Should I switch to Ezlo?

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#22

My 2c - I moved to Home Assistant but kept the VERA as a ZWAVE hub which is does really really well. I removed all automation and non-zwave integration from the VERA and have found the jump fairly painless. Node Red integration really made the biggest difference to me! It makes complex automations super easy to do.

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#23

Nice! :grinning:, I’ll give it a try, also because Richard (VeraAlerts creator) has moved to Home Assistant with great success, and I love hearing my phone speak and interacting vocally with my home.
Believe me, it is hard to leave an envied system like VERA and maybe I will be one of the last to abandon ship :pensive: but, for me, to keep hoping with a belated and immature system like EZLO, it is deleterious.

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#24

I started with LightwaveRF then found Vera which did 80% of what I wanted. Once the MicasaVerde forum went the way of the Dodo I discovered HA and seeing I had a RPi in the drawer it was a no-brainer. I am no programmer but have managed to do so many wonderful things and have integrated absolutely everything I needed. I was going to invest in a ZWave dongle but realised Vera is supported and found it super stable. I still use my LWRF switches via Vera as welI and have no problem having a separate hub for ZWave so as long as my Vera lives I’ll keep it for that.

The forums have been super in helping me with any queries, a bit like it used to be on MiCasaVerde. The FaceBook and Discord groups are keen to help too so there is multiple ways to get answers quick if you are in a hurry.

I was quite saddened to see the Vera community is no longer what is used to be. I am sure Ezlo will get there in the end, must be tough to compete with the likes of HA which has such a big opensource community contributing and immense userbase.

Things I wish I knew upfront:

  • Use a SSD and not an SD card if you go with RPi (there are many other ways to run HA, any old pc, VM etc… ) - It’s slightly more work to get up and running on SSD vs SD, but it is way more responsive and the risk of an SD going bust is removed. (I take offline backups to my NAS so if my SSD fail I can rebuild and be up and running in less than an hour.) - lots of youtube clips to show you how
  • Install the HACS add-on (lots of youtube clips to show you how)
  • Install Node Red - small learning curve but it was really what got me into HA. - lots of youtube clips to show you how
  • READ the notes on NEW releases (they come about often!) - Sometimes new features require you to make small changes to your current setup. The notes are always clear on what could ‘break’ if you upgrade.

Good luck and shout if you need anything!

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