UI7 / Vera Edge is now cloud based?

Can someone confirm if the full functionality of the VeraEdge is reliant upon the getvera cloud service?

My device is unable to be registered on the site, for some reason that tech support won’t say…

Because of that, it seems that a significant portion of the device is borked - because it’s constantly redirecting to home.getvera.com.

I was under the impression that Vera devices were completely functional when disconnected from the Internet. I mean really, who in their right mind would want a home control & automation device tied to a cloud service?

Go to Users & Account Info → Unit Settings then uncheck Secure My Vera. It will then stop hitting home.getvera.com and redirect to local.

+1 on that. Disable ‘secure my vera’ and you should be able to access locally.

Who would want a cloud based solution? I’d say everyone that bought a SmartThings or Wink hub to start with. :slight_smile:

your right, that is why I did not buy a smart things hub, I do not want cloud based in a area that is so new that coprs are going bk left and right, i want my stuff to keep working even if a corp goes bk or stops supporting the product

Anyone get the feeling vera just wants to look pretty and be like everyone else instead of fixing bugs and making this device be all the things that people actually want? If I wanted a cloud-connected SmartThings, I would have already gotten it – because it would have worked better than this anyway.

But, I bought Vera because I didn’t want that.

I had my network go down once so far with the ui7, and it does still work without network, but takes about 15 min to start working again after network goes down, until then can not use phone apps or scene controllers, not sure if you logged out when done with web interface if it would stay connected without that delay or not

have not played with it any to see any patterns with outages, as they are rare

Hi all,

I’m a new user of Vera products and one of the reasons I got my Edge was the statement that it would work
as a standalone/autonomous system.

[url=http://support.getvera.com/customer/portal/articles/1719042-q-can-vera-work-without-the-internet-?b_id=712]http://support.getvera.com/customer/portal/articles/1719042-q-can-vera-work-without-the-internet-?b_id=712[/url]

I have played with the settings as explained in this thread and sure, I can access it locally, but only so much…
The Dashboard takes ages to load and a lot of the links tries to send me back to home.getvera.com, when the Edge is firewalled if the internet…
Is this what the rest of you are experiencing as well?

I also find it annoying that there are so little settings for the device when it comes to local NTP/syslog/SNMP etc.
Not sure if this is a UI7/Edge problem or a Vera-problem…
I was expecting the device to be more “finished”…

Does anyone know if changes to the config-files/system-settings will be honored during an upgrade?
NTP/Syslog etc. can/could probably be fixed rather simply through CLI since it’s base on openWRT…

Cheers

While most of Vera’s features are local and will work without internet, there are a few features that do depend on Mios servers that will not work without internet. Features that will not work without internet include: notifications, backup storage, picture/video storage, remote access, and possibly a couple more.

There are no settings in the Vera UI to control NTP, syslog, or SNMP. If you search the forums, you will find information on how to enable these unsupported OS features.

Changes to OS config files are not protected as they are not supported Vera features. Installing a new firmware update will clobber changes that you make to the underlying OS.

While frustrating, it is what it is and it is unlikely to change.

I’ve given up on the whole idea of using Vera to do anything that I need to depend upon.

The software is so ridiculously buggy, on top of a tragically bad UI.

Funny thing is, Domoticz (http://domoticz.com) is significantly more stable, feature rich, open source (free), and runs on a Raspberry Pi. Add in the RazBerry Z-Wave module, and for about $100 you have something that will eat Vera’s lunch.

[quote=“exocet, post:9, topic:185041”]I’ve given up on the whole idea of using Vera to do anything that I need to depend upon.

The software is so ridiculously buggy, on top of a tragically bad UI.

Funny thing is, Domoticz (http://domoticz.com) is significantly more stable, feature rich, open source (free), and runs on a Raspberry Pi. Add in the RazBerry Z-Wave module, and for about $100 you have something that will eat Vera’s lunch.[/quote]Different people seem to have different experiences. I saw a post last week, from someone who had just abandoned Domoticz in frustration, praising Vera.

I’m glad you found a solution you like. But, I think that setting up a Raspberry Pi with an open source HA project is a bit more complex than average Vera users would be willing to take on, don’t you?

The one thing with Ui7 that’s irritating me is that in order to view or delete alerts you have to login to home.getvera.com.
I can see GetVera wanting access in anticipation for their Vera Security and monitoring solutions but there should be an option to keep those local so no login is needed.

[quote=“Z-Waver, post:10, topic:185041”]Different people seem to have different experiences. I saw a post last week, from someone who had just abandoned Domoticz in frustration, praising Vera.

I’m glad you found a solution you like. But, I think that setting up a Raspberry Pi with an open source HA project is a bit more complex than average Vera users would be willing to take on, don’t you?[/quote]

Actually, no.

In my experience with two Vera Edges, neither worked properly out of box. One needed support to log in remotely to blow the install away, finagle esoteric configuration files by hand, and after all that, they left me with a non-functional system. They “bricked” it.

The second one was marginally better. UI7 is a nightmare, but once I finally got it configured it ran pretty well for a few weeks. i even forgot about it. Then the “upgrade” came out last month - and it completely devastated my system. I had to reset to factory defaults (by logging in via ssh and running it by hand).

Both times I tried to get support from Vera - and both times took over a week to get any response, whatsoever.

So no, Domoticz is way better documented, and has a much more capable support mechanism.

I’m sure that there are at least a few people out there that have success with Vera. I’m convinced that they’re all running on Vera 3s with UI5.

I do have an axe to grind, with a company that promised one thing and delivered a steaming turd.

[quote=“exocet, post:12, topic:185041”][quote=“Z-Waver, post:10, topic:185041”]Different people seem to have different experiences. I saw a post last week, from someone who had just abandoned Domoticz in frustration, praising Vera.

I’m glad you found a solution you like. But, I think that setting up a Raspberry Pi with an open source HA project is a bit more complex than average Vera users would be willing to take on, don’t you?[/quote]

Actually, no.

In my experience with two Vera Edges, neither worked properly out of box. One needed support to log in remotely to blow the install away, finagle esoteric configuration files by hand, and after all that, they left me with a non-functional system. They “bricked” it.

The second one was marginally better. UI7 is a nightmare, but once I finally got it configured it ran pretty well for a few weeks. i even forgot about it. Then the “upgrade” came out last month - and it completely devastated my system. I had to reset to factory defaults (by logging in via ssh and running it by hand).

Both times I tried to get support from Vera - and both times took over a week to get any response, whatsoever.

So no, Domoticz is way better documented, and has a much more capable support mechanism.

I’m sure that there are at least a few people out there that have success with Vera. I’m convinced that they’re all running on Vera 3s with UI5.

I do have an axe to grind, with a company that promised one thing and delivered a steaming turd.[/quote]

Support answers phone calls while it rings. They don’t answer emails so fast.

Ui7 has been great and is only getting better. I held off for months even after I got the EDGE and in JAN I made the switch. So far no regrets and updated my lites also. I have never SSH’d into my units and if I have an update issue I just pick up the phone and have VERA do it. I actually had them do the update for me today.

I find that completely hard to believe. In my experience, the phone would ring, and you would be sent into a voicemail box with no indication as to what the mailbox is for. Nothing about leaving a callback number, or anything. It took over a week to get them to contact me - after sending numerous emails and leaving numerous voicemails.

Different strokes for different folks. I hope you continue to have this good luck. Maybe their development and support resource is focusing on you.

I know of two other Vera users that purchased around the time I did - the only one that’s had a reasonably good experience is on a Vera 3 with UI5.

I find that completely hard to believe. In my experience, the phone would ring, and you would be sent into a voicemail box with no indication as to what the mailbox is for. Nothing about leaving a callback number, or anything. It took over a week to get them to contact me - after sending numerous emails and leaving numerous voicemails.

Different strokes for different folks. I hope you continue to have this good luck. Maybe their development and support resource is focusing on you.

I know of two other Vera users that purchased around the time I did - the only one that’s had a reasonably good experience is on a Vera 3 with UI5.[/quote]

I have never got the voice mail myself but others said call back is fast also. I can’t say what you have or haven’t done, but most people on here that complain about no response have never called, or if they did they left no voicemail I guess. Email’s are known to be slow responses.

I had ui5 for years and was good until the end, which was really a low memory issue on a LITE. UI5 had the same issues also. People who complain had everything worked out in ui5 and then did an update and felt they had to start over. Other issue is they liked something in ui5 but now that changed in ui7. Things change. I had to figure new things out, which takes time when switching from ui5 to ui7. Things like my z-combo smoke detectors don’t work in ui5 and now they do in ui7. On the same flip I held off on switching because some plugins only worked on ui5 and not on ui7. That has since changed alot and all my plugins I used to use in ui5 now work on ui7. I have heard some devices that used to work on ui5 don’t yet work on ui7, I don’t have any of those but there is people on both sides of the fence. Change sucks for some people.

I’ll side more with exocet on this one.

First, I called Vera and left a message and no one called me back. So I opened a ticket online. That took a week. The guy sent an email and was totally less than helpful, not answering my question at all.

As for the UI7, I totally agree. Took me a day to get some simple stuff working, only to have it break when:

  • I tried to add something else to the system. I should be able to do this without killing everything that is already working.
  • Vera updated their servers and caused my whole experience to slow to a crawl.

That’s not to mention all the stupid simple bugs I found, or the terrible browser experience which requires that you constantly hit “refresh” but never “back”.

I have since moved to open source myself. While I agree that it isn’t as simple as Vera is trying to be, and I agree that Vera was on the verge of greatness, they have failed to execute and deliver. I am not sure if they are out of money to hire support & developers & people to document, but they clearly are not functioning the way I’d expect a company who has been in business and who has been mildly successful in the past.

And if they continue on their path to move into services before fixing the existing issues, I predict failure. SmartThings is a much better alternative if you want to be cloud-connected 100% of the time.