Possible Vera Newcomer

I’m looking at getting into home automation and have been trialling homeseer and girder without much luck to be honest. I work in IT and like to think I have a good understanding of networking protocols, scripting etc but don’t find the user interfaces very intuitive.

We currently have Windows Home Server 2011 running on a HP Proliant server which stores pretty much everything and also runs squeezecenter or whatever its current version is called :slight_smile:

Ideally I’d like a system that will control lighting (dimmable) and basic appliances (on/off) as well as AV gear via IR, possibly xbmc (windows version) also via IR, and squeezebox receivers (duet receivers, not IR compatible)

Does all of this sound feasible? Also does Vera2 support multiple IR transmitters, either USB-UIRT or SQ blasters as i’ll like to control different equipment in different rooms?

Control would either be from iPhones, iPads or PC so ideally I’ll like to be able to control any of these devices from either the Vera app, sq remote app or possibly a web page?

I know there are quite a few questions but I’ll like a clear understanding that it’ll all work before I spend any money as I can’t test with a trial as it’s obviously not a software based solution.

Thanks in advance,

John

Edit: sorry forgot to add, I currently have a IR controlled light. Will I be able to add a light that is IR controlled rather than z wave?

The bulk of your question seems to be about controlling IR. Vera can control IR, and the best implementation of this (IMHO) is the SQ Blaster. You can run several (as far as I know as many as you want) of these on your system. I currently have two running and they work great.

Now Vera’s dirty little secret…it’s possible but it’s not built in, like many things with Vera you have to find a piece of code that someone has written (usually hard to find since the Wiki is so unbelievably hard to search), then you have to get the IR codes for your devices and find the place in the code and replace the example IR code with yours, then you have to associate it with a device.

-OR-

What I’ve done is simply turn all that over to SQ Remote that has a clean easy interface for iDevices and they have a great IR database that will handle all that for you. They only downside is the IR heavy lifting is done by SQ and not Vera, which means it will only work in their software and won’t work off your network. The only time this has been an issue for me is leaving home and forgetting to turn my TV off once but I resolved that with a z-wave outlet behind the TV.

We’re being told that the SQ Blaster will be a working plug in but no one is saying when.

As far as your sqeezebox/squeezecenter goes, I don’t use it but I’ve read a few posts and it seems to work fine through Vera.

I have the SQBlaster working with Vera and highly recommend the combo. My A/V control system now blows away my previous harmony 1000 system. I have a home theater with 10 zwave lighting circuits in the basement alone.

Thanks for the replies, looks like I’ll be making a few purchases :slight_smile:

Anyone know of any decent retailers in the UK for the Vera and the SQ Blaster?

Yep SQ blaster and Remote is the way to go presuming you have an Apple iOS device.

As @mbairhead said, getting it to work with vera is a bit trickier, but @guessed has done a lot of the hard work in creating the easiest method to accomplish this.

A basic plugin already exists, you then just need a secondary plugin (for each IR device you want to control), which is relatively easy to create if you know the pronto codes (I usually grab them from remotecentral.com) and also know how to copy and paste.
Or alternatively there is a parser that @guessed wrote that will create the vera files for you based on what the SQ blaster stores in its own backup from the devices you create there.

Vera wise, not sure where everyone gets them from internationally, but the SQ blaster can be ordered form the SQ site itself internationally.