Having trouble need some help!

Plugins & Plugin Development VeraAlerts
#1

Hoping to get some help as I’m lost here. The built in Vera alerts are really messed up for me for some reason, for example if I say when a light goes on, send me a notification, it definitely does, but it sends it like 10 times followed by “You’ve exceeded your quota for the day.” So I was hoping VeraAlerts would be better in that regard and installed it. Bit disappointed to find out there’s a 30 day trial though as my plugin kept saying that with 2 free profiles, but even when I had fresh installed with no profiles, it would always say error, you don’t have a valid registration for this plugin so I just bought it.

Anyway, I’m just a bit confused as to how this all works as the website is a bit confusing. From what I understand, if I want a notification then I need to set it up from the actual device that I want to notify and not from this app? Hoping that’s not the case, as I don’t want something to always notify me, I want there to be criteria, such as if the house is in “Away” mode, and the front door opens, only then send me a notice, otherwise not. So not sure if this can do that?

The main issue though is that when I go to the notification configuration tab in the plugin, it’s always empty, unless I check the box “Process Notifications” which by default is unchecked. However it says checking that will process notifications in parallel to the built in ones. When I check the box, the notifications do work, but turning a light on sends 4 notices now, 2 from this plugin and then 2 from the built in notification system (using SMTP right now).

So 1) Does this plug in support criteria for the notifications, such as the one I mentioned above? Email me if motion is detected, door is open, that type of thing but only if it meets a criteria? I know I can select if it is armed, but that doesn’t work as I have a plug in that arms the house when I leave, then when I come home it gives me 30 seconds to disarm everything. If the Vera sends notifications based on something being armed, then it sends that alert before I can disarm the system, meaning I’d have to disarm it from the outside before opening the door.

  1. How do I use this plugin only without the built in Vera notifications as well, as they are really messed up?

Thanks!

#2

Just a quick update, I was mostly setting the notification to if motion is detected or the front door sensor triggers an open, but for some reason it sends like 10 notifications. If I do it for a light, no notice goes when the light turns on, but after a minute or so I guess when the Vera polls it to see that it’s on or off, then it sends me a notice, but I’m getting an email from the Vera, a text from the Vera, and then the VeraAlerts android app alerting me as well. I don’t want anything from the Vera, so still confused how to not receive anything from it and just get alerts from the app, as well as if there’s a way to set conditions? Or is this app more just to provide other methods of alert vs just the built in ones? If so, are there any suggestions in terms of if you say “Send an alert if motion sensor is armed and detects motion” how you can actually enter your home and disarm the sensors before the alerts go?

#3

It seems like this doesn’t work with Insteon stuff at all. When the hidden door sensor is opened I have it set to alert me, but it sends it 15 times in a row, over and over. As soon as the door opens I get a floor of 15 emails from the app (even though I have SMTP profile not assigned to any user, had to finally just delete that all together) and the VeraAlerts app goes off over and over, every 30 seconds or so “FRONT DOOR OPEN” pops up even when the door has been closed. I’ve had it closed for 5 minutes now and it’s still sending the alert. Tested it with turning the kitchen light on (Z-wave device) and so far only got it once, albet about 2 minutes after the light was turned on I guess due to Z-Wave not updating status immediately like Insteon.