Things I can do with Vera that Ezlo doesn’t feature

Can’t fight with feelings :slight_smile: only with real reported bugs :slight_smile:
Of course, whenever you are ready…no rush…
NuCAL is like IFTTT…doesn’t replace Local Plugins we already have… Local Plugins solve a different problem than what NuCAL does, hence they are not comparable. (Security wise, happy to answer any specific questions you may have…I do have an extensive Cybersecurity background and happy to answer :slight_smile: )…

Of course we would love to have you onboard…but we also understand it will only happen when you are ready…till then we are here for you!

I agree with @Melih Nucal and cloud integrations have a place, as do plugins and locally connected integrations.

Some cloud based platforms may need cloud integrations such as the cloud APIs for things like Tuya Smart Life and eWeLink Wifi devices. I hope these get added to Nucal in the future.

There are plenty of services and devices that are only cloud based.

I’d rather have some Nucal cloud integration for these types of wifi devices than none at all.

If a direct local connection / plugin is possible also? Then all the better, but that might not always be the case.

I try and avoid such cloud based wifi devices and products generally like these, but I do have some of these types of devices.

Even on some of my Ezviz consumer grade cameras, I can only control some aspects of their features by IFTTT currently.

But the pro Hikvision cams have a local http API so I’d like a local plugin or use my own knowledge of their API and some of Ezlo’s new tools and plugins like the Wifi Device Generator, to be able to add some basic switch devices on to my Ezlo hub.

In fact today I used the Ezlo Wifi Device Generator plugin, to create a switch to send on / off http commands to IFTTT web hooks, to control the privacy mode on my indoor Ezviz PTZ cam and also I created another Wifi Device Generator plugin switch device, to send local http commands on my own LAN, to a Hikvision cam to control its motion detection event on / off setting.

So Ezlo are providing me some of the tools I need to more easily create virtual devices on the Ezlo hub to send http commands to both cloud based and local devices / services / API’s.

And talking about eWeLink they recently changed and updated their cloud APIs and the integration in both Node Red and Home Remote dashboard app are now broken and none functioning.

So even when you had some cloud integration it can break any time that end point company changes their API’s.

Guess the same is true for local http APIs also, if a company changes their API framework. Like when Kodi changed their local http API, it broke lots of my integrations, till I redid them for their new http calls.

And I do get some manufactures are very limiting in how you can interface with ‘their’ devices. Even though once they are paid for they are mine. Still annoys me I can’t turn the camera status light off on my Nest camera anymore because google decided to make a change and it had to always be on. I know a piece of tape solves that problem.
In my opinion local control should always be the first in the hierarchy and cloud should be secondary and for remote connectivity.
Its concerning that so many manufactures are pushing configurations through the cloud. There are very few router companies that have a local configuration page. For some of the home automation where you have home/away status lock status window status its opening the door bad things.The more that’s in the cloud the more we are at risk for our security to be compromised. Which cyber attacks seem to be more an more of a problem. Apple dropped Back to My Mac, I’m guessing because it was a major security risk. I’ve read that they are seeing companies embedding malware in some devices and as soon as you connect bluetooth or wifi you get compromised. And as an end user I’m not sure what some of these companies are doing to protect us?

Sadly thats not always true especially if those devices rely heavily on a cloud back end infrastructure.

I agree and so does the owner of Ezlo.

I have spoken to him in length and I know if they can do things locally then they will.

My biggest gripe currently is their new (beta) web UI is cloud based unlike the old Vera UI7 web UI.

But I expect it will be made local and to run locally on the controller hub eventually.

So lets hope they hold true to some of the reassurances they have said.

A lot of the aspects of the Ezlo system are local. “Local” Meshbots logic rules run, well locally as you’d expect.

The Vera mobile app can connect locally to the Ezlo hub rather than via cloud portal relay servers.

If you turn off certain settings the Ezlo’s hubs HTTP server API can then be local and you can send local http calls from your LAN directly to the Ezlo hubs http server API.

You can thank me for that last one.

I installed MSR today on my home server, and aside a path issue for Node in my Fedora (reactor.yaml had a different path for node than Fedora installed it into), install was quick and easy. What I was really surprised by was how quickly and easily MSR imported everything from Vera.

I confirmed that MSR has all the functionality I got from Helitrope built in, so one less plug-in to worry about.

Also MSR has a built in config for OpenWeatherMap, so once I got the API key, configuring into into MSR was again simple. Now I don’t have to worry about Dark Sky going dark on me. So that’s two plug-ins down.

So, that leaves me only with a few Vera plug-ins that were on my “must” list. Nest is one, but it’s not even working properly on Vera, thanks to Google killing the Works with Nest program. I can access Nest through Homebridge, so if there is anyway to get MSR and Homebridge to talk, then that problem would be solved

Edit: I found this post that shows Nest Thermostat and Nest Protect can be accessed from NuCAL, so that can be crossed off my list . That alone might make me move to Ezlo sooner.`

Google Calendar integration. I know you mentioned Google Sheets through NuCAL, so maybe Google Calendar is possible.

Edit 2: Google Calendar is indeed integrated with NuCAL. Even though I don’t have Ezlo yet, I was able to sign into ezlogic.mios.com, and I can create NuCAL integration from my Google Calendar.

Geofencing appears that it will work using Vera and the iPhoneLocator plug-in that I currently use. Again, long run, I don’t want to keep both Vera and Ezlo up, but I wouldn’t loose any functionality while migrating.

I think my next step is to start migrating my Reactor for Vera rules over to MSR. Once that is completed, I can think about adding Ezlo into the mix, and migrate my Zwave devices one by one. I believe most of them will migrate without issue, but I’m guessing a handful will not. I know Ezlo has a giant list of devices they have confirmed to work, but I don’t know if they have the “Generic Z-wave” type that Vera does, for those not on their list. I also know they say they will get a device integrated with 90 days of receiving a request, but for devices not currently on the market, that means sending that device in for them to integrate.

This is not a correct statement.

Yes we do.

Also we do have 3 different Weather providers already built in in EzLogic (MeshBots)…
Ezlo Weather is the one we provide natively without requiring any API key for any provider.

Okay, so on that note, I have Bali roller shades in one of my rooms. They are powered by Somfy CSZ1 Zwave controller. I don’t see it on your compatibility list. Is this something that is on your roadmap?

You can use the Wifi Device Generator (its for any IP based HTTP devices actually) and control IFTTT based devices and I notice that Somfy is already part of IFTTT… @cw-kid can give you a pointer or two on how to use IFTTT using this plugin :wink: He creatively used this plugin to control IFTTT devices…so all credit goes to him!


So this is one way to use it now…

They’re not WiFi based, it’s Z-wave

You have an Ezlo hub yet or not ?

Its a roller shutter device basically?

Try pairing as a generic Z-Wave device if its not in the “supported” list.

Do you currently have them paired to your Vera hub ?

What a lot of people maybe forget or may not know, is the Vera hubs especially in the early days, were just used as a Z-Wave “radio” by many people and other platforms.

Meaning they did not use the Vera apps and the Vera web UI for anything other than Z-Wave device pairing and initial setup.

Which is one of the things it did really well and there weren’t as many choices back then. Not so many Z-Wave USB sticks and other software hubs to run them.

Which is one main reason other 3rd party platforms liked the Vera hubs for their simple and open HTTP API “luup requests”.

Other platforms like Control 4, Home Assistant etc and many more.

Things have changed a lot since then with Open Z-Wave and Z-Wave-JS. And other Z-Wave hubs catching up.

Ezlo hubs today could potentially still be used in such a manner with MSR.

But now lacking any 3rd party front end dashboard apps, which the Vera hubs had many of.

I was always some what in that camp. I always used 3rd party dashboard apps and 3rd party logic engine.

I’ve never really used the Vera mobile app and never really liked it and never really used the inbuilt basic Vera “Scenes”.

So Ezlo hubs can maybe be one of two things. Or even better maybe both. Both would result in more sales of Ezlo hubs.

A decent Z-Wave and Zigbee radio hub for use with MSR logic engine now lacking any decent 3rd party dashboard app that supports the Ezlo hub.

@bill_v we need Home Remote support for Ezlo hubs.

OR

Ezlo pull out of the bag what Vera Control LTD could never do and give us a fully fledged complete platform.

A radio hub, a proper rules logic engine and a decent customizable dashboard front end UI…

My old Home Remote demo video with my Vera Plus.

I’m still using my Vera Plus and Home Remote dashboard today…

EDIT: and of course not forgetting all those wonderful 3rd party plugins on the Vera hub, that allowed us to connect to and control many none Z-Wave devices and other platforms.

And I may get kicked off this forum for saying so, but the irony is not lost on me, that our best 3rd party devs got booted for creating and developing a Vera “SoftHub” yet now Ezlo have released their own “SoftHub”.

Personally I’ve always been happy to pay for and purchase my Vera hardware hubs. And I never ran that Open Luup Vera “SoftHub” that caused all the controversy when Ezlo bought out Vera Control LTD.

Or the last option for me, I move to Home Assistant with Z-Wave and Zigbee USB sticks. And start over from the ground up.

Although MSR and Home Remote supports Home Assistant so least there is that…

this is totally unfounded and not the truth @cw-kid and you know it.
We even created an open source EzloPi.com project where we share our source code, we made 2 versions of Ezlo Softhubs and provide it for FREE, so we welcome community efforts. To say they were banned for this reason couldn’t be further from the truth.

as long as forum rules are not broken, noone gets banned…:slight_smile:
(but lets keep to original topic please…wouldn’t be fair to hijack the post and start talking about other issues).

Users have already raised this as an issue.

Exactly what we are trying to provide you…
One hub that has all the integrations you need, all the automations you need…easy to use and a nice dashboard!
Our Automation is wizard like, it only gives you options that you can choose from, to avoid mistakes…
Our aim is to bring Sophisticated Automation to the masses by making it easy and in one platform.

Our promise is this:
We will provide you a platform that does
1)Integrations
2)Automations
3)Visualization

So whatever you can’t do in terms of any of three, please let us know, our promise is to get it done for you. (one caveat, for integration it must be for a product we can get our hands on…not a relic :slight_smile: )…
For Automation: we should be able to empower you to do any and every automation you desire…
for Visualization: we should be able to empower you to do any visualization you desire…

We are here to get the platform to your 100% satisfaction, that is our brand promise!

If we can work with you, to make sure all your needs are addressed where you have a very easy to use platform that can do everything you need before you move to it. We would be more than happy to work with you to make sure this happens.

PS: Before you invest in a new controller
you can use our Softhubs to see their capabilities etc…

They both are Free…
once you are satisfied, you can then invest in a new controller…or simply continue using the free Softhubs with Zwave/Zigbee sticks.

Buy an Australian version!!

I know! I haven’t forgotten. Sorry it’s taking me so long to get to this!

EnOcean device support. The Vera plug-in was originally written by Mios/MCV, although I had to make changes to get devices working as I expected. I have > 20 solar powered motion sensors in my automation.

I haven’t seen device logging in Elzo yet. Support for sending events to a local Syslog server.

Not many 2 Gig devices supported. I need smoke detector ring, doorbell, door sensors.

I need startup LUA functionality so I can port over my custom QMotion roller shade integration. It is just a LUA function that I can then call from scenes and automation.