Migrating from Homeseer to Vera

Community Playground Getting Started & Initial Setup
#1

I’m hoping to migrate to Vera Edge from HS2 in the next week or two. I have a zwave network with around 150 nodes.

I currently have a decent HS2/Z-Troller set up and a Vera Edge I have been toying with.

Is there a way to Join the Vera to the Z-Troller as a secondary controller so that I can continue to use HS as I migrate to Vera? Can I at a later time promote Vera to be the primary controller?

How do people add new zwave nodes with Vera? It does not have a physical interface nor does it have batteries to move to near the node. Should I plan to use the Z-troller as primary controller and continue using Vera as a secondary controller, even after I am done with HS?

Thanks,

Chapin

#2

Is it possible to use Vera as a secondary zwave controller? Can it later be promoted to primary?

Thanks.

#3

Yes, it can be a secondary controller and yes it can be promoted.

#4

Would love to know more about why you are migrating? There are lots of discussions on this forum about migrating in the other direction, often to HS… so many of us would enjoy hearing your perspective.

Thanks.

#5

[quote=“tomgru, post:4, topic:190280”]Would love to know more about why you are migrating? There are lots of discussions on this forum about migrating in the other direction, often to HS… so many of us would enjoy hearing your perspective.

Thanks.[/quote]

LOL. I was gonna ask the same thing! ;D

#6

Thanks, this is great. Will be able to run the two side by side.

at this point, waiting for a Plus.

#7

I don’t know how enlightening I will be. I won’t bad mouth HS. It has worked well for me. In reality, it seems very similar to Vera in a lot of ways.

There is also a strong community there.

The frustrations expressed at HS are the same as here, slow to innovate, buggy upgrades, kludgy work arounds required for seemingly simple tasks, lack of support. In addition, HS is significantly more expensive.

My main issues were that it was a lot of work to set up and tweak. When they came out with HS3, HS2 → HS3 was not a possible upgrade path. You had to wipe and start over. This is where I am now. I’ve bought the upgrade for HS3, but my HS2 is working so well that I do not want to touch it. Also, since I need to start over, this is the time to try a new ecosystem.

Vera seems to be ahead of HS in interfacing with things out of the home, IOS/Android and geofencing etc. HS has had this, but is has been buggy, kludgy, and expensive.

Again, my experience is based on HS2, not HS3.

I think I like UI7 better than HS2.

#8

I don’t know how enlightening I will be. I won’t bad mouth HS. It has worked well for me. In reality, it seems very similar to Vera in a lot of ways.

There is also a strong community there.

The frustrations expressed at HS are the same as here, slow to innovate, buggy upgrades, kludgy work arounds required for seemingly simple tasks, lack of support. In addition, HS is significantly more expensive.

My main issues were that it was a lot of work to set up and tweak. When they came out with HS3, HS2 → HS3 was not a possible upgrade path. You had to wipe and start over. This is where I am now. I’ve bought the upgrade for HS3, but my HS2 is working so well that I do not want to touch it. Also, since I need to start over, this is the time to try a new ecosystem.

Vera seems to be ahead of HS in interfacing with things out of the home, IOS/Android and geofencing etc. HS has had this, but is has been buggy, kludgy, and expensive.

Again, my experience is based on HS2, not HS3.

I think I like UI7 better than HS2.[/quote]

I have tried homeseer once in the past and I like the hardware (run my own 24/7 windows server now already) and I like for my remote garages I can install a 2nd z-net without having range issues out there.

Problem was more the phone apps. I use Imperihome now (and its not just me, wife and family also), use vera proximity for geo fencing, use vera alerts for push notification and images. Most if not all these things i didn’t find a direct replacement for and was left scratching my head on what to do.

Plugins seem to be covered well enough for me in today’s date but for sure vera has alot more and they are free.

GE alarm panel
Weather Underground
ping sensor
Sonos
Thinking Cleaner (roomba)
Harmony HUB

All seem to be supported on both systems for me. I would be curious on what you find as advantages of one over the other in a bit more in detail and Also if you have some input on what apps you were using for the phones or tablets to receive alerts, and control devices. That would be great.