Battery pack and WiFi Client

Community Playground General Discussions
#1

Adding in-wall stuff is awkward using the battery pack due to the limited user interface available. Especially true for in-wall controllers that seem to be more picky.

It would be nice if you could temporarily set the Vera into a WiFi client so installers could walk around with the Vera, battery pack, and a laptop. The laptop would continue to be connected to the network so you would continue to get all of the UI4 interface goodness.

This would involve some sort of “temporary” network configuration that would persist during the install process (perhaps time based, perhaps based on explicit settings, perhaps based on whether you’re in the wizard).

This would be even better if there were a way to switch between the battery pack and the wall wart without a reboot. This could be less of a deal if the battery pack is has enough juice for a reasonably long install session.

It would be even better if you could power the vera from an industru standard cable that’s on the laptop (e.g. USB). That way you could ship a single “more useful to the customer” wall wart with vera. You could then drop the battery pack, second wall wart and the associated cables. Some laptops might not have enough power for this – the wall wart you ship is good for 1.0 amp at 12V – not sure how much of that is really consumed.

#2

Just a thought, many of us (myself included) have had great success including devices via the Full Power (i.e. through the mesh) method.

If I recall, the only devices I ever added using the standard method & battery pack were the first one or two switches. Once I had my mesh established, I’ve been able to add switches, sensors, controllers (including the Vizia RF+ in wall models that I suspect you are referring to) without ever having to use the battery pack again. There may be situations where the full power method doesn’t work, but I have yet to find one.

This does nothing to address the design limitations you bring up about the battery pack (good thoughts), but it just hasn’t been an issue for me, perhaps you can work around it as well?

#3

I generally only use the full power method also; it has worked for everything except some intermattic outlets… although I do have metal outlet covers which may shield / attenuate the signal.