Hello
I am new to home monitoring. I want a simple system - door lock with remote locking capabiity, outdoor camera which can sense motion and take pictures when it does, thermostat, and indoor camera. May add a camera or two in the future, but nothing more. I currently have verizon fios internet and WiFi.
Here’s what I’ve gathered (some of this might not be right, please feel free to correct me)
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Verizon home monitoring has the least expensive start up cost $90 (which includes the gateway device and extras), but charges $10 a month and limited to the z-wave devices that they sell. They also are new to the market and buggy, and no Iphone app. They offer outdoor and indoor cameras which tie into the zwave system. I’ve heard their tech support is horrible.
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Homeseer seems to be the smoothest and most powerful, but start up costs are high ($500 + zdevice which is another $100ish). They seem to be the most versatile. Cameras do not tie into the zwave system. Easiest people to get call and thru to, guys seemed quite knowledgable and easy to understand.
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Micasa vera3 seems to be somewhere in the middle. I’ve been calling all day and finally got thru and the support agent could not even speak english well. Could not get the answers I was looking for. This kind of makes me wonder about future troubles when having to deal with them. I’m confused whether I would need vera3 or vera lite.
Any help is appreciated!
I have Homeseer Pro and Vera 3. I used to use Homeseer Pro as the Main System; however, overtime this has shifted to the Vera 3. Now Homeseer Could be considered more powerful and flexible but that is both it’s good and bad. Noting add on are at a fee.
Whereby, the Vera 3 is still powerful and can do most things required for Home Automation that Homeseer can do and in some cases, the plugin for Vera are better and free.
I shifted to the Vera 2, and then to the Vera 3 progressively and therefore, it wasn’t a case of one or the other. If I had my choice now, I would choice a Vera 3 especially for what you get on your return of investment compared to Homeseer.
can you explain what you mean by “add on are at a fee”
any additional equipment you buy will be at a fee, for either homeseer or vera?
He means that plugins and additional features for Homeseer are at an additional cost. Any system you go with will cost you for per device. Some systems you can only buy what they provide (Verizon) and will charge you a monthly fee to use it. Where Vera most if not all of the plugins are free and developed by the community. MicasaVerde also does not charge a monthly fee to use there services like remote access, etc. I believe MicasaVerde (Vera) offers the best price to feature set. There system is open for tinkering and they offer a good set of api’s to build upon. Verizon is a closed system and i am sure very limited in a set of features. Homeseer does not offer any sort of api for 3rd party apps and you have to pay them money to use the api’s to make additional plugins.
[quote=“manish500, post:3, topic:172014”]can you explain what you mean by “add on are at a fee”
any additional equipment you buy will be at a fee, for either homeseer or vera?[/quote]
Sorry, I can only type with my little finger at the moment and auto correct on can be a pain…
Should have read addons (plugins) e.g. DSC IT100 plugin included with Pro version otherwise you have to purchase it.
See http://store.homeseer.com/store/x-C92.aspx
@manish500,
Welcome!
Vera Lite has no built-in WiFi, no LAN switch, 1 instead of 2 USB ports, and half the amount of RAM, compared to Vera 3. (See also this table.)
The WiFi on Vera3 could be a benefit if you didn’t have WiFi already, so you could connect wireless devices to your LAN. Also, the WiFi on Vera3 can be used to connect Vera to your LAN wirelessly. This could be handy as it keeps Vera mobile, e.g. to include Z-Wave devices into the network. On the other hand, Vera Lite can be run from batteries to walk around the house and include Z-Wave devices.
From the intended setup you describe, Vera Lite should be fine.
my vera3 comes with battery too. and I can walk in the home with her and add devices…
[quote=“manish500, post:1, topic:172014”]Hello
I am new to home monitoring. I want a simple system - door lock with remote locking capabiity, outdoor camera which can sense motion and take pictures when it does, thermostat, and indoor camera. May add a camera or two in the future, but nothing more. I currently have verizon fios internet and WiFi.[/quote]
One thing to consider is how computer savy you are. The Homeseer one is easier to figure out from what I read. The vera is confusing and the UI is even more confusing. I bought a vera 3 and have gotten nowhere with it. The “documentation” is limited and you need to almost be an IT professional to understand much of it which has to do with setting up and configuring networks etc. Their tech support is spotty at best with you mostly getting dumped to voicemail.
The homeseer one requires you to run your PC 24-7 and to me that is a big knock against it. Why be constantly be burning 250 watts of power and wearing out a PC just to turn some lights off by remote control? It seems overkill.
In my opinion, if you are a techie type and really good with computers and networking go for the vera, if not, look elsewhere you will just be frustrated with it.
[quote=“garrettwp, post:4, topic:172014”]Homeseer does not offer any sort of api for 3rd party apps and you have to pay them money to use the api’s to make additional plugins.
- Garrett[/quote]Not true. The HomeSeer API is free to all and always has been. You can download the SDK from their support site.
[quote=“DaveC1964, post:8, topic:172014”]The homeseer one requires you to run your PC 24-7 and to me that is a big knock against it. Why be constantly be burning 250 watts of power and wearing out a PC just to turn some lights off by remote control? It seems overkill.[/quote]This is only true if you purchase their software. HomeSeer also makes 5 gateway controllers that only consume 10-15 watts.
[quote=“SocketFail, post:9, topic:172014”][quote=“garrettwp, post:4, topic:172014”]Homeseer does not offer any sort of api for 3rd party apps and you have to pay them money to use the api’s to make additional plugins.
- Garrett[/quote]Not true. The HomeSeer API is free to all and always has been. You can download the SDK from their support site.
I am referring to the fact that I can not build my own android app to control homeseer.