Vera PushOver notification with image

[wmarcolin]

@toggledbits thanks as always for your clarifications.

But still, on the topic of disconnecting from the mother ship, I understand that it helps a lot, correct? Even if you lose external control.

Now, I understand that several people have made the disconnection, what have they done then to have external control of the house? The simple task of turning on and off a light remotely, how would it be done?

Thanks.

[toggledbits]

Disconnecting does seem to help stabilize the box. There seem to be quite a few conditions under which Luup will decide to reload in response to various network/cloud events. At one point, even the act of logging in using their remote access caused a reload, but I believe that was fixed. The major wins, though, I think come from relying on more resources within your own network, which makes the system more robust when there's an internet outage. The screen grab I posted above is my decoupled Edge system, as of this writing up without a reload for almost 72 days (about two hours to go).

I think a lot of people prefer VPN access to relying on Vera's cloud. It's what I do as well.

[Crille]

@wmarcolin I haven’t decoupled my Vera but use Homebridge for all local and remote control.

[wmarcolin]

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[wmarcolin]

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[CatmanV2]

catman@openluup:~$ uptime
06:24:00 up 173 days, 23:30, 1 user, load average: 0.06, 0.08, 0.08

Although to be fair Openluup was actively restarted 7 days back

C

[CatmanV2]

I see that Vesternet are giving 50% off Vera Secure...
....and they've just launched their own range of devices:

Z-Wave

Z-Wave is an advanced wireless home automation technology that enables you to create a smart home environment where your electrical products, lighting, heating and blinds can work together as a single system. As Z-Wave is a modular system you can start as small as you wish and then expand your home...

C

[Alan_F]

I just found this thread after making my way over to this site to get started with MSR (running on Raspberry Pi 4 Docker) for my VeraPlus. I've been following the 7.32 discussion on the Ezlo site and it definitely sounds like 7.32 isn't coming out of beta anytime soon. I purchased two leak/flood sensors that are supported in 7.32 but not in 7.31, so I'm motivated to get onto 7.32 to get those monitored before I have (another) leak.

Is the beta reasonably stable and free of glaring bugs? If so, can anyone save me some internet searching and point me to a valid download link? Edit: I figured out the download links from the Ezlo Community site: Do I want the Open Beta 4 downloads or one of the older ones?

I realize that nothing is completely stable on Vera, so I'm just looking to see if there are any major issues with 7.32 that I need to consider before trying the beta.

I use Google Home for voice command of the Vera and use the Vera app for geofencing to trigger home/away actions, so the cloud connection is doing some useful things for me at this point. Do I need to decouple to make 7.32 stable? Or are there people using it successfully without going through the decoupling process?

Thanks for any help.

[CatmanV2]

You probably want to start a new thread, but FWIWI I'd make the jump to $somethingelse

C

[toggledbits]

@alan_f said in Vera firmware 7.32 beta:

Do I want the Open Beta 4 downloads or one of the older ones?

You want beta 4. It's also linked in this thread in an earlier post by @tunnus

@alan_f said in Vera firmware 7.32 beta:

I use Google Home for voice command of the Vera and use the Vera app for geofencing to trigger home/away actions, so the cloud connection is doing some useful things for me at this point. Do I need to decouple to make 7.32 stable?

You don't need to decouple, and if you're using the native geofencing, you cannot decouple, as decoupling would break that. Even without decoupling, 7.32 is more stable for most users; I suspect those for which it is not are also users of older and less well-maintained/written plugins. Without decoupling, you'll have instability during Internet outages, although there are things you can do without a full decouple to improve on that as well.

@catmanv2 said in Vera firmware 7.32 beta:

FWIWI I'd make the jump to $somethingelse

I think @CatmanV2 's point here is that Vera is walking dead, so by sticking with it, you are only putting off the inevitable. If you start picking up HA or Hubitat now, MSR will let you make the transition more gradually using your old Vera cooperatively with the new hub(s). When your Vera dies, you may not find a replacement, but at least, you'll either have shelved it already, or be so far along the curve with a newer solution that taking the last steps will be less harrowing.

[gwp1]

@tunnus Is this not for the VeraSecure? It gave me a "wrong platform" error.

[CatmanV2]

@toggledbits said in Vera firmware 7.32 beta:

@catmanv2 said in Vera firmware 7.32 beta:

FWIWI I'd make the jump to $somethingelse

I think @CatmanV2 's point here is that Vera is walking dead, so by sticking with it, you are only putting off the inevitable. If you start picking up HA or Hubitat now, MSR will let you make the transition more gradually using your old Vera cooperatively with the new hub(s). When your Vera dies, you may not find a replacement, but at least, you'll either have shelved it already, or be so far along the curve with a newer solution that taking the last steps will be less harrowing.

Exactly that.

C

[toggledbits]

@gwp1 said in Vera firmware 7.32 beta:

Is this not for the VeraSecure? It gave me a "wrong platform" error.

There are different links for each hardware platform. Here are the three together in one post:

Vera Edge: https://dl.mios.com/rl/732/mt7620a_Luup_ui7-1.7.5385-en-mios.squashfs
Vera Plus: https://dl.mios.com/rl/732/mt7621_Luup_ui7-1.7.5386-en-mios.squashfs
Vera Secure: https://dl.mios.com/rl/732/mt7621s_Luup_ui7-1.7.5387-en-mios.squashfs

[Alan_F]

Based on the comments from the more experienced users here I ordered a Hubitat this morning and Amazon had it to my door about 3 hours later. After a few z-wave network resets to try to resolve one switch that just won't configure, I have about 90% of everything migrated over to Hubitat. Vera still has a few SiteSensors (I need to read up on the threads about replicating site sensors on MSR) and some Yeelight bulbs that are on a separate VLAN from the Hubitat. I haven't found a way to connect them manually yet and the Hubitat can't discover them across the VLANs.

I'm still trying to figure out a way to use Google Home to flip a virtual switch in Hubitat to then trigger a http call from MSR. There are a few things I was doing with Vera scenes to achieve a similar effect, but MSR doesn't seem to be able to see Hubitat virtual devices.

I'll probably keep the VeraPlus going for a while with the Yeelights and the SiteSensors while I figure the rest of this out.

Thanks for the advice.

[toggledbits]

@alan_f said in Vera firmware 7.32 beta:

but MSR doesn't seem to be able to see Hubitat virtual devices.

I use them extensively for testing. Make sure that when you add devices, you go back to Maker API and make sure those devices are on the list to be published. New devices aren't added to the permitted/published list automatically, so Reactor won't see them until you fix that.

[Alan_F]

Thanks again... that's the issue. Still on the steep part of the learning curve for Hubitat.

[LibraSun]

The further ezlo gets into releasing their products, the more intensely I want to buy a Hubitat. Sounds like fun!!

[gwp1]

I picked up a Hubs last year and began migrating over from my VeraSecure. I saw the handwriting on the, well, forums and thought the time was right esp given the creation of MSR. Tbh, Reactor was the only thing really keeping me on my Vera. My system is now compromised of Hubs controlling devices (with a random rule or two) and then MSR for 99% of the rule logic and Home Assistant for creating nice dashboards (and two MQQT rules for presence.)

FFWD to today and yesterday marked the apparent end of the role my VeraSecure plays in automating my home. One last device to migrate got moved yesterday morning and, like @Alan_F, the remaining life was the two SiteSensors that pull weather data from the Ambient API and the OpenWxMap API to control my HVAC and lighting (I don't use sunrise/sunset, I use solar radiation and it covers me during those times when it's suddenly dark as night in the house due to a storm.)

I'm currently in testing mode of using variable versions of the API calls and so far so good. Just waiting to see if my failover rulesets work should the Ambient API have issues.

I did put the 7.32 beta on the VeraSecure this weekend - not really sure why given how close to EOL it clearly is - but it seemed to actually speed up clicking thru the web UI, so there's that.

@Alan_F - for those virtual devices, as @toggledbits noted, don't forget as a part of your creation process to add it to Maker API - and also to the Alexa and Google apps in the same way if you desire their ability to access them. I still forget to do so from time-to-time.

[wmarcolin]

@alan_f

I just ordered my Hubitat, after months of thinking, still trying to bring Vera to life, I got tired of it! I got tired of devices stopping working without any explanation, newer devices with S2 security are super difficult to connect, Zigbee then does not even exist for Vera.

I hope to find a manual for all my devices to remember how to do a factory reset, and add in the new hub.

Well as I'm out of the USA it takes a week to arrive in Panama, so my adventure begins next weekend, and this is dedicated to reading all your tips here. If there are any posts here in this community that you recommend reading, please comment me.

[toggledbits]

@wmarcolin If you're going to get really aggressive with the transfer of devices, just put the Vera in exclusion mode and start hitting them, from the furthest edges of your mesh working your way in toward the hub. The exclude will suffice as a factory reset in most cases. If that's too much effort, just do it for the device you can't find docs for.