RE: Vera 3/Lite/G legacy controllers announcement

Fully understandable and I think it is the right decision for you guys. These were based on a very old OS and hardware which would have consumed a lot of ressources to support. I started with a veralite myself and still have it laying around somewhere. I hope you make better/wiser use of the future the hardware than it has been in the past. I just tried helping a fellow user with his dying vera edge through PMs, trying to save its storage and eventually that unit just gave out. It all started with a failed to save user data. The absurd partitioning of the flash drive I hope will not be repeated.

For now extrooting is the only preventive action we can take to mitigate this catastrophic failure…

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+1 for that. I’m running two VeraLite machines and they’re doing fine on UI5.

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I completely agree that Vera needs to EOL those products and take the firmware forward with the resources spent on current and future products. Those products have been well-supported for a very long time.

But, I think it would have been a good move to announce EOL with this (7.0.29) firmware as the last, and at least leave those customers with the really stable firmware they’ve now created. I’m guessing a lot of the changes aren’t platform-specific, so while it would indeed still be a good bit of work to QA, it would be a clean last effort.

Failing that, EOL should have been announced months ago, as the dev and product marketing teams, I think, probably already knew at that point, or at least could have reasonably and justly anticipated this choice within weeks of the acquisition.

I don’t think anybody should be surprised or blind-sided by this announcement, so I don’t think it’s a serious faux pas, but then again, going forward, the Plus, Edge and Secure will be getting the same fate some day, and when that day comes, I would want it done better than this one seems to be going, so worth pointing out that while sensible in most every other respect, process-wise it’s falling short.

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Good luck on everyone’s transition to buying Ezlo equipment

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I looked at this, but didn’t really see much in the way of a product that I could actually purchase. I’m playing around with a Hubitat right now, and so far it’s pretty awesome and doesn’t rely on any cloud based services like most of the others.

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Exactly - these should have been taken to the end of UI7. There should have been a 7.29 release for them. Would have been easier to sell that UI8 was z-wave Plus only…

Well, I was excited with the new management, but since UI17 has been riddled with problems and they have indicated that they don’t really care about those of us with these devices, it reinforces my view that there is absolutely no compelling reason to stay with this platform.

No fixes, no updated capabilities that other platforms introduced years ago, and only plans for super-cheap hardware? No, thanks. And I’m sure as hell not going to buy any current device, since I’m confident they will EOL those before long.

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I also understand and respect the decision even if I’m also affected by it. No more testing things out on the VeraLite first before deploying on the main VeraPlus. Need to get a new “test” device at some point.

Like rigpapa pointed out it would have been nice if they could have delivered the stable 7.0.29 for the VeraLite and then announce it EOL.

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It’s a little heavy to say that they do not care. I think it is more that they don’t know what to do about it. As Melih expressed in one of his posts, there are limitation to the current platform and though I understand the emotional response to the late announcement that previous generation hardware are not going to get a firmware update, we need to understand too that these devices are 6-10 years old. They have had a good long life for being on 24x7. They are essentially low end consumer grade wireless routers with added functionalities which stresses their memory and storage for what we are asking them to do today. They do not have zwave plus radios, have limited processing power and memory. Their router equivalent have long been obsoleted so it is difficult to find OS level/OEM support for them. Mcv also has long stopped selling them. Even Microsoft stopped supporting WinXP didn’t they? We can’t expect these to be supported forever. And even the latest generation runs on a kernel dating from 2014. I tried looking at updating the kernel, trust me. The latest OS and kernels available for this chipset which is stable and does not force a breaking change (reprogramming and compiling all the programs) dates from 2015.

Now on the added features, I am not sure which ones are not already supported one way or another in ways superior to what the native vera could do. Because of the limited hardware, it is actually better to use bridges on a separate server like a Rpi (with openLuup, habridge, homekitbridge, sonos-api, homeassistant etc…) for all of these integrations.

Could the decision have been communicated better? Sure. Do I think they had it planned since the takeover? I don’t think so. From Sorin’s posts I think it is only a recent decision made due to prioritization of resources and it was not an easy one.

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Despite the personal disappointment, I have to agree it’s a logical decision. As rigpapa points out though, they should have stabilised the platform before deserting us or this decision which was obviously made months ago should have been announced months ago!

The two key positives I took from the Ezlo acquisition was @Melih’s contribution to uplifting communication and the initial focus on stability. Unfortunately it seems both are out the window and Vera are leaving long term loyal users to rot instead of repaying their commitment. They are repeating history and ineffectively managing user expectations which there really is no excuse for.

If Vera genuinely have any commitment to long term users, at a minimum they should be offering a discounted upgrade/trade-in path. This should including International versions such as Australia where we got gouged $300 AUD for a Vera 3 and a VeraPlus is currently $289 AUD.

On the international gouging front, when are you going to adopt ZWave 700 Series so a single controller can be used in all markets?

Considering Vera Lite and Vera 3 were still being sold well into 2015 I don’t think it’s right to say that these are obsolete.

You also have to consider that the difference in specification from the Vera 3 to the Vera Edge wasn’t much in terms of CPU, memory and used flash partition space, so from a technical point of view there doesn’t seem to be much of a reason that this new interim firmware can’t run on the old hardware.

I can certainly understand customer frustration when they’ve been patiently waiting for 8 or 9 months for a new firmware release, to fix bugs and issues that in some cases have been present throughout the entire UI7 history and to only now be told that there’s no firmware for your Lite and 3. I wonder how many Lite and 3 users have support tickets with the phrase “this will be fixed in the next release” in them!

IMO if Vera’s position is that Lite and 3 are obsolete then that should have either been made clear back in July last year, or should have been expressed after this firmware release and then with the newly “ground up” developed firmware that @melih has been touting being announced as for Edge and later only.

Although even then, there’s nothing concrete been committed to here either, unless I’m mistaken, as this new series of firmware has been stated as for the new Ezlo hardware only in the first instance, and legacy Vera hardware “at some point later”.

As it stands, everybody that has been holding their breath for fixed firmware for the best part of a year now has to make a choice - do I upgrade my Lite or 3 to an Edge / Plus / Secure just to get this new interim firmware, or move to a new platform? And if I do upgrade, what’s to say that my new Edge / Plus / Secure isn’t then obsolete in a years time when Ezlo suddenly decides that the new series of firmware actually isn’t going to be released for existing hardware after all.

Vera has a long history of broken promises and poor treatment of customers, sadly with this current move it seems that this is continuing.

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Well, I am not surprised the legacy hardware is no longer supported. I am surprised by the late decision and communication to us users. But moving forward, my 3 is stable and I will not likely buy new hardware anytime soon.

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We are only talking about future software support and updates.

Technical support & Customer Care is still in place for ALL or customers, going all the way back to Vera 1 and UI2.

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So you are going to release this current 7.29 version for Vera Lite and Vera 3?

?? Clearly not. He is saying Customer care support will continue but no more software releases and updates.

I suppose it depends on your definition of “clear” - IMO it’s not clear at all, as the phrase used is “future software support and updates” - does that apply to this current release or not.

If it does and there is to be no 7.29 release for Lite and 3, then as I said before, that leaves a whole host of customers screwed over, given they’ve been told for the best part of a year that firmware is coming.

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Yes but aren’t the Vera Edge and related controllers getting a little long on the tooth? Limiting the software branch to those controllers when they seem likely to be EOL’d soon seems strange. Why not a pre-announcement of a new set of controllers? I wouldn’t be as concerned if I could see a long term pathway forward.

I’m on a an old Vera lite and am ready for a new controller but I fear as soon as I get one of the current ones it will be EOL.

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Technically, in spite of the age of the plus/edge/secure generation, they are actually quite capable and very much in production (the MTK MT7620A/7621S/7621A SOC) so they have some ways to run before being obsolete like the lite/3 generation. The current problems on the vera are more implementation related… and one could challenge the very old OS which can’t be upgraded…

I’ve personally have experienced on my VeraSecure MANY of the same issues those on older devices have stated…VeraSecure should be EOL’d too before you too long…I couldn’t believe I was suckered into paying $300 for this “quality” of a controller…

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Sorry but I feel too angry for doing any effort more now, so if you want to get an idea of what I mean below, google translate is your friend.

Je ne sais pas ce que vous entendez par “fonctionnalités” exactement mais s’il s’agit de ne plus fournir de mises à jour pour la prise en charge de nouveaux modules aussi banals que des switchs, capteurs etc, en tant qu’informaticien je ne vois absolument pas ce qui peut justifier ça. Vos explications me paraissent complètement bidons et pas crédibles ni pour 2$ ni pour 2€.

Bref, jeedom, attends moi j’arrive…

Too bad I liked it much, my little box but…

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