VeraEdge - Wifi - what's the point ?

Community Playground Getting Started & Initial Setup
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Good old MCV, decide to put Wifi on their new edge and #fail. Or maybe I’m just missing their point.

Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to use the Wifi as a client, instead of their implementation of #another# DHCP router on your network ? At least that way the Edge can be placed someone else in the house. The only way I can get this device to work is to use a wired cable to my main router, there is no Wifi client facility so this device has to be within cable range. re-broadcasting the SSID and acting as another DHCP router just over complicates things for most people I can well imagine, or probably even creates a security issue allowing other devices to gain access to the network.

I’ve therefore disabled DHCP and Wifi on the box as it’s completely useless. Why bother in the first place MCV ???

Am I on my own, or have other people discovered this (or some way to make it work to any advantage ?)

D

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The present state of WiFi allows Vera Edge to serve as the network’s router and WiFi access point. This use case is obviously not for you and is probably redundant for most people. So, turning WiFi off is appropriate.

Since prior versions of Vera did allow the use as a WiFi client, it might get added back to Vera Edge in the future. Until that time, the only way to use it as a client would be to make changes to the underlying OpenWRT Linux configuration.

3

Z-waver hit all the points.

Edge has alot of broken things right now, I expect that to be fixed at vera’s normal pace sometime in the future.

If this is your only complaint with the EDGE you should be happy! Vera is not a good wifi/router for us techies. Most turned the vera 3 router off and my edge is also turned off so nothing gained or harmed for me. I don’t like wireless for fixed devices anyways to the client mode would also not help me. Both your router and your VERA should be centrally located in your house anyways so whats the point?

4

Edge is broken - let’s face it, I wish this was my only complaint but it isn’t. It’s not fit for purpose in many ways, the nursery school style UI, the support, USB connectivity, lack of pairing ability - I can go on but somehow wonder what the point of that would be.

One good reason for having a wifi client would have been that you can take Edge around the house to pair with Z devices…you know like you could do with VeraLite.

I didn’t realise that Vera 3 users disabled the routing anyway because that was rubbish - at least as you say it’s not a loss for those people, but I do wonder why invest R&D costs into something which clearly is not going to benefit ‘most’ people.

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[quote=“dmckenna, post:4, topic:185133”]Edge is broken - let’s face it, I wish this was my only complaint but it isn’t. It’s not fit for purpose in many ways, the nursery school style UI, the support, USB connectivity, lack of pairing ability - I can go on but somehow wonder what the point of that would be.

One good reason for having a wifi client would have been that you can take Edge around the house to pair with Z devices…you know like you could do with VeraLite.

I didn’t realise that Vera 3 users disabled the routing anyway because that was rubbish - at least as you say it’s not a loss for those people, but I do wonder why invest R&D costs into something which clearly is not going to benefit ‘most’ people.[/quote]

VERA doesn’t make the hardware its bought from Sercomm
http://www.sercomm.com/contpage.aspx?langid=1&type=prod&L1id=2&L2id=3

It’s made to be cheap. I paid less for the edge (135.00) then I did for my VeraLite some time back. I currently have a Netgear X6 R8000 router. It cost me 250.00 and retails for more. It has 3 dual core 1ghz processors. By no means do I want Vera to handle my internet functions.

Altho I do have a VeraLite I never carry it around to do inclusions. Full Power inclusions work just fine. I find the UI way better then watching blinking lights.

I own an EDGE and I can’t use it due to USB to Serial converter not working for my alarm panel. I get where your coming from. When the EDGE was announced we all knew it wasn’t some powerful beast. Most knew due to z-wave plus it wasn’t going to run ui5 and ui7 has been out for sometime. We knew the limitations of ui7 and the problems before the EDGE came out. We also knew before the EDGE how fast Vera updates and fixs bugs.

So besides some EDGE only software problems like USB, Wifi (before the last update) and a few others No one is to blame but yourself.

Sounds like you had a VERALite running ui5… You been holding off on ui7 due to most of the problems your listed… You went out and bought an EDGE thinking all the reasons you didn’t upgrade to UI7 would be gone and your new EDGE was going to be flawless.

The reality is you got more ram, hair faster processor and new z-wave PLUS protocol with probley no z-wave plus devices to even use that anyways… And now your on the software you been avoiding from the launch. Sound about right?

6

Kind of, I suppose the underlying thread here though is confidence to deliver by the seller (regardless of who they sub the h/w box out to).

A published roadmap of features/functions/fixes by MCV would be a huge confidence booster, especially if timescales were realistic, achievable and kept to. People like you and I wouldn’t mind (as much) to wait 6 months for feature X if we knew it was being addressed and coming. If UI5 was now just old, UI6 was a great release and UI7 had these rough edges we would all have confidence that they’d be fixed…but I’m beginning to think that that confidence is waning amongst their most avid followers and supporters. I work for a massive sw company and perhaps I’ve learned to expect higher standards of development, not that any co. is perfect…by a long way.

UI5 runs out of memory these days, UI6 was a false start, UI7 has been rushed out. Countless man years have been wasted by people ‘trying’ to get things working on every platform and UI but my original point of this thread was to highlight something so basic/intrinsic to any Linux system - the core networking client - is just not there, or exposed in Edge.

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[quote=“dmckenna, post:6, topic:185133”]Kind of, I suppose the underlying thread here though is confidence to deliver by the seller (regardless of who they sub the h/w box out to).

A published roadmap of features/functions/fixes by MCV would be a huge confidence booster, especially if timescales were realistic, achievable and kept to. People like you and I wouldn’t mind (as much) to wait 6 months for feature X if we knew it was being addressed and coming. If UI5 was now just old, UI6 was a great release and UI7 had these rough edges we would all have confidence that they’d be fixed…but I’m beginning to think that that confidence is waning amongst their most avid followers and supporters. I work for a massive sw company and perhaps I’ve learned to expect higher standards of development, not that any co. is perfect…by a long way.

UI5 runs out of memory these days, UI6 was a false start, UI7 has been rushed out. Countless man years have been wasted by people ‘trying’ to get things working on every platform and UI but my original point of this thread was to highlight something so basic/intrinsic to any Linux system - the core networking client - is just not there, or exposed in Edge.[/quote]

I here Ya.

Problem is I haven’t found any home automation controller to be everything I want. I just think VERA is an entry level product and we are demanding it to be more which they fail to keep up with. Currently looking into homeseer which is going to cost alot more but will be well worth it if it can do everything I need. If anyone has used it for some time let me know why your here or what your thoughts are on it.

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Currently looking into homeseer which is going to cost alot more but will be well worth it if it can do everything I need. If anyone has used it for some time let me know why your here or what your thoughts are on it.

+1

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I was reading in CNET the other day and found this new company in kickstarter called Neeo.

You guys should check that out. It’s still not perfect but they answer your questions really quickly and it comes with a remote which I personally really like. They say delivery is gonna start in March.

It supports several automation protocols (z wave 500 chip included).

For the moment the two big let downs are that it doesn’t yet support Rf433 (not even the usb rfcom) and they don’t have remote access. Talking with one of their tech guys, they mention that both of these will be addressed soon.

It’s kinda like the revolv controller nest took out of the market last year.

Hope this helps
Giorgio

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Neeo (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1227115988/neeo-the-thinking-remote) might be cool, but as long as they are not delivering it, it’s not really any point to compare the two.

11

The point of DHCP is the ability to use the box as the primary router in small settings, like vacation homes or remote offices. The point of wifi is to be able to locate the device at an optimal location in the home without the need to hardwire a LAN connection. Perhaps it doesn’t currently work as a client, but it will.

Having DHCP probably added no additional costs to Vera. So why not?

It’s true that no self-respecting HA guy is going to use the Edge at home as the primary router. But it’s not intended to replace an expensive wifi router in a typical home. My vera lite is not located at an optimal location because it doesn’t have wifi, and I’m too lazy to run a cable.

I was annoyed when my new comcast cable modem came with DHCP turned on. But after awhile I did understand the business decision to deliver the system in that configuration.

12

The point is, a good product manager tries to deliver something most users will find usefull, and adds more features if time and money allows.
However, Vera choose to deliver the edge as a kind off very simple gateway - which is completely useless for most users, except possibly a few who want vera as a gateway in a vacation home. With just words that a more usefull configuration might be available some day.
For me, it probably means that I’ll have to buy a powerline or wifi adapter to get a wired network where I need the vera edge.

I’d guess all customers of vera are at least a bit geeky (if you’re not, sue the man who sold you that vera!). So it’s safe to assume they have a much more capable gateway already. So the primary objective should be to make a device that connects as a client to that existing lan. And Vera knows how to do that - they already did. Access point functionality, DHCP, firewall, router - are all features that might be nice to have for some customers - add those later!

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A fix device gets a fixed wire… Cat6 even if it’s not in the same room as the router, and saying that’s not possible is impossible.

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The WIFI is there because Vera reuses hardware designs that are intended to be used for routers.

That said MCV should support a profile that allows Vera to be a wireless client in your existing WIFI network.