CAN VERA CONTROL ETHERNET CONNETED RELAYS?

Other Devices & Integrations Garage & Window Covering Control
1

I am new to the home automation world. I am considering Vera3 for controlling some automated blind motors and would like to control them through a set of ethernet controlled dpdt relays (possibly like the one offered by National Control Devices, Ethernet Relay Controller Board 32-Channel 5 Amp DPDT + UXP Universal Expansion Port).

  1. Can one of Vera’s lan ports be used to connect to another ethernet device (such as the one above) and then directly control the relays on that device?

  2. Are there any suggestions for other dpdt relays that might be easliy controlled by Vera?

Thank you for your comments.

2

For IORelay/NCD specifically, you can see the following discussion:
http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,7589.0.html

there are also cheaper relay options if you just want a 4x Relay solution for Blinds control. You can find these using the forum’s search function.

3

Thanks for the information.

It looks like the limitation on this app is 8 spst relays. Unfortunately I am trying to control 26 blinds individually and each requires a dpdt relay in order to select up, down, or stop. It sounds like I am out of luck with Vera unless someone else has a suggestion…

4
It looks like the limitation on this app is 8 spst relays.
Yes, currently it is. I only wrote it to handle 8 relays since boards above that came at a real premium (price wise). I figured I'd have multiple [geo-located] boards before I bought one jumbo board 8)

If you know how to program, the code can be modified to support more relays as the protocol is fairly simple, and adding output/relays is somewhat simpler than inputs… The inputs are a challenge due to the polling frequency required to keep data fresh.

5

I appreciate your work and taking the time to point me in the right direction. I don’t have a lot of programming experience, but I will take a look at it and see if my limited skill set is enough. Thanks again.

6

Couldn’t you just use 4 of the Eight relay boards, and have 4 copies of the plugin?

7

That’s essentially the methodology I’d use. My logic is not just pricing, but also about failure. When a large board fails, it’s way more costly to replace the whole thing. When one of the smaller boards fails, you just sub-out that board and move on, you can keep “spares” that way (just like server clusters 8) )