Yesterday I tried to setup my Vera 2 for the first time – started by updating my firmware and its up to date as of now. I’ve gone through the forums and seen a lot of varying information on how to deal with the GE 45601, but none of the information starts from the complete beginning basics.
I understand that I need to make Vera 2 the primary. I know where in the 45601 to get the transfer menus, and I understand the timing.
Question: My vera 2 is completely empty, I have a 45601 with 7 lights and 1 trane thermostat. Where do I start?
ps, the link from the UI4 on my dashboard links to documentation that seems to be not for the UI4 and refers to adding a product using a device type “battery remote”. That is not in the UI4 as far as I can tell. All I can seem to find is a wizard that has no type option.
I expected vera to find the remote using the device wizard, then I could transfer everything, and then I would have a bunch of light icons and a thermostat icon on my vera that I could configure into rooms/scenes. As a complete newbie, can someone explain the process and what I should see/expect? Also tech support should fix that link for the docs.
Thank you for any help! Eager to get on board and catch up here
[quote=“willeffects, post:1, topic:168649”]Yesterday I tried to setup my Vera 2 for the first time – started by updating my firmware and its up to date as of now. I’ve gone through the forums and seen a lot of varying information on how to deal with the GE 45601, but none of the information starts from the complete beginning basics.
I understand that I need to make Vera 2 the primary. I know where in the 45601 to get the transfer menus, and I understand the timing.
Question: My vera 2 is completely empty, I have a 45601 with 7 lights and 1 trane thermostat. Where do I start?
ps, the link from the UI4 on my dashboard links to documentation that seems to be not for the UI4 and refers to adding a product using a device type “battery remote”. That is not in the UI4 as far as I can tell. All I can seem to find is a wizard that has no type option.
I expected vera to find the remote using the device wizard, then I could transfer everything, and then I would have a bunch of light icons and a thermostat icon on my vera that I could configure into rooms/scenes. As a complete newbie, can someone explain the process and what I should see/expect? Also tech support should fix that link for the docs.
Thank you for any help! Eager to get on board and catch up here :)[/quote]
I appreciate all the links. Though I have already read most of those (and done plenty of searching trying to answer my own questions). Most of the up to date information seems to be on these forums but scattered and also conflicting.
Either way, it still does not help me understand what is supposed to happen and how to correctly transfer from remote to vera to become the primary. From what I’ve read that requires a reset of the network already on the vera. I added 2 devices directly to the Vera that were not on my remote – just to see if the vera was working – and that works fine/as expected (attached screenshot dash.jpg). However, the only thing I could do with the vera getting to recognize the remote not only removed all the data from my remote but also didnt recognize any of the devices in the remote as it does when I added to vera itself. So, again, id just like to know the proper procedure to start – I figure a lot of us started with getting a bunch of z wave equipment at radio shack including this remote and since the remote is easy to setup I imagine many people are in my same position. So a step by step would be great for anyone with the 45601 trying to get going with vera.
ps, including screenshots of the bad link in the wizard to the docs. First screen (capture 1) is where in the wizard the link is, and second (capture 2) shows the docs that it actually links to. Not the docs that you sent above and not the correct docs for the version it is. Someone should update this in UI. (just trying to be helpful to whoever is in charge of bad links :))
What you want to do is exclude your devices from your remote.
After you excluded the devices from the remote, reset them and include them into Vera.
Since the devices were not excluded from the remote properly you will have to bring them back to factory defaults.
Most of the times that works the same as excluding them manually, but the devices manual should prove usefull on that!
Having the remote and Vera operate side by side might turn out to be a little trickier, but first things first.
What happened to your remote is kind of like migrating a vera 1 to vera 2.
Thanks, that is more helpful! But you are suggesting something different than what that link suggests :). This is why I am trying to find out the “correct” way to handle this remote. Also the link says “1. The ‘official’ ZWave way is to have both the Vera 1 and Vera 2 running at once, withing about 3 feet (1 meter) of each other, and on the Vera 1, in the ZWave devices options, choose the ‘Controller Shift’ option, and on the Vera 2, choose the ‘Download ZWave network’ option.”
That makes sense. I know how to put the remote in Controller Shift mode. However, I cant find anywhere in UI4 “Download Zwave Network” option. Attached is a screenshot with the options available to me in UI4 under “Z wave device → Advanced” tab. So, again, seems the documentation is off for this version or I am not looking in the right place?
I have just setup my Vera2 over the last couple of weeks. I’m a lifelong technology manager, and have been a television engineer for broadcast television stations. I understand technical concepts.
It’s clear to me that this Vera product is terrific. However, the documentation is unstructured and scattered. I’m sure it is harder to see as a seasoned Vera user, but someone walking in to this system has a real challenge to try to parse through, and find the various threads they need to find to get conversant in this environment. It’s harder after that to begin to get Vera to work for you, and to get answers to the more basic questions. The support is designed around a hobbyist group mentality more than a consumer group mentality. This is my biggest concern related to this product. Nobody that isn’t truly technically interested in solving these issues will make this equipment work for them. However, if they just got some basic documentation developed they could sell this to anybody. It’s a real weakness right now that would be exceedingly simple to solve.
The reality is that the product is unbelievable, if you have the patience to get to the point where you have it configured correctly. Keep at it. It’s worth it!
[quote=“willeffects, post:1, topic:168649”]Question: My vera 2 is completely empty, I have a 45601 with 7 lights and 1 trane thermostat. Where do I start?
[…]
I figure a lot of us started with getting a bunch of z wave equipment at radio shack including this remote and since the remote is easy to setup I imagine many people are in my same position.[/quote]
Possibly a likely scenario lately, for folks in the U.S. But I can see that people would ‘just’ exclude their devices, reset the remote and start from scratch with Vera as primary controller.
At any rate, your GE remote is currently the primary controller, and you’re probably interested in transferring your network information to Vera, making her the primary controller, and (thus) your GE remote a secondary controller. That is the ‘controller shift’ scenario.
The controller shift is initiated from the primary controller, so the GE remote: [tt]Transfer → Primary[/tt]. (I have never done this with the GE, so I don’t know if the [tt]All[/tt] option will work; but I’m assuming at least [tt]Ntwk Only[/tt] will.)
On Vera, I believe the option to choose is: [tt]Z-Wave device → Advanced → Copy Z-Wave network from a master controller[/tt].
Thank you. I agree. This has been a huge technical learning curve – but what is interesting is the product is very easy to use and actually fairly simple. But the documentation and forums and wiki’s are working against it at the moment. My first experience was with the GE products which I must say have unbelievably good and full manuals. Although tech oriented I guess I just figured all the z-wave world would be the same, a bit hard to read but fully documented.
Anyhow, seems like mi casa verde must be a small company. I run company supported communities for some of the most complicated 3d and compositing software applications in the visual effects industry. I designed how these systems works over the past 12 years and have always personally hated wikis and forums for this type of organization of community driven information. It seems obvious they just need someone who can write a good manual, organize this data properly, and provide all these great community users are more structured way of sharing information. I am very motivated at this point to clone some of my code and get something going for the z-wave world and vera specifically to start. If I can get it going I hope some of you guys who are taking the time to respond will jump on board.
Hey oti, this is the kind of information im trying to learn (ideal ways of doing things). If I do it that way, is it easier to then link things back to the remote?
At any rate, your GE remote is currently the primary controller, and you're probably interested in transferring your network information to Vera, making her the primary controller, and (thus) your GE remote a secondary controller. That is the 'controller shift' scenario.
The controller shift is initiated from the primary controller, so the GE remote: [tt]Transfer → Primary[/tt]. (I have never done this with the GE, so I don’t know if the [tt]All[/tt] option will work; but I’m assuming at least [tt]Ntwk Only[/tt] will.)
On Vera, I believe the option to choose is: [tt]Z-Wave device → Advanced → Copy Z-Wave network from a master controller[/tt].
Well, the ideal way probably varies between folks. If you already have a fairly large network, you’re probably not interested in excluding and re-including everything. If however, you have a smaller network, and are willing to start from scratch, I think my ‘ideal way’ would be to get Vera up to .1245/3.20 and then start from there.
In terms of getting the GE linked back in, in theory it should be simple either way. However, there appears to be some funny timing thing going on lately, which you probably would bump in either way, so I’d personally still stick with getting things going with Vera and then adding in the GE’s, just to start with a clean slate. You’re going to have to go through the procedure anyway, to update your GE’s in the future, when adding new stuff.
I am going to give this a shot today!
Alright! Curious to find out how that went; as I'm not aware of someone here who has (said to have) done that.
Ok another question then… what is .1245/3.20? In my advanced tab I see “You are running the latest version: 1.1.1245” but not sure what 3.20 refers to?
I dont have a big network but I figure I will give the primary shift a shot first so that hopefully we can get some straight answers either way, for future users.
Shorthand for Vera firmware 1.1.1245 and Z-Wave firmware 3.20.
As of .1245, there is an option to also update the firmware for the Z-Wave chip inside Vera 2. This newer firmware is version 3.20. The previous version is 2.78. Going to the newer firmware officially requires you to reset the network and start over. However, MCV implemented a workaround known as the ‘hack to convert 2.78 to 3.20’, so you can migrate your existing network. See here.
Shorthand for Vera firmware 1.1.1245 and Z-Wave firmware 3.20.[/quote]
Thanks! There should really be a faq about this stuff (taking notes for what to build for the site when I get to it). But more helpful, I was thinking the UI should display this information up in the top right of the page. All making more sense now…
Rather than yet another site where info is spread, i think we could better converge information to either the wiki, the code page and help @guessed with improving the boardstructure (as he has been doing lately).
The rest is solely @MiCaseVerde’s responsibility on providing up to date and usefull documentation.
(i agree we need that)
Just a thought.
Shorthand for Vera firmware 1.1.1245 and Z-Wave firmware 3.20.[/quote]
Thanks! There should really be a faq about this stuff (taking notes for what to build for the site when I get to it). But more helpful, I was thinking the UI should display this information up in the top right of the page. All making more sense now…[/quote]
seriously MCV hire a dedicated documentation team. its about time. sifting through old and new info, some from a deprecated wiki, some from year old forum posts, some from HOWTOs that arent complete, it really is ridiculous.
You’ve found the documentation: this forum. ;D And have you seen the Wiki? As pointed out by @Soiferheld, information found here on the forum and in the Wiki may be outdated (so check dates, versions etc. or it may not apply).
@sherlockwei - So, what was the point of this post? You revived a thread that was inactive for two years for no apparent reason. Unless your reason was to spam the links at the bottom.
Remove the links or get reported.
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