Another Detailed Product Review of Vera Z-Wave Home Automation Controller

Community Playground General Discussions
1

Hi all, we finally posted our review of the Vera Home Automation controller at our website MyHomeServer.com
For those of you that are on the fence about Vera and what it can do, we hope you check it out. We also have a photo gallery with some more images and screenshots including some shots of the new beta interface.

See the REVIEW HERE—> [url=http://www.myhomeserver.com/?page_id=236]http://www.myhomeserver.com/?page_id=236[/url]

2

Nice review, only thing I noticed that wasn’t accurate anymore was the ability to unlock the lock with the remote. With the newer firmware it is possible.

3

Thanks, I wrote the review on the older more stable firmware and only after the review was written did I update to the new Luup version with Integrated Lua and UPnP. I have started collecting some of the new info and once I can get my hands on an Insteon USB controller to bridge X10 I’ll do a complete review on the new firmware and using some new devices and scenes.

I’m also excited about the IR commands and the new service MiCasaVerde offers that gives you a custom webpage on your mobile device, Iphone, PDA etc to remotely control not only lights via Vera, but all your A/V stuff!

I hope the review helps make it an easier choice for folks to buy Vera and make the move…

4

Hi Boyo and others…I’ve updated to the latest Luup firmware and I have a great GE Home Theater remote 45608 that I’d like to lock and unlock the door with. I cant find out how to do this, can anyone elaborate so I can add this to my updated review on Vera and the new LuuP firmware.

thanks!

-Eric
Editor, http://www.MyHomeServer.com

5

If I remember correctly, it was just in the commands section for the lock.
I have no way of checking right now as my Vera is torn down, moving into the new house on Wednesday, and will probably wait a few days to set everything all up till we get situated.

6

Thanks for the help, I got this to work with Vera and I can now trigger the Schalge lock from the remote by activating a Scene in the remote.

I created a Scene called REMOTE UNLOCK and added and EVENT to this Scene
The EVENT device is GE HOME THEATER REMOTE 45608 and the EVENT TYPE is Scene is activated
I named the Event and set the scene to number 1

Now edit the COMMANDS and set the deadbolt to LOCK (UNLOCK is apparently not triggerable via remote)
The Lock command still allows you to LOCK and UNLOCK, it merely triggers the mechanism to throw the deadbolt.
SAVE THE SCENE

GO TO DEVICES, select the GE HOME THEATER REMOTE
Edit the Device and select “Treat scene buttons as events see: method #2”

Save this and then RE-ADD the GE CONTROLLER under ADD Z-WAVE CONTROLLER (Don’t remove it, just RE-ADD and this updates it)

You can now edit the label on Scene 1 and executing Scene 1 on the remote now Locks or Unlocks the Schalge door! I’lll add another topic just on this by itself for better searching. Thanks for the help in pointing me in the right direction!

-Eric
Editor, http://www.MyHomeServer.com

7

For my lock it does show the unlock, HOWEVER, I don’t have the deadbolt, I have the handle. So this may be the difference. Either way for the deadbolt it just activates the lock so it can be manually operated, the handle will actually unlock.

Now with that said, I am still running .899 and don’t know if this has been removed in the newer ones.
We shall see how things go once I get into the new place.

8

Ahhh, so this can be done with the deadbolt but not the handle. Good to know. Thanks again!