VeraPlus online but after home.getvera.com login Vera says "Controller offline"

Community Playground General Discussions
#1

Last night Amazon told me “the hub my lights are connected to isn’t responding, please check on the hub”.
I didn’t troubleshoot it last night.
So today I can control Vera connected devices via the web interface but when I click on link to something that requires log in, after login to home.getvera.com login Vera says “Controller offline”

I’m seeing traffic to Vera.
Nothing has changed on my network in the past few weeks.

what’s going on.

network via the vera test ok

#2

Server issue on their end. Had this issue a few weeks ago…

#3

the thread Lua code in this thread resolved the issue
http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php?topic=49151.0

Once the Vera?s web interface loaded, in order to make some free space on the unit, please go to Apps > Develop Apps > Test Luup code (Lua), the the lines below and then click on GO.

os.execute("rm /etc/cmh-firmware/mios*") os.execute("rm -rf /overlay/etc/cmh/ergy_cache_paired_devices.conf")

Wait around 2 minutes and then power-cycle Vera, after Vera booted, connect to it and let me know if everything is alright.

#4

fyi…
Vera? ▾ Platform Status

#5

I sent support an email, they sent this back

This seems to be a memory space issue, please paste the commands I'm going to send you into a notepad before you paste them on the dashboard, they probably are not going to work if you paste them directly from this e-mail, if they still don't work, please try to copy them manually.

You can try this: Please click on the tab: Apps> Develop apps> and on the option: Test Luup code (Lua) please paste the following codes one by one and click on: Go, once You have a positive confirmation message, continue with the next line, once You finish all the lines, the controller will reboot, please wait till You have all the lights on solid on the controller and do the log in one more time.

os.execute(“rm -r /overlay/etc/cmh/ergy*”)
os.execute(“rm -r /overlay/etc/mios_backup.info.old”)
os.execute(“rm -r /overlay/etc/cmh-firmware/mios*”)
os.execute(“rm -r /overlay/etc/cmh/alerts.json”)
os.execute(“rm -r /overlay/dataMine”)
os.execute(“reboot”)

Let me know how it goes.

#6

Interesting - that was my exact symptom a week ago. Vera was working finally locally, but the Vera portal was claiming I was offline.
http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,84129.0.html

When I tried to turn on tech support it failed. Again everything was working locally, but turning this on wouldn’t work and the portal access was offline.

So that’s when I did a network settings reset, to see if that would clear anything, and my Vera imploded - no amount of effort from CC got her going again, she had to be factory reset.

I’m betting if I had run those commands I might have been cleared up from the start. So the question is, why are those necessary… what has built up to cause this? Keen to learn what’s happening here so I don’t end up with this same situation again down the track…

#7

Okay I’ve telnetted in myself to start sussing things out and I now see why everyone is so horrified at the lack of storage onboard the Vera, no bloody wonder these things crap themselves out so easily. And in a day and age where flash memory is so insanely cheap and plentiful it makes no sense… I have a $2 USB pen that has more flash storage than Vera?!

I’m compiled up a report of the various areas that allegedly caused the issue and will now re-do and compare every few days so that, over coming months, I can learn where it is going bad and create a cron job to compensate for Vera’s sloppiness.

Should avoid this happening again. Also leaving the telnet access open so that if it does happen I’m not locked out, though in hindsight if I had known this was going on even executing some of this via LUA commands could have got her sorted…

#8

Same issue, rebooted everything such as Vera, switches, and router. I finally pulled the plug on Vera and that fixed it for me.

Sent from my VS995 using Tapatalk

#9

Regarding the memory limitations are these limits put in place by OpenWRT which I believe is the underlying OS used by Vera.

Additionally, Vera have mentioned in the past that their philosophy is to go for a certain price point and user.

I believe the system is good but would be happy to pay for a different HW with more cpu and memory and I would also be happy to pay for an annual subscription to cover support and a better product. If you take a look at Athom their whole experience is more up to date, from their website to their product specs and GUI, although their product is starting to run into issues.

Sorry for being off topic

#10

I agree with Tillsy, with memory as cheap as it is, it’s ridiculous that they have so little and run out of space.

#11

[quote=“RV, post:5, topic:199175”]I sent support an email, they sent this back

This seems to be a memory space issue, please paste the commands I'm going to send you into a notepad before you paste them on the dashboard, they probably are not going to work if you paste them directly from this e-mail, if they still don't work, please try to copy them manually.

You can try this: Please click on the tab: Apps> Develop apps> and on the option: Test Luup code (Lua) please paste the following codes one by one and click on: Go, once You have a positive confirmation message, continue with the next line, once You finish all the lines, the controller will reboot, please wait till You have all the lights on solid on the controller and do the log in one more time.

os.execute(“rm -r /overlay/etc/cmh/ergy*”)
os.execute(“rm -r /overlay/etc/mios_backup.info.old”)
os.execute(“rm -r /overlay/etc/cmh-firmware/mios*”)
os.execute(“rm -r /overlay/etc/cmh/alerts.json”)
os.execute(“rm -r /overlay/dataMine”)
os.execute(“reboot”)

Let me know how it goes.

[/quote]

Hi !

just tried that and my problem is now fixed!

Thank you !

#12

[quote=“Clems, post:11, topic:199175”][quote=“RV, post:5, topic:199175”]I sent support an email, they sent this back

This seems to be a memory space issue, please paste the commands I'm going to send you into a notepad before you paste them on the dashboard, they probably are not going to work if you paste them directly from this e-mail, if they still don't work, please try to copy them manually.

You can try this: Please click on the tab: Apps> Develop apps> and on the option: Test Luup code (Lua) please paste the following codes one by one and click on: Go, once You have a positive confirmation message, continue with the next line, once You finish all the lines, the controller will reboot, please wait till You have all the lights on solid on the controller and do the log in one more time.

os.execute(“rm -r /overlay/etc/cmh/ergy*”)
os.execute(“rm -r /overlay/etc/mios_backup.info.old”)
os.execute(“rm -r /overlay/etc/cmh-firmware/mios*”)
os.execute(“rm -r /overlay/etc/cmh/alerts.json”)
os.execute(“rm -r /overlay/dataMine”)
os.execute(“reboot”)

Let me know how it goes.

[/quote]

Hi !

just tried that and my problem is now fixed!

Thank you ![/quote]
don’t forget
os.execute(“rm /etc/cmh-firmware/mios*”)
os.execute(“rm -rf /overlay/etc/cmh/ergy_cache_paired_devices.conf”)

#13

[quote=“RV, post:12, topic:199175”]don’t forget
os.execute(“rm /etc/cmh-firmware/mios*”)
os.execute(“rm -rf /overlay/etc/cmh/ergy_cache_paired_devices.conf”)[/quote]

But what the difference between:

os.execute(“rm /etc/cmh-firmware/mios*”) and os.execute(“rm -r /overlay/etc/cmh-firmware/mios*”)

#14

/overlay/

#15

The problem is that this has become general limitation for many users. And as such, the equation goes “certain price point and user” = “no user”
And come on, c.a. 10MB limit can be for example doubled without any noticeable cost increasing, at least from technical point of view. System limitation is another issue, but if that is the problem then Vera is blind path anyway, since home automation systems will be more and more complex in the future.

For now, I see decreasing trend already. 1,5 year ago, when I was deciding about the system, in my country most popular was Vera and Fibaro. Among professionals, there was an opinion that Fibaro is more user friendly, but if you want to design something more advanced, then Vera is better option. As I track internet auctions about anything z-wave related sold in my country, I could see market prices for used/occasional sale of Vera controllers. They was lower than the dealer price, of course, but not much lower. (like 10-20%). Now it is nothig unusual if the street price is 70-80% lower than dealer price. By comparision, Fibaro’s HC Lite, which was/is given for free by some companies when you buy a new flat from them (as a result market was flooded with these controllers) has street price not less than 50% of the dealer price. For HC2 street price is 20-30% less than dealer price.
This reflects the change in how Vera is positioned by users, at least in my country.
Aggressive Fibaro marketing is one reason, but common Vera issues is another one. I also consider switching and Fibaro is one of the options.

I don’t complain, If I can buy new Vera Plus, with warranty, for the price of 50 EUR, then even if I replace it every half of year, it is still better option from the cost perspective than for example Homeseer, even if bought on sale. But I don’t see “…and they lived happily ever after” at the end of this story. At some point of time Vera limitations will be to difficult to overcome to make it considerable solution at any price.
But I don’t see much future potential here and

#16

Yeah, of course… overlooked that part

#17

If you have the idea how to make a routine to run commands mentioned in this thread if the system memory will be filled above certain level (for example if overlay partition stuffed more than 95%) please share, I’m very interested in such routine.

But according to my experience, even if this problem will be solved, then after some time we will face another limitation of Vera.
Two of my controllers got bricked during last year. Then I designed routine to clear what I call “operational” memory - the part which has 256MB in Edge and 512MB in Plus and is filled with current data. In my case it was the main reason for controller to be unstable (and probably bricking was due to filling up that memory).
Now we have issues with “system” memory (the “overlay” partition as someone called it), which is only about 10MB and after last updates becomes stuffed really fast.
And the status of third controller is unknown (I switched it off until I get to its location and sitll hope that after system reset it won’t be bricked as its two predecessors)
OK, probably this problem will be solved by routines presented here (the only trouble seems to be in making them auto executed in case when memory is overstuffed, to avoid rebooting controller every day).
What will be next? Who knows…

#18

There is a DIY way to get this: run openLuup (http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/board,79.0.html) on your choice of hardware such as an RPI and use the Vera as the Z-wave radio. You’ll get a stable familiar environment and can use the AltUI interface. Most (not all, not PLEG) plugins can work under openLuup. Now you are in control of the hardware and can pick whatever you need. AltUI lets you use the usual Lua scripting but adds better timer support, a better interface and adds workflows (visual state machines) along with other features.

#19

I started with this issue last week, today I’m getting errors for connections from the unit to the servers (like alerts etc), cannot see location, and time is not updated (12/31 16:00 and never gets updated)

LIVING ROOM MOTION - Device changed state - waiting to upload

Any idea?

#20

I hope Vera’s team are taking note of this thread.

In my line of work I’d have my team at defcon 2 by now - smells like a huge problem brewing here…