got a Honeywell thermostat, and just use schedules and it's independent phone interface (I already gave up on Nest). Same with my alarm and music system - I just use their dedicated app. I just keep all of my apps in one folder and use them for what each is designed to do best. Would it be cool to hit one button and turn the spa on, adjust the temp inside and turn on music outside - yes would be very cool, but I haven't seen anyone control it all and do it well. The Amazon Echo (has an interface for Insteon) and Homekit I guess are trying, but nothing is mature enough.
bt,
Welcome to TFP... a Great place to be..
The EasyTouch is light years behind any real automation system. Don't get me wrong, I love my EasyTouch and it does almost everything pool related that I want to do, but it is not built to allow for any interchange of data with the outside world in any format except "Pentair". It was designed to be solely a pool control system and has no "hooks" that can be use for other things, by other systems.
As GDN says... Get ScreenLogic2. It makes using the EasyTouch about 10 times easier. With ScreenLogic, you can do everything that the EasyTouch can do, but you can do it from your PC, tablet, or phone.
Thanks for posting,
Jim R.
Welcome to TFP... a Great place to be..
The EasyTouch is light years behind any real automation system. Don't get me wrong, I love my EasyTouch and it does almost everything pool related that I want to do, but it is not built to allow for any interchange of data with the outside world in any format except "Pentair". It was designed to be solely a pool control system and has no "hooks" that can be use for other things, by other systems.
As GDN says... Get ScreenLogic2. It makes using the EasyTouch about 10 times easier. With ScreenLogic, you can do everything that the EasyTouch can do, but you can do it from your PC, tablet, or phone.
Thanks for posting,
Jim R.
Hey GDN, thanks for all the info! Yeah I don't have to manage it all from one place, Screen Logic sounds like a good solution for me. I'm really just looking for a way to control my pool and hot tub from my phone, tablet, or laptop. I currently have an Insteon hub but am looking to move to ISY sometime in the future so that I can add on more zwave devices for home automation.
Thanks for your help!
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Thanks for the info Jimrahbe!
Thanks for your help!
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Thanks for the info Jimrahbe!
Give the ScreenLogic2 a try - think you'll be very pleased with what it can do for you - and the simplistic design. I also added the zwave module to my ISY - I only have a door lock that uses it and I rarely lock or unlock it remotely.