This is my first post, and I’m hoping to be here more in the future since I hope to get a Vera product eventually.
I currently have an all-GE system. I upgraded from a terrible X10 system when Radioshack had their clearance sale (where I picked up dozens of products), and I’ve been extremely happy with the advantages of the Z-Wave technology.
Now I’m looking for something that will make the programming of the system less maddening, and the Vera seems like the trick.
My question is: how does the Vera work with the GE remotes? I assume the Vera becomes the MASTER remote. The remote to rule them all, so to speak, but I don’t know what happens with the GE remotes. I saw something in the wiki that you add a GE remote as a device, and that you could assign scenes to each of the scene buttons on the remote. This is very cool, and sounds like it’s a much easier way to set up all my stuff than the way I have to do it now. I don’t even care that the “scene off” buttons won’t do anything.
What I’m trying to figure out is if I can use the Vera software to assign individual lights to the “light” buttons. That’s essential to me. We do use the scenes quite often, but the majority of the light controlling we do in our home is to control individual lights. Can I do this?
Thanks for your help, and like I said, I hope to be a Vera owner soon!
Ok, I have a mixed setup. My GE 45601 controller works great with assigned devices switching them on and off. My recently acquired GE 45600 is a dud in that respect as I’ve not been able to assign anything to it. My Intermatic HA07 controller works like my 45601, devices directly assigned to the buttons.
And yeah, I got most of my GE/Schlage stuff courtesy of RS as well.
Okay, I need some help with this. I’m having a really hard time getting my GE remotes (advanced or not) working with my new Vera Lite.
I was able to pair a remote to the Vera, but it looks like a useless dud in the device list. Like I can’t do anything with it.
Following the instructions I was able to find somewhere here on the forums, I was able to actually get a scene going and assigned to a button on the remote, but that’s it. I have no clue how to get the remote to control individual lights…
Ugh. Okay, looks like the Vera isn’t going to be quite the solution I was hoping for, but it’ll be slightly better.
If I understand correctly, if I want to add lights to individual light keys on my remotes, I’m going to have to do it the old fashioned way: take the remote to each of the lights and go through the “add to a key” process. This is just shy of a nightmare for multiple remotes.
At least if I didn’t have Vera as the master remote, I could transfer an ENTIRE remote’s worth of commands to a second remote, individual light buttons and all. Now with the Vera I’m going to have to run around to every single light at least once for every single remote I want to program. This is far from what I’d hoped for with this new, far smarter system. It boggles my mind why they didn’t program this into the software…
[quote=“Dignan17, post:5, topic:172511”]Ugh. Okay, looks like the Vera isn’t going to be quite the solution I was hoping for, but it’ll be slightly better.
If I understand correctly, if I want to add lights to individual light keys on my remotes, I’m going to have to do it the old fashioned way: take the remote to each of the lights and go through the “add to a key” process. This is just shy of a nightmare for multiple remotes.
At least if I didn’t have Vera as the master remote, I could transfer an ENTIRE remote’s worth of commands to a second remote, individual light buttons and all. Now with the Vera I’m going to have to run around to every single light at least once for every single remote I want to program. This is far from what I’d hoped for with this new, far smarter system. It boggles my mind why they didn’t program this into the software…[/quote]
If/when assigning devices to the GE remotes, it is hit or miss. The 45600s haven’t worked for me, 45601s have. The way they are programmed is really a GE limitation, not Vera. Programming controllers can definitely be a pain, especially when multiple controllers/remotes do the same thing.
The GEs, in some ways, support copying of one remote to another, but that hasn’t proved 100% accurate.
So what do people consider to be the best remote out there, especially for the programming side of things? I would love to use a controller that I could assign both scenes AND individual lights to, but do it in the software and not have to go around to all the individual devices.
It looks like my experience is mirroring what others have said here. The 45601 I tried was very easy to use, and I could just assign scenes to it in the software. But I had to go to each light to add them to the keys. I’d like to avoid that, if possible. It’s not the end of the world, but it would be nice to get around that.
BTW, is there something I can do to keep from having to enter the captcha text and robot-fooling answers for every single post? This is the first forum I’ve ever seen that uses those for every post. Or is it just because I’m new?
I have 45601 GE remote and I do this way.
include all devices to vera3
put ge 45601 in receive mode and send from vera3 to 45601
now, I have all devices in 45601…(the network, not associations yet)
then I associate the devices I want by room, if the 45601 will stay in bedroom1 I associate the lights of bedroom1 adding 1 by 1 in 45601.
if necessary I create scenes in 45601…and this update the status light in vera3…and runs fine…
Yeah, it sounds like you’re doing what I thought I’d have to do. That is, Vera can easily work scene programming with the 45601 remotes, and I can alter which button controls which scene at any time. That works great, and exactly as I’d want it to.
But if I want to program individual lights to the “light” buttons on the 45601, I have to do it the old fashioned way, which is to program in the devices one by one.
The problem with this is that if you’re doing it for anything more than a couple remotes, it becomes very tedious. At least if you’re programming with the GE remotes alone, you can quickly copy setups from remote to remote. With the Vera only the scene programming is made easier, and even then it’s only with the 45601 remotes.
I’m still a little surprised that the 45600 remotes don’t work the same way. That’s a real shame, considering how cheap they are…
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