Goodbye MCV; Hello Homeseer

Community Playground General Discussions
#1

So after several years of dealing with the shortcomings of Vera I decided to upgrade to Homeseer. Bought the software over the holidays when they have their half-off software sales and bought an Intel Core I5 NUC to run it on. Now that I’ve been running it for a couple of months I wish I had switched sooner. Home automation finally works like home automation should. No lags; no unplugging the system daily to clear out the memory; it just works.

Vera was a great product to get started with, but the limitations of outdated, under-powered hardware coupled with buggy software was too much to live with for the long run. While the user community here is fantastic it cannot make up for the shortcomings of Vera.

I highly recommend Homeseer for anyone who is frustrated with Vera.

#2

I did the same not to long ago, and with Imperihome app and already having a mini PC running Blueiris,PLEX and few other things Homeseer fit right in. I was good with PLEG but the logic is better and all in drop down boxes. Z-wave network is much more stable and easier to manage. Plus all the options to expand.

#3

Sounds interesting. I see it will take care of zwave but what about things such as hue and somfy blinds ?. I run both of those via plug ins and hardware links, do you have control of those as well ?.

#4

They have plugins just like vera. People have somfy blinds with homeseer (I don’t) but a quick search seems like there are more then one way to make the link between somfy and homeseer I’m not sure what fits your needs. A search of the forum is probley your best bet.

This is also one. srv.rusnes.no is not found

Same goes for Hue there is more then one plugin for Hue. I have Milights myself.

#5

Homeseer is my next move if my Vera keeps having issues. I was one of the early beta testers for the original Vera and have gone through the motions with all of them (Vera, Vera2, and I have two Edge Veras - one for firmware testing)

It’s been frustrating to say the least. When things happen and my Vera dies (Once a year all by itself) I have to open a ticket and within a week they fix it, but never explain what happened or how to SSH in and do it myself. Total pain in the ass and it totally sucks not having the comforts of z-wave for a week to manage my house. I feel like George Jetson one week with my Echo Voice control and Squeezebox automation, and the next week it’s closer to Fred Flintstone.

I’ve always been close to jumping to Homeseer, but a few years ago it was only Windows PC’s and due to my low power initiative at my house, I want to use embedded systems only. Now Homeseer has all this and I have no problem buying the homeseer device, but the plugin prices break the bank

I need a plugin for Squeezebox, thats $50, oh and DirecTV, another $30, oh and my Onkyo Receiver probably another $30+ if they even have that plugin. GlobalCache IP->IR is yet another $30. BlueIris DVR plugin, another $40, DSC ALarm Panel, another $40 and now to be able to use the best UI available Imperihome, I must pay another $40. And Weather Underground, another $40

Seriously folks? This is nuts. I realize there is a much more stable and expandable platform and best of all Homeseer guys are HomeSerious about their platform, but I just can’t afford to go this route with their pricing model - I realize these plugins are created by external developers in some cases and nobody works for free, but the Vera has done a few things right, mainly the free plugins (although sometimes they can wreak havoc on your system and take you down)

Just my two cents - I’m on the fence, but I’m afraid once I switch they will have their meathooks in me and I’ll be forced to pay over and over again for new plugins. And there is always the fear of having to reset my z-wave network and have to include everything all over again instead of simply pushing to a secondary controller and then making that primary

I’d love to hear any other comments and what it took you to upgrade and migrate (time and money wise)

-Eric
Editor, http://MyZwave.net

#6

And don’t forget that on Homeseer the major software upgrades aren’t free either…

Homeseer 4 comes out? Get out the wallet…

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

#7

[quote=“JasonJoel, post:6, topic:191408”]And don’t forget that on Homeseer the major software upgrades aren’t free either…

Homeseer 4 comes out? Get out the wallet…

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk[/quote]

My wallet is ready so are the torrents. But do you know how long it was between HS2 to HS3? And the upgrade price is half price the orginal cost, its also always on sale (25% right now 50% in two months) Every year I have spent 150 on a new vera from the lite to the edge to the plus. Not that I’m saying homseer is cheaper in the long run but based only on your fact it would have been cheaper over the last 3-4 years for me.

Fact:
HS1 came out in 1999
HS2 came out in 2005 6 years later
HS3 came out in 2013 8 years later

There is no HS4 scheduled or in the works just yet according to HomeSeer but I’m sure in 3-5 years its possible.

So if your worried you might spend 75-100.00 every 6-8 years on a major update then yes Homeseer is not for you.

EDIT:

#8

I agree that is a pretty long life. My point is that it is just another example of homeseer digging in the pockets… A continuation of the plugin discussion.

And if you meant in your post that you would just torrent a new release (aka steal), then your opinion on this topic isn’t one I really care about.

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

#9

No question Homeseer cost more then Vera, not thousands, but atleast double and it really depends on what option you choose (do you have your own hardware, are you buying a Zee or a full blown multicore high end prepackaged version). My complaint and I think other peoples issues with VERA are not related to cost. There is not to many posts on here if any complaining that vera cost to much. The real issues are the stability, reliability and errors it has. I’ll pay more to rid myself of that but others don’t have too and not every one has issues either.

You don’t have to care, but I didn’t give any options in that post, I only gave facts. Price, when each version was released and where you can obtain the software was not an opinion of mine. Nor did I mention how much I paid which version I have or anything else. Your making your own assumptions on that end.

#10

I can relate to this thread.

I bought a Vera over the holidays to control my Caddx alarm panel through NX-584. For a day or two things were okay, but I didn’t like that the Vera took over the panel zones (which would require my to disable remote bypass control on the panel), and stability was marginal at best even with a simple setup. I tried best practices including being mindful of the usb to serial converter, and using an externally powered usb hub, and using an external usb memory stick for the logs… and still had problems.

I tried HS3 free trial as an alternative on a computer that is already on 24/7, and with about 3 hours of setup had the setup I wanted, and was able to link to my ecobee thermostat to adjust temperature when the alarm panel is in away mode. I was able to setup email alerts easily, including arm and disarm by email. Most importantly, however, is that stability has been 100% since the end of December with no crashes or downtime. I purchased the full version after a few days.

I have three young children at home. I am sure that 10 years ago I would have enjoyed the challenge of troubleshooting the Vera as I was into X10 home automation and simple logic programming back then. In the “young children life stage”, I just don’t have the time to figure out why something is crashing or is interfacing in a non-intuitive way. My sense is that the Vera is trying to do too much with too little RAM causing a whole ecosystem of problems.

I don’t mind paying for third-party plugins because they allow me to accomplish what I would have built if I had more free time, and I appreciate that someone carved out time to create them.

#11

@integlikewhoa and others,

As another who has been with Vera for a while, but am finally getting frustrated with the lack of stability, expandability, etc, I am also looking to other options, and have been looking into Homeseer.

As someone who’s taken the plunge, if you wouldn’t mind sharing, which Homeseer config/options did you go with? Are you using your hardware and just their software? What are you using for a ZWave gateway (usb stick)?
or did you just get one of their controllers? What has been your overall experience and satisfaction so far, both with migrating and daily use?

I saw a reference buying on sale. Any idea when they typicaly run those sales?

I am also running a Blue Iris PC (plug-in to my Edge), and use a Plex server and Sonos for media as I think you mentiioned you also do.

If this discussion is not appropriate for this forum, would you mind private messages or discussion via email?

Thanks

#12

I’m also a long time Vera user (almost 4 users), but VeraPlus was the straw that broke the camel’s back… I just can’t take Vera anymore and as of last week, I bought myself an Aeon Labs ZWave Stick Gen5 and downloaded the trial version of HomeSeer Pro. Adding devices to HomeSeer is a breeze with the ZWave stick. It is significantly faster than adding them to Vera. I still have another 20 or so devices to add, but so far the network is rock solid (I’ve added over 40). There are a few gotchas, for example you have to have the stick plugged into the computer before you can add door locks (because of security key transfer), and a few other devices were tricky to add, but otherwise, once you have your devices added, you are done, because you know they WILL work every time. You don’t have to keep fiddling with it like UI7. The ZWave stick was only $45 so I figured I’d give it a try. I might wait for a sale before I buy the software too though. I heard they have two 50% off sales a year (one around May and one for Black Friday), but you can just about always find a 25% off coupons. Overall, if I find it to be solid for the next few weeks, I’m expecting to spend way more than on Vera, but this is a fairly largo Home Automation system I have in place and I need its brain to be reliable :slight_smile:

#13

The homeseer usb stick is only 39.99 and has some advantages over the aeon one. See here.

http://www.homeseer.com/compare-z-wave-interfaces.html

#14

50% wow that’s awesome you don’t even have to wait for a natural disaster for that one… But you still have to wait. :wink:

#15

@integlikewhoa, yeah, I saw that too, but it looks like the HomeSeer stick is on backorder till April. So far the Aeon stick seems pretty good. Much much much much better than VeraPlus, but for $40, I’ll probably buy the HomeSeer stick too just to compare.

@MLeBaugh, I’m not too sure about that 50% off deal. I’ve only been evaluating HomeSeer for a week, and so far I’m only down $45 for the zwave stick, so I’m no expert, but I read it on their forums, lol.

#16

[quote=“jumper4000, post:15, topic:191408”]@integlikewhoa, yeah, I saw that too, but it looks like the HomeSeer stick is on backorder till April. So far the Aeon stick seems pretty good. Much much much much better than VeraPlus, but for $40, I’ll probably buy the HomeSeer stick too just to compare.

@MLeBaugh, I’m not too sure about that 50% off deal. I’ve only been evaluating HomeSeer for a week, and so far I’m only down $45 for the zwave stick, so I’m no expert, but I read it on their forums, lol.[/quote]

Wow, try
http://www.smarthome.com/homeseer-smartstick-usb-z-wave-interface.html

I bought mine locally from them not to long ago.

#17

Thanks for the link to the Homeseer stick. They say it will be in stock in a couple days (Homeseer site reports availability mid April), so I’ve placed my order with them.

I’d also prefer the Homeseer stick. Most importantly for me it supports Zwave backup and restore. Anyone know if there’s a way to easily transfer (or backup and restore) the current ZWave network from an Edge to the USB stick when I get it, or am I chasing rainbows? Too many devices to go around excluding and including again.

#18

[quote=“jhirschhorn, post:17, topic:191408”]Thanks for the link to the Homeseer stick. They say it will be in stock in a couple days (Homeseer site reports availability mid April), so I’ve placed my order with them.

I’d also prefer the Homeseer stick. Most importantly for me it supports Zwave backup and restore. Anyone know if there’s a way to easily transfer (or backup and restore) the current ZWave network from an Edge to the USB stick when I get it, or am I chasing rainbows? Too many devices to go around excluding and including again.[/quote]

I plugged my stick into a Raspberry Pi I had and walked around with that. The Pi, had a usb wifi stick on it and I installed the free https://www.virtualhere.com/ software which allows any usb device plugged into it to show up on your PC (which is where homeseer is installed).

Don’t worry no more green swirly circles and long wait times when adding and removing (or anything else really). It didn’t take me long at all to add all the devices. It will take longer to organize them put them in the rooms, setup the logic and stuff.

#19

This is probably a dumb question, but I keep reading that you can take the USB stick around portable with you and add devices. How does that work…? is there a battery in it?

#20

Yeah, it must have some kind of rechargeable battery inside it. You just hit the button on top of it, and it’s instantly ready to start including devices. You hold the button for like 3 seconds and it’s ready to exclude. I would say it’s a good 20 times faster to do it w the stick than with Vera.