Vera3 Review

Community Playground General Discussions
1

Hi All,

A bit of background first, and then the review.

I’m a licensed electrical contractor that comes from the building automation field. Previous to a year ago when I went on my own, I worked in building controls and automation, installing and programming building automation systems. Generally big HVAC units like air handler units, chillers, boilers, pumps, etc.

Took delivery of my Vera3 today. I ordered just one device with it (an Everspring lamp module) because I haven’t had the chance to do my homework on what’s available.

Unpacked the box, put the battery on the charger (after translating some Chinglish ;D), plugged the Vera in to the wall and the cable modem and went through the steps on the included instruction sheet.

Vera started out on the green/orange lightblink thing, then all three lights plus the WiFi came up. Battery was charged surprisingly quickly so I took Vera over to the module and included it.

(Interestingly enough, the module I bought was an on/off model, and at first when I plugged Vera back in I couldn’t tell “On” was a button, the slider simply dimmed the lamp 0-100%.)
I didn’t read any of the online modules, just clicked around on the interface, set up a couple of scenes, added future rooms, and in the meantime downloaded HomeBuddy for my Android.

Connected HomeBuddy to my WiFi modem and it read the Vera and took control within seconds.

Works just great on local mode connected to my WiFi modem, with a barely noticeable lag (maybe about 100ms). When connected to the Vera’s WiFi the lag increases to about 1 second. In remote mode, it would tell me “can’t fetch user data” or something along those lines, thinking it takes some time for the registration to go through on the remote server or I entered the info incorrectly.

Either way, all said and done, all of that was comfortably done within an hour, and without me digging through the online manuals. I’m sure it takes longer when including multiple modules, but to get this going was surprisingly fast.

One question remains though: The lamp makes a slight buzzing sound when dimmed, but curious if using this module for dimming will harm it or the lamp? ???)

All in all, it’s a great experience for a first-time user of a home automation product.

2

Correction - I left HomeBuddy in local mode when I turned the Android’s WiFi radio off, so was getting “unable to retrieve user data”.

Lag in remote mode is about 1.5-2 seconds. Lag when connected to Vera’s WiFi in local mode is less than when connected through the WiFi modem.

3

Day 2:

Added two users - one from own city (Vancouver), about 10 km or so away, and another from Ontario - 2717 miles away.

They had access no problem, and had a little fun with them two controlling the module. ;D

All in all, smooth sailing so far :slight_smile:

4

Is it an incandescent bulb that’s buzzing? Is so, It’s the filament bouncing around in the supports as the dimmer cuts and applies power >100 x/sec.
As with any vibration, it will eventually weaken to the point of failure (the bulb burns out)

Better quality bulbs have more filament supports and vibrate less (and last longer too) newer bulbs will buzz less due to a tighter filament.

JOD.

5

The lag you see remotely is due to going through your cellphone carrier’s network and Micasaverde’s remote servers. All if which is normal.

  • Garrett
6

Is it an incandescent bulb that’s buzzing? Is so, It’s the filament bouncing around in the supports as the dimmer cuts and applies power >100 x/sec.
As with any vibration, it will eventually weaken to the point of failure (the bulb burns out)

Better quality bulbs have more filament supports and vibrate less (and last longer too) newer bulbs will buzz less due to a tighter filament.

JOD.[/quote]

Interesting. I’ve never heard it with traditional dimmers, but this makes sense.

7

[quote=“garrettwp, post:5, topic:170292”]The lag you see remotely is due to going through your cellphone carrier’s network and Micasaverde’s remote servers. All if which is normal.

  • Garrett[/quote]

I figured as much. My particular carrier (biggest of the three in Canada, and also the one with the worst service overall) is particularly bad at this kind of thing. Sometimes even a picture text message takes hours to come through.

The lag is so minimal though, no complaints here. Then again I’m not running manufacturing equipment ;D

8

Added a couple of plugins, a couple of scenes, played with networking a bit and Vera is still running solidly. Made my next order of devices and looking forward to expanding this baby.

Still curious as to why the on/off module is able to function as a dimmer. It’s a pretty cheap module, so curious if it should be used as such

9

If it supports dimming, it is meant to… otherwise it wouldn’t do it. We had buzzing bulbs and swapped them out for better ones - no more buzz.

John

10

Finally have some time to start learning Lua…what version is Vera3 running? The tutorial I’m reading is for 5.1

11

It’s 5.1

12

Thanks Guessed, and thanks to everyone for your input as well!

13

Just out of curiosity, what’s the model number for the Everspring module?

Typically:
Appliance modules support on/off.
Lamp modules support on/off/dim.

Dave

14

Dave:

I had a look at the module, it’s a Home Manageables HM-LM001. Curiously enough it comes up as an Everspring in Mios ???

15

[quote=“Canadian EC, post:14, topic:170292”]Dave:

I had a look at the module, it’s a Home Manageables HM-LM001. Curiously enough it comes up as an Everspring in Mios ???[/quote]

Ah, yes. That is a dimming lamp module. I have several. See here:

[url=http://wiki.micasaverde.com/index.php/Supported_Hardware#Lighting_Devices]http://wiki.micasaverde.com/index.php/Supported_Hardware#Lighting_Devices[/url]

16

Cool, thanks for that link!

After looking on Amazon to see what was there, was surprised to see “Z-wave” in some products’ titles but the device doesn’t talk z-wave (Leviton Vizia stuff mostly).

At least I can filter out the noise with this :slight_smile:

17

[quote=“Canadian EC, post:16, topic:170292”]Cool, thanks for that link!

After looking on Amazon to see what was there, was surprised to see “Z-wave” in some products’ titles but the device doesn’t talk z-wave (Leviton Vizia stuff mostly).

At least I can filter out the noise with this :)[/quote]

My pleasure. You probably figured this out already–for the Leviton stuff, look for is “Vizia RF”. I use Leviton RF for my in-wall switches. I’m partial to the “VRS15-1L”.

18

Added an Evolve LRM-AS dimmer switch today. I didn’t bother with the battery-powered add since the switch is only 15 feet away. It picked it up immediately, without any problem whatsoever.

One thought though - the dimmer is HUGE. Even in a deep box with minimal wire nuts, the dimmer doesn’t slide all the way in.

Is that to be expected with GE and Leviton dimmers as well?

19

They are pretty huge. In wall switches (no dimmer) are pretty big too.

20

It’s been weeks now and Vera is stable as anything. Have played around with scripting, virtual devices, plugins, low and full power inclusions. I’m not running 100 devices or anything, but out of the box it’s solid and with a little tinkering, customizing is not that difficult.