Haven’t read this thread for a long while. But seems there are common themes from the users feedback.
Main, but not only points that I picked up on, whilst skimming over the last 100 replies or so, being:
No local web UI. Will there ever be one?
Voice Assistant integration broken and partially functional in some instances, its been pretty broken for years now.
Using Hubitat as a Z-Wave radio and for dashboards, MSR for logic engine, as several of you said, about switching to Hubitat. (Are they any good the Hubitat dashboards?)
Z-wave / Zigbee device response and comms issues, “Offline”.
Meshbot rules running properly or not, reliability etc.
Vera / Mios mobile apps being slow. This is a problem for me also and devices not always loading and the apps just kicking you back to the select Controllers page, most times when you leave the app and switch back to it, which is annoying…
Vera / Mios mobile app scenes not being fully compatible with the web UI Meshbot rules. This is a problem, but not one I care about. I would never use the mobile app to create a scene. Always use the web UI.
And not to forget…
All the other issues and frustrations raised.
I’m still running my Vera Plus and MSR as my main setup. And Home Remote app for dashboards.
Also lets not forget why Vera hubs were so popular in the first place. They were primarily used as Z-Wave radios only, for pretty rock solid stability and their easy to use and to develop for API’s.
The dashboards and logic engines were always done by 3rd party developers in the past.
Ezlo now have to do everything and provide a fully functioning system all on their own. As the 3rd parties devs have all moved on.
Only exception being MSR logic engine and that was a reluctant addition the Ezlo controller for MSR to support, I feel. Perhaps done out of a sense of duty to old Vera users who had used Reactor plugin for Vera in the past.
Ezlo have a ways to go yet. Its happening just very slowly it seems. Too slow for some people to wait.
But in time I am sure it will get there eventually.
Regarding Zigbee Centralite devices mine all normally say Offline. They either just eat through batteries and drop off the system or just drop off the system for other unknown reasons. Sometimes taking the battery out and in again will restore them.
Either way I’m sick of buying expensive batteries for them, so kinda given up on using Centralite Zigbee devices on my Ezlo Plus.
Z-Wave devices, I only have a handful paired directly to the Ezlo Plus, these on the whole seem to work OK. Although I think they could expose and display more device settings and variables for them in the Ezlogic web UI. We seem to have a lot more control over Z-Wave devices in the old Vera UI7 web interface.
ZWave stability and reliability. Doesn’t seem robust enough, doesn’t report failed attempt at a command, assumes an issued command has worked, no round trip ACK/NAK. Retry mechanism is suspect.
Scenes meshbots with ZWave devices. For meshbots operating on many devices if some devices have comms problem the meshbot seems to get confused or delayed.
Missing capabilities in IP Devices templates. Polling of nodes for status (for nodes with local switch state changes), binary switch input type,
An IPhone app like HomeWave where you can customize a graphical UI for your system with trivial effort.
Ademco Alarm panel interface via AD2USB interface. Just turn on (arm), turn off (disarm), and see status is all I need. None of the partitioning and subsystem stuff is needed by me.
More IP Camera capabilities so I can control PTZ and preset positions from the UI for my many FOSCAM cameras. All the commands are simple HTML Puts so the base functionality is in Ezlo, just need a way to control it as soft buttons on the video display window.
#1 is the biggest for me.#2 might come from fixing #1. #3 is nice to have but seems trivial to add to the system. #4 is needed as I find the Vera iPhone app cumbersome. Just cut a deal to buy the source code from Intvelt and refresh it for Ezlo?? #5 stops me from retiring my Vera Plus… can’t convert my main home until I have this. #6 I have a work around using the FOSCAM app. I get all my cameras fine on Vera Plus now, shouldn;t be hard to do this on Ezlo.
On the Vera hubs in the UI you could clearly see a banner on the controlled device if there was a comms issue? And it would say something like retrying.
Cant say I’ve really tried a Meshbot rule Actioning many or multiple devices.
But from some of the comments read in this thread it seems lile it maybe an issue.
We implemented improvements for zwave communication mechanism that should increase zwave reliability. Those improvements are related to
retry set commands for known responsive devices
delay commands to unreachable devices
reconstruct zwave network periodically
ignore controlling unresponsive devices
Answering your comments:
1 We do have a retry mechanism inside our FW. We aren’t showing this process to users (#1).
2 The improvements mentioned above should improve meshbot reliability (#2)
Now we are testing a new version of Linux FW that includes these improvements. The target is to release it by the end of summer.
A few weeks back, I asked Alexa to “open the curtains”, which triggered a relay on my Ezlo Plus, opening the curtains.
This prompted my wife to exclaim “Wow, it actually worked!!!”
I think that says it all. Any device that is so unreliable that normal functionality generates exclamations of amazement that it is working has serious issues and should be recalled from the shelves until such a time as said issues can be fully resolved.
Of course, in my case this is mostly a moot point anyway, since the continued non-functionality of the DSC plugin (community bug-tracker #ECS-1085, “Assigned” since January 20th) continues to prevent me from using the Ezlo for much of anything anyway.
I had the fun of checking out this year’s Ezlo Stuff activity on the Community Feature and Bug Tracker. If I counted correctly, there have been 34 days of status changes/posts/replies from Ezlo Stuff since the beginning of the year.
So that would be rounded 5 posts per month.
There are still 618 open requests. If no further inquiries were created and the case was closed directly with every activity on the part of Ezlo, we would be through in 10 years at the current speed
So why is it? Vacation should be excluded as an argument (unless at Ezlo you have a multiple of usual vacation days). Not enough staff? Too low priority?
So what is the plan to process the cases in a reasonable time?
It does feel like things have slowed down at Ezlo. Not sure if the same staff levels are working the issues as 9 months ago.
Its a catch22 situation. Sales are impaired until the product reaches a nominal amount of functionality AND stability. It doesn’t quite seem we are there yet. Lack of sales impacts ability to fund R&D. Without adequate R&D you never dig out of the hole.
I appreciate Europe is different for summer vacations (but its typically an August issue not May/June) and some of the development team has been impacted by the madness facing Ukraine. So it isn;t easy but the market isn’t forgiving to those factors.
Ezlo how about publishing a target date for the next software release for Ezlo Plus (the device not the ezlogic.mios.com site (which seems to get frequent updates)) and the candidate release notes that will go with it so we can see if hope is on the near horizon?
I’m in the beta program but I don’t know where the release notes are for beta versions so I can’t really tell how much progress is being made there either.
Is it worth it to purchase an ezlo controller and start playing around with the interface and meshbots? I wouldn’t be trying to migrate any devices over just looking to maybe get a jump on the learning curve. Also see what potential gaps there may be for my use.
Thoughts?
Its worth a look yes. If you do purchase an Ezlo controller you could then use the Vera to Ezlo bridge plugin, to bridge some of the devices on your Vera hub to the new Ezlo hub. You could then try out Meshbot rules and the other stuff in the new web UI, without having to pair any devices etc.
Hey there! It’s cool to hear that you’ve been a Vera user for a while, my dude. I totally get wanting to stay up-to-date with the latest tech, like the Ezlo Plus. From what I’ve gathered, it seems like the Ezlo Plus is on its way to being a solid replacement for the Vera Plus, but it’s always good to stay on top of forum discussions to get the full scoop. As for your concerns, the Ezlo Plus should offer you similar features to the Vera Plus, with some extra perks. While I’m not 100% sure about migration support, it’s worth checking if you’ll have to rebuild your network and scenes. And as for the web UI, I suggest looking into the latest updates to see if it’s fully functional now. Cheers!
I am a long time user of a Vera Edge, and have for over a year an Ezlo Secure sitting next to it, doing nothing waiting for the right moment to do the transition, I have GoControl Model: WS15Z5-1 that supports double, triple and long tap actions, which I have working fine on my Vera Edge, but cannot find how to do it in Ezlo, any help on that so I can move ahead with my transition? Thanks!!!
I’d also like to see a working example of how to setup double and triple clicks of a wall switch with the Fibaro Dimmer 2 and Fibaro Roller Shutter modules, this is called “Scene Activation”.
Currently all my Fibaro modules are paired to my Vera Plus and Multi System Reactor rules engine supports Scene Activation for Fibaro modules.
I have never seen a working example of this on an Ezlo controller and “Meshbot” rules.
Is there a way to duplicate a local meshbot? that would save me A LOT of time! on the MiOS Web UI the duplicate option is dimmed for the meshbots I created
