To start out I’m currently running SmartThings as my primary and I have a pi setup with Home Assistant and I have the new Hubitat Elevation box that I’m checking out as well. I just ordered a Vera Plus as well.
I’m completely new to Vera, but on all of the sites for devices I see vera everywhere and very few places do I see SmartThings. Now, for the most part I’m happy with SmartThings except until recently I’ve grown very very tired of all of the outages. If you know SmartThings you know it is very cloud dependent so if a dog farts on another continent it could cause your whole system to be down for an unknown period of time. (Exaggeration intended) :o
I’ve been reading through the forums, and I’m getting mixed feelings about Vera, but I see the same issues with SmartThings and growing pains with Hubitat, and then complications with Home Assistant, etc etc it’s all the same. The differences are the other systems are all LOCAL processing where as SmartThings is mostly cloud based with some local processing.
The big question is. Do I open the box and give it a try, or do I send it back now? Here’s a list of my primary current integrations. If they work consistently and reliably then other things I can work around or write stuff for.
Integrations:
Lutron Caseta (I have a standard and a PRO Hub)
Philips Hue
0Garage Door Opener (GD00Z-4)
Harmony Hub
Amazon Echo devices (Echo, Echo Dot, Echo Show) So Alexa Integration
Google Home devices
Misc sensors (checked and I expect most to work)
TP-Link Wifi Plugs (works standard in Home Assistant component, SmartThings plugin using rpi, possibly same with Vera with HTTP lua script)
WebCoRE for automations with SmartThings. I think PLEG? maybe could suffice as a replacement. Does PLEG run all local?
One thing that is of interest is the scripting capabilities with Vera. It uses Lua? I believe and can be scripted from most anywhere? I need to do more reading on this, which if anyone has some good links I’m interested. This is something I like about Home Assistant as it’s all Python which I can work with even if it’s Python 3.x
Looking for some tips, advice on whether to unbox the Vera Plus or get a refund? Opinions, experience. This community has some posts, but doesn’t seem hugely active. Is Vera slowly dying?
Thanks to anyone who replies.
Also, Vera needs to upgrade their forums. This forum system is soooo old 8)