Still fighting to get the Ezlo plus to be reliable and functional

I don’t have a ton of free time to dedicate to products that don’t work for their basic functions. My Vera plus was rock solid for a decade to manage 20 scenes over 60 devices with a few cloud app integrations. So far in owning a Ezlo edge, the most basic lighting scenes are now unreliable. The web application doesn’t allow device management (MACD), and support tells me to do things like delete ghost zwave devices that the Vera App and MIOS web app don’t let me do, nor do they provide any helpful result responses. Where’s the user accessible logs? I’m prettty much at the end of this relationship since it hasn’t improved — and I’ll take my sunk costs on the chin for assuming that Ezlo would be an equivalent successor.

I’m really interested in where to go now. I’m not an enthusiast that wants to spend hours a week as a beta tester for an incomplete product. My Zwave devices aren’t bleeding edge, nor are my cloud apps. What is the best hub solution for a majority Zwave light switch network (Leviton) with a few integrations (Wiz, Chamberlain, Slage, Honeywell, etc). If this isn’t the solution – what is the best alternative that is reliable?

-Christopher

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Great example of the lack of consumer level quality… It tells me that my name or password that I entered is incorrect right before it lets me into the app. I know my password is correct because I just executed the password change process from this page, which ironically dumps me into a Vera link and sign-in page from the link generated and sent to my email address. And of course the password just changed doesn’t let me log into the Vera page it loads. So I go back to the ezlogic mios page and still get this error that apparently isn’t accurate.

I initially went through this process several times thinking that the reason i could not delete devices from the web dashboard was due to rights or something. Really poor. Would love to see a log, but the website nor the app on the phone give me access to basic logs. The complete lack of result responses in both the web application and the phone application is maddening.

-Christopher

I feel your pain! My Vera 3 never blinked. The Ezlo is maddening. It was supposed to be so much faster, but I can’t say that is true. Scenes work then don’t, devices disappear to “no room” or are suddenly not recognized. Not to mention devices not yet integrated. I’m still here, hoping that Ezlo will be developed into what Vera3 already is.

I started with the Vera Lite and was quite pleased with the unit, with all the plugins and activity at the user level. I was frustrated by the awful firmware update experience that sometimes completely bricked the unit I bought the Elzo Plus more than a year ago, and was initially frustrated when it did not install my lock properly. That was resolved, but I still have not transferred my other devices over yet. Just heard that Insteon has shut down so I am increasingly concerned about systems that rely on company servers to run. It’s safe to say that home automation has had more than a number of speed bumps on the road to success. Not sure where I am going from here.

One thing for sure, we are here to support you for the long haul! With each and every release things will get better.

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Good to know. Ii do think the EZLO product line has a lot of possibilities, and you have been ver innovative.

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Thank you for recognizing this.
Its one amazing team at Ezlo who is eager to please our users.

Hello Christopher,

I just sent you an email. I’ll be taking care of your case.
Regarding the Ezlogic website issue, I’ll replicate it and let you know the results.

Best.

So, here we are in June of 2022, 2 full years after Chris’ initial posts and I am STILL experiencing virtually ALL of the issues he describes in his initial post.

His comments about getting Ezlo to give you access to the most basic of information like logs, error codes, and accurate status is still true! Ezlo should be ashamed that they are pouring all these resources into developing advanced interfaces and massive marketing operations while they are CLEARLY NOT giving enough resources to make the BASICS of the system functional.

I still have to open a ticket to delete about 50% of the devices I attempt to delete. I still have a 40% failure rate in pairing/unpairing. The app still has bugs that I reported 2 years ago. I still don’t know how to do the most simple of tasks like trigger a firmware update, read a log file, or get a Z-wave network heal to happen.

Scenes are still unreliable and I am always having devices appear and disappear. They become unreliable, then start working again. Or they’re working fantastic one second and gone the next. Or I delete them altogether and repair them, needing to give them different names because the original device can’t be deleted.

And what about their R&D. I would assume Ezlo has fleet of hubs somewhere that are working great…. Why do they work so well and the rest of us not? Are we supposed to be using new software that we don’t know about?

Since the Ezlo release, I have received 0 (zero) direct communications about what I should be doing differently from my original Vera workflow. Last night I just discovered the MIOS app. How was I supposed to even know to look for it??? I was struggling with scenes when tech support pointed me to the Meshbots interface that I didn’t even know was under development, let alone (semi-)functional.

Sure they point us to the community boards, but I don’t have time to spend my whole day reading them. What’s different now (software, workflow, tools & techniques) that I should be doing that will give me a reliable system?

They act like, not being able to delete an phantom device is a bug, something that shouldn’t happen. Something they fixed years ago… THEN WHY IS IT STILL HAPPENING TO ME? And why have they not GIVEN ME A TOOL TO FIX IT ON MY OWN?!?!?!?

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Agree which much of what you said.

I’ve had to use these scripts in the past to delete devices and scenes I could not delete by any other means.

Devices

Scenes

That’s very helpful. Thank you for those -

Why they just don’t tack those scripts onto the delete button like: delete_device; if(device_still_there,run_script) is beyond me.

Hi @Dan-n-Randy , we have taken all your suggestions into consideration, and thankful for your detailed feedbacks and patience.
We are open to all productive suggestions at all times and trying hard to realize all needs of our customers.
I have replied to other topic we were discussing at , so feel free to add anything there as well.
Best

I’d like to make it clear that, Ezlo tech support has been nothing but exceptionally responsive and helpful. They are quick, helpful, and responsive.

My main gripe is that tech support keeps taking care of bugs - but the same bugs keep coming up. It’s one thing for help desk to implement a work-around or run a maintenance routine, but no one is taking care of the base issue. Why do these same bug keep arising? Why is there not user interface access to some of the routines that solve the problems? But, more importantly, why are the developers not inserting code that avoids/detects/repairs the problems to begin with - as they happen?

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We will address these issues on the code level, thanks for your valuable feedbacks and appreciate your recognition of the support team.

I am in agreement with the original post. I understand that bringing in new features keeps interest up, and that you are looking for that feature set that propels you into top position, but when people try these things and find they only work some of the time and are otherwise buggy, it is very frustrating. Now that I have moved over to the EZLO Plus completely, I find myself unable to create scenes. That’s a basic building block that needs to be rock solid. While the Vera hubs had significant issues with upgrades failing, the system was rock solid with respect to how it operated. I never had an issue creating a scene. As an engineer I am disappointed that the basics still have issues.

Yes there are bugs ad gaps in functionality today but I see enough good things to remain hopeful. As long as we get continual progress and improvement this will all sort out. Vera UI7 didn’t just appear it was an evolution from earlier releases. In fact UI7 was pretty flawed when it first came out. Overtime the Mios folks dialed it in. They can do the same here.

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At this point, my EZLO only has my devices with no capability to create scenes or use Alexa to control devices. It’s no use to me as it currently sits. I am hopeful for a quick resolution. I waited for a about 18 months after I bought it to switch over.

Hello @Grwebster
We are building a brand new integration and automation system that differs from Vera home automation. We didn’t have even a simple Web UI for Ezlo controllers 18 months ago. Now, we have Ezlogic which allows you to create and execute complex automation logic. Also, we offer integrations that you can use in Ezlogic. As for your case, it’s a controller or setup-specific issue. We are investigating your case and trying to fix it asap. I’m sure we can get to the bottom of the problem you faced and fix it.

I wanted to reply and let people know that the scene creation is working now. Have to use the IOS app on IPad in portrait mode.

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@Grwebster Thank you for your feedback. We will continue the investigation of the issue you reported.