Goodbye MCV; Hello Homeseer

Community Playground General Discussions
#61

[quote=“awesomo, post:60, topic:191408”]Personally, I am strongly considering coming back to Vera after a few months leave to SmartThings, but after sitting on this forum the last few hours, I am starting to lean towards buying HomeSeer and putting up with their ugly interface. If their ugly interface is the only thing keeping me from switching to HomeSeer, maybe I am being overly petty.

I am just so drained. I need something that is well supported and just works.[/quote]

People didn’t like the interface in ui7 either, but really the interface shouldn’t be a daily visual look. I consider the phone/tablet app as the interface.

I didn’t understand Homeseer interface at first but I have no complaints with it.

#62

[quote=“ykamenet, post:50, topic:191408”]1) Not providing an option to run HS3 as a windows service (considering the money you pay for it) is a minus. Yes, I am aware about all the hacks/setup that can be done as a workaround, but it is 2016 and it should be an option.[/quote]Operating as a service is fine if all the associated hardware drivers also can run in that environment. If not, the system will error out. Running as an application solves that problem. If you’re using dedicated hardware to run HS3, that should work fine for you.

2) I do a lot of Sonos announcements triggered by scheduled events and setting it up in Sonos plugin in Vera is much easier then in HS3 plugin which is not free like Vera's by the way.
The Sonos plug-in for HS3 is free. Check the listing here: http://www.homeseer.com/homeseer-plug-ins.html
4) The HSTouch designer is a joke. I have spent days building beautiful layouts which I thought would work great on my android control tablets I have, what a waste of time. Buggy, laggy, scalability does not work well you have to do pixel-level adjustments and a lot of the time it just crashes. This was probably my biggest pet-peeve since they charge so much money for this tool and it is so bad and non-intuitive. I have Imperihome running with Vera and it is rock solid and beautiful. For the amount of money HS charges for HS Touch designer, they should've released an app that just works and can be skinned like Imperihome.
The learning curve is pretty steep but if you can get over that, the designer is pretty powerful. I don't scale my Android projects; I build them to size... looks better that way. The only "laggyness" I saw in the Android client had to do with IP camera pages but the latest beta seems to have addressed that.
PS. Oh yea, after registration on their forum I got an email "Unfortunately your registration at HomeSeer Message Board did not meet our membership requirements. Therefore your registration was deleted." with absolutely no explanation why. I was evaluating the trial software and wanted to ask a few questions... but I guess you have to buy the software first before they waste their time on you.
The board moderator approves all new registrations due to massive SPAMMING on that board. Just send HomeSeer a note from their contact page and they'll get you fixed.
#63

I’m new to this - just setup my VeraPlus a week or two ago and I’m currently in the process of getting things setup. So far I only have a few light switches/MyQ gateway/Ecobee3 thermostat/and a door sensor, but everything has worked flawlessly so far (although I wish the door sensor responded quicker)… I’m not sure where all of this hate is coming from

If I went with HomeSeer, I’d need to buy the software, the z-wave stick, MyQ plugin ($35.99) and the Ecobee plugin ($39.95), just for my limited setup: how is that an improvement?[/quote]

Live with it for a while. Keep creating more scenes, install more plugins, and when something inevitably stops working or continues to work randomly, contact Vera’s helpful (but god aweful slow) support. Hopefully your experience will only get better. A lot of us are jaded after having the platform for years. Seeing what UI5 once was, seeing how badly broken UI7 is still. A lot of us just want to move on if something better exists.

Personally, I am strongly considering coming back to Vera after a few months leave to SmartThings, but after sitting on this forum the last few hours, I am starting to lean towards buying HomeSeer and putting up with their ugly interface. If their ugly interface is the only thing keeping me from switching to HomeSeer, maybe I am being overly petty.

I am just so drained. I need something that is well supported and just works.[/quote]

If you want something that just works, and works with just about everything that Vera has ever worked with, I think HomeSeer might be the only option. I don’t think anything else is as mature or reliable than it. Vera should have just improved UI5 instead of trying to reinvent the wheel. I don’t have time to be a lifelong beta tester, so I went to HomeSeer. So far it’s been great. The interface is not the sexiest one out there (neither is UI7), but it’s very functional. You can however, customize the interface a bit using the Device Status view. And, thankfully ImperiHome works quite well with it these days.

#64

I too am thinking about jumping ship and moving over to homeseer, I downloaded the 30 day trial to test it out and make sure it would be able to do everything I currently am in vera and it looks like it can (at a price) but the one thing I cannot find is anything close to the smart switch plugin, either through a plugin or through events, please let me know if there is something similar. I have a fairly stable vera 3 UI5, maybe one or two restarts a day but I am maxed out, I added a extra sonos zone and it pushed it over the edge, I was thinking of going to the plus but with all the awful feedback here it sounds like it would be a step backwards.

#65

I’ll look into it. I think I remember using the smart switch plugin once here in VERA. that’s made for auto light on by a motion right? I only used PLEG for my logic here and now I use EVENT’s over there. I’m sure I can make an even to do the same but it wouldn’t be as easy as using a plugin.

What are the options with the smart switch plugin and maybe I can help you with an event if there isn’t a plugin for it?

#66

I’ll look into it. I think I remember using the smart switch plugin once here in VERA. that’s made for auto light on by a motion right? I only used PLEG for my logic here and now I use EVENT’s over there. I’m sure I can make an even to do the same but it wouldn’t be as easy as using a plugin.

What are the options with the smart switch plugin and maybe I can help you with an event if there isn’t a plugin for it?[/quote]

yes, auto light control by a motion sensor, the unique thing of it is though when you manually control the switch by turning it off or on it will lockout the motion control for a set amount of time that can be adjusted. The other nice thing is if you change the dim level of the switch it will remember what it was, then use that setting the next time motion turns it on.

#67

Sounds like you just need a timer, auto on and auto off, and timer start/reset events. This seems to all work around you having a instant status light switch tho.

I think I remember why I scrapped the plugin in vera tho.

This maybe helpful for you.

#68

Thanks for finding that thread, the last post describes exactly my issue. The smart switch plugin is alot more then just a timer for auto on and off, it can remember the last dim level and lock out motion events by just turning on or off the switch or changing dim level, no need for on-off-on

#69

Yeah this is why i dont run the plugin. Way to much going on for turning on a switch.

#70

Title or not, please take your discussion to the HS boards. If you continue on your present trajectory of evangelizing HS and using the Vera forums as a HS support and recruiting page(not just this thread), MCV will be forced to shutdown the forums, which will also cause the loss of a vast knowledgebase.

You wouldn’t appreciate someone coming into your home as a guest and maligning you to your friends and neighbors all night. It’s extraordinarily uncouth and you’ve been asked to stop on several occasions by several different people.

You’ve voiced your opinion and that’s fine. I personally respect and appreciate it. But, the ongoing campaign that you have been running for the past few weeks is out of order and there’s no excuse for it. Vera forum; Vera discussion. Take the HS discussions to the HS boards.

#71

[quote=“Z-Waver, post:70, topic:191408”]Title or not, please take your discussion to the HS boards. If you continue on your present trajectory of evangelizing HS and using the Vera forums as a HS support and recruiting page(not just this thread), MCV will be forced to shutdown the forums, which will also cause the loss of a vast knowledgebase.

You wouldn’t appreciate someone coming into your home as a guest and maligning you to your friends and neighbors all night. It’s extraordinarily uncouth and you’ve been asked to stop on several occasions by several different people.

You’ve voiced your opinion and that’s fine. I personally respect and appreciate it. But, the ongoing campaign that you have been running for the past few weeks is out of order and there’s no excuse for it. Vera forum; Vera discussion. Take the HS discussions to the HS boards.[/quote]

You can point the finger all you want, but I didn’t start this thread I only participated in it and in the last few posts I actually directed (linked) the answer to the appropriate forum. I’m pretty good with continuing the discussion no matter what the topic is. And as long as people keep posting and the thread is not closed (hint) then it will continue to be on top of my “Show new replies to your post list”.

#72

So, we don’t want to censor the forum. A user requested that we shut this tread down. I won’t do that because we do not want to be censors, but yeah, if you want to discuss but this discussion really should continue somewhere else.

For the record, we will censor language and spam.

#73

Thank you for not censoring. Now I just have had so many issues with MCV that i’m at my wits end. I had the Vera3 then veralite and now veraplus. I couldnt get vera lite to transfer to veraplus so redid my entire system which took hours. then kept getting cannot connect messages. MCV support is horrible if i submit a question or problem it takes 3 or 4 days to get a response. I cannot get my recessed generation 5 aeon labs door sensors to stay connected. Tech support response is we are aware of the problem and are working on a firmware fix. its been weeks no fix my security system is basally not working. I’d like a response from Vera on why a product was released without it supporting products which were supported in veralite and vera 3?

#74

Keep in mind the Universal Devices ISY994i ZW. I switched over to one after my Vera3 would periodically just lock up and leave me high and dry (along with lack of remotely modern programing ability, etc). The ISY is an absolute ROCK! It never stops, never crashes and never dies. The programming language is robust and you can basically do anything you can dream up. And it’ll just work.

ISY got its start with Insteon and the default unit still does Insteon, but you can buy a unit with No insteon support if you never plan to use it. ZWave support is great. It may not support every single ZWave device out there, but so far has supported everything I’ve thrown at it (light switches, thermostats from multiple manufactures, door locks, temp/climate sensors, door sensors, motion sensors, power/energy sensors, etc).

The company has a well supported user forum with regular and active participation by the company. Firmware updates are not crazy frequent, but generally add new features and almost never seem to introduce any problems – things just get better each release.

If you’re just getting going with your HA project, the ability to knit Insteon lighting devices in (cheaper and more powerful than most ZWave light switches) is great, but again, if you have no interest in Insteon, you can just ignore it. No “cloud” subscription requirements either (though available, should you want it).

I’ve been doing HA for 20+ years and from a reliability and programability standpoint, the Vera was a huge step back into unreliable automation (aka toy automation). I tried – really bashed my head – for the better part of a year before giving up. I wanted it to work and I tried everything and anything to get it reliable.

Since going to the ISY, we forget the automation is even there (which is how it should be – “silent, ordinary magic”).

Also, ISY just finished their Amazon Echo integration and once setup, it’s easy to use and actually has wound up being useful to the household.

Gerry

#75

dratifk, if you are ever having a problem reach Customer Care please email and I will get you prioritized. We try to keep users with the same agent, if it is taking to long let me know. I have the ability to get things moving forward.

Regarding the issues you had transitioning to your VeraPlus, if you get stuck, contact Customer Care. They can take care of the whole process for you.

When devices are not working properly and the Dev Team puts a fix in place; you are not going to get the fix the next day. Once it is resolved it will be in the firmware update. I have asked our Team Lead to take a look at your ticket to see if the sensor issue is resolved and if so to see if we can do something before the next FW update.

#76

Marc, do you know what happened to monthly updates? The last update has been over 2 months ago and before you guys were talking around every month.

I’m sure there is not many issues that need to be fixed (sarcasm encase you didn’t notice), but I think even a month is too long and now over 2 months is really leaving people hanging, especially when even those updates don’t usually address most of the issues at once.

Some sort of effort needs to be put in place in a timely manner to get actual working updates out.

Even the BETA releases seems to have disappeared after only 1 or 2 of them.

#77

Marc, do you know what happened to monthly updates? The last update has been over 2 months ago and before you guys were talking around every month.

I’m sure there is not many issues that need to be fixed (sarcasm encase you didn’t notice), but I think even a month is too long and now over 2 months is really leaving people hanging, especially when even those updates don’t usually address most of the issues at once.

Some sort of effort needs to be put in place in a timely manner to get actual working updates out.

Even the BETA releases seems to have disappeared after only 1 or 2 of them.[/quote]

We have been reworking our internal processes around the firmware updates to insure better a better product. We will continue to have a public beta test period with updates going forward, we find it valuable to have the community do the beta, with an infinite number of permutations possible, we can not test every scenario or combination and our 3rd party developers appreciate the ability to test their plugins prior to the general release.

We would rather take a little more time and put out a better product than rush it out. I’m sure the pace will get faster over time. There is lots in the works behind the scenes that will benefit the entire community as it flushes through the system.

#78

Marc, do you know what happened to monthly updates? The last update has been over 2 months ago and before you guys were talking around every month.

I’m sure there is not many issues that need to be fixed (sarcasm encase you didn’t notice), but I think even a month is too long and now over 2 months is really leaving people hanging, especially when even those updates don’t usually address most of the issues at once.

Some sort of effort needs to be put in place in a timely manner to get actual working updates out.

Even the BETA releases seems to have disappeared after only 1 or 2 of them.[/quote]

We have been reworking our internal processes around the firmware updates to insure better a better product. We will continue to have a public beta test period with updates going forward, we find it valuable to have the community do the beta, with an infinite number of permutations possible, we can not test every scenario or combination and our 3rd party developers appreciate the ability to test their plugins prior to the general release.

We would rather take a little more time and put out a better product than rush it out. I’m sure the pace will get faster over time. There is lots in the works behind the scenes that will benefit the entire community as it flushes through the system.[/quote]

Marc, how about starting with the basics. Somehow get Vera to support ZWave again, lol :slight_smile:

#79

Tell me about it. Phone support has tried to help me the last two days fixing multiple different issues and altho it’s only been a short time looks like maybe one issue is fixed but others are still there or have gotten worse. I currently have 18 devices not responding and only one is a battery sensor. The rest are hardwired devices of mixed nature. Yesterday support said they tried something and to wait over night to see if it gets better.

I have determined if I don’t try and use them it does.

Here’s a very current shot on my vacation house. And Altho they told me to start another ticket today if it doesn’t work I’m busy at work on a friday and probley wont get around to sitting on the phone for an hour or so today. My issues continue.

#80

While waiting for a stable VeraPlus I also purchased Homeseer while it is 50% of normal price. At least I have a back up scenario.

I’m now looking at the plugins that I would need to replace.

Some are obvious, some less;
Iphone locator >> PHlocation? Looks interesting and supports both Iphone & Android
Datamine >> ? Is there anything needed for decent graphing & logging?
Yamaha receiver >> ?
Kodi/XBMC >> Only really use this the other way around (so when Kodi plays movie, dim lights)

Any other experiences/tips?

Thanks