I’m getting ready to make my first purchase and start my Home Automation Project. I thought I would start with some lighting and sensors to get my feet wet. I have a $500 starting budget. I’m looking at purchasing the Vera3. From what I read I will want to stay away from UI7 for now. Is this correct? I also read that I should get Leviton switches due to the instant on feature and quality but I believe that brand is not playing nice with UI7 from the threads I read here. Can someone give me some switches and sensors that would be good to put in my new home and run with Vera 3 (model #s and a good place to order them from?) Then I get it in and start figuring Vera out so down the road I can control my AV, Run scenes, Door locks Geofencing and all the other things that can be done.
Thanks in advance
[quote=“Argon, post:1, topic:183972”]I’m getting ready to make my first purchase and start my Home Automation Project. I thought I would start with some lighting and sensors to get my feet wet. I have a $500 starting budget. I’m looking at purchasing the Vera3. From what I read I will want to stay away from UI7 for now. Is this correct? I also read that I should get Leviton switches due to the instant on feature and quality but I believe that brand is not playing nice with UI7 from the threads I read here. Can someone give me some switches and sensors that would be good to put in my new home and run with Vera 3 (model #s and a good place to order them from?) Then I get it in and start figuring Vera out so down the road I can control my AV, Run scenes, Door locks Geofencing and all the other things that can be done.
Thanks in advance[/quote]
Your not giving us enough info to really be much help. Instant status switches are nice but are most defiantly not required in most cases. ui7 is new has bugs and things that were working in ui5 are still waiting for support or fixes to now work in ui7. But basic stuff like switches won’t see any problems and sometime we all going to move to ui7. Now if requesting that you need certin plugins which don’t have support for ui7 then you will have to downgrade (all new veras come with ui7) to ui5. 2 wire dimmers have problems dimming 1 or 2 LED bulbs. If you don’t have LED bulbs then no problem if you do then make sure the switches you get support the bulbs you have. Do you have neutrals in all your boxes? If you don’t then you may try and stick with 2 wire dimmers.
Point is there is not one fits all. I stayed on ui5 because I have no problems with it, and nothing but lipstick to gain right now for me to upgrade. I also don’t run any instant status switches. Most of my switches are GE from my local Lowes. 30.00 to 35.00 each. Quick and easy to run down the street and get them. Any issues take them back and swap them in a few min.
I have nothing against Leviton switches except the double to triple price. If I was trying to flip one light switch and have 2 or 3 other switches work off that one, then I would swap just those switches out for an instant status so there wouldn’t be a delay. But I don’t have a use for that setup in my house.
Your 500.00 won’t go far especially when you buy the top door items. Door locks 200.00, Thermostat 1-200. Vera 150.00. Switches 30-100.00 each. Door/window sensors 30.00… List goes on.
I have UI7 (it’s all I have ever known) with my VeraLite. It works well for what I need (currently a door lock and four Leviton switches - I will be adding a couple of Aotec micro switches too). As far as the Leviton switches - you don’t need them for Instant On, per se. You need them for their quality. I purchased mine off of Amazon as “Used - Like New”. Saved some money and they work fine. No marks on them in any way.
I will also state pointedly that I have no apparent issues between UI7 and my Leviton switches.
UI7 issues I know of are mostly with plugins and scenes not so much devices. Except for thermostats. There is some UI7 issue with being able to control the fan only and heat and cold temps at that same time when its on auto. So just starting out with no PLEG or many plugins you should be good to go. Hopefully by the time you get more advanced ui7 is fully functional.
As far as quality of the switches… Yea, its a light switch not a super common item to go bad, but I’m sure it happens. I have never had a switch go bad on me yet. I would say quality is not as important on the switch as it’s features. For example, do you want to be able to take the switch apart and install a color change kit to make the white, almond switch into say a red, blue or black switch? Do you want adjustable ramping speeds on dimmers. Do you want an hourglass or more elegant shape of the switch vs. a normal flat rocker style. Do you want a certain color or type of LED light on the switch. All these (and i’m sure there is more) are some of the options that more expensive switches come with. Cheaper switch’s you buy them in white or almond and that’s it. GE you can change when the LED comes on, but that’s it.
A few switches I needed a double switch so I had to buy Leviton VRCS2-MRX. They cost over 120.00 each switch and they (you can search on here) are the most pain in the a** switches to setup. I also don’t like the LED color or brightness on them. They came with 3 color change options but didn’t help me I just needed white.
Again if you have special request or needs you might need a special switch and make sure what you buy fits your needs.
Thanks for the reply.
I did not have much detail because I am just getting started but do plan on making this my hobby, so I know down the road I will want to take it as far as I can as I learn. Even though there is a lot of info you can read by searching threads, sometimes it’s not exactly what your looking for and it can lead you down the wrong path. What you have posted here may not seem like much to you but it helps me immensely! Sometimes getting started is the hardest part. I know $500 is not a lot but like I stated, It will get me my hub, some light switches and some sensors and from what I read that’s should be enough to play with most of the features, learn the plungins and learn the basics of setting scenes. Then I will buy my thermostat, cameras, Garage door opener, door locks, tie in my hardwired security system etc…and most important automate my AV system. My Receiver is already on the network Pioneer SC63 and My Direct TV is running on RF and I have them both tucked away in a closet. My goal is to get as close as I can to full automation with voice command and sensors and full remote access from my phone. Thanks for the tips on the switches and I will check the switch wiring on my new house before purchase. I’m sure my questions will get more detailed as I plunge into this new adventure but at least I’m not modding the new truck LOL.
Thanks again guys I know I can’t learn this without your support and I hope to some day become a contributing member to this forum.
Argon,
About 3 weeks ago I was in your same position… just getting started and thought my budget was just about the same. Today, well I’m up to 1 Lock, 12 switches, alarm, 2 zone controllers, and a couple of scenes. Part of the challenge and perhaps the fun with all this is that it is like decrypting a codex. Read some ancient text about mystical switches that can control another switch and you’ll find yourself 1 touch ordering on Amazon, hoping that you cracked the code.
This journey, albeit short has not been without its perils. For instance, I have not been able to find a stylish door lock for the front door. It currently has sand cast hardware that looks like you use a skeleton key. Nothing in the z-wave world seems to fit the design. I also decided that I wanted to open and close my garage doors so I purchased a Linear Garage Door opener GD00Z-4, installed it, attempted to pair it, then found out Vera is still working on the support for it.
I am using UI7 and simple things like full power inclusion that you will find strewn throughout the historical references doesn’t seem apparent in the software. What I found out is that full power inclusion simply means leaving your Vera connected and hitting the add device button. Then after an exhilarating sprint to the device hitting the include button on it. Advice here, be patient some times it takes a while for Vera and the device to handshake. BTW the antenna mod (use your codex) was an awesome addition.
Finally, on switches… Although I am no expert, I have the Linear switches, Leviton, GE/Jasco, and Cooper. For the garages, I went with Linear. I like the Zone controllers from Leviton and will continue to use those. I plan on using Coopers for the rest of the house. There are a lot of switches and hope to get a Christmas card from Cooper Lighting next year.
For a penny review the Linear’s in the garages are great for what they do. I can now enter or exit from any of 3 locations and turn on or off any of the lights from each location with no 3 or 4 way wiring. The Leviton switches just seem odd to me with the hit the same paddle for on/off. I will not be buying more and will probably replace them. The Cooper’s on the other hand look really cool, seem to have the best range, and operate intuitively. As for the GE/Jasco I used them for some outdoor lights because they were cheap. They work and if the die in their waterproof enclosure then they have taken one for the team.
Good luck and happy decoding!
Do you have an alarm already?
This should be near or at the top of the list. There is no faster, cheaper or better way to get tons of sensors in VERA then adding your alarm panel. Alarms should already have several motions, sensors on every door and window in the house, maybe smoke detectors. When added to VERA they look, act and function the same as buying 20 different z-wave sensors at 30.00 each. So you best bang for your buck and to get a huge headstart would be to keep that towards the top of your list.
New home with new alarm system (not activated) Do I scrap the box and install a new system into the wires or is it possible to tap into the existing system with Vera?
Vera can be connected to some Alarm systems.
You need to find out what make/model number you have and search/look through the Lock, Motion & Security Control sub forum.
You should post questions about security systems there as well.
If you have an alarm system that is not compatible with Vera … for a couple of hundred dollars you should be able to replace the guts of your system with one that is compatible.
Alarm Integration with Vera is a very useful capability for Vera.