Insteon Hub II appears first in November 2014 Smarthome catalog

April 20 2022 Urgent Update - Insteon ceased all sales and service operations abruptly in mid April of 2022, as covered by arstechnica here. Their abrupt closure left customers without access to their hubs to change any settings, myself included. While smarthome.com hasn't been taken offline yet, I would not recommend ordering anything. This shut-down has been confirmed by Insteon, see @danwroc's tweet linking to insteon.com/news2022. It's also not quite as bad operationally as it first seemed, with my own home's sunset/midnight/sunrise programs all still running fine, at least until the next Daylight Saving Time change on November 6 2022 here in the US. There also might be some paths forward to keep the installed hardware going, see details in My Hub is now offline thread on reddit, where rszostak writes:

Folks just to clear up a few things, the issue with the servers being done impacts the Insteon App which uses the Insteon servers to process the requests from the App. The timers are actually stored on the hub thus the reason those still work but you need the App to make changes so we are screwed to make changes as long as the Insteon servers are down, the Insteon App is effectively dead. However the good news is the hub can still be used with software that runs locally and does not rely on the cloud.

This is a shameful example of poor company behavior, and of the risk taken when investing in gear from any cloud-connected IoT device company. Such stories hurt the IoT industry as a whole. I'm glad that the prospects for some level of local Insteon device control may make the pain felt much less keen that it would be for other sad story endings such as Wink, and hopefully I can keep my dozens of Insteon devices away from landfills for at least a little while longer. All my local light wall toggle switches will continue to keep working, and a while back I moved from Insteon leak and smoke sensors over to the monitored service of (Amazon owned) Ring Home Security System.

Article as it originally appeared below.

Got a catalog from Smarthome in the mail today. I know, right? It's actual paper. Right there on the cover is the "New and Improved" Insteon Hub II. Peculiar though, as it would appear they jumped the gun by sending this catalog out. This appears to be the first anybody has heard anything about this product.

Both the older and the newer models are listed on the same page 52:

Insteon Hub model 2242-222 $129.99 (~2 years old)
Insteon Hub II model 2245-222 $39.99 (not yet shipping)

and yeah, I know, that $39.99 price seems rather amazing if true, especially given it's touted as improved. See also images of the catalog below, where it's notable that the photos from the new hub may be mixed up, used in the lower part of page 52 tha lists the original hub model # and price.

I was on the phone briefly with the always-excellent Smarthome support today actually, and inquired about this new model. Nothing is known for sure yet, and what he did say was absolutely not "official," so consider this information rumour. The support representative seemed confident that the Insteon Hub II will be:

• a dual-band device
• equipped with QR code for easy set-up, aiming your smartphone's camera at the code using the app
• using UPnP to talk to the home's router, for automatic port forwarding configuration
• released on an unknown date, perhaps December 2014

Should be interesting to see what happens next, as we follow these sites for the latest info:

smarthome.com/press-releases
smarthome.com
amazon.com (link does a Google search for Insteon "2245-222")

For now, it seems the only information I'm finding anywhere is discussion about the catalog on the Smarthome, INSTEON, and Universal Devices forums:

forum.smarthome.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=15986
forum.insteon.com/forum/main-category/new-to-insteon/28032-new-insteon-hub-ii
forum.universal-devices.com/topic/14527-2245-222-hub-ii
homeautomationforums.com/topic/180-insteon-hub-ii-is-arriving-soon

where their sleuthing discovered the Quick Start Guide and Manual.

See also

TinkerTry featured on BYOB Episode 125 “Home Automation”

by Paul Braren on Jun 24 2013

Superguide: Insteon Home Automation

by Paul Braren on Jun 23 2013

Insteon Hub first impressions, easier home automation, configured right from your smartphone

by Paul Braren on Dec 22 2012

Nov 24 2014 Update

1. see also visitor TheGuy comments below, where he links to insteon.com/insteon-hub.html
2. I haven't found a way to buy just the new Hub on amazon.com
3. it's apparently not Hub II or Hub 2, it's just The Insteon Hub
4. no announcement yet, over on Smarthome's Press Releases page
5. email from Smarthome @ email.smarthome.com arrived today, at 6:06am eastern

Notice this section near the bottom of that email that I've pasted in below, there's several 4 shopping links, including the first link for just the Hub:

smarthome.com/insteon-2245-222-hub.html

which for now, simply redirects you to the smarthome.com home page...

Here's a full copy of the email for you, also pasted below:

Nov 26 2014 Update #1

I'm super happy to have been given the opportunity to record a podcast where we briefly discuss the new Insteon Hub, keep an eye out for the new episode at Home On Podcast - The Digital Media Zone.

There's also more good info about how they hit this price point, over here:

11-19-2014, 10:41 AM
Hey Guys,

The Hub II is currently only available in Menard's stores. It will be available through other retailers within the next couple of months. Have a great day!

Taylor
Insteon Support

and later on in the same thread here:

11-21-2014, 01:33 PM
Hey Guys,

Here are some answers to those questions.

1. Is this device being sold for $39.99?
   Yes, but at launch it will only be available in starter kits.

2. Has this device dropped X10 legacy support and if so why?
   Yes, it has been dropped. Back in 2005 when Insteon was first launched, it was the backwards compatibility that helped existing X10 users upgrade at their own pace. Now that we have 10 years behind us, it’s time to look to the future.

3. Will this device at any point in time be able to add House Link diagnostics and conditional logic?
   There are no plans for HouseLinc support. Conditional logic is a feature that is being looked at but I don’t have information to share beyond that.

4. Will this new HUB II be ready and able to support Apples Home Kit as it was stated in Smartlabs announcement page?
   We are working on a HomeKit bridge device which is different from Hub 2.

5. Can this device ever be updated to be used locally with out the aid of the cloud?
   Not at this time.

6. It was mentioned this newly released HUB II is more powerful in COM's can you confirm this and if so what is the output now?
   The range has been increased by over 50%

Taylor
Insteon Support

Nov 26 2014 Update #2

Good news just in from TinkerTry visitor Chris Conlan in the comments below. You can now order the new Insteon 2245-222 Hub direct from Smarthome, with 10% off offered today:

Ordered one for myself.

Dec 01 2014 Update #1

Just got notified that my new Insteon Hub is out for delivery, today. That was pretty fast, for cross country (California to Connecticut).

Dec 01 2014 Update #2

It arrived by USPS in the morning, got the basic unboxing video done in the evening, haven't yet researched the best way to move my existing account/hub over to the new hub.

Feb 25 2015 Update

Well, I now regret buying the newer, cheaper limited-capability hub. I called Smarthome, and confirmed that my best approach will be to un-pair all my existing modules from my current Insteon Hub, then basically start over, creating a new account for the cloud-based service, as I cut over to a new device. I'm frankly glad I didn't spend a lot of time doing this side-grade, because

procrastination paid off, this time

since I've recently caught the news that the Insteon 2243-222 HUB PRO is available for pre-order, which includes Apple Home Kit compatibility, but loses Android controls, which wasn't a concern in my home.

See also:

Insteon To Support HomeKit and More in 2015

Jan 10, 2015 by Richard Gunther