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    • (Need Help) Migrate off Vera

      M

      Current Hardware: Vera Plus, HA in Synology Docker
      Firmware: v.7.0.31
      Available SW / HW: Multiple RPi's, Z-Way UZB w/lic, Z-Way Razberry board
      ZWave Devices: 30-ish early gen GE/Jasco light switches

      Issue: I've gotten myself into a spot that I'm not quite sure how to safely get out of, and I'm hoping someone on this forum can help me. I would ultimately like to get to a point where I'm using Home Assistant in Docker on my Synology as my UI for turning on/off lights, but I've read the "Pyramid" post and am open to other options. I can currently ssh to my Vera Plus, but cannot access the web UI (get a 403).

      How I Got Here:

      Back in Feb'19, I followed @rafale77's instructions to take my Vera off the grid. At the time, it looks like I was running version 7.0.26. This worked great.

      I installed HA in Docker w/socat on my Synology NAS, and things were running perfectly for a long time, but I was forced to upgrade HA in tandem with an upgrade to the iOS app. So, I chose to use a Docker build that already had socat built in.

      Then, I saw that there was a new version of firmware for Vera, and decided to upgrade to Firmware v.7.0.31 around Apr'20. This was a mistake in a big way, and I sought help on the new version of the Vera forums, which eventually led me here. I also re-ran @rafale77's mod files on the newer firmware version, and I think I shot myself in the foot there. I knew it was gamble, and take full responsibility. I've learned a lot and have benefitted greatly from his work.

      I tried to run the Nuke Vera script, as that sounded exactly what I needed my Vera to do - take commands from HA and nothing else. This seems to be working, but I'm unable to control my network with HA.

      Additional things I've done / tried / worry about:

      Validated that HA is sending and receiving responses via socat from the Vera in the HA openzwave logs. I see logs that seem to indicate that a message is sent, and a message comes back from the Vera, but lights don't turn on/off. I've clicked the Heal Network, Test, Network, and Soft Reset buttons in the HA UI too.

      I purchased a razberry. Then, I ordered a UZB, after seeing this post about migrating, assuming that it was best to try to follow that guide verbatim and not have to exclude / include a bunch of devices. I'm leaning towards completely divorcing myself from Vera.

      I'm not 100% sure I have a valid backup of my zwave config. There are no dongle.dump files in /etc/cmh whch may make sense, as I was using after an external drive w/extroot. I do have some in ./mnt/sda2/etc/cmh/. It looks like I've got extra, actually, as it looks like I probably made backup copies some where along the way.

      I shutdown the Vera and removed the extroot drive, reversed all of the changes Nuke-Vera made to the init.d start up files, and rebooted. I did this because the migration guide mentions to set the path of the z-way UZB in the UI settings, and I couldn't find how do this over ssh. I also don't know how to backup the zwave config from the CLI and was going to do this via the UI. As mentioned previously, I'm getting a 403 "Access Denied" message. Looking at logs and the config for lighthttpd, I think it is trying to follow some symbolic links that no longer exist, but I'm hoping I can get out of the mess I've made without troubleshooting and solving the HTTPD issues. I think I just need to know how to follow the steps to clone the Vera to the UZB via the CLI?

      I found a command online method that allows me to view the zwave keys with hexdump. The keys on the device are different than the keys in on the drive that i was using for extroot, and that concerns me a bit.

      If you've made this far, thanks for your time! Does anyone know the best way for me to get myself out of the mess I've got myself into?

      All the best,
      Michael

      Vera
    • Vera or not vera?

      K

      Dear Experts!

      In January 2020, I decided to get involved in automation as a complete beginner.
      I purchased a Vera Plus device controller.

      I built the network gradually, at the cost of overcoming no small problems .....
      Since I am a beginner I have had a lot of problems.

      For example: I had 6 multisensors that sometimes got stuck with motion detection (lights stayed on) and also created ghost devices.
      I knocked everything out of the system, the system stabilized a lot after that. (many red lines disappeared from luaupnp ....)

      Over time and with the help of the experts (Eg: AKbooer was a great help to me in netatmo which I thank again) I managed to solve most of the errors.

      I only use a reactor to control the logic and execution.
      The logical composition of my reactor is not very complicated in my opinion.

      My DSC alarm (with plugin) controls the house modes, cameras, each room has a separate reactor sensor (18 sensors in total) which control the automatic lighting and shutters.

      I tried to improve the conditions and scenes in the reactor to perfection. (don't have executions, delays and reservations at the same time, I record the states with the "time from reactor" group state, just like the motion and opening detections from another sensor.

      The situation is that the system does not always work reliably.
      I experience Lua recharges at completely unpredictable intervals, about 1-3 per day
      times.
      Because of this, unfortunately my scenes slip, (or don't happen)
      For simple things (tablet charging in) there is usually no problem.

      However, if I am not at home for several hours and return home, the alarms will turn off, and the luup recharge(90%).
      If you approach the afternoon when more times are set in the time reactor then recharging will still occur but not always.

      For the past 10 months, I feel tired of the constant error search and still not good. I'm starting to doubt Vera's abilities.

      Therefore, I would have the following questions:

      Are the conditions set in the reactor loaded on the vera without action?

      Can the Vera be stable and well-functioning without an unexpected lua reload?

      If so, what do I need to add? (I'm a simple user, not a programmer, I don't know lua and linux programming languages ​​and I don't want to learn because of vera)
      I don’t want to deal with this too much anymore, so I still spent more on it than I deserve.

      Is there another controller that works safely and well on the z-wave platform?

      In what direction should I move away from the vera, which will not disappoint me?

      Have you heard of a controller called comfortclick? (I was now offered this instead of vera)

      Thank you in advance for your help.

      Krisztian

      Vera
    • (Problem) Migration Z-Wave NW from Vera to UZB1 dongle

      T

      So ... I am trying to do the following:

      Current setup:
      Vera Plus (1.7.4955) Zwave only -> HASSIO VM (full control via Vera Integration)

      Future Target:
      HASSIO VM (leveraging zwave.me UZB1 dongle via USB)

      I have done the following so far:

      Updated UZB1 dongle (via RPi SmartHome) to latest 5.39 Firmware

      I followed the following steps to try and migrate my existing Z-Wave NW (currently on Vera) onto the UZB1 dongle following the steps listed here:

      Migrate from Vera to Z-way

      Problem:

      Steps 1-3: went fine (although the dumps are labeled as dongle.6.1.dump.x)

      Step 4: went fine and the UZB1 was recognized as it should be (per dmesg)

      Step 5: updating the port to /dev/ttyACM0 went fine, although I didn't see any indication of luup reload (or a save button for that matter when updating the port mapping)

      Step 6: I did the touch for dongle.restore, but wasn't sure where to trigger a luup reload (I assumed it was Z-Wave Settings > Advanced > Reload Engine). I believe I got an error message when trying to do that step

      Step 7: verify dongle.restore.go I don't recall being in the directions when I was going the test, but I rebooted

      Post Reboot: None of my previous z-wave devices were listed. I also checked dmesg via ssh and noticed the following items:

      [ 4.328000] Unsupported Device! [ 4.328000] Vendor=658 ProdID=200 [ 4.328000] Manufacturer= Product=

      I saw that item a couple times which almost seems like Vera is blocking the UZB1 or at least complaining about it.

      I ended up switching the Z-Wave back to the embedded controller, and restoring configuration from backup.

      Any suggestions what I did wrong??

      Vera
    • Nuke Vera Script

      rafale77

      Script to disable all the mios/vera proprietary program and broadcast its zwave and zigbee radio serial ports in your network so it can be picked up by another controller... For example z-way.

      rafale77/Nuke-Vera rafale77/Nuke-Vera

      Script to neuter the vera and broadcast its zwave and zigbee serial ports - rafale77/Nuke-Vera

      Vera
    • Second Z-wave netwerk or slave controler

      E

      I have a VeraPlus and would like to purchase a second z-wave controler. Is it possible to build a second z-wave network next to an existing z-wave network? Slowly I want to move devices form Vera to the new z-wave network. Is it more advisable to install the second z-wave controller as a slave controler?

      Vera
    • Vera Christmas Lights and migration away from Vera

      C

      My VeraPlus is in Christmas Light mode after attempting the latest update. So as I attempt to get things back with Vera Support I need to start looking into an alternate solution. I've installed OpenLuup in an Ubuntu VM I have running on an old PC. Right now I can still ssh into the VeraPlus.

      Will I be able to migrate the Z-Wave NW to a UZB dongle in this state? Or can I use @rafale77 's Nuke Vera Script to just use the VeraPlus as my zwave antenna? With either of these options have I lost the ability to migrate my configuration without Vera support restoring my VeraPlus first?

      Thanks

      Vera
    • zwaveserial

      rafale77

      Never posted this on the vera forum but...
      Did you know about this?

      The vera has a very powerful zwaveserial API program in the firmware. Take a look at what it can do:

      Screen Shot 2020-04-24 at 10.29.50.png

      It is what the UI calls to interface with the zwave dongle.

      Vera
    • Vera account suspended for a 1000 years

      S

      So, after more than 10 years and 4 Vera's, my vera forum account is suspended.

      I think the monkey of the company, called melih is not man enough te have any critic. In the topic about the "great to come app" I responded to the topic (not off topic!) that a subscription can also be seen (financially) as buying a box, run it for 2 years and come to market with a better one (in better wordings).
      That means that if you as a company hast a box of 50USD cost, sell it at 250USD would give him a monthly subscription of 200/24=8.33 USD... Users that would last 5 years would pay a monthly of 3.33USD.

      But... the monkey on the rock has bolded his fists and said: ban him! He just can't take any criticism.

      To be honest! I am not even sad! It was a very rough journey with Vera. The journey stopped when Ezlo and the monkey took over the name.

      After that it quickly went downhill...

      Goodluck all! (except the monkey).

      Edit:
      The topic:

      Aug 16, 2020 MiOS Application - early Beta enrollment MiOS Application - early Beta enrollment

      are you serious? would I become a cost? that is, customers who periodically replace the control unit and are happy with the service praise the Vera system and therefore also free advertising but, the new “company” decides to charge less to bind the customer with a subscription … But the genius...

      The post:
      The point you are missing is:

      If the hardware would “cost” around 50USD, and you sold it for 250USD, an average life span of 5 years would mean 200/(5×12)=3.33USD per month. Thats how Vera used to do it.

      Then release a faster/better “beast” every 2 years gives you 200/(2×12)=8.33USD per month. That’s how vera used to do it.

      And that’s how I did it for around 8 years and 4 veras with them untill you bought the company.

      This is just a matter of how you look at it and explain it.

      I dont frikking care how you do the maths, I only liked a working product and a close user community (like it was).

      Now all I see on this forum is a lot of “we are going to” and “we are working on”, “keep them coming guys”. But the reason for ever considering to buy a new vera every 2 years is gone…

      No clear migration path, no clear compatibility path and no clear integration path…

      That’s why I started to look for alternatives…

      Vera
    • Migration from VeraPlus to Aeotec Gen5

      T

      I have 50ish devices in connected to Home Assistant via. VeraPlus hub. I recently picked up an Aeotec Gen5 USB stick which I have successfully integrated into Home Assistant using OpenZWave.

      Can I add the Aeotec Stick as a Secondary Controller to Vera, turn off vera (making Aeotec primary) and then run natively that way on HA?

      I know the entity ID's in HA will change, but a lot easier to fix vs. unpair/repair all the devices from Vera.

      Will this work?

      Vera
    • Neighbour node setting

      rafale77

      To answer @sdtoddl who emailed me asking how to manually force neighbor node setting on the vera, I don’t think it is possible with the UI.
      The solution is actually to trigger a neighbor node update on the given device and all the devices located between that said device and the controller.
      The vera deals with this by running multiple repeated (nightly) network heals which is not very efficient and causes it to frequently have unexpected network breakdowns and surprises good (some devices with problems get fixed) and bad (some devices which used to work stop working). It also takes down the entire network when it does it. One can however manually trigger neighbor node updates on the vera through the device’s advanced menu.

      To go to the next level, this data, the network node list is actually not recorded in the host controller firmware but in the non volatile memory of the zwave chip both on the controller and on the devices. It is therefore independent of the platform you use and can’t be set by the host. One can only ask the zwave chip on the device to run a survey and then inform the controller’s zwave chip of what it has found.

      Vera
    • Vera Extroot

      rafale77

      How to overcome the vera's storage limitations:
      Execrably poor partitioning and usage of the onboard flash causing hardware reliability failure through data corruption and storage availability for plugin limitations: Add your own external USB SATA drive and extroot.

      rafale77/vera-extroot rafale77/vera-extroot

      Scripts to extroot the vera edge-plus-secure. Contribute to rafale77/vera-extroot development by creating an account on GitHub.

      Vera
    • Wonders will never cease...

      akbooer

      Amazing. One of my (un)trusty old VeraLite machines running UI5 has just achieved an uptime of one month... the maximum that that firmware can ever achieve!

      The graph below shows the uptime for the last two years, and although sometimes being up for a few weeks, it's never achieved a whole month!

      I put this down to reduced ZWave traffic and zero plugins, although the configuration hasn't changed for a long while.

      Screenshot_2020-06-01 Grafana - Veras.png

      Vera
    • Altui - OS Command execution request (returned error)

      S

      I am used to errors, but never seen this before on altui on vera. keep getting this now all the time, any clue?

      3379e4cb-c456-4be8-b261-509b9663dd7a-image.png

      Vera
    • Multiple Veras in home assistant

      S

      Using Home Assistant as the heart of my domotica (this was vera for 10 years up untill just a few months ago!) I currently have vera integrated as zwave hub only. Having almost all logic moved to hass leaving vera solely as zwave hub.
      As I am searching for a solution for a more stable zwave network and all options are open (but messing with zwave network ids etc is still too hard for me) I am also looking to another option.

      Multiple veras in hass. This way I can have isolated vera edges with smaller zwave networks and still do all logic in hass.

      One thing... currently only 1 vera is allowed in hass.

      It is a feature request already and I would like to ask to help me vote this request up:

      Jul 26, 2018 Multiple Vera Hubs Multiple Vera Hubs

      I have multiple locations with Vera hubs at each for Z-Wave/Zigbee controls. However, you cannot add two or more Vera hubs to your configuration.yaml. Please add this as an option.

      Vera
    • Memory hog

      prophead

      I found a device on my vera which accidentally had automatically configure set to on. After I turned it off the vera’s memory went from 50% to 20%!!

      Vera
    • manual network heal

      S

      Since I have disabled nightly heal long time ago and since I have replaced some devices since and I am watching the webinar of z-way I wonder if it is wise and or advisable to do a manual heal of my zwave routibg in vera... what's the best way of doing so?

      Vera
    • The death of a thousand cuts

      prophead

      So if my vera will as it will want to restart after removing each zwave device and I have say 35 devices what are the chances it survives 35 restarts? How do I explain to my wife that our HA system is unstable? Yes, I know backup first.

      Vera
    • Old apps

      prophead

      Is there a way to remove a vera app and keep the devices it created?

      Vera
    • altui cant past in lua code test in mobile view

      S

      As the tiltle describes :-). Is this possible in android via a browser? Mine doesn't allow me.

      Vera
    • Using the vera with external usb zwave or zigbee dongle

      rafale77

      The vera can run both its zwave and zigbee network off of external USB radios instead of the onboard ones. This could have advantages in terms of portability, facilitating migrations or recoveries in case the vera craps out. It could also enable testing of newer radio firmwares.
      Zwave is pretty straightforward as its serial API is standardized and the protocol is the same regardless of what brand of USB stick you use. I have run my vera off of USB sticks of various brands for years going from Aeotec, Zooz, Homeseer and even the most generic silabs/Sigma Design. You just insert the stick in the usb port, find out which serial port it created (under the /dev/ folder) and use that port (ie. /dev/ttyACM0, /dev/ttyUSB0 etc) in the zwave advance menu.
      Zigbee is a little trickier as the protocol and chipset was not quite as standardized as zwave. The vera only works with ember Znet protocol and you will need to find a usb stick with an EM35x chip in it which already has an ember zigbee firmware loaded. One example of such a stick is the Go Control HUSBZB1 (dual zwave-zigbee stick). The port is not readily accessible on the vera UI but can be accessed either through editing of the /etc/cmh/user-data.json or through ALTUI by going into the hidden zigbee radio device through the "table devices " menu and changing modifying the port variable there.

      You can also upgrade the onboard zwave and zigbee radio firmwares from the command line SSH...

      Vera

    Neighbour node setting

    Vera
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    • rafale77
      rafale77 last edited by rafale77

      To answer @sdtoddl who emailed me asking how to manually force neighbor node setting on the vera, I don’t think it is possible with the UI.
      The solution is actually to trigger a neighbor node update on the given device and all the devices located between that said device and the controller.
      The vera deals with this by running multiple repeated (nightly) network heals which is not very efficient and causes it to frequently have unexpected network breakdowns and surprises good (some devices with problems get fixed) and bad (some devices which used to work stop working). It also takes down the entire network when it does it. One can however manually trigger neighbor node updates on the vera through the device’s advanced menu.

      To go to the next level, this data, the network node list is actually not recorded in the host controller firmware but in the non volatile memory of the zwave chip both on the controller and on the devices. It is therefore independent of the platform you use and can’t be set by the host. One can only ask the zwave chip on the device to run a survey and then inform the controller’s zwave chip of what it has found.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • S
        sdtoddl last edited by

        Thank you for responding. It is frustrating that Vera either gives you an error when you select something on the UI that is no longer supported and/or they even allow you to do it when it isn’t supported.

        On the device that is currently unreachable, the error on the UI is, “Can’t Detect Device.” Am I suppose to trigger the node update on the device I can’t reach on that specific device or under Settings -> Zwave settings -> Advanced -> Update Neighbor Nodes?

        On all the devices, under Advanced -> Neighbors, there is an edit button on the UI. What does this do if anything if I edit the Neighbors on the device I can’t reach or on a device really close to the device the controller can reach? My plan was to manually tell a device that the controller can’t reach who isn’t neighbors were or a device the controller can reach put in the device that is currently unreachable.

        rafale77 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • rafale77
          rafale77 @sdtoddl last edited by

          @sdtoddl said in Neighbour node setting:

          On the device that is currently unreachable, the error on the UI is, “Can’t Detect Device.” Am I suppose to trigger the node update on the device I can’t reach on that specific device or under Settings -> Zwave settings -> Advanced -> Update Neighbor Nodes?

          Yes in short but do it from the controller towards your thermostat, one device at a time, leaving a good 10 minutes between devices.

          On all the devices, under Advanced -> Neighbors, there is an edit button on the UI. What does this do if anything if I edit the Neighbors on the device I can’t reach or on a device really close to the device the controller can reach? My plan was to manually tell a device that the controller can’t reach who isn’t neighbors were or a device the controller can reach put in the device that is currently unreachable.

          This does nothing. The vera UI is a host controller, it can only ask the zwave chips on the network to update nodes, it cannot impose a neighbor on a node as far as I know.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • S
            sdtoddl last edited by

            This what bothers me about Vera. There is no clear directions or even an FAQ on how to fix things. They shouldn’t allow you to edit neighbors if it does nothing. How hard would it be for them to remove the edit function on that one line of the UI! It could be such a great product if they would simply make a few changes.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • S
              sdtoddl last edited by

              The device I am adding is a CT100 battery operated thermostat. I moved my controller close to it when I paired it. I wonder if I should have did the update network neighbors on the close switched before I moved my controller back to its normal place in the house. As soon as I moved the controller, the thermostat was no longer reachable.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • S
                sdtoddl last edited by

                Does update neighbors even work anymore with the individual devices? I select the individual device (light switch). The Device Options -> Update Neighbors. It says that it is updating them but I am not seeing anything on top of the UI.
                In Settings -> Logs -> I have Show Polling and Show Individual Jobs checked.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • rafale77
                  rafale77 last edited by rafale77

                  Well honestly, it is such a simple zwave level command that I would be surprised if the update neighbor node does not work. It should be the same command being used for network heals.
                  The command takes time, that’s why I said you need to wait a good 10min before moving to the next step. The process is also handled by the zwave chip and not by the vera firmware. It is possible that the vera gets bogged down and reloads in the meantime, potentially interrupting the process but it normally shouldn’t. Just be patient with it. Since it is a battery powered device, do you know by any chance if it is a FLiRS type? I assume that it should be since it should be always ready to receive a command from the controller.
                  If it isn’t then you will need to wakeup the device while the neighbor node update is underway... but I doubt it is the case.

                  Now the real brute force solution to all of these problems is to get rid of the vera and migrate to a less obscur and buggy platform... In the meantime, I can’t recommend at least moving all your scenes and plugins to openluup.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • S
                    sdtoddl last edited by

                    I am not sure. It is the Radio Thermostat CT100. It isn’t Zwave Plus.

                    https://2gig.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/CT100-Operation-Guide.pdf

                    Like you said, since it is always ready to accept commands to change the temperature, I suspect it is.

                    I liked the user interface and that is why I chose it. Plus, this location doesn’t have a C wire so I had to do battery. It definitely works better if you have a C wire and can then pair it without batteries.

                    I tried doing what you said and it didn’t work. What bugs me is I even did the update neighbors on the device that is unreachable gave me a “success.” Clearly, it wasn’t a success because the device is not even reachable so it couldn’t even try.

                    Any other suggestions? Should I try doing a update network neighbors in the Zwave settings on the controller for the whole system?
                    I spoke to a tech support person on Friday and told me there is no way to update the network neighbors and the system does it automatically at 1 or 2 am.
                    I question if that was really accurate. Again, if it was, the they should remove update network neighbor options from the UI on all the devices and in the Zwave setting for the controller.
                    So frustrating because these things are difficult to change. They need to rename the product Almost.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • rafale77
                      rafale77 last edited by rafale77

                      The tech support is talking about the idiotic nightly heal happening at 2am if you don’t stop it and almost never finished on my network because it was so large. It is a great function for a 10 node network with no battery operated device but will start stuttering for anything more, requiring multiple retries and therefore many days to complete, crashing the system a few times on the way.
                      The update neighbor node on the vera zwave menu should trigger exactly the same action. You can try that. If they broke the individual device neighbor node update, then I don’t know. Things like that is why I moved to z-way... I can update neighbor nodes on any node I want at any time I want... and watch the progress and outcome while it is doing it.

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • S
                        sdtoddl last edited by

                        Thank you again for all your help.
                        This shouldn’t be rocket science. This system only has approximately 11 devices. Although, more than half of them are batteries. 2 locks, 3 smoke detectors, 2 thermostats, 4 light switches. I made sure the light switches were evenly spaced so I would get a good mesh network of devices that always had power. I just did the system wide network neighbor update. Keeping my fingers crossed. I guess if this doesn’t work, I am going to swap out this thermostat. I didn’t like that this thermostat didn’t show its neighbor even when I paired it. The other thermostat shows it. None of the smoke detectors (Zwave Plus) show the network neighbors. I noticed the locks that are also Zwave plus don’t show neighbors. - I am not sure if that is a Vera issue or a Zwave issue. Clearly some battery devices show the neighbors so you would think they all would. I wish Zwave was more strict on making manufacturers implement al the zwave features. It has gotten better since Zwave plus but still not perfect. Friends that have Lutron products love it. They say it works 100% of the time.

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • rafale77
                          rafale77 last edited by

                          I can tell you that anything zwave besides vera and SmartThings (due to cloud) work 100% of the time too. You are right, this is not rocket science and as I have expressed in other posts here and elsewhere, I finally graduated from this phase and replacing the vera was the key. I am now able to focus on growing and developing new things as opposed to constantly troubleshooting my network or the luup engine...

                          The display of the neighbor nodes is just that... a display. My experience with it is that it is fairly inaccurate on the UI so I would not even bother looking at it unlike any other controller.

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                          • S
                            sdtoddl last edited by

                            I did the whole network neighbor update and it didn’t work. I am going to try replacing that thermostat tomorrow. It could just be defective I didn’t like that it didn’t show the neighbors when I first paired it. I would have expected it to that since the other thermostats shows its neighbors. . What I don’t know if it it the other thermostat showed them right away. One of the big problems with Vera is they just aren’t very transparent on what the controller is doing and/or what works and doesn't work. I wish they had a system were you could see all the reported bugs so you don’t waste hours trying to debug something that will never work. I wasted a lot of time with my new Schlage Zwave Plus lock. Vera had to give me a beta release to fix it. - I am going to look at your reviews of the different hubs. I want to look at Hubitat and open source Home Assistant. - Vera is especially bad with older non-Zwave + devices. Are these other hubs OK with that? I don’t want to have to replace all my switches and I have an expensive water cutoff. The Vera gives strange errors for the water cutoff. Plus, they have the notifications wrong. When I turn the water off, it tells me I turns it on. Thanks again.

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • rafale77
                              rafale77 last edited by

                              Short answer: No other controllers have these problems. It's not to say that they won't have any problems but none as unreliable and as poorly implemented as the vera. openZwave used to have issues with some specific device types because the other was reverse engineering the protocol without documentation but even that library, which is used by domoticz, openhab, home-assistant amongst others is now more complete and reliable than the vera. The other three major zwave libraries are the SmartThing/Hubitat, Homeseer and the zwave.me one. They all use the same zwave serial API and zwave chips, with various level of implementation (the zwave chip may have more or less embedded memory, have a usb to serial interface, etc...). The zwave commands should all be the same.
                              I too have very ancient devices. Half of my network is on legacy zwave... I actually don't think your issues are a device support issue so much as a zwave network handling from vera.

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                              • S
                                sdtoddl last edited by

                                OK. Thanks. I am going to look at the other hubs. Hubitat, I doesn’t appear to support Schlage locks. I remember when I looked at Homeseer about 10 years ago, it was a windows based product. This may have changed. The HomeSeer products sure look nice now. It is probably between that and the Zwaveme. The Zwaveme doesn’t look as polished of a web page but...
                                I like that Homeseer has been around for so long and they say their product works with dozens of zwave devices.

                                The devices I am most concerned about are:

                                Evolve - LFM-20 (not Zwave Plus)
                                Fortrezz WV-01 water cutoff (Not Zwave plus)
                                Schlage locks Zwave plus and older versions
                                First alert Zwave smoke detectors.

                                and to a lesser extent but it would be nice
                                Aeotec SmartEnergy Switch (their first generation one that is big. I believe it was Aeon labs DSC06106-ZWUS)

                                I assume they will all work with the GE light switches.
                                Plus, I want it to have an OS X app

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                                • rafale77
                                  rafale77 @sdtoddl last edited by rafale77

                                  @sdtoddl said in Neighbour node setting:

                                  OK. Thanks. I am going to look at the other hubs. Hubitat, I doesn’t appear to support Schlage locks.

                                  I don't think that this is possible. One of my neighbors runs Schlage locks with Hubitat but more importantly, there is no such a thing as a device not supported by Hubitat. This is a vera thing. On hubitat, you can load your own driver for every zwave and zigbee device and I am fairly sure someone from their community has developed one. The whole device support concept is vera/EZLO nonsense which openzwave has also suffered from because of the way it came to be. No other platform that I know of has these problems... They support everything which talks zwave albeit potentially with some work required to configure. To be honest, even on the vera, I found non officially supported devices to often work much better than the official ones, in part because I manually configured them and disabled the auto-configuration feature. So they either support zwave or they don't. That is it. Device support issues is a foreign concept to hubitat/ST, zwave.me and to some extent homeseer. Homeseer is pushing to Homeseer4 which from what I read is a bit of a mess so I would not recommend it. It remains a windows/VB based platform.

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                                  • S
                                    sender last edited by

                                    Have a look at:

                                    OpenZWave/qt-openzwave

                                    OpenZWave/qt-openzwave

                                    QT5 Wrapper for OpenZWave. Contribute to OpenZWave/qt-openzwave development by creating an account on GitHub.

                                    For me so far so good. Openzwave in home assitant (or mqtt). This is my current aim as a succesor for vera...

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                                    • S
                                      sdtoddl last edited by

                                      Thanks for that advice on the Hubitat. I had just looked at their list of supported devices and thought it was interesting that they didn’t have Schlage on there. They are sold out right now so it doesn’t look like I am going to buy one of those.

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