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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 $300 for this “quality” of a controller…
Sorry but I feel too angry for doing any effort more now, so if you want to get an idea of what I mean below, google translate is your friend.
Je ne sais pas ce que vous entendez par “fonctionnalités” exactement mais s’il s’agit de ne plus fournir de mises à jour pour la prise en charge de nouveaux modules aussi banals que des switchs, capteurs etc, en tant qu’informaticien je ne vois absolument pas ce qui peut justifier ça. Vos explications me paraissent complètement bidons et pas crédibles ni pour 2$ ni pour 2€.
I can’t get it at all. I chose and bought my Veralite because it was a box with a light-weight interface and highly flexible and fully programmable thanks to lua/luup.
But now, if they try to turn it into a black box and a labyrinthine machine, full business oriented, then it’s a 180 degrees perspective shift in philosophy.
A big big mistake, in my opinion and a number of users like me will go away now. So long Vera and thanks for the fish.
My concern about this is why I have not bought anything to replace my lite in the last year. Seems I was spot on, and yes there are no Ezlo hubs to buy at the moment. I really felt that the platform needed a complete revision. Upgrades have been a nightmare. It’s been very frustrating. Bring on the new hardware!
Hi guys, while I appreciate diversity I’d really appreciate that everyone understands the discussion without google translate. This is an English speaking community in its majority, although, myself included are not native English speakers.
Translate to English, or turn it into a private discussion.
The timing of the announcement is what upsets me. Obviously when they were developing the 7.29 firmware they knew there were no plans for 3/Lite support. And certainly when I brought up the missing firmware in the release thread they knew there wouldn’t be any support for these devices. If Ezlo is as highty technical and capable organization as @melih states, this decision should have been made a LOONG time ago. It certainly goes against what Melih said about the hardware not being a bottleneck and with streamlined code the new software would run on very limited hardware. Just seems like more of the same broken promises, just from a new owner. I have stuck with the platform because I use a very simple system with very few plugins that is for the most part stable. It is stable because I have resisted new firmware upgrades (problems). But I have been waiting for several years for the system to be stable enough to add in all of the features I would really like to use. Looks like I will take the plunge and run HomeSeer after all. I have lost all patience and confidence in the new organization.
when I look at obsolescence, I am talking about the chipset the device is based on. You are going to the other extreme with the accessory. Yeah accessories can be available long after the product is obsolete.
