is the Vera Plus worth it

Community Playground General Discussions
#1

I have a question. i currently own a Vera 3 running UI7 (slowest web UI ever made in the history of all web UIs). and even with UI5 on it the unit was slow. but with UI7 it’s worse. but as an example. i set up a simple scene. if i turn this light on. then turn that light on… sometimes 5 minutes later it will turn the light on. and there is no delay set it’s supposed to be immediately. now I have come to accept that the Vera 3 is just a lighting controller. i discovered this when i purchased 10 security cameras. and the Vera 3 had a complete heart attack when it had to handle that plus the lights and plugins and scenes.

I am looking over the specs on the vera plus. and it really isn’t a big improvement over the Vera 3. does it make that much of a difference???.

how is it that i can go out and purchase a complete nano PC with a dual core 1 Ghz processor. 2 gigs of ram, for about 50 dollars USD and the vera is a single core 500 mhz (with what appears to be no threading support or ability to do more then one task at a time) and 32k of memory??? and the plus is 800 mhz with 256k

i do not understand this. but i really do want to upgrade just don’t know if i should keep going with the Vera line. or look at other solutions. i would really love to see a unit that would be able to run more then one scene concurrently. and not take upwards of 5 minutes to run a scene. but also not have to wait 4-5 seconds for the UI to issue a command like turning the lights on.

tho the Vera does work. and has not caused me a huge amount of issues. it’s just not able to do the things they claim. i find the ability to handle as many devices as they state a hard one to believe. and if the company servers go down or you do not have an internet connection you will not be able to access all of the functions of the Vera. (this i do not like).

if someone owns a Vera Plus can you tell me how the performance is. and could you do something like install blue iris on a computer and install the plugin on the Vera Plus. set up 10 video feeds from the internet in blue iris and see how the Vera Plus performs then… I would like to be able to add the cameras and also all of the live traffic cameras for my area to the Vera. and i don’t want to “throw away” 150 USD for another snail.

#2
i find the ability to handle as many devices as they state a hard one to believe
Do not confuse PLUGIN devices as a device ... Vera specs the number of Z-Wave devices. A Z-wave device does not use much memory ... a Plugin devices uses 2MB of memory just to sit there an do nothing ....

A Vera Plus has twice as much memory as a Vera 3, and memory is the biggest constraint on Vera.

I do not recommend sending Video to Vera … it is not designed for this and is pretty bad at it.
To display a Video stream on the Vera UI, you have two streams … one from the device to vera, and another from vera to the UI.
Your better off displaying a stream from the Device directly to the UI … and keeping Vera out of the loop.

#3

I’d love to buy a truck load of Nano PCs for $50 each. Where can I find them?

As @RichardTSchaefer said, you shouldn’t run cameras through Vera. BlueIris, or whatever DVR you want to use, is a much better idea.

I would recommend against you buying a Vera Plus at this time. It doesn’t offer much more than the Vera 3 and you should be able to get your Vera 3 to be rock solid reliable. If you cannot, then any model Vera is not for you.

I was a bit unclear on the problem you described, but it sounded like you are trying to use the turn-on of a light as a trigger for a scene to turn on another light, but you’re seeing a delay of several minutes before the scene runs. This sounds very much like the light you are using as the trigger does not support Instant Status.

You can read more about Instant Status on the forum, but suffice it to say that without Instant Status, the device(light) will not notify Vera when it is turned on. Instead you will have to wait for Vera to poll the light before she becomes aware of the light’s state change. The polling could take anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes. Replacing the light/switch with one that supports Instant Status is the only way to overcome this delay.

#4

BTW, are there any Z-Wave Plus Gen5 light switched or dimmers with Instant Status supported by Vera? I know Homeseer switches are instant status, but Vera does not support the command class they are using for instant status.

#5

I’m not sure.

#6

If you want Gen 5 than I think there aren’t any except for Homeseer which as you mentioned is not supported for instant status.

However I do believe the Aeon Micro and Fibaro relay are both Gen 5 and support instant status, but they don’t work with traditional dimmer switches so are complicated.

However, they don’t have to be Gen5 to work with the Vera Plus, you can get the Cooper or Leviton switches if you want guaranteed instant status. Or the GE/Jasco Switches get Instant status if they are close enough to the Vera (but lose this ability if they are out of direct radio range of the Vera).

#7

[quote=“Z-Waver, post:3, topic:194408”]I’d love to buy a truck load of Nano PCs for $50 each. Where can I find them?

As @RichardTSchaefer said, you shouldn’t run cameras through Vera. BlueIris, or whatever DVR you want to use, is a much better idea.

I would recommend against you buying a Vera Plus at this time. It doesn’t offer much more than the Vera 3 and you should be able to get your Vera 3 to be rock solid reliable. If you cannot, then any model Vera is not for you.

I was a bit unclear on the problem you described, but it sounded like you are trying to use the turn-on of a light as a trigger for a scene to turn on another light, but you’re seeing a delay of several minutes before the scene runs. This sounds very much like the light you are using as the trigger does not support Instant Status.

You can read more about Instant Status on the forum, but suffice it to say that without Instant Status, the device(light) will not notify Vera when it is turned on. Instead you will have to wait for Vera to poll the light before she becomes aware of the light’s state change. The polling could take anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes. Replacing the light/switch with one that supports Instant Status is the only way to overcome this delay.[/quote]

newegg had the nano pc’s they aren’t anything fantastic as far as performance goes for say running windows. and they can’t do 1080p video without having a hard time. i had to modify the one i have because the dingdongs that engineered the thing made it fanless. which shouldn’t have been an issue. the mounted the cpu heatsink and it was literally a couple of mm’s away from the outer case of the thing. and guess what the outer case was made from?? aluminum. so why in gods name they didn’t have the 2 touch is beyond me. and under heavy load for a while it would overheat… so i made a spacer to allot the cpu heatsink to touch the aluminum outer case… and wow. no more overheating…in fact it runs at 1/2 the temps…

and the scene thing is a Vera Issue, because it updates in the UI that the light turned on. it just takes a while for it to think about running the scene.

and the Vera supports video cameras without the need for plugins. anything more then 2 cameras and forget about it. the unit is almost unresponsive.

when i purchased a Vera 3 there was a laundry list of things you can do with it… which in fact all you can do with it is turn lights on and off. because if you try to do anything else. it will usually have issues. and all of the switches in my home are jasco which started after an update when i was running on ui5 and has been the same for every release there after including UI7 every single dimmer in my house if it’s on at 2 AM when the network heals it’s self. i get a light show. and i have 2 different styles of dimmers one with a neutral and one without. they do the same. i have one leviton switch (some knuckle head made that switch so off if off and off is on also) and that one doesn’t do the light show. jasco points the finger at the vera, and the vera people point the finger at jasco. just like the nonsence with the ramping. and jasco is right. i have a jasco key panel that is also a zwave controller and no light show from that. and the lights ramp properly. so it’s a vera issue. and one that has been around for what 4 years now. and jasco is the most used switch i am sure. and they still have not fixed it. and they say it’s the switch. but i have different models running different firmware. and they all do the exact same thing.

now what’s really funny is that when i set the variables on the switch it will do the light show. and that is the only way i can get it to reproduce the problem. so why is the vera setting variables on every single switch at 2 am every day. what is it setting??? ask support and they say the vera doesn’t set any variables on the switches unless you (being me) tell it to. i don’t remember what is was specifically but there was some kind of data that i came across that basically stated that the vera was setting variables. and when i responded with that i never got an answer back…

#8

I won;t waste much time trying to resolve all your issues, I don;t think that’s really what you’re looking for in this thread. But, to answer your question about why Vera would set variables every night; it’s because you have the parameters configured(Jasco ramping parameters) and Vera is by default set to automatically configure nodes(apply routes, parameters…), which it does during the heal as well as at other times. You can change this setting globally or on a per device level. But, I’m not sure I would recommend it, as it should not be necessary.

As an anecdote, I have several Jasco devices(no Instant Status by the way) that do not exhibit this behavior. The only time a nightly heal is ever noticed is when Vera miscalculates a route and a switch becomes slow to respond on its first use of that day. It’s rare in my network, which by the way, does a little more than just control lights.

In your last post I see that what was a basic question or two is spiraling into a rant based in overall frustration. Its definitely understandable. It appears that Vera is just not for you. And, I think you’re not wrong. As previously alluded, Vera is a terrible choice for cameras, but they just pushed out a new firmware with features focusing on camera support and a service that encourages the use of cameras in Vera. Clearly, they don’t “get it”, or we don’t get that their definition of home automation is completely different from ours.

P.S. My search for cheap Nano PCs has been fruitless. The cheapest Nano PC that I can find on Newegg are $150 and that one is a Zotac barebones unit lacking memory and hard drive.

#9

I think Vera is worth it …

So far, minor issues, that customer service is very responsive (big plus)
I have 30 devices … zwave (switches, lock, motions,garage… etc…), ecobee, DSC EVL… and a lot of plug-ins for everything … I placed my unit in the middle of the home, wired ethernet… for better connection to devices (this maybe what help me avoid issues…)

I paid $150 for the controller (order when it first came out) … that is it …and 7 bux for Imperihome app…

I have been running a the trial version of the Homeseer also because everyone is talking about it.
I like Homeseer …fast, responsive, and scene config is much better (OR and AND) build in … not have to use the clumsy looking PLEG in Vera

But I could not get pass the fact that every single plug in for HomeSeer is $40 … even the one that just display weather…come on, weather …

Homeseer SW is $150 (when 50% off on sale, other wise $299, Pro version) + Rp2 ($50) + USB SmartStick $40 + I need at least 4 plug-ins =$160 =$500

===> I can get a 10 zwave switches for $350 by going with Vera.

I tried Openhab 2.0 before also… I am a programmer … and I realized, I spend too much wasted time trying to get something basic to work…

#10

[quote=“Z-Waver, post:8, topic:194408”]I won;t waste much time trying to resolve all your issues, I don;t think that’s really what you’re looking for in this thread. But, to answer your question about why Vera would set variables every night; it’s because you have the parameters configured(Jasco ramping parameters) and Vera is by default set to automatically configure nodes(apply routes, parameters…), which it does during the heal as well as at other times. You can change this setting globally or on a per device level. But, I’m not sure I would recommend it, as it should not be necessary.

As an anecdote, I have several Jasco devices(no Instant Status by the way) that do not exhibit this behavior. The only time a nightly heal is ever noticed is when Vera miscalculates a route and a switch becomes slow to respond on its first use of that day. It’s rare in my network, which by the way, does a little more than just control lights.

In your last post I see that what was a basic question or two is spiraling into a rant based in overall frustration. Its definitely understandable. It appears that Vera is just not for you. And, I think you’re not wrong. As previously alluded, Vera is a terrible choice for cameras, but they just pushed out a new firmware with features focusing on camera support and a service that encourages the use of cameras in Vera. Clearly, they don’t “get it”, or we don’t get that their definition of home automation is completely different from ours.

P.S. My search for cheap Nano PCs has been fruitless. The cheapest Nano PC that I can find on Newegg are $150 and that one is a Zotac barebones unit lacking memory and hard drive.[/quote]

well I don’t have any variables that are set for any of my switches. and this happens to all of my dimmers. new and old… and an assortment of firmware on the switches them selves and I have looked high and low for a switch that would allow for setting different ramp rates for manual rocker operation and z-way operation and i have not found any that allow for this except the jasco switches. now i wouldn’t go and run and get a samsung smartthings hub either because of the crap with samsung locking out their API i have no interest in it but from reading on their forums the ramping works just fine with their unit… (that should give the folks an indication that it’s not the switch like they keep on claiming it is.) I have had the vera 3 for about 3 years now and paid 250 USD for the thing. and it seems as tho no long standing issues have even been looked at let alone fixed… i just was not sure if these are problems that are related to hardware.

and as far as the nano pc that is specifically foxconn they are typicalled mini pc’s and here is one on newegg

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856101156

it’s 35.00 USD has a gig of memory and 4GB eMMC for storage and is a dual core arm 1.0 ghz

looks like it has WiFi and USB. video card with multi monitor support

#11

and here is another for 85 (not to far off the 60)

has a dual-core 1.3 GHz celeron processor 2 gigs memory and a 320 gb hdd and blueteeth 4.0

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856173038

#12

I do not see an OS, not a biggie unless you need Micro$oft.