Best zwave controllers?

I recently found out that my Vera Plus (two years old) is unfixable according to Vera support and I will hear back soon about what Vera may do for me regarding a replacement. The support person implied that they probably would not replace the unit that was bricked trying to upgrade it to the new firmware but might give me credit toward purchasing something else from them. I have two Vera Plus, one here in primary residence and one in my winter home. I successfully navigated the upgrade last March in my winter home, but not in the Vera Plus here. I have noticed that that the Vera site now directs buyers of the Vera Plus to Amazon rather than selling them directly unlike the Vera Edge. And apparently, Vera is out of stock on the Vera Secure. I know that Ezlo is beta testing their own controllers, so I could consider waiting for one of those, though I have no idea when they will actually hit the market.

I know this is a complicated question and depends on what one wants to do with their controller, but the question is what is the best controller for the price for a simple installation that is more of a plug and play type of situation (I don’t want to learn how to use something like reactor or how to write lua code or linux code if I don’t need to). I really only want to control lights, motion detectors, door locks, and the garage door in a two story house of about 2400 sq ft in the US. Obviously, I would wish to be able to script scenes with the controller. I would also wish to put in door codes for the locks remotely and to assess the status of the motion sensors, door locks, etc remotely as well. The home has a cable modem and a wifi router and the controller could be connected directly to router.

So again, what are the best solutions for a zwave controller for this type of installation? I have been looking at Homeseer.

Hoping for Aug/Sep release.
Why don’t you register for the beta program and play with the hardware and software to see if it can give you plug and play experience you want and give us your feedback if there is anything is missing so that we can get it done for you.

Are you not going to offer to replace his plus if it’s bricked? This is hardly the first one that the 7.31 firmware has fried.

Unless it’s fried for a different reason at the same time

C

Just buy a second hand Vera Plus off eBay reset it to factory and restore your backup to it. That’s what I would try and do in the short term.

And then if the Ezlo controllers / platform are decent? upgrade to one of those later on.

Or look else where, Fibaro have just released their HC3 controller hub. Or Homeseer as you say maybe. Or even Samsung SmartThings or Hubitat hubs.

3 Likes

How do I sign up to for the beta program?

I believe its now closed.

Heard from Vera Support yesterday and after I return my bricked Vera, they will send me a refurbished Vera Plus. Hopefully the firmware will be up to date on this one. I do appreciate that they are dong this. BTW, I also registered for Ezlo Plus Beta program at the suggestion of loana. We will see if anything comes of that or if its too late. I thought I heard that those will hit the market in July or August, so if so, it is way too late to be in the beta program testing these devices.

1 Like

The beta program is closed ? Are you sure about that ?
TweakBox word counter