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    Coming from Vera

    Thought I would say Hello, I was a Vera user for 5 years. I got fed up with the weekly and sometimes daily fixing of my Vera Plus. A few weeks ago I purchased HS3. It was a bit of a learning curve coming from a different platform. I spent Saturday installing HS3 and adding my 20 devices. Spent Sunday setting up events and just playing around with HS3. All went pretty smooth. I did contact support on Saturday for a minor issue which ended up me doing something wrong. Support responded same day within a couple of hours. In the past few weeks all has gone smooth and no issues at all. My devices respond much faster to my Echo. The UI is a bit ugly but doesn't hurt performance. I do have to say though I think the plugins are bit pricey. I only needed 2 plugins for now and I got both on sale so I save $20 bucks. So far I am really happy with HS3 and wish I would have switched sooner.

    Jim

    #2
    Welcome!

    I came over from Vera in 2015 and right after I lost my job. I hated Vera so much and liked HS so much, that I didn't even try to get a refund (Like within a week of buying it I lost my job...LOL)

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      #3
      Welcome to the club. I came to HS almost 2 months ago. I got tired of the constant problems with Vera as well. I found Vera is ok as ONLY a device controller, but if you try to do anything else with it all bets are off. I'm enjoying HomeSeer and getting into writing plugins.

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        #4
        Welcome to the group. I also came from Vera..
        RJ_Make On YouTube

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          #5
          I also came from VERA. You will be happy with the Homeseer decision. Welcome

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            #6
            I also came over from Vera.

            I dont know why I took so long to see the light (as humans we are always scared of spending more on a system you already have).

            The speed of HS makes me laugh excitedly when I do something its so good. Its INSTANTANEOUS!

            For some reason I had accepted that Home Automation was always going to be slow, however now I see that Vera is just woefully - I mean WOEFULLY - underpowered.

            Thanks

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              #7
              Originally posted by onepointbrewing View Post
              I also came over from Vera.

              I dont know why I took so long to see the light (as humans we are always scared of spending more on a system you already have).

              The speed of HS makes me laugh excitedly when I do something its so good. Its INSTANTANEOUS!

              For some reason I had accepted that Home Automation was always going to be slow, however now I see that Vera is just woefully - I mean WOEFULLY - underpowered.

              Thanks
              That's the problem with Vera...it's far to under-powered to really achieve what it could.

              But with no apps running and a clean install it makes for a good zigbee controller for HomeSeer!

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                #8

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                  #9
                  Yeah I've been around the block as well but I finally saw the light and came to HomeSeer. It cost me more trying everything else but I got a really good education out of it.

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                    #10
                    Originally posted by jeubanks View Post
                    It cost me more trying everything else but I got a really good education out of it.
                    Yep, its the only thing im thankful for Vera for..... putting up with a slow platform - not thankful for

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                      #11
                      Originally posted by jeubanks View Post
                      That's the problem with Vera...it's far to under-powered to really achieve what it could.

                      But with no apps running and a clean install it makes for a good zigbee controller for HomeSeer!
                      I have a Vera Edge that hasn't been powered up for a couple of years. How did you get it to do the zigbee devices. I currently use a conbee (which is limited on devices) and I am curious as to what devices the vera edge can control.

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                        #12
                        John, Which of the vera's do you have. Did you connect it as a secondary controller or is that possible?

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                          #13
                          Originally posted by cowinger View Post
                          John, Which of the vera's do you have. Did you connect it as a secondary controller or is that possible?
                          I have a Vera Plus (2 actually).

                          The Vera Plus support Zigbee (so does the Vera Secure). Anyways. They work with a limited (check the vera supported list) number of zigbee devices. I got lucky in that coming from Vera all my zigbee was already working but would not work with HomeSeer.

                          However Vera has a good HTTP API and So does HS3. So I used them. There's a couple of ways of doing this. It could also be done with the Vera MQTT app. I'm using it also for basic sensor data but not for motion sensors. For motion sensors I use Vera Scenes one for on one for off and they make a Lua call to the HS3 Json API that turns on/off a virtual device in HS3. From that point make events as normal for whatever you want that sensor used for.

                          One thing I have to say is that Vera scene execution is very fast so it's almost like the sensors are native to HS3.

                          The same thing can be done with switches as well, but I'm actually thinking of doing a plugin for that, but I go back and forth on that as I don't use zigbee switches except power plugs for repeaters. I only use zigbee sensors and the use of scenes for motion sensors and then mqtt for other things like temp/humidity is perfect through mqtt because I don't have the "instant" want for that data. A few milliseconds on receiving that data doesn't matter to me.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Originally posted by jeubanks View Post
                            I have a Vera Plus (2 actually).

                            The Vera Plus support Zigbee (so does the Vera Secure). Anyways. They work with a limited (check the vera supported list) number of zigbee devices. I got lucky in that coming from Vera all my zigbee was already working but would not work with HomeSeer.

                            However Vera has a good HTTP API and So does HS3. So I used them. There's a couple of ways of doing this. It could also be done with the Vera MQTT app. I'm using it also for basic sensor data but not for motion sensors. For motion sensors I use Vera Scenes one for on one for off and they make a Lua call to the HS3 Json API that turns on/off a virtual device in HS3. From that point make events as normal for whatever you want that sensor used for.

                            One thing I have to say is that Vera scene execution is very fast so it's almost like the sensors are native to HS3.

                            The same thing can be done with switches as well, but I'm actually thinking of doing a plugin for that, but I go back and forth on that as I don't use zigbee switches except power plugs for repeaters. I only use zigbee sensors and the use of scenes for motion sensors and then mqtt for other things like temp/humidity is perfect through mqtt because I don't have the "instant" want for that data. A few milliseconds on receiving that data doesn't matter to me.
                            I saw in the list for the edge that there were some zigbee devices that were supposedly controllable by the edge but I am not sure about that. Does the edge even have a zigbee radio? I didn't think it did.
                            Anyways have you thought about using the conbee and the jowihue plugin. I have a whole bunch of devices running off it. Osram adj. white, color; sengled, adj white; and philips motion sensors.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Originally posted by cowinger View Post
                              I saw in the list for the edge that there were some zigbee devices that were supposedly controllable by the edge but I am not sure about that. Does the edge even have a zigbee radio? I didn't think it did.
                              Anyways have you thought about using the conbee and the jowihue plugin. I have a whole bunch of devices running off it. Osram adj. white, color; sengled, adj white; and philips motion sensors.
                              I don't know if the Edge has a Zigbee radio or not. Just using what I got.

                              I have and use the JowiHue plugin and I think it's great with my Hue bridge and with my DeConz server. Nothing negative about it.

                              As for Conbee/Raspbee with DeConz. I look at your list of things you have running. All lights and Philips. I have a ConBeee and DeConz setup and it works great with the two Osram/Lightify+ plus bulbs I have. It doesn't work with my NYCE motion sensors or door sensors or my old SmartThings multipurpose sensors or any other Zigbee device I have (lamp module for repeater). I'm hoping and waiting for the day more ZHA things are supported by DeConz and not just ZLL.

                              Now on the FLIP side of what I just said. I really do want to try a Philips motion sensor. Three reasons.

                              1. I have never tested them.
                              2. I think they will work with JowiHue through the Hue bridge
                              3. If they work and have excellent performance then they are cheaper than the NYCE sensors.

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