New Ezlo Plus user initial thoughts

[cw-kid]

@curiousB

I have seen some posts of issuing line item commands to create a virtual switch but that is far too cumbersome and only useful for professional software developers. The other 99.8% of the user community need a virtual switch that is as easily added as enrolling a ZWave switch.

I agree, there isn’t a way currently to add bog Standard virtual switches via the Ezlogic web GUI.

You currently have to follow my guide here.

Hopefully they will add the ability to do this more easily via the web GUI in the future or they can improve the “Virtual Containers” area of the GUI.

@curiousB

Calling a scene from a scene

I believe you can do this in a Meshbot rule’s action already, via the web GUI at least - https://ezlogic.mios.com/

@curiousB

local sceneId = “16” – this LUUP code runs scene 16 which is MM All Off
luup.call_action(“urn:micasaverde-com:serviceId:HomeAutomationGateway1”, “RunScene”, {SceneNum = sceneId}, 0)

This Vera LUA code won’t work on Ezlo hubs. We unfortunately cannot just copy and paste our Vera LUA codes to a new Ezlo hub. As they have changed the whole underlying architecture and API’s plus the “LUA Code” for Ezlo hubs looks like a different programming language from a layman’s perspective.

@curiousB

Camera Support. This seems quite limited but I haven’t spent enough time here yet. I have 14 existing cameras (mostly FOSCAM) which I use on Vera Plus using an older FOSCAM impl file. It would be good if you could add a generic IP camera and in the setup screen you could enter the various HTML CGI Request strings for the various functions. Camera Up, Camera Down, Zoom in, Zoom Out, Pan right, Pan left, Jump to Preset x, Set Preset x, …

I don’t know much about Camera support on the Ezlo hubs, but you might want to take a look at Vidoo instead which can be used as an NVR and for integrating cameras in to the Ezlo platform.

@curiousB

Guide to LUA on Ezlo Plus for dummies. This would be an invaluable publication. Most of us wanting to do some LUA code have very simple needs, we aren’t writing hundreds of lines of LUA code, just a couple to get some things done. Maybe a bunch of simple examples of turning something on or off, query the state of something, and so on. Also explain the cryptic device numbering system and how do you find the device id for something added (that shouldn’t require a console SSH login and command lines to figure out.

I agree as they have changed the coding language, I don’t know how to convert some of my Vera LUA codes in to Ezlo compatible ones.

There was a few threads like this one here with some examples.

@curiousB

Plugins. It seems this new platform wants to minimize plugins and seems to discourage 3rd parties from creating them. That seems a strange strategy for broad adoption. Imagine if Apple took this approach. How valuable is an iPhone with just Apple apps? I would have thought developer tools and a plugin marketplace is critically important to success.

I have a private beta Ezlo Philips Hue plugin installed on my Ezlo Plus hub so they are working on that one I can say for sure. And I believe they are working with 3rd party devs in this forum answering their questions and fixing any issues they bring up regarding creation of 3rd party plugins. Or I certainly hope that is what is happening to encourage 3rd party devs they need to give them priority support and resolutions.