Vera expert assistance by telephone for video for a fee

Community Playground General Discussions
1

I am looking for a Vera expert who can assist me by telephone. I started putting together my z-wave system almost a year and a half ago. It works fairly well. However, I have some problems. I have Parkinson’s disease, and I’m trying to get the problems eliminated before my mobility declines much further. I have around 30 z-wave light switches, one Linksys video camera, a slag lock, five outdoor modules, two thermostats, one door/window sensor, and to motion sensors that I installed,

I live in Las Vegas, but I believe that someonewith a very good understanding of z-wave and Vera could help me over the phone or by video conference

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Try this first but before you proceed keep the following in mind.

  1. If you don’t want headache start your Z-wave network from the Controllers, (There are different classes of controllers under the Z-Wave hierarchy).

  2. A static controller is at the top of the hierarchy (If you have a Leviton Remote Control and use Vera as well as Leviton Scene controllers, then the hierarchy should be as follows;

  3. Vera

  4. Leviton Remote

  5. Leviton Scene controller

This picture changes drastically if you use a Nevo Remote, as their NC-50 Wifi/Z-Wave RF Base moves to the top of the hierarchy since their RF base is considered a static controller and building a reliable Z-wave network in that situation is possible if you build it in a specific order or it’ll be problematic from day one. That said, try the following firs.
Have you used the self healing capabilities of Z-wave to see if that remedies the situation?
I don’t know which firmware you are using on your Vera but look for “Repair Z-wave network” and run it. If you are still having problem then I would consider re-building your z-wave network but you MUST remember a very important factor about z-wave.

VERY IMPORTANT, before you rebuild your new Z-wave network, all the z-wave devices have to be removed from the existing network. And by the way, I don’t mean physically removing the devices. As a built-in security feature of Z-wave, once a device is registered into a Z-Wave network, it cannot join or be added to another Z-wave network. Now this is where it gets a little convoluted, for example most Leviton switches can be removed from a network by pressing and holding the top of the switch (It almost feels like you are about to break the switch). Sometimes you can remove a device from a Z-wave network either from the Controller manually or thru a software tool that you use to manage the controller. Unfortunately, the Z-wave standards are a little too loose in this department and different vendors have implemented a slightly different method to accomplish this. But the import thing to remember is that you cannot re-build you network unless each and every device is unregistered from the routing table that is built and maintained in the primary controller of your network.

I would start by gathering up the owner’s manual on all the devices on your network. Some vendors might refer to the procedure as “Unregistering”, “resetting”, or “removing” the device from the Z-wave network. So, if all you have is a Vera as your primary controller, then I would start with Vera and removing each device from Vera (I don’t know which firmware you run on your Vera, but look for the word “Repair” somewhere under the Z-wave network on the Browser application that you use to manage your Vera. Next you have to unregister the device itself. As I mentioned earlier, look in the owner’s manual for each device for this. At this point you might want to make sure that you have the latest firmware on Vera and then begin re-building your Z-wave network. I would also use the “Repair” functionality of the Z-Wave in Vera after adding 5-10 devices along the way depending on the distance between devices. By the way you can change the default number of minutes that Vera runs the stress test to speed up the process.
There are a couple of things that I’ve personally experience with a couple of installations. Not all Z-wave devices (Switches and receptacles) are the same. For example I’ve had issues with (ACT) receptacles. They tend to drop off the network with distances as short as 18 inches. And although Z-wave is a mesh network, if a given device is the link between two devices that are on the far ends of the limitations that Z-wave can support either in terms of sheer distance or physical obstructions then there will be reliability issues.

Another option that you might want to consider is purchasing http://www.controlthink.com/thinkessentials/ and once you have built your network, transfer the control to Vera as the primary controller. Note, you’ll need a Laptop PC to use this tool.

Good luck,