Read between the lines, guys. They’ve changed all the processes internally and there is no set date for the next firmware - it probably means everyone have left the company and Marc is the only employee who stayed and since he is busy with support, next firmware release will never happen, but he can’t say it loud, because of the competition and fear that nobody would buy Vera Plus/Edge, even at current discount
I invested in VeraEdge hoping it will make my fairly big setup (100+devices and a bunch of plugins) faster and more stable, but at this point I am slowly moving things to OpenHAB2 (it’s not great, but at least there is some development) and getting ready to jump ship unless MCV took all that time to work on UI10 that addresses all the issues, adds all the features and is freakin awesome otherwise!!!
Hi guys, let me calm things down a bit and dispel some of the imaginative stories being shared here.
I am not the only one left at Vera, we are actually expanding our team so that we can move at a faster pace. This is going to be a very interesting year for us at Vera and for our users; there will be a lot added to the platform in the next year.
Our reworking of the process is just about done and we should be resuming regular releases soon. But note, there may be tweaks required going forward.
I read this forum and it reminds me why I no longer work in Customer Service. Allot of folk on these forums need to take a chill pill. Yes, there has not been a firmware update for a couple of months but my Vera plus has continued to work and the world has ended.
I work for a software company and our end products are complex and interface with many 3rd party systems. It is a bloody nightmare but at least our customers carry out UAT on our releases and I can oversee the quality of testing / monitor progress.
Vera have to also add into the equation not just the 3rd party hardware but the volume of plugins in use which are not controlled, hence they have a big problem with bugs.
I have some sympathy for Vera. They learning lessons from the problems in the past and are trying to make improvements. All credit and good luck. You simply have to do better.
Ps Vera you need to build up a team of Beta testers in the community who cover the wide range of devices and popular plugins that are in use. I know you have tried previously but you need to properly reward and control who takes part.
I think it is safe to say that most of the people who stayed with Vera are either working in IT field or very IT savvy because it never got to a point where my grandma could set it up.
4+ months in a software business is a very long term. 4+ months without a single fix (especially considering how bad VeraEdge original firmware is, with new functionality like Bluetooth, Zigbee barely even working - is deadly. That’s why I was joking that it feels like Marc is the only guy who still works for MCV, because he is still promptly replying to Vera Facebook/forum posts and he is promising great things but he is always being very vague about it and never commits to any deadlines.
Now all “for profit” software companies have release schedule - that’s granted (you can meet it or not but that’s another topic). And I don’t buy this “it is a competitive business” and we can’t release any details. If I look at my Amazon Echo home automation setup page it claims to support about 20 automation devices right now. That means 20+ devices are leaps ahead of Vera, so explain to me why would it hurt them to announce (and commit) to have native amazon echo integration by the end of summer or the end of the year? Working Bluetooth and Zigbee in 2 months? Come on, your competitors already know you have hardware support for those in Vera Edge. Instead we get usual - oh yeah, it is in the works, but we won’t release any details, please sit tight you might get it one day.
I do hope they are working on a new version that will be super awesome because all the joking aside Vera was very innovative product. I went through 3 different Vera generations myself. Unfortunately VeraEdge doesn’t feel like a big improvement and a lot of competitors are starting to catch up and exceed it. Yes, my current Vera setup mostly works, but only because of all the workarounds, hacks and tricks I learned here and I invested so much time and effort to make everything work it’s not even funny. And yet right now I am forced to evaluate other options, because of the lack of feedback from MCV, immature attitude towards the loyal user\developer base, horrible software quality and unreliable release schedule. All of it makes Vera future very uncertain, unfortunately.
How long a update takes or doesn’t take isnt really the right question. Its subjective but certainly we all understand there is a tradeoff between testing, features and fixing known problems, and its even understandable if deadlines are missed if they are missed for the right reasons.
The concern I have is the lack of communication with the community. None of this transparency affects competition at all , Marc. Your single greatest asset is the developers who work for you for free, developing the ecosystem that makes Vera a good product. Without this ecosystem, none of us would be here.
So I would spend less time worrying about keeping something a irrelevant as release date of some firmware update secret from your competition, and keep your secret weapon from switching to the competition. If your competition cared at ALL about that info, I would be very very happy if I were you… that means they are idiots.
I can totally understand not wanted to tip off new features ahead of their release, but it would be nice for Vera to communicate to those having specific issues “Hey, that’s a bug, we’ve identified and fixed it, and it’ll be in the next update.” At least with that, users can stop trying to figure out why something is not working.
I’m hoping that the new procedures involve more frequent bug fix releases interspersed with less frequent feature introductions. A new feature that is to be included in a new release should almost never prevent an unrelated bug from being fixed as long as they are unrelated.
Unfortunately, instead of trying to figure out what is wrong (admittedly, this is better than not knowing) they then start complaining about firmware releases not being issued. I think this topic shows that MCV will issue the next firmware when they are good and ready and not before.
Updates could bring us bug fixes, security patches and new features.
Implementing a steady flow of fixes to known bugs would appease MCV customers who are experiencing them, many of which seem to be related to complex and/or device-heavy setups.
My guess is that something very core about the system is being changed/worked on(UI8 or something) that will solve or make it easier to solve most of those bugs and those which are not solved that way… then will have to be attended to in a case by case basis.
Still, bug fixing and disclosure about it should not put MCV on a serious competitive disadvantage. New features is whole other creature and maybe should be kept closer to their hearts and announced when imminent. Now, Sender is riddled by these bugs and not by the lack of new features and is in his right to ask for answers by all means available to him since support haven’t been able to solve to his satisfaction.
Hi Richard, not trying to be rude or inpolite by re-asking, just trying to get my Vera to do what it has to do… as you may already know.
That is why asking again. You are active on this forum as long as I can remember and you also know that MCV often uses the words “soon, working on it, development, beta, etc.”.
just trying to get an answer here from MCV. Started this topic with a simple question and it grew to a very popular one (number of reads ;)) so I think others are also interested in an answer?
I surprises me that you, one of the cornerstones of this forum and developer of usable apps for usability of the vera is not as eager in getting an answer (for a good firmware or update to resolve bugs) as I am. But it might be I misinterpreted you.
And indeed, I don’t like the answer because it isn’t really one ::).
[quote=“Slartibartfast, post:33, topic:192320”]MrVera,
Richard asks because he has seen questions like this asked many times and you get the answer you get. Asking it again will not help.[/quote]
We are expecting to to release the beta of the next firmware release around the end of the month and they we intend to release updates on a monthly basis.
Their software is so unstable and outdated how could it be expected to integrate with other cutting edge systems?
You have to have an opensource bridge to allow it to talk to Echo, something that in built into everything that is being released these days. That should have been a easy integration for them. Everyone else in the industry got the memo.
How can you have a stable system that can’t even accurately report whether it is able to communicate with a device or not?
Everything is “a known issue and will be fixed in a future update”. Which may be true, but by the time they get that magic update they will have been left behind as people opt to move to different systems. From the roll-out of UI7 they have just been stumbling along. They don’t do extensive testing and just keep pushing out hardware. and overly optimistic people like me keep buying the next unit in the hopes that it will work. But they just can’t fix the code and so they will be just a memory as the companies that are willing to put the necessary investment of time and money into getting the software right.
Just look at the interface compared to the rest of the category. It is stuck in the past. Even controlling Vera is better done with offerings from others(AltUI, imperihome).
I think they have lost their edge (no pun intended) they were ahead of the curve, and now the companies that didn’t even exist a few years ago are shooting past them. even the open source offering are better looking and getting more development.
I will get on this thread as well since I am getting fed up with MCV. It is so buggy and not to talk about the “Native Plugins”. Its gone weeks now for the Hue plugin to be fixed so that it works with the new firmware with Hue.
Not a warning nothing if it will break. No testing is done nothing.
All you get from MCV is “We are working on it” and maybe one day you can get your home automation working.
I understand they might not be able to turn around new firmware very often etc. But hey, bug fix releases could be sent out often (minor releases).
But I think what makes me most fed up is the lack of communication from them. It takes days for them to reply on an e-mail. They do not communicate anything with the community.
Please MCV, get your act together and start communicating and reply to things faster. Transparency is a good word and I am 100% sure you will win more customers that way and also keep the once you already have and maybe get a good reputation.
