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Hi
Go with me here... I recently pick up a unresponsive Vera Secure from eBay for next to nothing, thinking I’d could have a go at trying to restore it, if only as a play thing..
Situation - The power led comes on, but the internet and service leds just flash - no connection made (and even using a direct cable and Wireshark, I can’t see an arp request being made to see if it has a default in address) - I’ve also tried various reset button combinations - no luck.
Perhaps this post is a long shot, but seeing so many familiar ex Micasaverde/Vera forum names - i thought I’d at least ask - just in case anyone had any guidance/advice etc. I could use ..
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Hi!
I was tipped off about this forum while bitching about my Vera on the Vera forum, as I had grown accustomed to over the years. I know that's not very nice, but that thing brings out the worst in me (and has even driven me to drink on occasions 😉 )!
Anyway, how about a little intro in case anyone is actually interested? I did odd jobs, saved up for and built my first PC from components by the time I was 15 (back when you had to know how to get around a DOS prompt and a 120Mb hard drive was a big deal). Within 6 months I had my own BBS up and running. The internet wasn't really a thing back then -- did AOL really count? I only really discovered home automation almost a decade later, again before it had really taken off. Back then I was using X10 because it was still one of the only consumer options and I had no electronics background. Over the years I have experimented with several home automation technologies, 90% of them ending up as useless scrap and a waste of money. Today I feel like not much has changed, but things are moving in the right direction (wide scale adoption -> more money invested in improving tech to try to get us to part with our money, am I right?). I've never really had the funds to go all out or to get the more expensive gear, but I've found some products that have been worth sticking with -- namely my Elk-M1G and one or two other obscure devices. I recently was "renovicted" during the pandemic and decided to move from my modest apartment in the city to a house out in the woods in the middle of nowhere.
So here I am, with an almost clean slate, looking to set this place up better than ever. The internet access sucks out here, but the house is mine to do what I will with it. I envision a keyless entry system even better than the last one I devised, walls that literally talk and eventually even roboticized structure & furniture (eg. Aquarium lids that rise for maintenance, hidden doors that slide open, a table that transforms into a bar, etc.).
For the moment, though, I'd like to figure out how to replace this *&$%ing Vera. Funds have been tight lately, but at the moment I have several pieces of hardware I can start with: The Elk (as mentioned), ~20 LIFX bulbs/strips, a handful of Amazon Echos, a few Zwave devices, some IR and audio stuff, the Vera, a few other odds and ends.
Ultimately, I'd like to set up a low-power system like a NUC or something that will always be on, running automation as well as handling audio (most likely multi-zoned). I built my last PC as a gaming PC, but I can use it to experiment until I'm ready to purchase an HA system.
Where do I start if I want to learn about OpenLuup? I skimmed through the forums, but they seem quite advanced and are a little beyond my abilities. I do CAD/CAM, not programming, unfortunately!
Thanks!! -
654a0b44-6cec-4466-8701-3566067abbd0-image.jpeg https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fpanic.com%2Fblog%2Fpanic-status-board-2013-edition%2F&psig=AOvVaw1ERsyah34ZkmLnpWaYLgu-&ust=1600418906446000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCODol5Xn7-sCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAE
I’ve always liked the idea of having a screen, located somewhere in the house that would allow me to see the status of pretty much everything. (Hardware wise I’m just think of a basic Rasp Pi, fixed to a vesa mount, screwed to the back of an old monitor screen)
I’ve tried a number of tools/apps over the years, one of which was PanicBoard (where the above image comes from) - which seemed to have some potential, but the owners stopped developing/investing in that a while back.
What are people using ?
Is there something, perhaps a single tool/app that this community would collectively support/promote, one that no matter what HA you used, you could submit information to and have it displayed ?
**** Just to be clear, I’m referring to status/information boards, not a touch based, control board where you can turn things on/off etc..***
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General discussion on all things MQTT.
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Not sure this is in quite the right place (again) but I have a device that exists in z-way that I simply cannot remove. It seems to be a zombie. I have no idea what it was.
It claims to be a routing binary sensor that has not woken up since August
I go through the 'Only do this if your device is broken' and it simply will not go.
Any ideas (apart from ignore it)?Cheers
C
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Hi all
Possibly a long shot - but does anyone know of a way, (maybe you have some code or know of an app) that can help you discover the IR codes of a device when you’ve lost the remote?
Looking online there seems to be a growing number of IR banks, yet I can’t find anything on the market that could cycle through a huge set of different codes (e.g just the power on/off) to let me know which ones are compatible ?
When you consider so many things these days are made in the same place, and often thing can just be re/badges versions of other items - it’s likely that a sets of codes for one branded product will work in the most part with another ..
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Since one member asked at one point about the "front end" and "back end", I drew this showing the controller from the base to the tip along with what I have found to be the best options from my testing. Almost every controller will try to integrate all elements, especially commercial ones but... they all have strengths and weaknesses so if one can have a medley of the best ones...
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Hi all. Looking for some guidance as ever
This
luup.inet.wget('https://api.telegram.org/bot1225075966:AAHS5rwhCpOx0hwq3mOnNjtCSKiDeAS6B4/sendMessage?chat_id=@Coalport58&text=House mode is home')Works fine
This
luup.inet.wget('https://api.telegram.org/bot1225075966:AAHS5rwhCpOx0hwq3mOnNjtCSKiDeAS6B4/sendMessage?chat_id=@Coalport58&text=House mode is Home')Throws a 400 error:
openLuup.client:: WGET error status: 400I have munged the bot key to post here, but just changing the 'h' to 'H' breaks it. Any ideas why?
C
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We are a smart home startup based in England, we are looking for a co-founder/advisor who is good at iot software development.
Many thanks -
What are the projects you're working on?
Summer is over, and that (unfortunately) means more time indoor and (luckily) more time to build things.
I have almost nothing in my backlog and it's boring 🙂
I appreciate a couple of (crazy) ideas.
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Is there one? I know TTS is working but suddenly woke up at 0300....
...or does it just use Vera. That seems unlikely from what I know of the architectureTIA
C
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So, I'm trying to execute the same code I had for years to mount my synology NAS for datamine (I know, old stuff), but I'm getting this:
mount -o user=vera,pass=pass //192.168.1.26/Backups/Vera/datamine /datamine mount: mounting //192.168.1.26/Backups/Vera/datamine on /datamine failed: No such deviceIt used to work until 3 days ago, then I had to factory reset my Vera Plus and now this. Packages are OK:
opkg update opkg --force-depends install kmod-fs-cifs opkg --force-depends install kmod-nls-utf8 kmod-nls-base kmod-crypto-hmac kmod-crypto-md5 kmod-crypto-miscI've already trying anything, with no luck. Any ideas?
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My quest to build a central usb to serial server (hub) continues 🙂
The goal is to make a core set of usually local devices available to other HA controllers over the network to use (via Ser2net).
Current list includes ..
Current Cost Energy Monitor Rfxtrx433 Transceiver Bluegiga BLED112 BluetoothNext up is a Z-Wave Module ZMEEUZB1
What other devices do people think would be a good to add to the ‘hub’ ?
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I just noticed from other forums that IFTTT has started some serious payment plans with a very restrictive free tier.
IFTTT Plans - IFTTT Plans - IFTTTFind the right plan for Pros, Developers and Businesses.
This was writing on the wall from the beginning and why I tested it for the entirety of 5mins and requested to delete my account back 3 years ago. The idea to me was mind boggling: Having a multitude of platform API integrated by them in the cloud so every signal and command would go through them. This outside dependency, could not remain free and would offer poor reliability security/privacy and performance by design and is intrinsically inefficient. Now if you want to continue using it, you get to pay for it.. What a waste of time and energy...
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Sorry for the long title 🙂
After building, for the want of a better term, a “Ser2net Server” in order to share various USB/Serial devices With Vera/Node-Red etc.
I’ve recently added Bluegiga’s BLED112 Bluetooth (https://www.silabs.com/wireless/bluetooth/bluegiga-low-energy-legacy-modules/device.bled112) with the goal that I can integrate all the personal bluetooth devices worn in the house (i.e fitness trackers etc.) into some sort of presence awareness set-up.
All my other usb/serial devices, such as a Current Cost energy monitor, DSC Alarm Panel and a RFCOM Rfxrtx433 transceiver which are connected are all working well, and with the ability to share each device I’ve been able to integrate them into the different HA solutions I use.
So getting back to the point of my post, and with the BLED112 connected, I can access it via the pi no problem and using this .py script (. https://github.com/jrowberg/bglib/blob/master/Python/Examples/bled112_scanner.py) - so I can do a few things when logged into the pi, but what I’m struggling with at the moment is how to get clean information out via ser2net. Currently everything looks jumbled/corrupted and I’ve tried to change the Ser2net serial/connection settings for it but that hasn’t resulted in any noticeable improvements .
Ser2net .conf settings.
4004:raw:0:/dev/ttyACM0:115200 8DATABITS NONE 1STOPBIT max-connections=4Is anyone on this forum using the BLED112 in any capacity today ? Ideally with Vera/OpenLuup ?
Screenshot below of what’s seen via telnet (Remoter is the iOS app I’m using , but the N065H is a model of fitness band my wife has.
C8FF65D2-9BA7-4696-B085-64170A42D3E1.jpeg
And attached below is what seen from the pi when the python script is run..
0E3B2939-3751-4804-9599-835BC9741524.jpeg
Within the above you have the MAC of the Bluetooth device, plus the strength of the signal, so the makings of some good presence/range automation capabilities 🤩
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General Information - I thought some of the regulars would like to register. Links down the bottom,Interesting that they are looking into the failures....wonder if there will be any mention of you know what.....
Z-Wave Works With Amazon, Google, Samsung, Apple, Comcast Virtual Conference
by DrZWave
Silicon Labs is hosting what was intended to be an in-person conference in Austin Texas but is now a virtual online conference on IoT ecosystems - the Works With Smart Home Developer Event September 9-10. The best part is it is now FREE to attend any of the in-depth technical sessions and you don't have to wear a mask. The downside is that we don't get to experience all that great music down in Austin - well, there's always next year!Virtual IoT Works With EcoSystems from Google, Amazon, Apple for Z-Wave development engineers
Works With Smart Home Developer Event - Silicon Labs Works With Smart Home Developer Event - Silicon Labs
Attend Works With Smart Home Developer Event virtually to learn how to work with ecosystem partners to connect devices, platforms and protocols. Live or on-demand.
I am hosting the Z-Wave track and will be making several presentations including a detailed look at Silicon Labs latest release of Simplicity Studio V5 which just came out yesterday. We'll also have presentations on developing Z-Wave Smart Hubs and Z-Wave Certification. I'll also be describing some IoT failures - you learn more from your failures than your successes. We have speakers and engineers from all of the ecosystem partners, not just Silicon Labs folks. Learn from the experts from across the industry!What is Works With 2020? The smart home developer’s virtual event where you will have the opportunity to interact with our ecosystem partners from Amazon, Google, Samsung, and Z-Wave to connect devices, platforms and protocols and be able to immerse yourself in keynotes, a panel discussion on Project CHIP, hands-on, and technical sessions led by smart home engineers who are building the latest advanced IoT devices. The Works With event is live, all-online, free of charge, and you can join from anywhere around the world.
Works With Z-Wave Apple, Google, Amazon, Samsung IoT SmartHome conference 2020
Click here to Register Today and feel free to forward to the rest of your team.Here’s an overview of what you won’t want to miss:
Specialized Engineer-Led Tracks – Educational sessions and technical training designed for engineers, executives, developers, business development and product managers.
Hands-On Workshops More than 12 workshops and hands-on sessions to give you experience, knowledge and confidence to develop and accelerate smart home development.
One-on-One Developer Meetings – Schedule a meeting with Silicon Labs or an ecosystem partner to get 1:1 technical guidance.
Join me in September and learn how to smoothly get your IoT device plugged into any and all of the ecosystem partners. Register today, it's totally free and you can join from anywhere in the world. See you September!
DrZWave | July 30, 2020 at 8:22 pm | Tags: WorksWith | Categories: 700 series, Best Practice, Coding Guides, News, Presentations, Summit, Z-Wave Controllers, Z-Wave Developers, Z-Wave Mesh, Z-Wave Network, Z-Wave Slaves, Z-Wave Users | URL: https://wp.me/p6tsK6-o5
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DrZWave / Jul 30, 2020 Z-Wave Works With Amazon, Google, Samsung, Apple, Comcast Virtual Conference Z-Wave Works With Amazon, Google, Samsung, Apple, Comcast Virtual Conference
Works With Amazon, Google, Apple and more Smart Home EcoSystem vendors. Learn how to design your product to work with these 800 pound gorillas
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Derick Schweppe Mycroft – Open Source Voice Assistant - Mycroft Mycroft – Open Source Voice Assistant - Mycroft
Mycroft is an open source voice assistant, that can be installed on Linux, Raspberry Pi, or on the Mark 1 hardware device. Our opensource skills are written in Python and we have a very friendly developer community. Come join us!
I have been following this project with great interest and am thinking about testing it. Eventually, I believe this is the way to go and will eliminate all the GH and Echo ecosystems.
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I picked up a new WD SSD for practically next to nothing (wow, have prices on storage dropped) and want to replace the SDC in omy HS4 Pi that I added Node Red to.
I know that a thread existed on this, perhaps on the Vera forum before it was censored. I can't find it here can anyone point me in the right direction.
Thks -
In the pseudo code below settimeout always times out after ten seconds. I can set the timeout to any value and it always times out when it reaches the set value. But why? The transmit is fine and the data is rx'ed OK exactly as expected. ie the expected data is always the length expected. There are no partial results.
The only way to get it to work is to set the timeout to zero. ie no timeout delay and use socket.select to become a defacto timeout. It works great after that.
-- Socket library version is: LuaSocket 3.0-rc1 m_tcp = socket.tcp() m_tcp:settimeout(10) -- set to zero when using socket.select fix m_tcp:connect('ip_address', port) repeat -- send request local txMsg('Data request. Hi what is the hardware status? (ongoing)') m_tcp:send(txMsg) -- THIS fixs the problem as long as m_tcp:settimeout() is set to zero -- Wait on the socket for 50 msec for rx data. -- The rx data will arrive in the rx buffer in less than this time. -- *** local rxlist, _, selectStatus = socket.select ({m_tcp}, nil, 0.05) -- get the response to the request -- get the 16 byte data header, that contains the length of the payload local expectedLength = 16 local s, status, partial = m_tcp:receive(expectedLength) if (status == "timeout") then print('timeout') end -- the returned data amount varies but we know what it is from the header just rx'ed expectedLength = s[1] s, status, partial = m_tcp:receive(expectedLength) -- do this every 0.5 sec; -- we're regularly updating the status of a hardware device luup.sleep(500) until false
The Home Automation Controller Pyramid
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Since one member asked at one point about the "front end" and "back end", I drew this showing the controller from the base to the tip along with what I have found to be the best options from my testing. Almost every controller will try to integrate all elements, especially commercial ones but... they all have strengths and weaknesses so if one can have a medley of the best ones...
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Good picture, but isn't home assistant not also a bit of Front-end?
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You could argue the same for the Z-way, since there the possiblilty to create virtual devices and scenes.
@rafale77 said in The Home Automation Controller Pyramid:
Almost every controller will try to integrate all elements
...so there's bound to be some fuzzy edges.
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The controllers on the drawing are the best ones in that box in my opinion. As I said, almost every controller actually tries to fulfill the pyramid. Home Assistant has a pretty good GUI now though its controls of automation from the GUI is poor and the automation logic itself is pretty incomplete causing some people to run node-red as the front end for Home-Assistant. I run openLuup...
For the Integration layer, I run both Home-Assitant with all its integration component and openLuup and its many vera plugins, manually bridged together.
For the backend, I run z-way into openLuup and Bellows into Home-Assistant.All boxes are important but each box depends on the box below it. As an illustration, when I start my system, I have to start it from bottom to top. When a controller is built and tested, it should be done from bottom to top as well in order to make sense and be effiscient.
The z-way-server also does all three and each API: the zwave API, JS API, Automation API, pretty much corresponds to each of the APIs I drew in order from bottom to top. It is just very good at the bottom layer but not as good as others as you go up the boxes. The best part of vera was the middle box with the community plugins and pretty complete virtual device set and is what openLuup has improved on.
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From my reading of different forums it doesn't look like Homeseer is doing all that great with their HS4 release. So between them and vera going down dead ends, it looks like Z-way and the in beta openzwave-QT will soon be the only contenders for zwave and I would slide in hubitat as third in spite of their lack of S2 support... Pretty sad to see good choices get smaller and smaller.
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I think part of the problem is that there are too many standards to chose from. None of them have a complete offering in terms of the hardware, the big boys have tried to create closed ecosystems (also not complete, or lacking in some other way) and very few (none) of the current offerings are succeeding at supporting the whole shooting match.
Feels like there are no decent devs / architects out there with a focus on a clear end model and some decent funding that's not making bad technical decisions.
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I think also that there is a business problem issue. The controller is absolutely critical and getting the right hardware and software is a lot of work. However they are being sold as a very low cost to attract new customers into the ecosystem while the real business is actually in the devices. The controller is only an enabler. Homeseer was the only one selling theirs at a high price... And then there is open source... Vera tried very hard to differentiate from the rest, attempting self maintenance and trying to get a lot of smart in the zwave management, taking control away from their customers. It tanked because not only was it mostly unnecessary but above all, it was very poorly designed. Let's see how the others do...
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@rafale77 that's a good point.
However, I fear that seeing how the others 'do' is pretty much how they've 'done' I had a X10 system running off a USB 'thing' and Indigo automation software. That was about 15 years ago. If anything it was easier and more reliable than stuff today (let's talk about how my magnetic door sensors don't un trip if you don't have the door open for more than about 3 seconds).
There is a significant difference that I have more money to throw at it than I did then, but progress seems, well, erratic. What do we have? Switches, dimmers and thermostats really.....
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I run QT-openzwave... beta but very steady and very easy! After the holiday it will by bye bye vera... almost all logics are already transferred to home assistant and node-red just some pleg and the "garaga door plugin" running on vera... I moved all problematic devices to QT and since then it's rock solid. Even Vera is fast. And since zwave devices are included (secure) in qt zwave I did not even know they were also so good and fast
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Vera’s zwave is a mess and I’m giving them a compliment.
I still think the idea behind Vera was good, the execution made it what it is. With more attention to details and the ability to really fix bugs, it could have been a good solution.I still want a plug and play solution with easy customization, but maybe we’re just at the beginning and this market needs to reach its peak to become more mainstream.
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The closest to a plug and play local all in one is probably Hubitat at this point but they have their limitations in each area. For a large system with a lot of plugins, it seems like the RAM and CPU on their unit is a limiter.
Home Assistant is also going through some strange strategic changes and is really not plug and play... though that's what they aim towards but the rate of breaking changes and tedious "templating" for automation has me much prefer openLuup at this point. It is a bit of pitching lua vs. python+yaml... -
@rafale77 said in The Home Automation Controller Pyramid:
much prefer openLuup at this point
AT THIS POINT ...?
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haha... yeah and for the foreseeable future. I just started learning a little python because all the machine learning libraries seem to have a python API so it makes things much easier... But for home automation, I for one am way too invested in lua and two, don't see python as being suitable... which is, I am guessing, why Home Assistant has supplemented it with yaml. Gosh and I am not even a coder/developer by trade... I just am enjoying the learning.
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to be fair, ezlo seems to have implemented Zwave (and Zigbee) stack in a modern way. but I'm not convinced at all by their new programming environment. they're adopting an approach very similar to HA's, where you can launch scripts to intercept events, instead of having services always executing. So, openluup it's probably the safest bet in terms of features and stability for luup refugees.
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and yes, I don't like python neither. I learned LUA quite easily (being a dev for the latest 25 years helped) and I was really tempted to build my own engine running C# (on Linux, it's xplat now thanks to .NET Core) at some point, and move all my logic there, and use some hub just to send ZWave commands. I have already tons of code doing integrations with Vera, MiLight, OpenSprinkler, MQTT running in my own C# service, but it was just for fun.
The real problem is more about building a compelling UI, today, and offer side services (Alexa/GoogleHome, remote access, etc) than anything else.
A couple of friends approached me (because you know, home automation addiction has grown in me) because they wanted to build something and I always told them to not do anything like I did, because it needs maintenance. I dream of a day when we'll get a real plug&play system. We're not there, clearly. -
@therealdb said in The Home Automation Controller Pyramid:
to be fair, ezlo seems to have implemented Zwave (and Zigbee) stack in a modern way.
But what they (appear) to be shipping a beta seems way too immature. When would you think there's a production product? Feels to me like 2021 some time?
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@CatmanV2 said in The Home Automation Controller Pyramid:
But what they (appear) to be shipping a beta seems way too immature. When would you think there's a production product? Feels to me like 2021 some time?
yes. current system is barely usable. They are targeting next September, and they can improve fast, because they want to release a new build every 2 weeks. The real problem is their priorities: in order to migrate, you have to unpair and pair again all your devices. It's impossible for me (70+ devices, sometimes buried into boxes I really don't know where, since they were first installed by my electricians when building the house) and for many more people.
The concerning problem is that it's quite impossible for them to have plug-ins ready, because their new runtime is completely different and porting is not easy. But from a Zwave standpoint, they seem to have learned the lesson, by decoupling devices from implementation, and by allowing device definition to be updated separately. We'll see, it's probably too early and a lot of customers will migrate to anything better when the product will be really ready. -
@therealdb said in The Home Automation Controller Pyramid:
next September
2020 or 2021? 2021 seems more likely. Short sprints only means lots of progress if you're actually capable of writing code. Given the number of recurring issues, this seems something that may be beyond them.
And who's going to hang around for 2021?C
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@rafale77 said in The Home Automation Controller Pyramid:
I just started learning a little python because all the machine learning libraries seem to have a python API so it makes things much easier... But for home automation, I for one am way too invested in lua and two, don't see python as being suitable...
My view entirely! Python is a huge language compared to Lua. Its real plus is the vast number of libraries, but the huge minus is the size of the system. Parts of openLuup (the Historian's
graphite_cgimodule, and theWhisperdatabase were translated from Graphite's Python code, so I had to learn it a bit.@CatmanV2 said in The Home Automation Controller Pyramid:
I think part of the problem is that there are too many standards to chose from.
Indeed... always the problem with 'Standards'.
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Indeed... always the problem with 'Standards'.
Of course, we only need one. TCP/IP would do just dandy!
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