Well it all sound very negative but the Vera has its positives too.
The community and the app developers are outstanding (amg0, akbooer, reneboer just to name a few). Even some of the mcv apps are quite good once they get to a certain level of maturity (nest and hue come to mind). One would be hard pressed to find such a broad range of support elsewhere. The core UI firmware is the weakest link and can bring a lot of frustration even if you look at it as a hobby.
[quote=ârafale77â]Well it all sound very negative but the Vera has its positives too.
The community and the app developers are outstanding (amg0, akbooer, reneboer just to name a few). Even some of the mcv apps are quite good once they get to a certain level of maturity (nest and hue come to mind). One would be hard pressed to find such a broad range of support elsewhere. The core UI firmware is the weakest link and can bring a lot of frustration even if you look at it as a hobby.[/quote]
Youâre right, the developers are great, but there used to be more and some have jumped ship in recent past.
My biggest issues with vera were:
- severely underwhelming hardware compared to competitors. $35 raspberry pi runs circles around most of vera hw.
- ui7 still feeling like beta (I ended up staying on ui5 for a long time even though it didnât support the latest gen devices, just for stability)
- lack of stability, random background reboots (probably due to a combo of lackluster hw and unstable core fw)
The last straw came when I realized vera became the last company anybody else integrated with. All these new platforms like SmartThings, wink, etc. as well as homeseer get integrated with the latest technologies and services like ifttt, alexa, Google home, etc. almost right away. But not Vera. Not sure if itâs because Vera is unable to get their ducks in a row or they simply donât care about these collaborations, or if these companies simply donât take Vera seriously enough. Either way, Iâm a gadget head and thatâs why I was drawn to Vera in the first place, but if Vera is not working with the latest and the greatest, I gotta move on (ironically, when I bought my veralite, it was the featured zwave controller on Amazon, unfortunately vera was unable capitalize on their first move advantage and fell way behind)
I still lurk here because I am supporting an app (docker container for the home automation bridge for alexa integration)
Sadly I cannot agree more. I am on the verge of jumping ship myself. It may not happen all at once because of the size of my setup but I am more and more convinced that there are more reliable and stable platforms out thereâŠ
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To be fair, It does often work fine for long stretches and certainly when my setup was simpler with fewer devices and plugins it was solid for me. For the first year i really didnât have any problems at all other then things that i would cause by writing poor PLEG logic :).
To add some fairness to the conversation, this is the Vera owned forum and and they allow any and all comments. People can come here and see the good, the bad and the ugly. There is a ton of good along with a ton of bad and a good bit of ugly. May product run forums limit the content to mostly the good. So I feel users should factor that in when they are evaluating products.
Having said that, there is no excuse for shoddy firmware releases. I am sure everyone would rather have one or two solid releases a year, then offer patches for specific issues if those issues are show stoppers. My Ui6 Vera3 isnât perfect but the environment is stable. Things work like I expect them to. But there is always the, âwhat do I do if something happens to this Vera3â? So I am researching Homeseer. There are things I do not like about it. Keeping my zwave devices on a USB stick scares me worse than the Vera. But, at this point, it doesnât hurt to keep the options open.
To be fair, It does often work fine for long stretches and certainly when my setup was simpler with fewer devices and plugins it was solid for me. For the first year i really didnât have any problems at all other then things that i would cause by writing poor PLEG logic :).[/quote]
Agree! If i had came here before i bought a Vera Plus - I wouldnât have! but 8 months in with the Vera Plus - NO PROBLEMS! except a few that i caused myself. I wish i could find the thread where a member was having problems with some of the 200 devices in system, plus the problem was with some LUA code. I donât know how true that (200) number is, but i suspect problems start to pop-up when you have more than the 10-15 i have running flawlessly.
The problem with MCV is that they put âthey foot in they mouthâ by promising âNo additional fees-everâ so therefore they donât have that predictable income to be able to hire the additional engineer to work on improving or fixing the problems with their existing offerings; instead, their engineers are all working in R&D trying to come up with their next source of revenue (Vera Secure).
So lets all agree to let (John, the face of vera) off the hook and allow them to charge us a few bucks for additional services like remote access and maybe an extra engineer or two.
Otherwise, MCV is sitting in the wings being âpolitically correctâ but saying to themselves âWhat the hell do they want for freeâ (aside from the one-time buy for the hardware).
To put it in perspective (my own perspective), i went from having to pay $75 mo. for vivint remote access (was able to cancel on time, but was introduced to Z-wave) to having to pay $30-40 for Honeywell Total connect (never signed-up), to $0 for Vera remote access; I would gladly pay say $5-10 mo.
I chose Vera because of the no monthly/yearly fees. The tradeoff is less than a perfect system. I am satisfied with the service I am getting for the price I am paying.
I also liked not having any recurring fees when I chose Vera. What I did not realize I was getting myself into was a product that, even without monthly fees, still relies on cloud-based components in order for my device to work. Why? And, how is MCV continuing to offer that service to me as the company grows its install base without taking money from me?
I am continuing to grow my setup by adding switches and such over time, but I am being very careful about the devices I am choosing so as to ensure that they will all move with me to another system when I find one that truly makes sense.
Overall, I am getting what I need out of my Vera. But, some of that is totally by fluke. For example: I currently own an iPhone. So, geofencing works. If I switch to Android, I lose that feature because it simply doesnât work on Android devices (currently). I donât understand how you release a product with a mobile app where ANDROID is the more restricted version!!!
Doesnât work on Android devices? Are you sure? I have an LG V10 (which definitely is an Android phone) and geofencing is 99% reliable for me using the Vera app. Thereâ sonly one user (me) so I canât comment on how it works with multiple users (not about to buy my dogs cellphones) but for my case it works pretty good. I get the occasional âcannot send to our serverâ error coming home but the phone app lets Vera know I am home as the âdaddyâs homeâ script runs.
Note that until I set GPS to high accuracy (GPS & Wifi) and to âWifi active while phone sleepsâ I did have some problems with GPS accuracy. This is more Android OS settings than App related though.
It is in beta on Android.
I have ticket with CS that confirmed it.
Try to set up a second fence or a radius over 3000M and start pulling your hair out.
Iâm not at home ATM but will post the CS reply in 8 hours or so.
[quote=âtreetop777, post:46, topic:195573â]Agree! If i had came here before i bought a Vera Plus - I wouldnât have! but 8 months in with the Vera Plus - NO PROBLEMS! except a few that i caused myself. I wish i could find the thread where a member was having problems with some of the 200 devices in system, plus the problem was with some LUA code. I donât know how true that (200) number is, but i suspect problems start to pop-up when you have more than the 10-15 i have running flawlessly.
To put it in perspective (my own perspective), i went from having to pay $75 mo. for vivint remote access (was able to cancel on time, but was introduced to Z-wave) to having to pay $30-40 for Honeywell Total connect (never signed-up), to $0 for Vera remote access; I would gladly pay say $5-10 mo.[/quote]
Donât think that was me⊠but I have well over 200 devices on my vera now⊠And yeah I expect it to be flawless. 
I would rather also pay $300-$500 for a more robust unit (more ram, more CPU clock) with no monthly fee. I started noticing that some of my vera code occasionally gets skipped. The scene would run part of it and not the other. When I repeat the scene, all is executed. I am pretty sure it is the vera being too slow and timing out with all the communication traffic coming through it.
What mobile app do you use for Homeseer?
I have a Vera 3 thatâs going ok enough, but bogged down, as well as a Homeseer license and a VeraPlus. Iâve been delaying a migration away from the Vera 3 for awhile, and I really want to stay with Vera due to familiarity, but the complaints about firmware bugs scare me.
The biggest reason Iâm not looking forward to Homeseer is because AutHomationHD has been perfect for the familyâs workflow, and it doesnât seem like there are any decent Android apps out there, unless I wanted to design something myself (Iâm assuming thatâs what the designer I spent $99 on is for?).
What mobile app do you use for Homeseer?
I have a Vera 3 thatâs going ok enough, but bogged down, as well as a Homeseer license and a VeraPlus. Iâve been delaying a migration away from the Vera 3 for awhile, and I really want to stay with Vera due to familiarity, but the complaints about firmware bugs scare me.
The biggest reason Iâm not looking forward to Homeseer is because AutHomationHD has been perfect for the familyâs workflow, and it doesnât seem like there are any decent Android apps out there, unless I wanted to design something myself (Iâm assuming thatâs what the designer I spent $99 on is for?).[/quote]
I use imperihome. It took me a bit to convince myself it was worth the $40 for the plugin for the $5 app, but in the end it has really worked out and the developer is really responsive. Note that we donât normally use apps for control in our house. Itâs automated or there are switches (mainly automated). However imperihome is used from time to time ( for instance adjusting the living room ceiling fans when watching TV).
About hstouch. I would like to say it was worth what you paid for it, but Iâve only opened it once. They are also currently making a new mobile app in house for homeseer.
I do kinda miss AutHomationHD, but I was using I.perihome as well on the Vera.
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[quote=âtreetop777, post:46, topic:195573â]âŠ
The problem with MCV is that they put âthey foot in they mouthâ by promising âNo additional fees-everâ so therefore they donât have that predictable income to be able to hire the additional engineer to work on improving or fixing the problems with their existing offerings; instead, their engineers are all working in R&D trying to come up with their next source of revenue (Vera Secure).[/quote]
I agree with you treetop777 what comes to the free support. what I have been thinking is that if the support is free that I love MCV could limit the number of supported HW versions. That way the testing etc. get more easier and they can also get some drop in number of support tickets. Probably they can also gain more revenue from the new hw sales. The old HW can be left running old Ui4-6 and Firmware versions build for that HW .
What I have been seeing is that people are desperately trying to upgrade old veras that simply can not run the size of their implementation (run out of free memory etc.).
[quote=âmarkoe, post:54, topic:195573â][quote=âtreetop777, post:46, topic:195573â]âŠ
The problem with MCV is that they put âthey foot in they mouthâ by promising âNo additional fees-everâ so therefore they donât have that predictable income to be able to hire the additional engineer to work on improving or fixing the problems with their existing offerings; instead, their engineers are all working in R&D trying to come up with their next source of revenue (Vera Secure).[/quote]
I agree with you treetop777 what comes to the free support. what I have been thinking is that if the support is free that I love MCV could limit the number of supported HW versions. That way the testing etc. get more easier and they can also get some drop in number of support tickets. Probably they can also gain more revenue from the new hw sales. The old HW can be left running old Ui4-6 and Firmware versions build for that HW .
What I have been seeing is that people are desperately trying to upgrade old veras that simply can not run the size of their implementation (run out of free memory etc.).[/quote]
The firmware is buggy. And, as stated, UI7 has been out for about three years and it still has all kinds of issues. Would you like to have MCV move on to the next firmware version and leave your current hardware âbehindâ because itâs deemed to old to run the new stuff? Youâll get to buy a new piece of hardware and start all over againâŠ
I agree that there needs to be some sort of balancing act between new features and being able to run on older, less powerful hardware. Problem is, my VeraLite shipped with UI7 on it. And it has NEVER worked correctly regardless of the actual build. There has always been something out of whack whether it be random rebooting, corruption of my LUA code when saving scene updates, or devices that are permanently in a âDisconnectedâ state (My Yale door lock has never held connection even though its route is through a Leviton switch that supports the required security). It will connect when I replace the batteries and then shortly after start flopping between connected and disconnected.
Yes I feel that the people should upgrade to the latest hardware more. Doing that we can reduce the HW/firmware compinations MCV need to support . The price of the Vera controller is marginal here. It is only 5-15% of the total cost of the HA system.
Of course I donât have any support tiket statistic, so this is only a strong feeling what might keep MCS busy.
What mobile app do you use for Homeseer?
I have a Vera 3 thatâs going ok enough, but bogged down, as well as a Homeseer license and a VeraPlus. Iâve been delaying a migration away from the Vera 3 for awhile, and I really want to stay with Vera due to familiarity, but the complaints about firmware bugs scare me.
The biggest reason Iâm not looking forward to Homeseer is because AutHomationHD has been perfect for the familyâs workflow, and it doesnât seem like there are any decent Android apps out there, unless I wanted to design something myself (Iâm assuming thatâs what the designer I spent $99 on is for?).[/quote]
I have been using Imperihome Since vera and continue with Homeseer for 90% of my devices. Wall tablets I use HS touch designer, but wouldnât recommend it to any new HS user.
AutoHomation was only good because its free. Now that it hasnât been supported for years and it never had any color, graphics or layout options like most everything else, it was never a real player for me.
Alot of another options have no monthly or yearly fee also so I donât consider that a huge sales point.
People donât want to pay for a better controller for the most part. Youâll see the biggest complaint why people donât move from VERA is that itâs cheap. If you mention any other alternatives (like I moved to homeseer myself) the first complaint is âIts more expensiveâ. I have used your very same logic that the controller (what I consider the most important part of the whole thing) is usually the cheapest part of anyones home automation system. Door locks cost 2-3 times as much (I have 7 between 2 houses), garage door openers same (I have 5 and a driveway gate), and if I were to add all my z-wave devices I probley have thousands. Alarm panel and adpators to tie them together. Blueiris and camera system also tied to it.
So I have used your same theory to no avial that it is wiser to spend a bit more upfront on a better/stable controller (which is the heart of your system) then to upgrade every year from a 800mhz to a 900mhz processor and an extra 128mb of RAM. Which if you compare VERAâs hardware (even though thatâs not its only problem) it is so weak to even compare to a 35.00 raspberry pi.
I agree, if the upgrade does not work anual hw upgrade will be problematic.
Vera should have 30-50% more mem + cpu to get things running. With more space It might be eaven possible to add additional 3-party services to the server. Right now I am thinking to buy an additional rasberry in order to off load things from vera.
I feel that the main Vera HW design point is âkeep it as cheap as possibleâ or atleast âgood enoughâ.