SmartThings --> VeraPlus

I have a VeraPlus on the way (Wed 2/17 delivery). I am coming from SmartThings. I am unsure what to expect as far as setup. More specifically the part about detaching from SmartThings. From what I have gathered Z-Wave devices have to be manually excluded first? Is that true? Or can I just add them to Vera also?

Here is what I am moving over:

GE / Jasco Z-Wave switches / dimmers / fan controls
Philips Hue hub and 10+ lights
Amazon Echos
Osram Lightify colored bulbs
Harmony Ultimate Home hub / remote
Chamberlain MyQ garage door
Ecobee3 thermostats & remote sensors
Nest Protect smoke/CO2 sensors
Lowes Iris contact sensors (the new CentraLite versions that work with ST and other Z-Wave hubs)
Fibaro Motion Sensors
SmartThings brand Z-Wave outlets
Rheem EcoNet Connect

I’m guessing some of these may not work. Or may not work without extended efforts. Any thoughts from the Vera experienced here? Again more specifically what I need to do prior to starting to add things to Vera. Thank you so much and I look forward to becoming Vera versed soon! :slight_smile:

Quick reply with two notes:

At first look, a lot of that should work, but you will want to add some plugins to your Vera (Ecobee3 and MyQ I see right away. I use the MyQ one though and have no issue with it).
As for the Echos and the Harmony, you will need the hub bridge software. It works pretty well, but you will need to run this on a computer.

[quote=“mrv777, post:2, topic:191014”]Quick reply with two notes:

At first look, a lot of that should work, but you will want to add some plugins to your Vera (Ecobee3 and MyQ I see right away. I use the MyQ one though and have no issue with it).
As for the Echos and the Harmony, you will need the hub bridge software. It works pretty well, but you will need to run this on a computer.[/quote]

OK thank you. That is a big help in understanding what is going to be needed. I think I read about this hub bridge software in the forums last week. It makes a little more sense now.

[quote=“RunLikeAnAntelope, post:3, topic:191014”][quote=“mrv777, post:2, topic:191014”]Quick reply with two notes:

At first look, a lot of that should work, but you will want to add some plugins to your Vera (Ecobee3 and MyQ I see right away. I use the MyQ one though and have no issue with it).
As for the Echos and the Harmony, you will need the hub bridge software. It works pretty well, but you will need to run this on a computer.[/quote]

OK thank you. That is a big help in understanding what is going to be needed. I think I read about this hub bridge software in the forums last week. It makes a little more sense now.[/quote]

If you want Echo to turn on and off your lights or if you want the harmony remote to turn on and off your lights, then your need to setup a HUE bridge running on a Pi or a Windows computer that’s always on.

There is a plugin for the the Harmony to let vera see the current state of the harmony but that alone won’t let you control your lights from the harmony app or remote.

More then likely you’ll run both to get everything you need.

The iris contact sensors used to be zigbee and probley wont ever work with vera, but you say z-wave. If the new ones are z-wave then they should work. I just haven’t seen the new ones or know if they are z-wave.

Hue hub has a plugin to use that right now but with the new Vera and having zigbee and hue being open there might be a solution down the road for direct hue light control without the hub.

Ge switches I have a bunch, ST z-wave outlets no issues.

I’m not sure about the Osram Lightify colored bulbs or rheem.

Pretty much if its not z-wave you need a plugin for it. If its z-wave you should have no issue, if it’s zigbee your gonna have an issue to start with and who knows down the road.

I try to add the Osram Lumify with the newest VeraPlus Firmware but no Succes my friends, its say Device can not be Connect.

And i Try my Phillip Hue Iris directly to add withoud the Hub but to Succes to…

Just started my migration from Smartthings to VeraPlus as well. So far things have been going well. Location from geofence isn’t working but then again my smartthings hasn’t know what mode to be in for the last 2 months. For the most part most of my devices have transferred over well with the exception of smartthings products which I find funny considering how smartthings was started. Hoping the Vera experience is better. So far it feels likes actions are much faster most of the time. Some things are quirky but I kind of expected that switching platforms…

I will say the direct plugin to DSC alarm is nice, I was looking at running a lightweight python server with a Pi to make the bridge with smartthings but this is so much more simple, like that.
I was also able to directy communicate with my Thermostat via vera which required IFTTT, again another boon from the switch.

Still too early to know for sure which will be better but so far I am pretty happy with Vera coming from Smartthings

Osram bulbs do not work. They register but it doesn’t make their controls available to anything.

Just curious, why you thinking of switching? I just upgraded from VeraLite UI7 to VeraPlus and am so far not impressed. I’ve started thinking about looking into Smartthings.

I went from lite to edge to plus to Homeseer. Smartthings looked to be to close to the same level as Vera and my alarm panel wouldn’t work. Trying to look for something that was not on the same 99 dollar level I opted to move to something more powerful (physically and mentally). Have around 300.00 into the controller vs. 149.99 tho.

I’m curious what lead you to choose Homeseer and how is it working for you. I’m starting to build a new house in about a month, just getting into all of this and investigating Vera vs Homeseer. Vera looks like it will do all that I want, as does Homeseer, but from the outside looking in, Vera seems more straightforward and Homeseer seems quite convoluted (lots of different parts, pieces, plugins, etc). Was looking at Control 4, but I hate the idea of not having control (ironic brand name). At the end of the day, I just want it “to work”. Any advice or details on choosing Vera vs. Homeseer is appreciated.

My top priorities:

  • Lighting control & trigger-based actions/scenes
  • Integrated control of multiple Sonos speakers and wired speakers with Sonos Connect:Amp
  • Motion sensors (mostly to trigger lighting controls)
  • Thermostat control
  • Security control
  • In-wall scene selector switches (like Control 4 style)
  • In-wall control panels
  • possibly integrate pool system (but not really sure if that is even that important)

[quote=“jwbbucs, post:10, topic:191014”]I’m curious what lead you to choose Homeseer and how is it working for you. I’m starting to build a new house in about a month, just getting into all of this and investigating Vera vs Homeseer. Vera looks like it will do all that I want, as does Homeseer, but from the outside looking in, Vera seems more straightforward and Homeseer seems quite convoluted (lots of different parts, pieces, plugins, etc). Was looking at Control 4, but I hate the idea of not having control (ironic brand name). At the end of the day, I just want it “to work”. Any advice or details on choosing Vera vs. Homeseer is appreciated.

My top priorities:

  • Lighting control & trigger-based actions/scenes
  • Integrated control of multiple Sonos speakers and wired speakers with Sonos Connect:Amp
  • Motion sensors (mostly to trigger lighting controls)
  • Thermostat control
  • Security control
  • In-wall scene selector switches (like Control 4 style)
  • In-wall control panels
  • possibly integrate pool system (but not really sure if that is even that important)[/quote]

Probley my biggest problem I ran into after 3 years of VERA is I finally got tired of trying to keep it working. So the one sentence I highlighted in your post is probley the most important. VERA if it worked right and stayed working was capable of many things with the use of PLUGins. Problem is they don’t always just work. Updates break them and things go nuts. To many plugins and devices and your problems seem to increase (weak hardware). I upgraded my vera every year on the dot when a new one came out (Lite, Edge, PLus) just because the answer was always well you have to many plugins, lack of RAM and I recommend to update to the faster vera to alievate some of these issues. That usually worked for 6months or more until I out grew, or magically bugs started to form again and the problems returned. Recently (last year until today) PLEG (which is all the powerful logic) has developed issues which the Richard (the Plugin dev) points toward a bug in the VERA UI has issues saving and trying to make any changes near impossible. I went threw the whole ui5 to ui7 change and how thermostats don’t have multiple set-points for like a year. I just mainly delt with the problems as they came and was fairly good at it. I have my Vera’s pinging each other to know when one crashes, hangs or just needs a reboot to get the engine running again. I have a wifi controlled outlet that the vera is plugged into to force a restart if I can get it to work in my remote or vacation house. Some people just have timers on the outlet to force a restart every so often as just like any 50.00 router (which that’s what this is) the uptime is never as good as you want it to be.