Introduction to VeraMate [Feat. GeoFencing/iBeacons/Voice Control/Watch & more]

Apps & Remote Access Unmaintained
#1

[sup][This is an updated “introduction to VeraMate” to replace the previous thread][/sup]

I’d like to introduce VeraMate - an iPhone and iPad app for the vera controller. VeraMate is a simple but powerful home automation application to connect to your Vera controller. This allows you to control z-wave/X10 devices like your lights, curtains/blinds, heating, locks, and more.

VeraMate is designed to be a simple and elegant way to control your device. No setup is required, it simply chooses the best configuration for you to control your home. The power is then in your hand to customize !

Now works with Apple Watch

VeraMate is one of the most advanced apps on the market. How about just some of what VeraMate offers:

[ul][li]Control your home with your voice. Say, “Turn on the kitchen lights”, and VeraMate will carry out your command. **
[/li]
[li]Automatically activate scenes on leaving your home using GeoFences.[/li]
[li]Use iBeacons for indoor location sensing; turn on your lights as you walk in.[/li]
[li]Change your device icons to be more meaningful to you. Select from a wide range of custom icons, or download community built packages from the web.[/li]
[li]Have alerts/push notifications sent straight to your phone when your door opens.[/li][/ul]

You will need a Vera Lite, or a Vera 3 box to be able to utilise this app.

  • NOTE: Continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life.
    [hr]
    [size=12pt]List of Features:[/size]

[ul][li]Support for UI6/1.6.x and UI7/1.7.x firmware (please remember UI6/UI7 is BETA firmware from Vera - VeraMate will attempt to support any changes that occur).[/li]
[li]Voice Control - control your home with your voice. This currently only supports English, with more languages to be supported in the future.[/li]
[li]GeoFencing - activate scenes upon entering or leaving different physical locations.[/li]
[li]iBeacons - indoor location sensing to interact with your devices via your iDevice (IOS7/8).[/li]
[li]Easy to setup Push Notifications - get alerts straight away when something changes.[/li]
[li]NO setup required. It will load the settings based on your existing Vera.[/li]
[li]Log in to multiple Veras[/li]
[li]“Smart buttons” - unique to VeraMate. Buttons that appear based on your usage.
For example, low battery warnings, active lights, and more.[/li]
[li]Create shortcuts (anchors) for your most commonly used buttons.[/li]
[li]Use your own icons for room images. Select from a wide variety of images.[/li]
[li]Set different background images, including the ability to choose your own photos.[/li]
[li]Guest login.[/li]
[li]“Speak to Me”. Speak the commands you make. (IOS7/8).[/li]
[li]Support for virtually all devices.[/li]
[li]Automatic switching between fast/slow (WiFi/3G) networks - no manual control required.[/li]
[li]Hide items that you don’t wish to see to prevent clutter.[/li]
[li]And much more.[/li][/ul]

We are under active development, with many new features planned. We won’t give away all, but stay tuned for more exciting changes.

VeraMate comes in 2 flavours - a free one supported by ads and limited use for the iPad version which can be upgraded “in-app”, and a premium one with no limitations.

Feel free to try them out:
FREE: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/veramate-lite/id681969033?mt=8
Premium: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/veramate-premium/id714453401?mt=8

Full change log (from v5 and onwards) can be found here:

#2

Latest version controlled my Vera first time I used it… However when I tried to use voice control it crashes. Now it just keeps saying refreshing. Closing the app and restarting doesn’t work. I’ve tried completely rebooting my phone. Still doesn’t work.

#3

I changed the description above yesterday as I’ve found out nuance (the voice control provider) haven’t activated their server for the release properly. I’m currently trying to chase down what they are doing, but they aren’t seeming to support their system.

I don’t think that will be related to any connection problem - could you send me a diagnostic so I can see perhaps why? Logging out/in should fix any connection problems that might’ve occurred…

Just to re-emphasise though, I have to delay the Voice Control use while I found out what the provider is doing.

#4

Crashing at the splash screen on iTouch running IOS 6.1

#5

The developement environment for VeraMate has all been upgraded to the latest software, but I didn’t notice iOS6 isn’t supported any longer by Apple. I’ll be working on this to find out what I can do to allow iOS6 users, so please bare with me.

#6

veramate- I like that you have support for ibeacons! What do you recommend I buy in order to begin using them? Should I get the estimote devkit that has 3 beacons for $99?

#7

How long is response time for ibeacons when Enter room ?

#8
VeraMate is one of the most advanced apps on the market. How about just some of what VeraMate offers: Control your home with your voice. Say, "Turn on the kitchen lights", and VeraMate will carry out your command. ** Update: It would appear very bad timing, but the voice server seems to be having problems. Voice Control will be offline while I reach their support!

Do you have any update for the voice control yet?

#9

** Sorry for the delay in replying, all - I have been travelling overseas so haven’t had the chance.

Thanks. VeraMate should work with any iBeacon - I myself got the 3 beacon estimote devkit to develop with it, so I couldn’t comment on whether others are better/worse. Any iBeacon should work with VeraMate; you simply need to enter the ibeacon id to scan and register a device - VeraMate currently knows about 7 different manufacturers, which can be scanned automatically, but it’s easy to scan if VeraMate doesn’t know about it.

#10

Unfortunately this can be variable, as VeraMate only starts scanning once iOS tells it something is close by. Otherwise the battery drain would be enormous. So it can be from 1 second, to perhaps a couple…

#11

Unfortunately not. Dragon/Nuance are providing the voice detection, but I am incredibly unimpressed with their service/competence at the moment. It has been escalated apparently, so I’ll hope to hear back early next week, or I’ll have to switch to another provider.

#12

Unfortunately this can be variable, as VeraMate only starts scanning once iOS tells it something is close by. Otherwise the battery drain would be enormous. So it can be from 1 second, to perhaps a couple…[/quote]

Are you really seeing the ibeacons trigger reliably within a couple of seconds? Using another app, but it seems totally hit or miss. I’ve bought vermate, but haven’t set up the ibeacons yet, so would be curious to hear your experience. If it works reliably and is that fast, I’ll spend the time to set them up!

#13

do you plan to add shortcut controls for notification center? Philips Hue recently added notification center support and that works really quick without the need to unlock the device or open the app.

#14

I have been looking into this over the last couple of days as a matter of fact. This will make it in, but I can’t say when yet… :slight_smile:

#15

I probably should have caveated it with that… no, I can’t say I have found iBeacons 100% reliable. I don’t think I could say yet they could be used for something such as moving from room to room to have lights always turn on. If they’re detected they work fine within seconds, but, sometimes I believe the low power nature/requirement of how apple implement the bluetooth api means there may be a longer delay.

#16

I have been looking into this over the last couple of days as a matter of fact. This will make it in, but I can’t say when yet… :)[/quote]

Wow… looking forward for that feature :slight_smile:

#17

I’m having trouble logging in. Ios 8, vera mate 8.3.1 and UI7. Using my Getvera.com login info which works with homewwve. Not sure why it’s not letting me login. What can I do to debug?

Thx

#18

[quote=“BrianAz, post:17, topic:183724”]I’m having trouble logging in. Ios 8, vera mate 8.3.1 and UI7. Using my Getvera.com login info which works with homewwve. Not sure why it’s not letting me login. What can I do to debug?

Thx[/quote]

As you’ve mentioned, will take this up on other thread for any other’s who have this issue;
http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,28239.0.html

#19

Is there a way Veramate change a state in a vera variable (other than creating a scene) so my PLEG in vera could react to someone coming close to a beacon or is veramate built to only react locally on the iphone veramate scenes ?

#20

At the moment VeraMate will only react by triggering a scene. These aren’t “local”, but will be run on the Vera box which can be used by PLEG…

The ability to trigger switches etc will be in a future release.