I’m a little annoyed that the new VeraPlus can not, as of yet, work with my favorite connected light bulb. Since lighting control is the only thing I want to do with HA right now, I guess I will try out the Philips Hue while I wait for the Vera to get the Zigbee end more fully implemented.
That said, as near as I can tell Vera is the only company that has a reasonable quality HA hub that isn’t crippled when the internet is down. Smart things can do only VERY basic things with out internet but not much at all. So I won’t be getting one of those. I really don’t see why people don’t get the fact that HA can provide lots of value even without Internet access. And having a HA hub that won’t do anything with out internet is really just a toy. Also having to rely on the company that created the device to continue being able to use it is far to much to ask. Just talk to any of the owners of a Revolv HA hub. In a few months (May of 2016), they will be the owners of a $300 paper weight. See http://revolv.com/ for details.
I suspect if Vera were to go out of business tomorrow, there are those who would still be using their Vera hub 3 or 5 years down the road. If had the setup many of the people here do, I know I would. Some of you may not know this, but if the Vera website went away tomorrow, there are still ways you could control your Vera hub away from home. It is just a more difficult to set up.
While I still think HA isn’t quite ready for prime time yet, I think Vera will be the way to go. And with Zigbee starting to take hold (even though it isn’t as open as they make it sound) . It shouldn’t be too much longer before the ability to integrate many more aspects of our homes will become very easy and inexpensive. It would happen a lot faster if certain companies were to realize that having completely open standards so products made by anyone, including the basement startup, would work together, would mean all of them would make more money because the innovation that can only happen with open standards, will vastly expand the market for everyone. That sentence was way too long. I hope I didn’t loose everyone.
@cdw3423 I wish the Vera Plus could be fully functional without Internet access, but it is not. I have a contact sensor, I went to check the logs and I have to authenticate with Vera to access the logs. So if my ISP is down I can’t look at my logs? Why is that? I know others are going to say big deal, but it annoys me and this is for no good reason that I can figure.
The log files could be large enough that the local storage isn’t enough. It wouldn’t be that hard to add a 16 gig sd-card to hold them or to have a way to configure it to send the logs to a computer on your local network.
Storage is not the issue. You can easily add storage, but you still need to authenticate to see them in the gui. You can SSH into the device to look at logs, but that is not my point. I want complete local control if my ISP is down.
They really do a better job than the competition as far as functionality without the Internet and that is one reason I stay with them.
I agree, that is why I went to Vera plus. I have used Wink for about 1 year, I got mine free with buying $100 worth of stuff. At the time I was in the process of building a home ant got the wink and stuff wile my house was being built, to try out ha. I started out doing a lot of research and was considering either Vera or Smart things of the cheaper hubs, but I also wanted local controle and ST was limited and just before I received my Verra, Wink added limited local controle. I currently have 4 Cree conect and 1 Hues bulb, which unfortunately Vera Plus does not support their form of Zigby but I kept my Wink hub and added the plug in allowing Vera to controle it, this will work until if and when Vera expands their Vera support. I also have 5 GE z-wave light switches 2 CT100 z-wave thermostats all of which Vera can controle directly. I also have a z-wave door lock for front door and Linear z-wave garage door controller which I still nead to install as well as a Ring doorbell Camara which I will use the Wink app as a go between. I have plans for more light switches dimers and other things in future, most if not all will likely be z-wave. I only use my Zigby bulbs for lamps, for overhead lighting I prefer in-wall switches and dimmers.
[quote=“cdw3423, post:3, topic:191409”]The log files could be large enough that the local storage isn’t enough. It wouldn’t be that hard to add a 16 gig sd-card to hold them or to have a way to configure it to send the logs to a computer on your local network.
Chris W
Chris W[/quote]
I already started my move to Homeseer all local control also and endless hardware options. I think you might have only been looking at one or two options and not all of them. Also I have alot of logic based on things (plugins) that get their information from the internet. So I do need internet but yes its not like I can’t turn the lights on and off if the internet is down. My home away, geofencing and all runs threw my phone to internet to my controller.
Other reasons I went with Vera as my primary controller is the comunity here is the best and thanks to 3rd party apps that were developed here by folks who know much more then me, allows it to do much more then others in this lower price range. I also have a harmony hub with the plug in which I already use in a scene. I looked at Home Sear, like what it can do but was turned off by all the fees for plug ins and such and does not support Zigby at all and as far as I know does not have a way to integrate Wink.
Homeseer has less going on on their forums, I thought it was a bad thing at first, but I realized it’s just because people have less problems so no need to be so chatty on the boards. I’m not sure about Wink as I think to control wink you need to jump threw hoops. Most people just control their lights directly with Vera or Homeseer vs. running lights into wink then into vera or homeseer.
Homeseer is more money but doesn’t have the issues Vera had and hardware (your choice) can’t be beat so no issues with lag or delays.
Homeseer has less going on on their forums, I thought it was a bad thing at first, but I realized it’s just because people have less problems so no need to be so chatty on the boards. I’m not sure about Wink as I think to control wink you need to jump threw hoops. Most people just control their lights directly with Vera or Homeseer vs. running lights into wink then into vera or homeseer.
Homeseer is more money but doesn’t have the issues Vera had and hardware (your choice) can’t be beat so no issues with lag or delays.[/quote]
No hoops controlling Wink with Vera, down load plug in and Vera saw all my Wink devices wright away, no hoops. Most of my z-wave devices still through Wink simply because I have bean to lazy to migrate them yet, but I will likely do that. I suspect you will have a problem or two as time goes buy just like I expect to have some problems in future, it’s the nature of the beast. All diy ha hubs have their pluses and mineses, but for me for now the Vera best fits my neads.
Well if Vera works great with wink, and that’s all your priorities are your good to go it sounds like.
Yes I would expect to have problems with vera as I have always. Updates are a problem. I still have a open ticket with an Edge for a issue with “Can Not Write User Data” and they can’t seem to fix it. Their suggestion was to start from scratch and do not install a backup as backups could hold the problem. I started from scratch again on that but didn’t put Vera in.
I still have Vera’s and been around for awhile. They are cheap and served me good enough for years. I’ll find a home for my old vera’s and will keep them going. I just know it was good to try other things too as I have in the past (even if at that time it wasn’t right to fully move over). It’s just not your time yet.
Actually I was a little disappointed that the Zigby in the Vera plus does not support my Cree Conect and Hue bulbs directly, but the fact that it will controle Wink makes it a good back up. I originally hoped to give my wink hub to my daughter and use the Wink App and plug in to integrate my Ring doorbell cam, my quirky Wi Fi power strip and lp wi Fi tank meter to Vera. I will now hold on to the wink hub until Vera can support my bulbs. I have also thought about in the past getting some Lutron dimers witch would need the wink as a bridge to Vera, but will likely stick with z-wave to keep things simple and still have the option in the future to dump my wink hub.
Thank you, and I appreciate your response. What I am talking about is while looking at devices, I click the > to expand the device. Then I click on > in logs. That is where it wants me to authenticate so I can see when the door opened and closed. To me that is an annoyance while I am on my own LAN. So if my ISP is down, I am SOL for this simple feature. Yes, there are ways around it, but why should have I have to? I don’t want to over blow this, just saying.
I have looked at the competition and their reliance on the Internet being available was always a show stopper for me.
I use the datamine plugin to view event histories. It is much more visual than log files.
I don’t have ui7 but I think you need to add a usb thumb drive, disable the “archive logs to server” feature, enable “log to usb” and disable the “secure Vera” option. That should remove the Vera server authentication limitation and give you many days of logs.
[quote=“kigmatzomat, post:15, topic:191409”]I use the datamine plugin to view event histories. It is much more visual than log files.
I don’t have ui7 but I think you need to add a usb thumb drive, disable the “archive logs to server” feature, enable “log to usb” and disable the “secure Vera” option. That should remove the Vera server authentication limitation and give you many days of logs.
Sent from my LGLS990 using Tapatalk[/quote]
I see, if you had UI7 you would know what I am talking about. I have no issues like this on UI5 with my Vera Lite. UI7 needlessly, at least to me, adds Internet access requirements for somethings to work.
My only ZigBee device stopped working with my Vera Plus yesterday. This Wink really looks interesting. I only bought the Vera Plus for ZigBee support and so far have been very disappointed. Anyway, I just ordered a Wink. It should be fun to play with it and I don’t know how long I will wait for Vera to figure it out.
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