Vitrum

Other Devices & Integrations Lighting & Load Control
1

I’m completely new to Z-wave, so please forgive any stupid questions…

I like the look of the Vitrum switches but I’m having difficulty getting any straight answers. And the Vitrum rep claims never to have heard of Vera (but wants to sell me his GBP 1,800 Vitrum hub instead).

Does anyone have experience of getting Vera and Vitrum to work together?

2

Jonathan,
Welcome to our forum. Feel free to ask anything you want. No questions are stupid, except for unasked ones. I’ve found the MiCasaVerde forums to be very informative useful to work through a learning curve.

Since Vitrum is marketing only to Europe and the UK currently, all these switches are new to me and I have not worked with them yet. I must say the all glass switches look absolutely gorgeous. I’m assuming you are in the UK. Vitrum’s BS standard is designed for the UK and is for their square format wall switches, while the EU standard is for their horizontal rectangular format wall switches. The difference between the two appears to be mostly physical layouts.

Here is the list of ZWave hardware that is known to be compatible with Vera: [url=http://wiki.micasaverde.com/index.php/Supported_Hardware]http://wiki.micasaverde.com/index.php/Supported_Hardware[/url]

After looking at Vitrum’s specs, it looks like everything stands a very good chance of working with Vera. I have worked with Vera for about six months now with a variety of ZWave products. I feel I can give you a good guess where I would expect some challenges:

It looks like you should not have any problem operating the single switches and dimmers with a European version Vera3. You might have a small hitch with the double, triple, quad and hex switches. I would expect that the inclusion process would normally create 2, 3, 4, and 6 switch controls in the Vera dashboard, but I have not seen that feature demonstrated in the US version, since our switches are all single-gang behind the faceplate.

I would guess that their shutter control would be fairly straight forward. It will probably work right out of the box.

Based on my experience with other remote controls on Vera, the remote control will probably work as a secondary controller. It will probably work all four scenes very well. My prediction is that it won’t work well with individual lights. I’m generally not so happy with Vera and it’s compatibility with remotes.

There are apps compatible with Vera for a variety of cellphones. I have an Android and find HomeBuddy to work quite well for what I need. I think you will be able to find something for most any cellphone.

If you don’t hear back from anyone else, I would still definitely give Vera a try with a several representative samples and see what works and what does not. Vera seems to do a whole lot more than their “Router Home Master” today. I think most issues with Vera and the Vitrum switches can be ironed-out fairly quickly. But I’m not one to speak for MiCasaVerde.

I would love to hear how your project goes,
kgrr

3

These are beautiful light switches…are they super expensive? It appears to me that they sell an entire system…wall switch which talks to a master controller…Modbus over Cat 5 cable…and the master controller does the dimming? Perhaps they have a more residential product line…Let me know what you find out. The dimmers operate like an Ipod with touch sensitive controls, very nice!
Tim Alls
AllSeas Yachts

4

These guys sell them: http://zwave-products.co.uk/shop/category_102/Dimmer%2C-Switch-_-Transmitter-Modules.html?shop_param=cid%3D%26

Looks to be around GBP 150 for a single switch or dimmer, adding a little more for 2 or 3 gang versions. Expensive, but not too expensive. And the dimmer sound attractive, I have been highly annoyed by the available remote controllable dimmers for years now… they all come with an up/down button arrangement which is an idiotic interface for a dimmer. I’ve always wondered why there are no remote controllable dimmers with the more traditional turn to dim / push for on/off arrangement. So… maybe this is it :slight_smile:

5

[quote=“intveltr, post:4, topic:170440”]These guys sell them: http://zwave-products.co.uk/shop/category_102/Dimmer%2C-Switch-_-Transmitter-Modules.html?shop_param=cid%3D%26

Looks to be around GBP 150 for a single switch or dimmer, adding a little more for 2 or 3 gang versions. Expensive, but not too expensive. And the dimmer sound attractive, I have been highly annoyed by the available remote controllable dimmers for years now… they all come with an up/down button arrangement which is an idiotic interface for a dimmer. I’ve always wondered why there are no remote controllable dimmers with the more traditional turn to dim / push for on/off arrangement. So… maybe this is it :)[/quote]
Thanks for the link…I was looking at their Commercial Line. I am trying to get information as to a US version of this product. They look great…I would love to see one in action!
Regards
Tim

6

I think the commercial version is the one which goes over modbus etc. but the home version is normal z-wave.

As far as I can work out, the only slightly annoying thing is that on a multidimmer switch, a button can only control one circuit on that switch (although can control other circuits on other switches)…

So, for instance, if one button is linked to hallway lights, another button on the same switch can not be made to turn on the hall and turn on the outside lights…

7

Tim, try contacting them through the vitrum.com website. I had some questions and got a reply within a few hours.

The 1-gang dimmer does indeed have the iPod-like control for light levels, but the multigang dimmers do not (they employ a press-and-hold control similar to remotes like the Minimote). No clues as to compatibility with Vera, though they do seem to work at least on a basic level with Homeseer and an Aeon stick.

I think I might give them a go; the Vitrum guy pointed me to a dealer in the Netherlands, though that company seems to specialise in office and hotel setups.

One other thing: these units come in EU and UK variants. The so called EU variety goes into a rectangular “503” pattress box which I’ve never seen before in my life :slight_smile: The UK version is square but I’ve no idea if BS pattress boxes are (more or less) compatible (size and distance of the faceplate screws) with the square or round DIN pattress boxes used in much of mainland Europe. Does anyone happen to know? I can always just use UK boxes if they are not compatible.

8
Tim, try contacting them through the vitrum.com website. I had some questions and got a reply within a few hours.
I will...thanks Regards Tim