I bought a SmartThings, and was disappointed and returned it. I looked at the website and FAQ and Wiki a little, but had a few questions:
How hard is it to setup relatively simple things like if x sensor detects motion turn y light on? And can this be setup on a PC and Smartphone? The Smartthing with Android phone had no web interface and the smartphone app was convoluted.
What can I do with my Trane thermostat? With the Smartthings, I could see the current temp and set a new one. I am hoping to be able to see a graph of temps and a little more info.
Does Vera support any kind of Geo sensing? Some hubs, via your smartphone, allow you to trigger things based on your location. Like if I get within 1 block of my house, turn on all the lights.
[quote=“michaeljc70, post:1, topic:178805”]I bought a SmartThings, and was disappointed and returned it. I looked at the website and FAQ and Wiki a little, but had a few questions:
How hard is it to setup relatively simple things like if x sensor detects motion turn y light on? And can this be setup on a PC and Smartphone? The Smartthing with Android phone had no web interface and the smartphone app was convoluted.
What can I do with my Trane thermostat? With the Smartthings, I could see the current temp and set a new one. I am hoping to be able to see a graph of temps and a little more info.
Does Vera support any kind of Geo sensing? Some hubs, via your smartphone, allow you to trigger things based on your location. Like if I get within 1 block of my house, turn on all the lights.
Thanks[/quote]
you can set up vera on any web browser. so far, no mobile apps exist that are setting up scenes.
regarding the thermostat, you can graph your temperatures, along with any other data Vera is set up to record with the Datamine app. Works great. I have a few energy saving scenes that I have created.
there is an iPhone tracker that can fire scenes, works well. cannot comment on android. there is a ping sensor that works well with android phones… detects when you are on the wifi lan.
With Vera there is a dedicated Automation area (where you can create scenes) - here you can define triggers (e.g. a motion sensor is tripped, or schedule something for a specific time of the day) and then you can define the action you would like Vera to take (e.g. turn a light on or off for example.)
Like most things there’s a bit of a learning curve to get the full hang of this, but it’s quite straight forward plus you would have the support of this forum (but always do a search first as many will have asked the same thing before;)) should you have any problems.
Hi There,
Not much further along the learning curve than you but my experiences to date are that
a. once you get to understand the terminology simple automation is pretty easy
b. getting your head round the terminology takes a bit of time
Had our Vera Lite for 2 weeks and so far managed to use Datamine to graph environment in our attic space and set up triggers that alert my cell phone with a push notification when someone enters the drive.
Without doubt this forum is the place where you will learn most.
hope that helps a bit
Simple logic like turning on a light if motion is detected or turning a light on at sunset, or a schedule is easily done under Vera. If you are looking for conditional logic like IF this Then that, you’ll need to look at the PLEG plugin as Vera does not support complex logic like conditional logic. Plugins are what make Vera great as it gives you more functionality than was is given stock.
Depending on the Thermostat you go with as different ones will vary in functionality, You can set the temperature for both cool and heat, change the mode of the fan e.g. on, cycle, off and hvac mode e.g. heat, cool, or auto. For graphing you’ll have to use either the Datamine plung-in or the EventWatcher plug-in. Out of the box graphing for Vera is only supported for energy consumption.
Out of the box, no. You will need to use some sort of plugin like iPhone Locator for iOS. For Android you have several options. You can use Tasker or Llama, or for more precise control use AutoLocation in combination with Tasker. You can have Tasker / Llama issue commands to say AutHomation (my app) to have it send commands to Vera. the ping plugin is also another plugin which can be used to work with any platform. But may give false positives if not setup correctly. There are a lot of options.
A word of caution Vera does require that you learn and read up on things. It is not an out of the box solution that is easy to use. For that you have to use limited options like SmartThings, Schlage Nexia, Lowes Iris, Staples Connect, etc. Were these platforms give you limited control and keep everything simple.
Home Automation is not at a point where you set it and forget it. It will require time, research and patients. Especially if you start getting into complex scenarios.
Garrett
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