Vera, Is it beeing developed on?

Community Playground General Discussions
1

Hello all

I’m wondering: Is the Vera platform beeing actively developed.
By this I don’t mean the dedication of all good people here on the board creating plugins, helping out etc., but the MicasaVerde company?

Just trying to get a grasp where to put my money in terms of HomeAutomation.

Regards
Tommy

2

Yes, Vera is being developed on. MCV released the Vera 3 and Vera lite with in the last 6-8 months to the public. They have released an updated firmware a month and a half ago. Not sure why you got the impression they are not actively working on the platform.

  • Garrett
3

I’m new to home automation and just bought the Vera3 because it was much cheaper then their competition. I configured it without much trouble at all…sure there was a small learning curve but it went quite well and vera3 works very well (for z-wave and DSC security). …I am very glad I went with the MCV product!

/Z/

4

[quote=“garrettwp, post:2, topic:172533”]Yes, Vera is being developed on. MCV released the Vera 3 and Vera lite with in the last 6-8 months to the public. They have released an updated firmware a month and a half ago. Not sure why you got the impression they are not actively working on the platform.

  • Garrett[/quote]

Thanks Garret

I’m not really under the impression that it is NOT beeing developed, but…

  1. There is such as messy layout of the whole thing when it comes to eg. the better half trying to control Vera thru her phone. I found the HomeWave app and is running that on my Iphone now as a Beta, and I must say I love it. Just find it a little strange that ‘outsiders’ needs to program what I would think should be more or less out-of-the-box.

  2. I do find some things abit ‘hidden’, or maybe scattered when it comes to doing more advanced stuff. wish that there was boolean-wizard of some sort. I mean abit like ‘If this and that and not that then do this’ without code needed to be ‘invented’.

Maybe Micasa provides Vera as kind of base to let others build on top of, I don’t know. Just wanted to get a feel of the what you all think/feel.

Apart from little ‘outburst’ ,if you can call it that, I still like my Vera alot, and I have had some fun coding my first plugin.

Now I’m controlling my underfloor heating system thru Vera and Homewave.

Can’t wait to see what comes next.

:slight_smile:
Tommy

5

[quote=“imazman, post:3, topic:172533”]I’m new to home automation and just bought the Vera3 because it was much cheaper then their competition. I configured it without much trouble at all…sure there was a small learning curve but it went quite well and vera3 works very well (for z-wave and DSC security). …I am very glad I went with the MCV product!

/Z/[/quote]

/Z/

Thanks for your thoughts.
See my answer to Garrett.

Regards
Tommy

6

TommyE,

The great thing about Vera is you have a choice and it is open for development. Many of the apps that you see for the iOS and Android platform (including mine) were developed to satisfy our own needs and to provide to the community either free or paid for. All of the 3rd party plugins are developed by the community as they wanted to add more functionality to Vera. Think of Vera providing you the foundation and you building on top of it to add more functionality and features that tailor to your needs.

1. There is such as messy layout of the whole thing when it comes to eg. the better half trying to control Vera thru her phone. I found the HomeWave app and is running that on my Iphone now as a Beta, and I must say I love it. Just find it a little strange that 'outsiders' needs to program what I would think should be more or less out-of-the-box.

See my response above.

2. I do find some things abit 'hidden', or maybe scattered when it comes to doing more advanced stuff. wish that there was boolean-wizard of some sort. I mean abit like 'If this and that and not that then do this' without code needed to be 'invented'.

What you are referring to is conditionals and this has been mentioned many times over the course of time. Maybe one day MCV will implement this. But as of right now you have to rely on lua code. Futzle one of the users on this board, she created a great plugin called “Combination Switch”. She did an awesome job and may be a solution worth looking into.

  • Garrett
7

[quote=“garrettwp, post:6, topic:172533”]What you are referring to is conditionals and this has been mentioned many times over the course of time. Maybe one day MCV will implement this. But as of right now you have to rely on lua code. Futzle one of the users on this board, she created a great plugin called “Combination Switch”. She did an awesome job and may be a solution worth looking into.

  • Garrett[/quote]

Futzle is a she? :wink:

The ‘combination switch’ plugin is one of the single greatest advances I’ve seen in Vera in the year I’ve owned it. Granted, this conditional AND functiononality SHOULD be built in, but it is not. Combination Switch solves this issue elegantly, along with additional features of having a virtual switch. Simple approach, but amazing product.

Hats off to Futzle.

8

Yup, she sure is.

  • Garrett
9

Hello again

Yesterday I also asked a question in another thread about conditionals, Futzle was the first to answer, she gave me a link to a thread about her combination switch.

I installed it, and it solved problem in 15 minutes.

That was a powerfull plugin I must say.

Thanks for your thoughts, I’m now a bit more eased with my choice.

I will also link to a thread with my own plugin, it is for the quad relay board mentioned here on the board.
The pluging found for it was for blinds, I needed four separate relays, so I ended up modifying the existing plugin.
It works great for my project. Here is the link if anyone wants to have a look.

http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,8585.0.html the link is to Drag0n’s original thread that I started asking questions in.

I will see if I can manage to get it into MyMIOS someday.

Regards
Tommy