Mi Casa Verde Vera Lite as a Primary Controller, ST as a secondary

Devices & Integrations Connected Things
1

I’d like to keep my vera as my primary z-wave controller. I currently have a GE remote acting as a secondary without any problems. I’m trying to get SmartThings to join my z-wave network in the same manner (or any manner). In ST app you can go to z-wave utilities and choose join z-wave network. Click join and get searching…then Z-Wave join finished. I just have an OK button. Now what?
I don’t see any new devices and my vera doesn’t see the ST hub as a secondary controller like it does with the GE remotes. In Vera UI5 I’ve tried adding as remotes and scene controllers, and even any type of z-wave device (slave, controller, any). This has been done with both controllers close to each other just in case they are doing low power inclusion and across the house as well. Is the join zwave network option in ST fake?

2

Did you try doing it in reverse? ST primary and Vera secondary. I have no idea what will happen but that’s what I’d try. I know some z-wave features (like repair or mesh or whatever the option DT has were non functional until the last firmware update - don’t know about the join function. I’ve got integrating the 2 systems on my to-do list since I got the ST systems since mat of my z-wave stuff (and x10 and Insteon) are on a pair of Vera 3’s. also, I know you said the devices were close but try high power inclusion. Even with some lock sitting next to Vera, I couldn’t get them to pair in low power inclusion mode. Lastly, even though its a z-wave network inclusion, try changing the wifi SSID that Vera generates to the same one that your ST hub is in - its a long shot but these things tend to be trial and error. Of course, ST may just come back and say it can’t be done in which case all of the above is irrelevant anyway. Geeze - I’m loving this Dragon dictation app - got 95% of this post right and it was free in the App Store.

3

@amunra333 it’s not fake, but you may not have the correct firmware yet. Your firmware version is listed on the hub details page. If you have trouble finding it, hit up support@smartthing.com

4

@solardave1 @amunra333, definitely interested to hear how setting Vera up as secondary to ST works out for you.

5

My firmware version is 000.010.00246
At the moment I really don’t want my vera to be secondary. It currently works really well with my schlage locks.

6

Is there a firmware out there newer than this with better z-wave support?

7

Nope thats the latest firmware. I can see it working on my end, but it seems to only be going into learn mode for 8 seconds.

8

Using the web ui and clicking join I get ZWave Learn mode initiate,d but under logs I don’t get any feedback. Where do you see feedback on how long it’s in learn mode and what it finds?

9

I was wondering if there has been any further updates regarding this topic. i am trying to integrate the two and cant figure it out at all. i prefer the ST to be the secondary controller, but at this point id be happy if the two acknowledged eachother at all

10

@ddarvish @solardave1 @amunra333 I was able to successfully add my Vera Lite as a secondary controller to the SmartThings hub. With all my devices already connected to my ST hub and the Vera and ST hub right next to each other, I went into the SmartThings app, tapped the “+” tile, then immediately wen into the Vera Lite to “Setup” -> “Z-Wave Settings” -> “Advanced” and clicked “Go” next to “Copy Z-Wave network from a master controller”.

The ST Hub then added the Vera as a “Z-Wave Controller,” along with a nice controller icon. Then the Vera started going through and configuring all of the devices automatically. Though it didn’t pull the device names over, and it added a bunch of non-functional devices (I’m assuming the Zigbee devices?), but the Z-Wave ones worked!

Now comes the problem. I turned off an outlet using the Vera UI, and even after turning it back on manually (with the button on the outlet), the Vera seems to have sent another On signal. So it’s a little unreliable. Surprisingly unreliable, in comparison to what it was as a primary controller anyway.

11

That’s exactly what happened to me - it’s almost a word for word description of how far I managed to get and what happened after that. I back-shelved the project for the time being but eventually I’ll re-visit it. I toured with the IDE of trying it the other way around but frankly didn’t have the time to experiment. Maybe ST could chime in here - I have to think they’ve got some in-house experience with something like this.

12

@solardave1, I was looking at other HA controllers that people have used with the Vera as a secondary, and some of them mention a few extra steps like “downgrading Z-Wave on the Vera from 3.20 to 2.78” (doesn’t seem like something we should have to do here since ST is so new) and “uncheck the options ‘By default Vera should automatically configure devices’ and ‘Use Vera routing instead of Z-Wave (requires 4.5)’” (these may in fact be helpful, and I could imagine the automatically configuring one to have something to do with performance issues.)

When I have some time to try again, I may mess around with those checkboxes and see if it fixes the issue. I fully expect that those checkboxes will require that I manually add all of the Z-Wave devices to the Vera once it’s a secondary, but I don’t necessarily have a problem with that.

Also, I do have a support ticket out with one of ST’s hardware guys to get their take on accomplishing this. No response yet (but it’s only been a day).

13

Has anyone successfully gone the other way? I’d rather keep my stable vera system as primary while ST figures out how to do z-wave.

14

@amunra333, just heard back from Urman. I haven’t tried it yet, but he says that you should be able to go into Z-Wave Utilities -> Join/Leave another Z-Wave Network on the ST Hub and pair it with your Vera as a secondary. Not sure what the process is on the Vera side to add a secondary controller, but it should be whatever the normal process is.

I may give this a shot when I get home this evening. If you have a chance, let me know how it goes for you.

15

I’m not, however, looking forward to having to remove all of my Z-Wave Devices from the ST Network before doing this.

16

@csader, check my first post at the top. It explains what happened when I attempted.

17

@amunra333 Sorry, missed that. I’ll give it a shot this evening and post an update.

18

SO i added the vera as a secondary controller like some of you did in the instructions on page one and most of my zwave devices worked but there were a couple that just would not add no matter what i would do. THe most annoying thing is that it reset all my user codes i had setup for my locks =(I

Ideally I would love the VERA to controll everything directly if possible, while allowing ST to be a proxy to control zigbee devices and still allow control of all devices through ST for my fiancee. ST is just a simple easy to use interface while the vera is a bit too techinical for her. I hope to get this working soon.

19

@ddarvish: I don’t mean to go completely off-topic, but does ST now support setting up user codes for your locks?

20

@Gray, I would guess he means he had to reprogram the codes into the lock itself. I had to do the same last time I re-added my lock to ST. I didn’t have to when adding Vera as a secondary, though, so not sure why that would have happened @ddarvish.