I have a number of wired dry contact sensors I would like to connect to Vera. What are the options?
AFAIK Insteon has nice I/O board, but I wouldn’t like to invest into Insteon infrastructure. What else?
@325xi, if you don’t mind a “wired” connection to the device, you might want to join forces with @nanckekr and pick a board provider that has enough Inputs and Outputs to do what both of you are trying to achieve:
http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php?topic=2182.0
and then write a single driver for it.
The example I listed there has about 4 inputs, in addition to the 8 outputs. Not that I’ve tried this specific board (or company) but seems like you could address both needs with one solution as there’s a variety of companies that make this type of board.
For the most part, once attached by RS-232, it wouldn’t be hard to “drive” this type of thing, they behave similarly to the GC-100 in terms of “simplicity” of control-interface.
It also avoids using Insteon 
That thread targets ‘O’, while this one is about ‘I’ from I/O 
I sure won’t pull wires all over the house for this, which means I’ll have to put one such board for each room or two, and they are too expensive to buy 4 - 5 of them, using just one or two inputs on each.
The most interesting option I’ve found so far is HRDS1 door sensor.
The best thing about it - it has terminals to connect any dry contact sensor, so it can turn that dumb $2 sensor into z-wave enabled device, which has its obvious advantages.
But still, I’m looking to learn the other options before investing into any single one.
ok, so it sounds like you’ve refined your requirements and you’re really looking for a ZWave, or other Wireless option, with only a limited # of inputs per [cheap] “node”.
btw, the hardware I listed as an example for @nanckekr was I/O, it just had a few more Output’s (8x) than Inputs (4x). There are others around that reverse that model (including ones in their lineup) if folks want a wired solution with many more inputs in each location.