Bridged Veras: Yet New Problems - Tech Support

[clippermiami]

Last weekend I broke the previous Vera Bridged environment in favor of a different approach and now I have a problem that I can’t solve and Tech support appears unresponsive

The new bridge consists of:
Primary Vera 3 UI5
… DSC alarm interface
… Smoke Detectors
… MySensors Arduino Interface
… ImperiHome
… Vera Alerts
… Blue Iris Plug In
… iPhone Locator
… GCal3 Plug In
… Several PLEGs for managing alarm interface, smoke detectors, sensors, etc.

Secondary Vera 3 UI5
… ALL ZWave devices
… PLEGs for managing devices
… ImperiHome
… AutoVera Plug In (Plan to move to Primary when this problem is resolved)
… Vera Alerts

In previous testing of the bridge I was expecting devices from the Secondary Vera to be replicated on the Primary. When I created the bridge this time the devices from the Secondary were replicated but without properties and characteristics (image of one room devices attached.) so obviously I can’t make use of the state or control them from the Primary

I’ve removed the bridge and recreated it several times and the results are always the same.

I’ve been on to Tech Support last week who acknowledged my report and requested Iadd a “Support” user to both Veras. And that’s the last I’ve heard from them … I get no acknowledgement to requests for status.

[clippermiami]

Coincidentally shortly after posting this i had an email from Tech Support. In the email they noted tht I had different third party apps installed on the two systems and that this was causing everything replicated from the Secondary to display as generic on the Primary. Frankly that makes no sense at all … If you have to have identical installations on both devices that sort of defeats one purpose of bridging, to distribute the load.

[JackStewart]

@clippermiami

Coincidentally shortly after posting this i had an email from Tech Support. In the email they noted tht I had different third party apps installed on the two systems and that this was causing everything replicated from the Secondary to display as generic on the Primary. Frankly that makes no sense at all … If you have to have identical installations on both devices that sort of defeats one purpose of bridging, to distribute the load.

Hi Clippermiami –

Can you be more specific? Were these apps you installed from the Vera apps mall?

  Don

[clippermiami]

@Don Diego

[quote=“clippermiami, post:2, topic:183968”]Coincidentally shortly after posting this i had an email from Tech Support. In the email they noted tht I had different third party apps installed on the two systems and that this was causing everything replicated from the Secondary to display as generic on the Primary. Frankly that makes no sense at all … If you have to have identical installations on both devices that sort of defeats one purpose of bridging, to distribute the load.

Hi Clippermiami –

Can you be more specific? Were these apps you installed from the Vera apps mall?

  Don[/quote]

Yes, nothing unique, all from the VERA App Store

[akbooer]

@clippermiami

In previous testing of the bridge I was expecting devices from the Secondary Vera to be replicated on the Primary. When I created the bridge this time the devices from the Secondary were replicated but without properties and characteristics (image of one room devices attached.) so obviously I can’t make use of the state or control them from the Primary

This is generally because the primary doesn’t have the .json and/or .xml files for those devices which are installed on the secondary, OR has never had one of those devices installed itself. The solution which has been shown to work in the past is simply to copy those relevant files and then restart. That may not work for all devices, in which case you can simply manually create an instance of that particular device type (obviously non-functioning without the associated Z-Wave device).

I used to have a “room” in Vera called “Dummy Devices” full of these things just for this purpose, when I used to run bridged Veras. Much more trouble than it’s worth to try bridging, I found, so I gave it all up in the end. I collect all relevant data on multiple machines through EventWatcher / DataYours and handle control through HomeWave.

[clippermiami]

@akbooer

[quote=“clippermiami, post:1, topic:183968”]In previous testing of the bridge I was expecting devices from the Secondary Vera to be replicated on the Primary. When I created the bridge this time the devices from the Secondary were replicated but without properties and characteristics (image of one room devices attached.) so obviously I can’t make use of the state or control them from the Primary

This is generally because the primary doesn’t have the .json and/or .xml files for those devices which are installed on the secondary, OR has never had one of those devices installed itself. The solution which has been shown to work in the past is simply to copy those relevant files and then restart. That may not work for all devices, in which case you can simply manually create an instance of that particular device type (obviously non-functioning without the associated Z-Wave device).

I used to have a “room” in Vera called “Dummy Devices” full of these things just for this purpose, when I used to run bridged Veras. Much more trouble than it’s worth to try bridging, I found, so I gave it all up in the end. I collect all relevant data on multiple machines through EventWatcher / DataYours and handle control through HomeWave.[/quote]

That’s what I ended up doing, installing “dummies”. Seems stupid and an unecessary load thought. Richard Shaefer and I were communicating on the bridged Vera matter and he had what I think is a brilliant idea. There should be an option in each device/plug-in to allow/not allow replicating in the bridge, either that or the Vera folks should ONLY replicate ZWave devices automatically. There is no need for the PLEGs, Switches, Countdown timers, etc to be replicated in the bridge, they serve no function, they aren’t “real” on the bridge anyway.