Automating the Pool with Insteon – a Step by Step Guide

Welcome back, and thanks for keeping tabs on what I'm doing! I hope that I've inspired you to do the same.

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Well, my pool is finally 100% automated with Insteon. Now that’s it’s done, I’m going to give you the details of exactly how I did it. Turns out to be quite easy!

There are only two things that needed to be automated on my pool – the light, and the pump. In addition, my pool equipment box has a 110V receptacle that my landscaping lights are plugged in to, so I automated that as well.

The Components

The Light.
This was quite easy to automate. The light was a standard single pole light switch of the toggle switch variety, so I simply replaced it with an Insteon Non-Dimming ToggleLinc Relay switch. I can then control this switch via my Indigo software.
The Pump.
Only slightly harder. My pump is 220V and controlled by 2 switches. The first is a simple single phase single pole switch like the light switch. This switch controls power to a 220V timer switch, which has a rotating dial with plastic “nibs” that sets the start and end times of the pump cycle, and a switch with throws the pump on manually. I simply replaced the single pole switch with another Insteon Non-Dimming ToggleLinc Relay switch, then removed the “nibs”, and through the manual switch. Now, the Insteon switch controls the pump. Again, I can now control this switch with my Indigo software.
Landscaping Lighting.
This was also really easy. I simply replaced the standard 110V dual receptacle with an Insteon OutletLinc, and can now control that with my Indigo software.

Tying it all together

Now that I’ve got the three components installed, I can control the pool in several ways:

Via the Indigo Software. I have the pool and landscaping lights come on at sunset, and turn off at midnight. I then have the pool pump start at 2am and run for 3 hours to filter the pool.
Via an Insteon 6-button KeypadLinc switch. I programmed one switch for pool lights, another for landscaping, and a third for the pool pump. I placed this switch just inside the backdoor, so I can now control the pool from inside the house, rather than having to walk behind the wall to access the pool equipment (I hate walking on the rocks when barefoot).
Via my iPhone. That’s really why you’re here, right? I’ve created a webpage for the Indigo server that is specific to my iphone. From there, I can turn all of the components on and off. That means I can be sitting in the back yard with my iPhone and control the pool.
Via my iPad. Yep – I finally got it, and all it took was a webpage for the Indigo server specific to the iPad’s resolution, and I can now control all my home with an iPad – and that includes the pool. The iPad is going to BLOW AWAY those home automation panels that cost thousands of dollars!

Watch for an upcoming post, where I will layout the iPhone and iPad interfaces for my Indigo server!