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    #16
    Originally posted by S-F View Post
    I can answer this as well.

    PLEG - Come on! The HS3 event engine slaughters PLEG! It's absolutely no comparison. There is no way I could do 1/4 of what I do with HS3 natively using PLEG.

    Vera Alerts - Pushover, emails, text messages. The pushover plugin will do everything Vera Alerts does.

    Vera Proximity - Again, HS3 just plain punishes Vera on this front. Look at PHLocation. It puts anything Vera to shame so badly it's not funny. This one plugin alone is probably as feature rich as the entire native Vera platform.

    Imperihome - I just made a custom HSTouch project. Once I decided to do it I found tit to be not all that difficult. That being said, there is now an Imperihome interface for HS3.

    I don't know why people use Vera. That thing is more trouble than it's worth. I thank God every morning when I wake up for my good fortune in having unplugged that piece of junk. It's an overpriced remote control for light switches. I guess Vera is good for people too lazy to actually stand up and touch a light switch, because it's good for nothing else. And it's not too good for that even. A few years ago one of the more senior members on the Vera forum quoted an older member who had since left Vera by saying "If you touch a light switch you're doing it wrong". He went on to say that he thought that was setting the bar a little too high. Well, fast forward a few years and a move to HS3. I barely ever touch a light switch. I don't think I have touched one of my Russound keypads yet this year. I haven't touched a thermostat since moving to HS3 except when I added them to the system. I did make a screen to control my thermostats in HSTouch but I haven't used it yet. I do look at it to see the temperature from time to time though. I must say though tha tthe Vera forum is a great place for N00b questions. If you want to know how to wire a light switch or something like that it's great. I have a ton of posts over there and the vast majority of them are me answering such questions. My posts on this forum are mostly all me asking questions. HS3 is simply a different tier product. Better in every way.
    I second this... Vera was a good gateway drug... but had a bad hangover the next morning. It was a game each day to open a door or trigger a motion and wait to see if the light would actually turn on, or try to demo for your friends and it fail... that ALWAYS happened.

    HS3 is way above vera, that it shouldn't even be considered in the same ballpark. I remember when I first moved, I was way overwhelmed and had to change my way of thinking because the two event engines (AKA PLEG) work completely differently. Once you get over that, you will find HS3 blows Vera outta the water. Anything you can do in Vera, you can do in HS3, only better and easier... and also most importantly... reliably.

    If you have your zwave network on vera still, you have cut your legs off. That part HS3 shines the most at I think. The event engine is the best I have seen with any product and I vetted a few before making the switch.

    The one and ONLY thing that I have seen that PLEG has over HS3 is sequential triggers. This to me is a nice to have, but also minor.

    Do yourself a favor and toss that POS. The horror it caused me was so bad, I have blocked it from my memory.

    Comment


      #17
      @S-F, don't take my comments below the wrong way Just adding some mroe detail to your comments
      Originally posted by S-F View Post
      I can answer this as well.

      PLEG - Come on! The HS3 event engine slaughters PLEG! It's absolutely no comparison. There is no way I could do 1/4 of what I do with HS3 natively using PLEG.
      I agree, but remember it's a different thought process with HS3. It takes getting use to. Once you do though, you can do most anything. Especially if you get the easyTrigger plugin

      Originally posted by S-F View Post
      Vera Alerts - Pushover, emails, text messages. The pushover plugin will do everything Vera Alerts does.
      There is some stuff that is missing from this. Mainly Pushover won't do the TTS that VeraAlerts will do natively. That said, you can use the built in HS speech stuff, but for people like me that currently use windows serve, the voices aren't as good as the are on the end user versions of Windows.

      Originally posted by S-F View Post
      Vera Proximity - Again, HS3 just plain punishes Vera on this front. Look at PHLocation. It puts anything Vera to shame so badly it's not funny. This one plugin alone is probably as feature rich as the entire native Vera platform.
      Honestly, there are some things I find missing in PHLocation that I miss in VeraProximity.

      1. It was all one app/plugin. both sides were conrtolled by the same developer. I use Backitude, and I've tried egigeozone, but neither worked as well. I think backitude is getting better, but VeraAlerts was so right precise! My only issue back then was that if there was no network, it wouldn't retry (like leaving my house and my phone switching from wifi to cellular data).

      2. With #1 above, RTS added a way to force your phone to poll more often. For instance when you were 1 mile away from your house, you could have it poll location more frequent which could make your inner fence be more accurate. I miss this feature as it meant that it would trigger me being home as soon as I pulled in my driveway. Backitude I have to set a .5 mile radius, which means I could be at my mom's house 2 blocks away and it still considers me home. Of course I get so much more other data from BAckitude that it's stupid (Distance from home, course, speed, etc). It excels in other areas. I would use both if I could (Backitude and VeraProximity)

      Originally posted by S-F View Post
      Imperihome - I just made a custom HSTouch project. Once I decided to do it I found tit to be not all that difficult. That being said, there is now an Imperihome interface for HS3.
      Its important to note that the imperihome implementation is new and currently only does lights and outlets and thermostats as far as I know. @Spud is working on others, but due to the nature of HS and how it classifies devices, there will be considerably more setup to get it to work (define what is a door sensor, motion sensor, etc). Still, I'm excited about it.

      I'm not gonna comment on your last part. I think that HS should hire you to be their evangelist! You are so passionate about HS and even some of the plugins. Its a great thing to see (I know there are plenty others on here who are the same way as well).

      @integlikewhoa, I made the switch back in May during the 50% off sale. I loved it so much that even though I lost my job 2 weeks after buying it, I didn't even try and get the refund. I just thought it was that much better.

      The Z-Net alone blows the Vera out of the water. With the Vera, my Front door lock (5' from the Vera) would constantly miss updates. Wit the z-net, not only does that look work great, but I have a lock across the house that also works just as great even though it's significantly further away!

      My suggestion to you is to try moving a few devices over and test it out if you can. It's great. The only downside I see (And others may disagree) is the cost of the plugins. I have opted to not include certain things in my setup right now just due to the cost of plugins (Nest, NetAtmo, etc). I would assume that @spud will also charge for the Imperihome plugin, which will play into whether or not I use it (No offense @Spud).

      Comment


        #18
        Originally posted by sirmeili View Post
        I would assume that @spud will also charge for the Imperihome plugin, which will play into whether or not I use it (No offense @Spud).
        No offense taken
        I see the ImperiHome plugin as a good alternative for users who don't have the time or skills to build a custom HSTouch interface. With ImperiHome you can build a custom interface in a few clicks, it doesn't have the same level of customization than what you get with HSTouch Designer but it is far more user-friendly. So, the ImperiHome plugin won't be free, but I think it can save the cost of buying HSTouch Designer for some users.

        Comment


          #19
          Originally posted by spud View Post
          No offense taken
          I see the ImperiHome plugin as a good alternative for users who don't have the time or skills to build a custom HSTouch interface. With ImperiHome you can build a custom interface in a few clicks, it doesn't have the same level of customization than what you get with HSTouch Designer but it is far more user-friendly. So, the ImperiHome plugin won't be free, but I think it can save the cost of buying HSTouch Designer for some users.
          I personally will use both. I have custom panels up already around the house, this to me is where HSTouch comes into play, make it look pretty since its visible and used almost daily.

          I use HSTouch on my phone, but I don't have a custom interface since I like the idea of having control of everything at once... if needed. I hardly ever use my phone for control, so never saw the need to create a custom interface. This is where imperihome will get used. I can create something quick that works to control everything in the minor times i need it.

          Comment


            #20
            Wow so much good info I'm not going to bother and try to quote each one of your responses so I apologize if this gets confusing on who is who.

            More info on me. I have 3 vera's at 3 different locations. I'm an anti APPLE person, but I do manage apple apps for home automation as my parents use apple and one vera is at their house. So I need to cover both sides as much as I hate too. One of the houses is large and has a huge detached garage, casitas, restroom and all. Z-wave works out there but it has a cat6, Switch, and its own unfi AP's (2) out there and such. That has always been the weak area of the z-wave network due to distance from the house. A Z-Net out there would be nice. Other houses are fine with one central z-wave controller.

            I have some very complicated PLEG's and it sounds like it shouldn't be a problem with the built in logic here, I just need to learn the ropes as it took me along time to get where I'm at with PLEG today.

            Text and Email, I can't stand for recieving alerts. Pushover might be the solution.
            Vera alerts I can get all my time stamps and listed of all my alerts in a nice organized list. As I'm sure Pushover can also. I can send a snapshot of the camera with the notification in vera alerts. Not sure yet if I can with pushover. Yes I use TTS with Vera Alerts my alerts are spoken out loud to me in a custom fashion "Motion On front porch". I'm thinking pushover can't.

            Vera Proximity, as someone else mentioned I have real precise control over when it says I'm home. I have outside cameras that if I dive up or walk up I will get alerts if it doesn't know I'm home. I also have doors unlock automatically when I'm home. I can't have this happen 5 min after I'm home or 5min before I'm home. With Vera Proximity I can enable rapid update a mile out and when I cross the local fence it trips asap. I'm not sure what geofence apps also have something similer. I don't want rapid update 24/7 for battery drain issues but I also don't want a 5 min update when I get home either. I'm currently playing with tasker/autolocation to see if this can be accomplished. I'll have to research Backitude and PhLocation to see if either have any of these features. Ifttt may also have somthing, was hoping I may get pointed to what the majority seems to think it's the best to cut down on my research.

            I played with HStouch awhile back ago (when i tried to switch then also) and I didn't use ti long enough to figure it out, but I couldn't get anything to work the way I wanted it then. Probley more video's and patients might help but I have parents on Iphones and I'm on Androids I manage both. I'm hoping I won't have to custom draw an app for both OS.

            Price is an issue to some extent, but right now I feel like the apps are a hold back so far. I'm going to keep plugging away and try to get one house switched over working good to determine if it will work out for my wife, and if my parents can handle it an like it. Neither house has enough motions to do a full automation (no touch light switch), but it is something that in the future can happen.

            As far as bashing VERA. I own 3 and I have a new one on order even tho I just got homeseer. Vera has it's issues for sure but it also has its perks. I have been lucky I guess since I know people have posted some really bad things had bricked devices and such. Even all my old vera's are still running and that how my parents got in. Handing down an old vera to friends and family has lead to them also buying one and now I have old ones and just bought the newest one.

            I'm always looking for something better and in the past I thought homeseer was going to be it, I just hit to many roadblocks at that time, I'm hoping to jump in deep enough this time that I can work past those and either forget about what I used to have or fine something comparable or better. I already have A windows server at each house running Blueiris, Unifi and one with PLEX. So a windows and a computer running seems to fit me good already. I have not tried a z-net yet only a z-stick.

            Thanks again Everyone and see you around!

            Comment


              #21
              Bit off topic, but:

              Originally posted by sirmeili View Post
              @S-F, don't take my comments below the wrong way Just adding some mroe detail to your comments
              Of course I won't take it the wrong way.





              There is some stuff that is missing from this. Mainly Pushover won't do the TTS that VeraAlerts will do natively. That said, you can use the built in HS speech stuff, but for people like me that currently use windows serve, the voices aren't as good as the are on the end user versions of Windows.
              I use the Tasker plugin for TTS to the phone. I have the Ivona Kendra voice on my phone and my HS3 server. They sound exactly alike and they are both fantastic! Highly recommended.





              2. With #1 above, RTS added a way to force your phone to poll more often. For instance when you were 1 mile away from your house, you could have it poll location more frequent which could make your inner fence be more accurate.
              Why not contact Egmont, the developer of EgiGeozone? He is generally extremely responsive and friendly. I imagine if you brought the idea of such a feature to his attention he'd consider adding it.

              About the cost of plugins: There is no rush to get them. Yes most of the Vera plugins are free, but they don't really DO anything much. Like the virtual switch plugin. All it does is make a virtual switch. Many plugins for HS3 are more feature rich than all of the vera plugins combined, with the possible exception of PLEG. I think it's only fair that the authors get compensated for their time. And honestly I think that given the amount of effort they put in, the plugins are probably worth a lot more. So my approach was to get the handful of plugins I knew I needed right out the door, Envisalink, Russound, so on and the rest slowly filtered in as I saw need for them. It's not like you're going to be wanting for things to work on with a new HS system. Even if I didn't have any plugins at all I could probably spend weeks happily creating events. I think that in these weeks that even someone as impoverished as I am could scrape together the $20 - $40 for a new plugin toy. Also since these plugin authors probably aren't making anywhere near their hourly rate on their products when considering development and support it's good to keep just a little cash and good will heading their way so they don't just pull their plugins from the updater and run, not walk, away from the community. Hopefully we can get many many more years of astounding plugins from our developers. None of them, even the ones who don't charge, should be paying for their own beer. Top shelf beer at that.
              Originally posted by rprade
              There is no rhyme or reason to the anarchy a defective Z-Wave device can cause

              Comment


                #22
                Originally posted by S-F View Post

                About the cost of plugins: There is no rush to get them. Yes most of the Vera plugins are free, but they don't really DO anything much. Like the virtual switch plugin. All it does is make a virtual switch. Many plugins for HS3 are more feature rich than all of the vera plugins combined, with the possible exception of PLEG. I think it's only fair that the authors get compensated for their time. And honestly I think that given the amount of effort they put in, the plugins are probably worth a lot more. So my approach was to get the handful of plugins I knew I needed right out the door, Envisalink, Russound, so on and the rest slowly filtered in as I saw need for them. It's not like you're going to be wanting for things to work on with a new HS system. Even if I didn't have any plugins at all I could probably spend weeks happily creating events. I think that in these weeks that even someone as impoverished as I am could scrape together the $20 - $40 for a new plugin toy. Also since these plugin authors probably aren't making anywhere near their hourly rate on their products when considering development and support it's good to keep just a little cash and good will heading their way so they don't just pull their plugins from the updater and run, not walk, away from the community. Hopefully we can get many many more years of astounding plugins from our developers. None of them, even the ones who don't charge, should be paying for their own beer. Top shelf beer at that.
                +1 on this... People coming from Vera should adjust their mindset. You get what you pay for... and it shows between the two different systems and the plugins created. Not knocking the vera plugin authors, i used them and even paid for PLEG and Vera Alerts... but you can't compare the two systems. Homeseer is in a completely different league as are the plugins.

                If you think about what you paid for software vs hardware, even with homeseer, I think you will find you are very lopsided in that hardware costs are way more. Why is it ok to pay 50 bucks for a switch, but not 40 for a plugin that someone spent their off hours developing?

                Like i said when people complained that RTS was going to start charging for PLEG... if you don't like it, build your own.

                Comment


                  #23
                  If you have any issues, roadblocks, anything like that and for some reason you can't get answers on the forum in a manner which is timely enough for you shoot me a PM or something like that and I will be more than happy to help. I tried HS2 when I was a Vera user. I installed it and ran it for the trial month and couldn't quite find my place in the HomeSeer world. I had a terrible time figuring out what I was doing. For some reason my questions weren't really answered. So I moved all of my devices back to the Vera. Maybe if I had been ushered through the process of learning how HS2 works a little more I would have stayed. I wanted to stay! I just couldn't figure out all of the new lingo and approaches to things.

                  When HS3 came along and seemed stable enough I decided I wouldn't urinate down my Vera's throat if its guts were on fire. I had had it with all the issues. Made the move to HS3. Never once looked back.

                  I have Unifi APs also. Really great. Something cool I do with the: One inside, one outside. When my phone connects to the outside AP I am "outside" and events operate differently. When I am connected to the inside AP I am "inside". That's a real bangup feature for me since all of my announcements can be sent to the outdoor speakers if I'm outside and the like.
                  Originally posted by rprade
                  There is no rhyme or reason to the anarchy a defective Z-Wave device can cause

                  Comment

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