New Dongle and Luup 899 First Thoughts

Community Playground General Discussions
1

My 2.78 Dongle arrived in the mail on Friday, very happy it came so soon after the order. So I took the plunge and upgraded to Luup 899. I started fresh and rebuilt my network just to be safe. Here are some first thoughts.

  1. Wow, the performance is way better! Scenes activate much faster. My Schalge Lock activates all devices instantly without previous delyas that drove me mad. I can directly program my Leviton 4 button scene controller natively now with Method 1 (my personal preference). And there are nice UI touches such as the Schlage Temp pin expiration. Overall, it just works better without much delay.

  2. I am much happier with the new Mobile UI and Luup pluggin. One problem though, I get a scripting error when pressing buttons. I’m using a Nokia N95 with a webkit browser. I also got the same error when using my laptop computer.

  3. Looks like there are some robust Lua underpinnings. I would like to see some more example code or a form based UI for Lua noobs like me. I’ll eventually jump into it, I just don’t want to commit too much time now.

  4. There is some bad news. My Vera is locking up hard after a network heal. It seems it gets tangled with the schalge lock and all my username codes get blown away and get replaced with generic “Code1,” "Code2.) I get a continuos blue cog that eventually halts the systems. This also messes up my scenes that rely on a specific user entering a pin. I wound up deleting all the scenes and recreating the users and pins twice. I will not be doing another network heal until this gets resolved and I hope one does not happen automatically.

  5. It seems If I create too many scences the Vera locks up on Save. I usually creaste one scene at a time between saves just to be safe, but after 4-6 scenes being created the Vera locks up. Sometimes the new scenes are there after a reboot, sometimes I have to recreate them and save again. I’ll probaly reboot after every scene creation now until this bug gets fixed.

I’ve only had it going for two days now, I hope it doesn’t lock up anymore, but to be safe I will reboot after any change.

I know this is in Beta, so I will be patient, but I just wanted to let the MiCasa Team know that this has been a huge increase in performance for me and I look forward to a stable release.

Thanks

2

Great feedback, tt55du, and congrats on what sounds largely like a successful upgrade!

I’m curious: Did you reset the Schlage lock hardware during this process, and if so, how?

3

Thanks, I did not do a factory reset if that’s what you are asking. It looks like I did not need to, good thing, I did not want to take the lock apart and undo the batteries.

What I did was do a full power exclude (I had previously wired my Vera dongle to be in range). Then you just put in the programming code hit the schlage button and “0”

I included it doing a full power include with the same steps above. It was rather painless. My old codes were in the lock still, but they were unnamed, so I removed them and re-added them with proper labels.

One thing to note, somehow one of my codes disappeared after my problematic network heal. Not sure if it ever got in there properly to begin with or if the network heal somehow deleted it.

4

[quote=“LibraSun, post:2, topic:164847”]Great feedback, tt55du, and congrats on what sounds largely like a successful upgrade!

I’m curious: Did you reset the Schlage lock hardware during this process, and if so, how?[/quote]

LS, I understand being a fanboy and all, but “largely successful upgrade”? Vera locked up on him more than once, he had to delete all the scenes and recreate the users and pins twice the UI gives scripting errors (which by the way I can also re-create). Again this is not how a user experience is supposed to go for a commercial product. It’s great that things work better for tt in some areas, but this is not largely a success by any measure.

Seriously have we gotten to the point as Vera users when anything works better than before we chalk it up as a success, regardless of how things work in other areas, or ignoring the fact that you need to rebuild your network, or scenes at every turn?

5

Chimpware, you make a good point… I should have spent a little more time looking for the right choice of words. I think “Congrats on being mostly content with the upgrade” might have made more sense.

One thing is absolutely certain, from all the recent posts to this effect:
“We all know that Vera remains a beta product, and the upgrade process is rife with grief for more than a few users. Despite a good number of Vera owners enjoying a smooth-operating system, it’s evident that others expected far more reliability and ease-of-use due to MCV’s marketing angle. I suspect the vast majority of Vera users do not participate here on the MCV Forum, so we may never know their impressions of this product nor their average level of technical expertise.”

I know I may come across as a “fanboy”, but I have to put that in the proper context: I arrived at my decision to purchase Vera after a LONG online search for a product which satisfied these requirements – (1) “Must work with the Schlage LiNK lock (or similar)”, (2) “Must be more reliable than X10”, (3) “Must be controllable via Internet”, (4) “Cannot cost too much.” Steadily, I ruled out all Vera’s competitors, whose units I found too proprietary or costly. So, you might say Vera won by the process of elimination.

After the laughter died down after watching the Intro Video, I went ahead and purchased, and became a “fanboy” only because Vera “just worked” for me, as advertised. Being technical-minded, I’ve spent more time in the Forum by 10:1 than I have spent using or messing around with Vera.

I consider myself lucky so far, but admit I kind of ENJOY when something goes wrong with a new (or beta) product, so that I can explore ways around the issue or engage the company (and other users) in a discussion about solutions. That’s primarily how I grew my knowledgebase as a computer technician over the past 3 decades – by first breaking and then mending things, one by one. I also enjoy helping others get over the same hurdles (and that’s how I make my living).

So, apologies to anyone who might mistake my zeal for “finding a fix” as “being a fanboy.” Would I recommend Vera to the casual user or “average consumers” like my parents? No! Not yet. But ask me again in one year, when MCV (and we Forum participants) get things operating smoothly, and I just might change my tune.

6

LS, agree with all of your comments, and I also followed a similar decision process when looking for a replacement home control system fro HomeSeer and X10. My experience seems to have been the antithesis of yours in that almost every issue people have had, I experienced first hand myself. The only one I avoided was issues with Schlage locks, as I did not purchase them. I look forward to the day when Vera is stable and we can focus on feature enhancements and development of various modules to extend the usability and functionality of Vera.

Sorry if my retort seemed personal, it was not meant that way, and I enjoy your posts.

7

It’s nice to see that 2 people that are on very different point of views towards Vera can get along just fine here. I’ve read most of both of your posts so I see how the beams of sunshine come from LS and the black clouds from CW. I’ve had a lot of frustration myself but am very hopeful for the future. I will be installing my new dongles today with one on .616 and one on .899 so I’ll get to see first hand how it all works out.

8

Well said, reiserx. One might say Chimpware and I share a common mistress - Vera - who treats us each very differently. Vera and I just met, and I don’t ask much of her … she even sends me shopping for more Z-Wave goodies and I oblige.

Meanwhile, Chimpware has been with Vera for a long time and expects her to behave. In this case, Vera balks and shows her stubborn side.

How apt, then, that MCV chose to name Vera after a woman, whose name means “faith” … both Chimpware and I have placed our faith in this temperamental mistress. :slight_smile:

9

Nicely stated LS, but I am not sure we are having entirely different experiences:

Ever since I upgraded Vera to firmware 1.0.879, I've noticed that two Timer-based scenes are not running.

Both scenes are enabled and are supposed to run Monday - Friday at set times, and the only command associated with each scene is “Set thermostat’s Cool temperature”.

Both scenes worked perfectly in firmware 616 (which I just upgraded from).

Figured I’d post this in case others have experienced the same problem over the last few days.

FYI, other scenes, that are all Event-based, continue to work as they should.

Possibly we are just wearing different glasses while seeing them. ;D

10

I remember 879 giving me those fits, but luckily the issue was promptly remedied by 886 the next day. I’m watching the firmware sub-versions rack up almost hourly on the MCV server, so they must be hard at work today (Labor Day) ironing things out.

The cynic in me would aver that such attention is aimed at having everything go 100% smoothly this week at CEDIA '09, but history shows MCV pretty much never stops posting these revisions, even over the weekend!

11

Just reporting in again.

So Far my Schlage Lock User Pins are intact, but I’m not sure if there was an auto network heal or not. I’m certainly not going to initiate one and I didn’t see it in the logs.

The Vera has been stable at most times and just plain unusable at other times. Even a reboot won’t fix it right away. I’m assuming there are some background zwave configurations occurring. It seems like I just have to wait it out, which is just not acceptable. I wonder if there is some type of QoS for zwave commands

The web UI does some weird things sometimes. It appears to be refreshing abnormally and I can’t use Vera during this period. I’m using firefox and refresed the cache to no avail.

The remote graphics UI is not efficient or stable yet. I seem to have to go back to previous pages a lot to execute subsequent commands. Right now, I can’t even access it through findvera.com, but I am able to use it through Wi-Fi. However, with Wi-Fi, I seem to be able to only execute one command, but subsequent commands here have no effect when pressing buttons. I have to restart my browser for it to work.

btw, I have one timer at sunset to turn on the porch light and it seems to be working. I have another to turn everything off during week days after we go to work, I’ll report on that this week

But when it does work, it works great. So I hope the MiCasa team resolves the issues soon, I do appreciate the speed and ambition they have, but I hope they firm up core zwave functionality before they add yet even more features.

As for the entertaining back and forth on this thread, it’s obvious that there is so much enthusiasm, through metaphor and harsh critique. I’m somewhere in between, but I knew what I signed up for when I got my subsidized Vera last year. Vera has pissed me off and impressed me in equal measures, So far I have been able to work through most problems, but this devices is not ready for primetime. I hope we can work together to get Vera to where we all want it to be.

12

tt55du, I’m SO glad you commented about the weird graphics in Firefox and the slow/no-go buttons in Vera’s UI! I wasn’t going to mention these, as I figured it to be a “just me” issue(s).

Right after updating to .899, my first visit to Vera’s Dashboard – after CTRL-F5 refreshing Firefox, naturally – saw all the control buttons next to each device (OFF, 25%, ON, etc.) flashing in a strobe-like effect. I think this continued for about a minute, and it freaked me out, but has not since recurred.

As for the slow buttons, whereas before (pre-.899) I had commented elsewhere in the forum that I’d been happy how rapidly I could press OFF and 25% alternately to make my lamp “flash” (for fun). Lately, playing with device buttons this way - or even pushing them once to do something - seems to require more patience, and often multiple attempts.

Also, please note others (incl. me) have posted about no access through FindVera tonight, while local/wireless access remains unaffected.

13

Also, tt55du, Forum user B0SST0N posted at length tonight about his difficulties getting a HSM100 (multi-sensor) to interoperate properly with a light that had never been a problem before .899. You might check it out, if only for (possible) corroboration that Vera MAY be dropping the ball on device associations in .899. Unconfirmed. Yet strangely compelling as an explanation for a few recent complaints.

14

I would like to update this thread that my vera has been up and running with the new dongle since friday and my zwave has not locked up once. I had to power cycle vera everyday since I first got it 6 months ago. It looks like I may never have to do that again. Sweeeeet!

Once I have gone a full week I will update my previous negative posts on the issue, but everything so far is looking very positive on the dongle replacement.

15

For what it’s worth, I also noticed Vera left a lamp ‘On’ twice (today and yesterday) that a scene was SUPPOSED to turn ‘Off’ after 3 minutes. Turning off manually via Vera’s Dashboard worked fine, of course, but I was hoping not ever to have to do that.

Minor inconvenience. Not a reproducible ‘bug’ or anything like that. Just letting you all know.

16

LS, imagine that happens not only with one lightning device, but with some shutters that keep closed in the morning…for me this is a bit more than inconvinient!

17

I certainly hope that doesnt happen to me, I have 2 feeders that are powered up and then shut off 15 seconds later… 6 times a day… if it fails to shut them off even once Ill end up with 30 pounds of cat food all over the floor. :o

18

LS, imagine that happens not only with one lightning device, but with some shutters that keep closed in the morning…for me this is a bit more than inconvinient![/quote]

I had a scene that was not working right after upgrading. It turned out that Vera changed the timer from being sunset to sunrise! So my outdoor lights were not turning on, and after being turned on manually I’d notice that in the morning they were still on despite a timer to turn them off (of course they had actuall turned off, but had turned back on at sunrise).

-GT

19

Just reporting back, I’m getting the following errors now on what appears to be all nodes

pollnode #11node 11 1 cmds Failed Cannot send command to node

At this point some commands will work, but no scenes
The web UI does not refresh at all.

I’ll try a reboot and maybe reseat the dongle.

Very annoying after ~48 hours of flawless use.