Sorry if this has been previously covered - I could not find it via search.
Background: I arrived in the “vera / z-wave” world through a side door. I was in a retail store and discovered the schlage link products. I purchased a lock with bridge on ebay and installed. The Good: It was great. I received unlimited notifications via text when someone unlocked the door (I have teenagers that come and go). The Bad: it cost approximately $13 / month. So I began investigating alternatives. I discovered info and decided to “invest in Vera”. I canceled my Schlage link account, and although the payback would be approx 2 years, the added capabilities of scenes / cameras seemed worth it.
Overall, it has been great. Great customer service, a great forum with lots of smart users. However, as I integrate more and more devices with VERA, I desire more and more notifications. I rigged a Hawkins door sensor with contact sensor to my chamberlain driveway alarm (approx 300’ from house) for remote notifications of something coming through the drive. Remember, I have teenagers?! Well, as it turns out, the driveway alarms combined with the door code notifications equals a lot of notifications: accordingly, the “20” free notifications from micasaverde are not enough. I usually run out of notifications somewhere around 2pm (kids running in and out before leaving for school, kids leaving for school, garbage man, sister-in-law, my own errand, etc…) 2pm is before the teenagers get out of school; therefore, when I really need notifications, I am out of notifications and receive none.
The Problem: how do I get more notifications (via my own separate email server=bellsouth) or how do I create a delay in the driveway alarm trigger so there are not successive trigger events that cause notifications created over an approximate 2 minute period while the vehicle in the drive awaits the electric mule gate to slowly open (all of which I am notified) that waste my free notifications.
Any help, comments, or guidance would be greatly appreciated.
MCV has said that they would updating the find vera wiki page (http://wiki.micasaverde.com/index.php/Find_Vera_Service) to be more clear about email limits. They haven’t done so yet, but you can check if the $29/year plan gives you unlimited email notifications. If it does that beats $13/month, but does solve the problem.
The other options I can think of would involve writing Lua to either prevent notifications by someone setting a timer or to send the emails without using the find vera service.
Thanks for the reply. I looked at your link. Here is a copy:
$29/year for enhanced services
For $29/year you can receive notifications by SMS text message in addition to, or instead of, the free email notifications. This price includes up to 50 SMS text messages for the year, domestic or international, to any cell phone carrier worldwide. This price also includes 1GB of storage on the findvera server to store a video archive from your surveillance and IP web cams, which cameras can be tied to sensors and door locks so you have a video record of who is coming and going from the home. This is enough for about 50,000 images. This service also includes remote monitoring of your Vera with an email or SMS text notification if your Vera stops working for some reason. You also get automatic daily backups of Vera’s configuration so, in the event your Vera unit fails, you can restore a backup and not lose any data. Lastly, the service also includes 1 year of energy logging, tracking all your energy usage by device, room, etc.
I understand that someone is supposedly updating this wiki: however, as it reads now, I can not determine if there are unlimited email notifications. Can someone from mcv please confirm? If so, I agree, this is a functional option.
Also, does anyone have any experience on how to send emails without using the findvera service?
The easiest way to send mail without the find vera service would be to upload the LuaSocket smtp module (http://tug.org/texlive/devsrc/Build/source/texk/web2c/luatexdir/luasocket/doc/smtp.html) to you Vera and then make use of it in a Luup Scene. You could also create a plug-in that defined an email sending virtual device with commands to send email and then use the GUI to configure various triggers for various messages being sent.
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