DIY HomeKey locks via Reactor

[wmarcolin]

New use for Vera, and helping to save him from the incinerator

One of the eventual problems I am having with Hubitat, are devices that are added with Security S0, and several community posts report that this is a problem.

So today I removed and reinstalled what had S0, but 4 there was no way to get in without Security, and to not create a problem in Hubitat's z-wave network, I installed again in Vera: Door Lock Yale B1L YRD110-ZW-0BP, Smoke Sensor Smoke (2x) and Bulb Zipato RGBW2.US.

Of course I had problems to include in the Vera, the bulb is failing, everything we already know in the Vera. Just unfortunate that Hubitat can not bypass this problem.

[gwp1]

@wmarcolin I only have the security enabled on my two Schlage locks. I have no issues with my iblinds anymore (which I did when I first paired them using security.)

[wmarcolin]

@gwp1

I have tried several times, removing the device and reinserting it, hoping to get the prompt to use the security code or not, but it didn't happen. So I put it in the Vera, so if there is a communication problem, it doesn't affect the Hubitat network, and the Vera ended up with only these 4 devices.

I also took the opportunity to remove the Vera from the cloud (https://github.com/toggledbits/Vera-Decouple) for stability.

[wmarcolin]

@gwp1

I shared this information on the Hubitat forum, and received a message that I think is in line with your comment about the lock, that even though it is S0 I should keep it on Hubitat because in this case, not having recurring status communication would not affect the z-wave network. I think I will come back.

[parkerc]

@wmarcolin said in Any decent destination for a Vera Plus?:

… I wanted to open a debate, for those who have not yet sold their Vera on eBay, are with the equipment idle, what destination could be given?

I have to admit, my Vera (of which I have 4 now, thanks to people who have jumped ship via eBay ) still runs my house, and being paired with a Rasp Pi - that provides me with additional command line capabilities too. Hence it’s still ticking the majority of boxes for me, and call me crazy but I do love the Vera UI.

My situation is perhaps a little different in that It took me well over a decade of using Veras, to understand aspects of what goes on under the hood (Lua/Luup wise), and I’ve just recently started to create my own Vera plugins (oh if my younger self could see me now ;-)). That capability is opening up area I never thought of before. So as you can see I’m very late to the party on that front, which is a shame..

With all that said, I know it’s not going to last forever, and sadly my dream of ezlo making Vera (Luup/UI) a community version for us all to build on is likely never gonna happen, but I have no idea where I’ll eventually end up.

I do love the open-source stuff and must have tried pretty much everything out there, HASS, OpenHAB, NodeRed etc. plus I’ve also been tempted by the Hubitat and Fibaro HomeCenter even ezlo Hubs if they get their act together.

Ultimately- I like the idea of having a ‘one-stop-HA-shop’ - with everything I need all in one place..

[prplrhd]

@parkerc Well said. I'm grateful to hang with the geniuses around here and contribute what I can over the years. But the situation with Vera and Ezlo doesn't stimulate confidence in any commitments to cooperation or extensibility, does it?

I have vacation rentals with Vera Plus or Secure. Lots of lovingly handcrafted scenes, lua code, defunct plug-ins glued together, scripts on Pis. I would love to pull together a "greatest hits" compilation of how-to documentation to set up automation analogous to Vera capabilities. Open-Luup on Pi? How to set up GUI and remote access? some hybrid with existing Vera UI7 GUI (mob app sux). But clearly decoupling is providing many benefits. Several have gone in different paths, would be great if there is a hardware/software/plug-in view for the future as a migration path outside of Ezlo

[parkerc]

OK, well let’s see what a non-Vera, Vera-like set up could look like…

openLuup - https://github.com/akbooer/openLuup
openLuup zway - https://github.com/rafale77/Z-Way

And in your situation, each remote location will need some sort of a vpn server set up; so you can connect to it remotely, so maybe something like..

PiVPN - https://thesecmaster.com/how-to-set-up-open-vpn-on-raspberry-pi/

Assuming you can migrate your Vera plugins and zwave devices to the above Open-Luup set up - What else do you have to factor in ?

[akbooer]

I have largely moved away from Zwave, excepting my beloved MiniMote 4-button controllers (about half a dozen of those) and a couple of electricity meter readers. These are also the only devices that remain on Vera… I just haven’t bothered to move them. ZWay would be a good alternative here, when Vera finally fails. Don’t say I didn’t warn of the demise of Vera, and Ezlo was never a contender.

Of course, openLuup does all my automation, along with Shelly devices via MQTT and Philips Hue. The whole thing is now supervised by Apple Homebridge running on a Synology NAS (along with openLuup) and it’s the Apple Home app that I use for occasional manual control and remote access… no need for a VPN.

[parkerc]

@akbooer said in Any decent destination for a Vera Plus?:

Don’t say I didn’t warn of the demise of Vera, and Ezlo was never a contender.

It’s been a pretty long, drawn out demise and thankfully, even in this limbo state, I’m still getting what I need from my Veras.

@akbooer said in Any decent destination for a Vera Plus?:

The whole thing is now supervised by Apple Homebridge running on a Synology NAS (along with openLuup) and it’s the Apple Home app that I use for occasional manual control and remote access.

Nice, I’ve been running Homebridge and openLuup on my QNAP - for a while, just to give me an iOS route into things, but I’ve never considered making it the overall supervisor - but you’ve got me thinking (as the house is largely Apple)

Which Vera Homebridge plugin are you using ?

My Docker/QNAP side-set up is pretty good, and i have multiple HA related containers (node-red, zoneminder, Homebridge , HomeAssistant, Homer etc.) all interacting with each other - but I must admit I do still like the idea of having everything I need focussed into a few, and all running on a Raspberry PI. (Perhaps that’s more for the confidence in using all my usb add-on elements ( Bluetooth, zwave and RFXtrx433).

[akbooer]

oznu/homebridge

[parkerc]

Which plugin ?

[akbooer]

[parkerc]

Ok, that’s helps as it looks like your not using one of the purpose built Vera plugins - I was wondering if you had got one of those yo work with openLuup.

I’ve tried a couple but no luck for me (so far)

[akbooer]

It’s all done via MQTT.

[Crille]

@parkerc The old unmaintained one from damianxd is in fact working fine with openLuup but it's not very efficient as it polls very frequently. I'd go the MQTT path as well with Mqttthing.
The only downside I see is that openLuup must be set to publish every variable update which for me causes a lot of unnecessary traffic.