For the past several months our focus has been on creating a new user interface, code named Ui4. Screen shots are available here: http://docs2.mios.com/doc.php?language=1&manual=1&platform=0&page=dashboard. For several weeks new Vera’s have been shipping with Ui4 and the volume of support requests is down considerably. So new users are finding Ui4 easier to use, more intuitive, and the online documentation is clearer and more concise.
As is typical with software, customers who are used to the older user interfaces (UI2 and UI3 the flash version), sometimes experience a learning curve since Ui4 arranges your data differently, or there are occasional issues doing the upgrade because Vera’s database that stores all the devices, scenes, etc., is different in Ui4, so Vera has to run through a conversion process to migrate the old database to the new format. Also, if you have a Vera version 2 (the one with the battery pack instead of a removable dongle), the upgrade involves changing the base operating system on Vera, kind of like moving from Windows XP to Windows Vista. Therefore, moving existing users over to the new Ui4 is significantly more challenging than starting out with Ui4 in the first place.
For about 6 weeks a group of Vera power users has been acting as our test team, testing Ui4 and reporting issues. Software is always a work in progress and we’re going to continue indefinitely improving Vera, so our “todo list” will never be empty. But, we have no major issues that we’re aware of that would prevent normal operation.
We’re now making Ui4 available for early adopters who want to be the first to try it out and report their findings. If you try out UI4, we invite you to complete the poll at the top of this post and let everyone know how it went. If you have any problems with UI4 or the upgrade, we recommend you post in the “Vera Setup & Usage” board and be sure the subject of the thread starts with “UI4”. We’ll be keeping an eye out for them and try to address any upgrade issues. If you are less adventurous, you can hold off for a bit and see how it goes for others first.
To upgrade to UI4, first create a backup of your system in case you need to go back. Do this by choosing Advanced, Backup, then click ‘Create Backup’ and save the backup file on your computer. Then, you can do the upgrade by going to: http://micasaverde.com/vera2 which will locate the Vera on your network, and give you the option of upgrading. Note the graphics show a Vera 2, but it works with Vera 1 also. It takes longer than normal to do a Ui4 upgrade, so allow 15 minutes.
After upgrading please visit http://cp.mios.com and create an user account and register it with Vera. From now on when you want to control remotely your Vera you should go to http://cp.mios.com and select Dashboard to access your devices.
If you find Ui4 is not working for you and need to go back, then go the UI4 dashboard, click Advanced in the toolbox, choose the Firmware tab, and paste the URL for the UI2 or UI3 firmware in the box labeled “URL for OpenWRT custom firmware” on Vera 1, or the box labeled “URL for OpenWRT custom firmware” on Vera 2 (the second box)
UI2 url: http://download.mios.com/betafirmware/wl500gP_Luup_ui2-1.0.996-1.trx
UI3 url: http://download.mios.com/betafirmware/wl500gP_Luup_ui3-1.1.329-1.trx
Good luck. Once we get enough positive feedback on the Ui2/3 to Ui4 migration, we’ll remove the ‘beta’ moniker and consider it a release!
Note: After upgrading from UI2 to UI4 the Scene Controllers should be reprogrammed.
Post update!
As a result to the testings that went well and feedback that we got from the UI4 users we are announcing UI4 - 1.1.1047 as official release!