Until We Linux

Today, I finished migrating my home automation system to a competitor (SmartThings). It was not my intention to ever leave, but too many errors and security scares led me down a different path.

When coming to Vera, I thought I had done my homework. I reviewed the Mios app store, saw that the Vera Plus had all the radios I’d ever need; what could ever go wrong? Within 6 months I regretted my decision to preorder the Plus, finding it didn’t support 99% of the lights I wanted to install.

No big deal I thought. I’ll buy a Wink hub and use the relay plugin in the app store. One week after installing it and buying lots of Sengled bulbs, the plugin was pulled by the developer, along with many other useful plugins such as the TP-Link setup. I missed installing the plugin by a handful of days.

Not willing to let a ton of lights go unused, I bought a SmartThings hub for less than $60 to use for my lights only and keep it strictly Zigbee. After a dual plug Inovelli switch stopped working on my Vera Plus, I tried it on SmartThings. It worked! It paired up in 5 seconds! I figured for sure the device would fail again, but to my surprise it must have been an error within the Vera. That dual plug still hums along nicely. After having success with the plug, I started moving trouble devices over as well. I found that every device I added worked with very little frustration or modification.

The last straw for me was not being able to open my front door from within the app. It just wouldn’t unlock. I moved it over today and was surprised to see that lock, a Schlage, is capable of instant status and works fantastically in the app and by Alexa voice.

SmartThings is cloud based, but I’ve achieved all but 1 device set up to run local. I really appreciate having local control along with the ability to add nearly any device through use of cloud connections. I’m also able to view my Z-Wave mapping within their IDE online. This is fantastic for troubleshooting and is super easy to follow arrows pointing to different devices.

I decided to post all of this out of my extreme frustration with my Vera experience, but also to note that I am eagerly awaiting the Linux firmware for the Vera Plus. I am hopeful that Ezlo will get it right and let me salvage my overpriced Plus with new firmware. The community plugins were truly the strength of Vera and if they are able to continue with the Linux firmware there is hope that this system does everything the Vera Plus originally promised. I hope to see the ability to link additional Ezlo hubs together as well, such as a ZLL option, as an example. Time will tell.

4 Likes

I’m looking forward to the Linux version as well but I’m beginning to doubt it will ever be available. I maintain a plugin for the Vera hub. If the Linux version for the Plus doesn’t show up soon - at least in beta - I may abandon my support. I get the feeling that the Vera hardware is being abandoned in favor of the Ezlo controllers.

4 Likes

Had I been on the Committee in charge of naming new ezlo hardware, THE VERY LAST ONE I WOULD HAVE APPROVED is “Plus”! Instead, it’s the first one out of the gate, lol.

I would have protested, “Have you noticed how many Forum users and customers confuse the brands?”

Also astonished by the decision to call the second controller… wait for it… “Plus Plus”. I am not making that up, LOL!

2 Likes

We have some interesting capabilities like MESHENE coming to “start” making our hubs to work together in unison.
As I have been saying in the forum, we have to decouple hardware and software.
Our Firmware team is hard at work extending the APIs with help from some amazing guys from the community, so that we have an ecosystem for plugin development.

Ezlo hardware can operate all locally, including local connection from smartphone app to the hub.
We believe everything that can be done locally, should be done locally! Honestly there simply is no point in inconveniencing all those electrons through the internet just because I want to turn a light switch on in my kitchen!

Our vision is to give our users a hub that you can control locally and works with every device that is commercially available for the protocols we support (zwave, zigbee etc).

Did you register for the Beta hardware btw?

1 Like

I did not because I just won’t have enough time to devote to it and wouldn’t be of much help as a tester.
I will be watching the progress closely through this forum. I’m hopeful for the future of the company!

Thank you! Me too!

Speaking of wich; How far ahead is the new Linux-based software for Vera anyway? Will we see it in a consumer ready version before this summer? I’m esgerly waiting for it, and to be able to run Ezlo VOI on my Vera Secure. :slightly_smiling_face:

I am hoping in June (don’t hold me to it…its just a hope) we should be able to give you something.

1 Like

Yeah perhaps they could of picked a better different name than “Ezlo Plus”.

They have Ezlo Plug and Ezlo Atom, thought that was an old Intel CPU?

Is there going to be a hub above the Ezlo Plus?

What’s the flagship hub called? The one I want with more horse power.

I know @melih says his FW doesn’t necessarily need more horses under the hood.

But I sleep easier knowing my Ezlo hub has some horses spare for the future and all these new plugins I hope we see.

Ezlo Plug
Ezlo Stick
Ezlo Hub
Ezlo Max

Better names?

Who knows I dont really care as long as they bloody work.

yes…Ezlo Plus Plus :slight_smile: (these are internal names us programmers give to our products…remember C++? ?..I am sure marketing has different names for them like Ezlo Edge etc…

Ezlo Atom (RTOS) (either just Zwave or Zigbee + wifi)
Ezlo BeeWave (Linux but same form factor as Atom, eg: usb stick and has both Zwave and Zigbee and wifi)
Ezlo Edge (aka plus) (Linux and different enclosure)
Ezle Edge+ (Linux and bigger enclosure as it has battery backup, 4g etc).

2 Likes