this piece of kit has got my attention and am looking to get me one to start my journey in home automation
I have some questions to which I can’t seem to find a clear answer so I was hoping people of this active community will be able to help me out
is the e-mail sending service free or subscription based
can the Vera 2 operate fully without internet access?
have some concerns with security
ideal plan would be that I connect through OpenVPN on my DD-WRT router and connect through that to my Vera 2 (as local network connection)
can a usb thumbdrive or 2.5 inch usb harddisk be used to store logs and other stuff
can this same drive be used to record video from an IP cam like Foscam FI8918W?
can the Vera 2 be considered a good substitute for an alarm system
if batteries of any connected device (door sensor, smoke detector, …) are flat, does Vera see this and can it be configured to send a mail
if I have a smoke detector like Everspring SF812, can Vera see when there is smoke and alert me through z-wave siren and e-mail?
I see some extra binaries can be installed, is “expect” already installed and if not is it available as extra download (would be nice because that would remove the need for a pc to run some of my scripts)
phew, what a list
some items may seem obvious but just want to make sure…
[quote=“Grain, post:1, topic:167521”]- is the e-mail sending service free or subscription based - FREE WITH A LIMIT
can the Vera 2 operate fully without internet access? - YES AND NO, NO INTERNAL CLOCK IT NEEDS TO PING NTP
can a usb thumbdrive or 2.5 inch usb harddisk be used to store logs and other stuff - YES LOGS, NO OTHER STUFF
can this same drive be used to record video from an IP cam like Foscam FI8918W? - NOT AT THIS TIME
can the Vera 2 be considered a good substitute for an alarm system - NOT A REPLACEMENT, BUT A MILD SUBSTITUTE
if batteries of any connected device (door sensor, smoke detector, …) are flat, does Vera see this and can it be configured to send a mail - THIS MAY NOW BE POSSIBLE WITH RECENT CHANGES
if I have a smoke detector like Everspring SF812, can Vera see when there is smoke and alert me through z-wave siren and e-mail? - NOT SURE IT IS SUPPORTED YET, A 2GIG ALARM SYSTEM WITH SMOKE DET. MAY BE BETTER TO ADD TO VERA
I see some extra binaries can be installed, is “expect” already installed and if not is it available as extra download (would be nice because that would remove the need for a pc to run some of my scripts) - NOT SURE[/quote]
Here are some answers based on my personal observations and echoed by other posts here.
Currently e-mail and SMS are free. Charges may apply later.
Yes, Vera can work without Internet access.
Next firmware version purports to use USB drive to store logs.
Battery level is available, but not reliable in current version.
Not a substitute for an alarm system in the current version due to reliability issues. Future versions may resolve this problem.
Since you seem to be planning to use as an alarm system, I should advise that the current version of the product has numerous reliability issues that make it unsuitable for any ‘mission critical’ functions. The company has been very slow to acknowledge or respond to these issues so right now I could not recommend the product for anything beyond experimenting with z-wave technology and/or projects where you can accept risk of malfunction.
thanks for all the replies, it’s much appreciated!
without internet access, I read somewhere on the forum that there could be a way around the issue of NTP with some sort of a redirect
will have to look into this
extra question, I see people mentioning using some sort of online account to configure Vera
is this required for configuring or can everything be done offline?
expect, read somewhere OpenWRT has a package named TCL which is supposed to include expect
will also look at this
I think I’ll start of with some trial and error in automation and then go from there
perhaps hook up a real alarm or something
by then I think I will have learned a lot more of Vera and Z-Wave as it’s all kinda flu right now
thanks for the link on Amazon but I live in Belgium so there will be to much taxes I’m afraid
I can buy it from Holland for approx $244 (calculated) including taxes
I am however still interested in the smokedetector and Vera seeing when there is smoke and alert me through z-wave siren and e-mail
does anybody have something similar?
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