Anyone jump from Lowes Iris to Veraplus?

Plugins & Plugin Development Unmaintained
#1

Right or wrong I just ordered a Veraplus. Tired of the 2nd gen Iris hub with no web interface.

I have the Iris:

Garage door sensor and controller
water leak detectors
CT100 Thermostats
Smartcode 910 deadbolt and lever door controllers
various window and door sensors
An indoor and an outdoor camera

Hopefully most of this stuff will come over to Vera but if not I’ll live.

If you’ve come over from Iris what has been your experience, good or bad?

Thanks.

#2

I have a friend that is coming from iris. From what I understand zwave iris devices work. Anything that is ZigBee or iris proprietary won’t.

What I think will work:
water sensors
door lock
Ct100

What I don’t think will work:
Cameras

What I’m not sure about:
Garage door controller
Door sensors

Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

#3

Some of the Iris ZigBee devices will work. Take a look at the ZigBee devices at http://getvera.com/compatibility/. Look at the ZigBee devices, some of the Iris devices will like the same as others that are listed, they should work, they are made by these companies for Lowes as an OEM.

#4

@Marc, that is a pretty short list of ZigBee devices. When do you anticipate this list will be expanded? I know it has been said that each device needs it’s own driver. I would call it a profile, which tells Vera what to do with the device when it tries to pair. Not all that complicated. It could be manually entered. But in any case, the Vera Plus has not been updated since its first firmware release.

#5

The garage door controller should work as it’s basically a GoControl Zwave one with an Iris logo slapped on it.

I can confirm the water sensors (Z-Wave) work on a VeraEdge as I have one connected to it. I’ve heard recent versions may have changed to a Zigbee model though but can’t confirm that.

The door sensors are Zigbee and I am not sure if those are supported yet.

If I am not mistaken, the door locks are still Schlage Zwave locks and also work. I purchased one a while and have it running on Vera just fine.

#6

ChrisK, we intend to ramp up the number of devices being integrated per firmware update as we go through the year. Is there something in particular you are looking for? email if there is a specific item so I can share it with the Dev Team.

#7

This is exactly the topic I was looking for. I too jumped ship from Iris after the V2 debacles. Here’s the list of things I truly need working (partially the reason I jumped to begin with).

  1. I would really love to see the Iris range extenders work, I really don’t want to replace them for the Vera Plus, that’s a bunch of coin to throw away. I have the REP800 range extenders.
  2. I would really really really love to see the keypad work. It’s very surprising to me that there is such a lack of supported keypads on the Vera compatibility site. The number one feature I really want from this is the door chime, effectively anytime a door sensor is tripped, I’d like the keypad (or if it has to be a siren, so be it) to have a short beep or buzz. That’s one of the most important features for me, I really want to know when a door is opened (and not through a text or email).
  3. I would love it if the door sensors worked. I really don’t want to have to replace them all. For one, it’s expensive and two, tearing off the double sided tape will ruin the substrates.

All in all, I’m hoping I made the right decision. Realizing just what this may cost in the long run has me thinking I should just be looking for a monitored alarm system at this point that has Home Automation as well…

So far I really like the Vera Plus UI, but I’m disappointed with device compatibility. I get that some manufacturers like Iris purposely tweak their devices so they can’t be used elsewhere, but come one, everything is based on Zibee and ZWave standards (which yes, standards are loosely adhered to).

Lastly, the one feature I know I’m going to miss outside of the things above is the thermostat control. I really loved the easy to use thermostat schedules on Iris. Will we see a similar tool from Vera? The current method of creating scenes is a bit of a mess and not very dynamic. Please help here.

#8

[quote=“jhedman2, post:7, topic:192054”]This is exactly the topic I was looking for. I too jumped ship from Iris after the V2 debacles. Here’s the list of things I truly need working (partially the reason I jumped to begin with).

  1. I would really love to see the Iris range extenders work, I really don’t want to replace them for the Vera Plus, that’s a bunch of coin to throw away. I have the REP800 range extenders.
  2. I would really really really love to see the keypad work. It’s very surprising to me that there is such a lack of supported keypads on the Vera compatibility site. The number one feature I really want from this is the door chime, effectively anytime a door sensor is tripped, I’d like the keypad (or if it has to be a siren, so be it) to have a short beep or buzz. That’s one of the most important features for me, I really want to know when a door is opened (and not through a text or email).
  3. I would love it if the door sensors worked. I really don’t want to have to replace them all. For one, it’s expensive and two, tearing off the double sided tape will ruin the substrates.

All in all, I’m hoping I made the right decision. Realizing just what this may cost in the long run has me thinking I should just be looking for a monitored alarm system at this point that has Home Automation as well…

So far I really like the Vera Plus UI, but I’m disappointed with device compatibility. I get that some manufacturers like Iris purposely tweak their devices so they can’t be used elsewhere, but come one, everything is based on Zibee and ZWave standards (which yes, standards are loosely adhered to).

Lastly, the one feature I know I’m going to miss outside of the things above is the thermostat control. I really loved the easy to use thermostat schedules on Iris. Will we see a similar tool from Vera? The current method of creating scenes is a bit of a mess and not very dynamic. Please help here.[/quote]

Hi jhedman, welcome to the Vera community.

Working backwards from your post, any Z-Wave devices should work on our platform, Z-Wave has a very structured command class structure that can make most devices portable between platforms. The list that you find at http://getvera.com/compatibility/ are the devices that work best. Keypads and devices like that do require a significant amount of work on our end to make them work properly. ZigBee on the other hand requires that we create essentially a driver for every device as there is nothing build into ZigBee like the Z-Wave command class structure to make any device plug and play.

A number of the Lowes ZigBee sensors do work with the VeraPlus, users discuss it in this tread, http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,36354.0.html. If the sensor looks like the one in our compatibility list, it should work, Lowes buys them from an OEM and does not change the protocols.

Central Monitoring is something we are working and expect to offer in the future.

#9

I use an aerotech doorbell as my announcer. I use the chime for any door opening and loaded mp3 announcements linked to the weather plug in to announce severe storm warnings, tornado watches/warnings, and floods.

Other people use sonos speakers text-to-speech for announcements and chimes.

You will probably be disappointed by their limited support for devices and programmability. You might want to look for a security system that has some plug in support. DSC, GE, Honeywell and Elk all have support in vera and can be subscribed to the monitoring service of your choice. If you choose carefully, you can find security systems that work with other HA systems so if you do leave vera the only pain is in the reprogramming.

And you can then replace/upgrade your HA system without reworking your security. HA technology moves much faster than security hardware. Zwave is up to, what, 5th generation? So in 4 years or so your veraPlus won’t support ZwaveGen7 devices and you will be ready to upgrade.

I haven’t seen iris, how does their thermostat controls work? I use PLEG for my thermostat but while powerful it is constrained by the UI rules.

#10

Thank you for the responses.

I will definitely check out those security solutions you’ve described.

As for the thermostat control, this link is an image to the webpage that the Iris Hub provided users for advanced thermostat schedules. It’s amazingly simple and straight forward and made it easy for even my wife to manage. Right now telling her how to make changes to the scene’s will get interesting.

[url=http://www.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/fields/Iris-Smart-Home-System-Thermostat-Control-Screen-Remodelista-700x512.jpg]http://www.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/fields/Iris-Smart-Home-System-Thermostat-Control-Screen-Remodelista-700x512.jpg[/url]

There is also a simple version of that scheduler that doesn’t get that in depth, but i personally love this easy to user slider method of controlling hot and cold temperatures based on days and times.

#11

Hey kigmatzomat

You just made me do some research on the Honeywell product. Do you have experience with it? It seems as though the only way to get any remote functionality for the system is to sign up for a third party monitoring service. Is that right? Seems like it defeats the idea a little doesn’t it?

Thanks.

#12

Sorry, I don’t. I was looking at the available plug ins. I have been eying DSC as my security system.

However you should ask over at the security forum :
http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/board,28.0.html

From what I have read, most security systems have limited remote control options given that those are potential security holes.

#13

[quote=“jhedman2, post:11, topic:192054”]Hey kigmatzomat

You just made me do some research on the Honeywell product. Do you have experience with it? It seems as though the only way to get any remote functionality for the system is to sign up for a third party monitoring service. Is that right? Seems like it defeats the idea a little doesn’t it?

Thanks.[/quote]

This is incorrect none of the alarm panel solutions require a 3rd party monitoring service.

Honeywell vista 20p options can use usb (ad2usb) or Ethernet (EnvisaLink EVL-3or4) to connect your alarm panel to your vera along with the vista plugin. No outside services or fees or websites need to be used. You can then use VERA to set control, check or arm/disarm your panel. All sensors in the panel now show up in vera same as a z-wave device does.

#14

ChrisK, we intend to ramp up the number of devices being integrated per firmware update as we go through the year. Is there something in particular you are looking for? email if there is a specific item so I can share it with the Dev Team.[/quote]

Leaksmart Water Valve