I’ve just unpacked my VeraLite this morning, and I’m trying to go through the setup wizard, but not having much luck so far. I’ll try to list the issues one by one, to keep things organized:
Is it supposed to be maddeningly slow? As in, 30-60 seconds of spinning green “wait” indicator every time I click a “next” button?
I’m trying to connect to a GE “Plug-in Wireless Smart Switch.” The numbers 12719 and ZW4101 appear in the corner of the manual. But none of this matches any of the options in “Step 1: Select Your Device” (which seem to be only Aeon, Evolve, and Linear products). What do I do in this case?
Possibly related: when I search for “smart switch” in this list, it shows “1 - 5 of 10”… but there is no “Next” button or page control that I can see. How do I get to items 6 through 10?
Getting desperate, I selected another Lamp Module (which sounded similar), watched the spinning wait indicator for 30 seconds, finally saw a drawing appear that looks darn similar to what I have, watched the spinner for another 20 seconds, and got the instructions for pairing. …It didn’t work.
I won’t bore you with the details, but suffice to say I moved the switch right next to the Vera, reset it, went through Retry (plus several minutes of green spinner) several times, and it never detected the device.
I feel like I’m out $300 and have, at the moment, a paperweight to show for it. Is it always this hard, or am I doing something wrong, or is my equipment defective or somehow incompatible?
More frustration: having given up on the GE switch, I next unboxed my Aeon Labs Appliance Switch.
Searched the “add device” list, and… it’s not there either.
But it comes with a helpful page that tells me to go to http://monitoringocontrol.verizon.com (I am not making this up). I went there. It told me “Http/1.1 Service Unavailable.”
It appears that some people have managed to get all this stuff to work together, but the setup wizard certainly isn’t doing it for me. What are the real steps I have to do to get VeraLite to control something?
OK, the Aeon labs switch you got was a OEM version sold to Verizon for it’s HA solution. That is why the documentation sends you to a Verizon site. It most likely came in a plain box. The website for Aeon Tech is http://aeotec.com/. If the appliance switch you are talking about is the DSC06106-ZWUS (white box with corded plug on one side and corded receptacle on the other) then yes, that one works with Vera. I have 3 of those on a Vera 3 running UI5 so they should work just fine on UI7. If that is you unit, the manual is here http://www.homecontrols.com/homecontrols/products/pdfs/AE-AeonLabs/AEDSC06106ZWUS_Manual.pdf and to include it under UI& go to the Dimmers & Lights and then Smartswitch Energy (Aeon SMartswitch)
If you are using UI7 and your device isn’t listed, try either ‘Zwave Other Devices’ or ‘Generic Zwave device’ instead. GE switches should work as I have a number of them. Just not the model you are listing. Do make sure you bring Vera close to the switch, like a foot or 2 and put it in include mode. Then follow the instructions for the device to put it in include mode.
Here’s a basic question: do I need to go through the setup wizard and select a device at all? I’ve now found a couple of sources that suggest you can just push the + button on the VeraLite, and then trigger pairing mode on the device (push the button or whatever on that), and pair things that way.
To me, this seems dramatically easier than scrolling through a long list of devices, not finding an exact match, and hoping I pick the correct substitute. I would expect that a device should be able to tell the host what it is and what it can do anyway. And, it will be much easier to carry my (unplugged) VeraLite to the device than the other way around, especially when the device is installed on the other side of the house.
Is this button-pressing procedure a good way to go, or is there something I’m missing?
You can use the button press method but I’ve found doing it via the WebUI being more successful and it does give you better feedback. It is a bit more cumbersome but it’s not something you have to repeat every day. When I got my first Vera, I loaded it up on a small cart, with a long power extension cord and long network cable. So it was connected to power and network. I also stuck a laptop on that cart. Then wheeled it around the house, stopping at each device to perform the inclusion via the WebUI on the laptop. That worked like a charm.
The “button pressing procedure” is a perfectly fine way to go. In my experience it is less confusing than trying to use the UI to perform the inclusion, and just as reliable . Also, it is usually unnecessary to move Vera close to a device to perform the pairing - I’ve yet to find a device that couldn’t be paired when both the device and Vera are installed in their permanent locations.
The “button pressing procedure” is a perfectly fine way to go. In my experience it is less confusing than trying to use the UI to perform the inclusion, and just as reliable . Also, it is usually unnecessary to move Vera close to a device to perform the pairing - I’ve yet to find a device that couldn’t be paired when both the device and Vera are installed in their permanent locations.[/quote]
Huh, it depends on the device. Some devices do need to be within a couple of feet. The ones I have experienced having this type of requirement are fairly complex devices: 4 in 1 sensors, scene controllers etc which take a lot of data exchange to configure.simple switch or sensors usually work fine at a distance.
