HomeCenter 2 (Fibaro) Vs. Vera's ?

[quote=“garrettwp, post:20, topic:175426”]Mios platform has always been the soul focus of MCV to provide to other companies for rebranding or integration into a companies business think hotels, energy companies, etc. Vera as a product is a side project for MCV.

  • Garrett[/quote]

Now it makes more sense why things operate this way.

Thanks.

(I have noticed substituting mios for mcv in certain URLs brings up the same site or the same site with some re branding)

[quote=“nullx8, post:15, topic:175426”]…on a standard household with nothing fancy, the HC2 does clearly win the race,
for anyone else: the HC2 price of 500 bucks can you can get easy 4 vera lite’s … which compensate for the lack of power in all ways! and preserves the flexibility.[/quote]

Multiple Vera Lites does not mean equal power. If an application is written to run across multiple processors then this would be true, but MIOS does not support multiple processors (at least from anything I’ve seen). Adding multiple Vera Lites will not eliminate the lag and unreliability of Vera. Only proper coding will do that. And MCV seems more concerned with getting new (and OEM) products out than with properly coding existing ones (or the new ones for that matter).

[quote=“ufd108, post:22, topic:175426”][quote=“nullx8, post:15, topic:175426”]…on a standard household with nothing fancy, the HC2 does clearly win the race,
for anyone else: the HC2 price of 500 bucks can you can get easy 4 vera lite’s … which compensate for the lack of power in all ways! and preserves the flexibility.[/quote]

Multiple Vera Lites does not mean equal power. If an application is written to run across multiple processors then this would be true, but MIOS does not support multiple processors (at least from anything I’ve seen). Adding multiple Vera Lites will not eliminate the lag and unreliability of Vera. Only proper coding will do that. And MCV seems more concerned with getting new (and OEM) products out than with properly coding existing ones (or the new ones for that matter).[/quote]

as much as i wish you where wrong … but what you say is absolutly true.
i have one setup where 2 veras are placed … for exactly this reason they NOT Married, the main one simply calls scenes via luup on the other one if needed to preserve the power.

i have not tested a HC2 myself yet …
iam not so much worried about plugins, (i try to avoid them on vera as well)
but more about the scripting background and general compatiblity, since i not want a 500 USD Remote … i want things “Automated” :wink:

as said before, fibaro R&D are going with lightspeed, compared to micasaverde. its jsut a matter of thime this will all change.
and the OEM path MCV does going will go down the commercial drain, just like Microsoft windows.

the peoples doing things for real, gonna end up with a HC2 very soon.

but based on today, i’d prefer 2 Veras instead of 1 HC2

@nullx8 - I’m unaware of what the market is like in you area, but your assessment does not match up with what is happening in the U.S. Here, Vera sells to a niche market of hobbiests and early adopters. However, commercial Home Automation equipment (MIOS based and otherwise) are being sold like crazy by national providers including; Schlage Nexia, Verizon(phone/ISP/TV), Time Warner(TV/ISP/phone), Comcast(TV/ISP/phone), ADT(alarms), Lowes(hardware store) Iris, and more. These national providers are, by far, the bigger market now and for the near future and it would be crazy for MCV not to focus there.

I don’t have any proof, but my impression is that Time Warner and ADT(in the U.S.) sell more HA systems that Vera and HC2 combined globally.

Z-Waver, we are on the same page :wink:

i basically meant the same things …
MCV OEM Development commercial ways … (whatever / wherever they are) left aside.

the HC2 is at this point already in the product class where commercial home automator-companies are going to use it because of its apearance and the fact that it can be sold on a large price-tag with a very good margin.

mcv partner program is very strict and can not be met by any startup or anyone do integrations. that blows everything to distribution, another big fish in the food chain, combined with the support issues … not really a way to get into business.

fast forward in time where fibaro has more integrations developed, the great support and the way they do things in general like helpful peoples, quick responses, VERY good pricing modells with no chaining and so on …

the reason why veras are in the nieche is simple: its cheap and has a complex way of doing things for noob users …
so it will never be a target for the integrations market. (since most of the integrators i have met also just noobs moving boxes)

I hope with the proper motivation (loss of customer base and $$$), that things will change.

I have to wonder something though:

MiOS is a HK based company
MCV, according to the headers on the shell scripts in the Vera, is a Nevada Corp

Yet I saw somewhere on this forum that the plugins in the apps.mios.com store are approved by someone in France?

MiOS has offices in HK and Iasi, Romania (a bunch of job openings there too).

Is there some disorganization here on part of the company, or it is growing its customer base too fast and having a hard time keeping up? Maybe all the time is being spent on custom solutions, where the real money is at?

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Edit
: Additional quotes added.

+1 for puling very relevant quotes from the various discussions on the forum (some in this topic, one from elsewhere). 8)

If I use a VeraLite with a Fibaro wall plug, is there a way I can still control the energy consumption and see it in nice charts as shown on Fibaro videos? Or I can simply control it but loose all these neat features of the Fibaro system?

You can control and read energy consumption, using Vera. The Vera GUI is completely different and does not provide the charts that you are referring to.

the major difference is (from my point of view) that both systems have a great advantage .

HC2 … its ready to run out of the box, easy to use and to somewhat programm …
but what you see is what you get.

Vera/Mios … its ready to run, but you need to grab some left over IQ from your brain to understand the logic, as it does not do that for you the way HC2 does.
but its plusses with compatiblity and flexibility which HC2 has but in its own way.

so its very much a choice of the user. both systems do not exactly compete each other since the HC2 Customer is the one less advanced want things to work wit ha few mouseclicks where the Vera user want things Neat and controlled trough, logical and extendable.

so everything the HC2 offers, can the vera do as well (if you know how to do it) …
including the “nice graphs” meantioned.
but it will need some user action to make it happen.

Bottom line:
on a HC 2 you get the full package, and there is not much left beyond that. (more than enough for most users)
on Vera you get a standard package with simple interaction, but there is practically no limit in extending the functionality.

it is exactly like comparing an iOS (Fibaro) with Andriod (Vera)

The Fibaro hardware is so powerful but you won’t use 50% of it

I use both Vera and Fibaro. Fibaro is very secured but limited.
Vera has some issues about security if you want i can list many.

However, integrate Fibaro with other system is like HARD work to do with very limited features.

And the most important thing is that both company’s technical support is bad!
however, in Vera you have a much more better community that the fibaro one

The price thing is kind of solved after releasing the Fibaro Lite

The price thing is kind of solved after releasing the Fibaro Lite
Except that the Lite does not allow the use of Lua in scenes. In my experience, the graphical scene editor is only suitable for very simple scenarios.

Thanks everyone for the description of each and pros and cons!!

I was recently told to have a look at this review of the HC2 by a friend.

http://www.automatedhome.co.uk/reviews/fibaro-z-wave-home-center-2-mega-review.html

[quote=“Brientim, post:35, topic:175426”]I was recently told to have a look at this review of the HC2 by a friend.

http://www.automatedhome.co.uk/reviews/fibaro-z-wave-home-center-2-mega-review.html[/quote]

"Seasoned code-monkeys will be glad to hear that there?s a beta version of the software kicking about that lets you program scenes using the Lua scripting language rather than the visual interface. I was planning on switching to beta once I?d finished the bulk of this review to give you a preview, but unfortunately the beta trial option is currently not available, however expect this functionality to appear shortly. "

“Full API is on the cards, possibly very soon indeed, including information push to eg ifttt.com, Facebook etc.”

“Fibaro have just released version 1.037 software, which includes the HTTP API for control and monitoring from external systems. The API lets you monitor the system (returning a comprehensive XML overview), or control relays, dimmers, roller/shutter modules, thermostats, virtual devices, and scenes. You can also take snapshots from cameras. There are two versions of the API ? currently supported is the unauthenticated API, and an authenticated API which respects configured user permissions will follow shortly. Documentation for the API has been added to the Fibaro docs site.”

The things that make Vera “unique” are slowly beginning to wither away…