Afternoon all… I’m planning on setting up home security w/ automation and was going the route of Honeywell Tuxedo panel and then came across VERA. I’m little confused on how it integrates, competes, or compliments my planned purchase of the Honeywell Tuxedo (+ alarm system). Any info, guidance, or links to 101 is greatly appreciated. From what I gathered it appears to be the “brains” of zwave similar to the Honeywell Tuxedo, correct?
The Honeywell Tuxedo (and Vista Automation Module) is not a full Z-Wave controller. nor a Home Automation controller It will work with some door locks, some thermostats, binary switches and dimmer switches. They do not support generic Z-Wave devices, door/window sensors, motion sensors, keyfobs, scene controllers, light bulbs or any other commonly available Z-Wave devices. They have limited scene capabilities (max 20 scenes on the controller, 40 if you have Total Connect - and scenes do not work on the Vista Automation Module). There is no integration with other systems (ie: can NOT be used with Nest thermostats, Philips Hue bulbs, etc) and does not support Z-Wave associations. The Tuxedos now offer “Voice Control” - the device must be trained for voice recognition and does not support multiple voices, and can only be used with 5 pre-defined commands. Voice recognition is only reliable within 5 feet of the tuxedo panel. These devices are add-ons to the primary function of the alarm system.
The Vera is a full Home Automation controller… And despite what some people consider to be shortcomings… It supports generic Z-Wave devices, can be integrated with third party devices, can be extended with plugins, has unlimited scenes, supports device association.
I completely agree the Vera is a far better solution which is why I own a Vera controller and all of my z-wave devices are connected to it. However Tuxedo controls the alarm system and has a number of sensors that would be nice not to have to replicate. Has anyone connected Tuxedo or the Vista panel into Vera? Have access to the XML for Tuxedo, would it be possible to use XML for Vera to request status information and send commands to Tuxedo? Any thought would be greatly appreciated.
The Vista panel does has very good sensors… But interfacing them to the Vera with a Tuxedo or a VAM is NOT the way to go…
Yes… I created a plugin to interface the Tuxedo/VAM to a Vera… Fair Warning… It does not work well, because the Tuxedo/VAM, although it does have an http API, the API is NOT robust and is not feature complete - a full three years after the hardware was released… The plugin does not use the http API… It uses the undocumented http long-poll event interface…
The Tuxedo/VAM API does NOT provide a zone status url… it only provides an “armed”/“disarmed” status…
Best advice… unless you want the Tuxedo as a fancy graphical keypad, don’t get one… it’s not worth the $500USD list price…
Get an EVL3 (Ethernet interface - $120USD list price - usually sells for $99) or AD2USB (USB interface - $100 list price - usually sels for $88)… They both have fully supported plugins and you will be much happier with the results…