Help me with a Smart Home Interview – US Participants Needed

[tunnus]

@therealdb said in Building a New Z Wave Network:

Factory reset is faster (you’ll not need to wait for a luup restart for every device that’s removed), but there’s a link somewhere with a post by @rafale77 with instructions on how to clone Vera’s Zwave devices on an external key. ZwaveJS has the ability to specify a key and this route is maybe faster than re-pair everything.

I'm aiming to migrate from Vera to Hubitat some day, but guess there's no cloning option - you'll have to factory reset (or re-pair) every single device?

[Pabla]

@tunnus here’s the link to Rafael write up on some options.

@therealdb I was contemplating migrating using one of the mentioned options in the GitHub but ultimately decided to unpair each device and re add it, wanted a fresh start. Everything’s gone pretty well, got about 80% of my devices on HA. Some pesky Zooz ZEN22 switches left that refuse to include in the new network.

[tamorgen]

Not to get off topic, but what are the reasons you are switching from Vera to either Hubitat or HA? More specifically, why did you choose one over another platform? I'm contemplating a switch now, having used Vera since 2016. Vera isn't really being maintained much anymore, and I'm tired of the lack of native device integration and cloud issues. They're putting all their effort into Ezlo, but I just don't know if Ezlo will be more of the same, and I might be better off with something completely different.

[Fanan]

@tamorgen I can only speak for my self, why I ditched Vera and turned to Home Assistent. Main reason was that almost every smart product can be integrated and is also easier to configure. HA is local, faster and can run on many hardwares. The UI aka love lace view, is fully configurable. The development is impressive and the forum is thriving compared to Vera/Ezlo. The users don't get banned for 150 years as well...
I started HA with my Veras still going side by side for almost a year. Slowly I transfered device by device until everything more or less had found it's way to HA. I still have a a handful of devices, all Philio PST02-A (a multisensor) - because they don't work that well in HA, at least when I tried last year. After the transfer to HA I'll never look back to Vera or Ezlo.

[tamorgen]

@fanan said in Building a New Z Wave Network:

@tamorgen I can only speak for my self, why I ditched Vera and turned to Home Assistent. Main reason was that almost every smart product can be integrated and is also easier to configure. HA is local, faster and can run on many hardwares. The UI aka love lace view, is fully configurable. The development is impressive and the forum is thriving compared to Vera/Ezlo. The users don't get banned for 150 years as well...
I started HA with my Veras still going side by side for almost a year. Slowly I transfered device by device until everything more or less had found it's way to HA. I still have a a handful of devices, all Philio PST02-A (a multisensor) - because they don't work that well in HA, at least when I tried last year. After the transfer to HA I'll never look back to Vera or Ezlo.

HA definitely looks like an option. My main concerns are:

• Envisalink/DSC integration (working)
• Geofencing/Presence detection (many options)
• Nest thermostat and Nest Protect integration (looks like they have it working)

I've looked at Hubitat as well, but what's always held me back is the Envisalink integration. The developer who had integrated it left in 2019, and it looks like it's been flailing ever since. Also, I'm not sure about Nest integration.

I may just take the HA plunge soon.

Thanks much for your feedback.

[Pabla]

@tamorgen well the reason why I switched was actually mainly for a better z wave network. My Vera’s network was losing devices daily and was slow. All the integrations I wanted were already supported through Vera.

HA allowed me to have way better control over z wave and also allowed me to use whatever dongle I wanted. Plus it has way way wayyyyy more integrations, I was able to automate soo many other devices that I wasn’t able to do before.

Also I have been using the Envisalink integration and it’s been working fairly well on HA.

[tamorgen]

@pabla said in Building a New Z Wave Network:

@tamorgen well the reason why I switched was actually mainly for a better z wave network. My Vera’s network was losing devices daily and was slow. All the integrations I wanted were already supported through Vera.

HA allowed me to have way better control over z wave and also allowed me to use whatever dongle I wanted. Plus it has way way wayyyyy more integrations, I was able to automate soo many other devices that I wasn’t able to do before.

Also I have been using the Envisalink integration and it’s been working fairly well on HA.

Yeah, I get that. I've been having Vera loosing devices on me. I've actually got a troubleshooting call scheduled for this evening with them for one of my battery powered devices. It drives me insane.

You mentioned being able to use any Z-wave stick. I'm not really clear how that works with HA.

Are you running that on the same device that runs HA, or do have to run them on separate devices? I have plenty of overhead available on my home server where I could run HA, but I can't exactly walk around with my server and the dongle plugged in to pair my devices. At least with Vera, I could unplug it and move it close to the device I want to pair.

They make it sound as if a Pi 4 really isn't powerful enough.

[toggledbits]

@fanan said in Building a New Z Wave Network:

I still have a a handful of devices, all Philio PST02-A (a multisensor) - because they don't work that well in HA

Still using MSR? I'd be happy to look at the Hass device in detail to see if we can do a per-devce exception to work around whatever issues you have. If it's an issue with Hass' integration, which happens sometimes, you can use MSR's ZWaveJSController to get even better access to devices that HA dumbs down too much or doesn't get right (Hass itself uses ZWave-JS, so you likely already have half of what you need running for MSR).

[Pabla]

@tamorgen you just basically plug the Z wave stick into your machines USB port. I only ever had to move my HA host once for pairing Z wave devices. Depending on the size of your home and the type of devices you’re pairing you may not need to move host around.

[Fanan]

@toggledbits said in Building a New Z Wave Network:

Still using MSR? I'd be happy to look at the Hass device in detail to see if we can do a per-devce exception to work around whatever issues you have. If it's an issue with Hass' integration, which happens sometimes, you can use MSR's ZWaveJSController to get even better access to devices that HA dumbs down too much or doesn't get right (Hass itself uses ZWave-JS, so you likely already have half of what you need running for MSR).

Yes - I'm still using MSR! I should try to add the multisensor once more to HA and see how it works. Last time everything seemed alright, but it none of it's entitys changed state. I read on the HA users forum that there could be a workaround if some parameters were changed - but that didn't work in most cases - and not for me. When I've done the transfer, and if the problem persists, I'll start a new thread/topic. Thanks for your sincere kindness!
/Fanan