I purchased and setup a Vera 3 system in my house a few weeks ago, and so far I am impressed with the product. I have been using ZWave in my house for about 5 years now and was developing my own product using the Control Think API until Leviton bought ControlThink and pulled the plug on the API.
I have some ideas for making Vera a better product, and I’m sure that some of them have probably been implemented but I don’t know where to find the enhancements I’m looking for so perhaps someone can point me in the right direction. Here is the list of improvements that I would like to see.
Wish List
Leviton VRF01 Fan Speed Controller should have a fan icon instead of a lamp icon.
Leviton VRF01 Fan Speed Controller should have a 4-segment switch or 4 buttons (off, low, medium, high) instead of a slider.
TZEMT400A Thermostat supports and should display a value for Thermostat Fan State (on or off)
TZEMT400A Thermostat supports and should display a value for Thermostat Operating State (on or off)
TZEMT400A Thermostat does not have to be polled since it has the ability to return events like the Leviton devices. How can I set it up to receive events instead of using polling?
It would be nice to be able to log when Thermostat Operating State changed so one could determine how long the HVAC unit was running to determine usage.
Dimmers should have a default value when being turned on. When the dimmer is turned on with a button rather than the slider, the level should return to the last level the dimmer had before it was turned off.
A method of interfacing with custom designed security system. All my doors and windows have magnetic reed switches installed and I currently use a USB Digital I/O module to monitor all of them using a Windows service that I wrote. It has the ability to send text messages or emails based schedules I have setup. Is it possible to interface my system with Vera and let Vera handle text message and email notifications?
If any of my suggestions have been implemented already, can someone tell me where to find the solutions. And if they have not been implemented, can someone tell me where to officially submit my requests? Since I am a software developer is it possible for me to customize Vera by adding my own improvements? If so, where do I find out how to do my own customization?
It’s totally possible for you to write interfacing code that connects your custom security system to Vera. Your best bet is to go looking on the Plugins section of this forum and learning from existing plugins that interface with commercial security systems.
All of the existing security system plugins boil down to a bidirectional TCP or serial stream, so provided that yours is able to do that, then your plugin can process events from your sensors, or instruct the system to enter or leave armed mode, or anything else.
Sample code and tutorials are somewhat lacking. There is an old one on wiki.micasaverde.com but you would do better by reading actual working code by customer-developers like us.
[quote=“alfie, post:1, topic:171577”]…
3. TZEMT400A Thermostat supports and should display a value for Thermostat Fan State (on or off)
4. TZEMT400A Thermostat supports and should display a value for Thermostat Operating State (on or off)[/quote]
Hi Alfie,
Just to add to your wish list I have that thermostat and there are 3 states for the Fan Mode (on, off, or cycle) and 4 states for the System Mode (off, heating, cooling, or auto). And there is also the Schedule Mode (Hold, Run, or Energy Saving Mode).
I’m fairly new to Vera but I believe you would have to edit the XML file that is attached to the device to change these settings. In the case of a thermostat that file is D_HVAC_ZoneThermostat1.xml. You can see that in the “Advanced” tab when you click the wrench on the thermostat in the UI (I’m still in UI4). I’m not really a programmer, although I’m an engineer (hardware, micros and data comm mostly), so I haven’t attempted this myself yet. You sound like a programmer so maybe you are adventurous enough to try this out. Just remember to save the file under a new name if you do edit it or any update will likely overwrite the new file you created.
If Vera’s mios engine does not have support for the other modes it will not work. Auto, off, heat, and cool should work. For fan auto and continuouson should work. Not sure about cycle. As for the other options they are probably not implemented.
[quote=“alfie, post:1, topic:171577”]1. Leviton VRF01 Fan Speed Controller should have a fan icon instead of a lamp icon.
2. Leviton VRF01 Fan Speed Controller should have a 4-segment switch or 4 buttons (off, low, medium, high) instead of a slider.[/quote]
Yeah, icon customization seems to be hot among users. And there are several devices that would be better off having their own controls. E.g., besides the fan controller, some sirens are shown as a dimmer too. Makes sense for compatibility with controllers that only know basic types, but you’d think Vera should be able to tell them apart.
5. TZEMT400A Thermostat does not have to be polled since it has the ability to return events like the Leviton devices. How can I set it up to receive events instead of using polling?
Vera should already be receiving the events as they happen. I.e., make a chance on the t-stat, and the change is reflected on the dashboard.
3. TZEMT400A Thermostat supports and should display a value for Thermostat Fan State (on or off)
4. TZEMT400A Thermostat supports and should display a value for Thermostat Operating State (on or off)
6. It would be nice to be able to log when Thermostat Operating State changed so one could determine how long the HVAC unit was running to determine usage.
[quote="ufd108, post:3, topic:171577"]Just to add to your wish list I have that thermostat and there are 3 states for the Fan Mode (on, off, or cycle) and 4 states for the System Mode (off, heating, cooling, or auto). And there is also the Schedule Mode (Hold, Run, or Energy Saving Mode).[/quote]
Some of these can be controlled on the dashboard, but the fan cycler option does not work (for the Trane) and the fan mode and schedule mode are one-way (i.e. set only), and hold mode is not supported. Not sure why not. All of these can be set through Z-Wave. I've brought it up several times with MCV that I think more can be done.
The states are also available as variables (see the [tt]Advanced[/tt] tab). You could use those to do your own monitoring.
7. Dimmers should have a default value when being turned on. When the dimmer is turned on with a button rather than the slider, the level should return to the last level the dimmer had before it was turned off.
There's an open feature request on that.
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