Migrating from SmartThings to Vera Plus

That’s another reason I stick with iPhone/iPad. The quality of mobile apps (other than Google-made ones) on iOS platform is consistently better than on Android.

Has anyone worked with Vera and MQTT? It might be possible to “glue” ST together by setting up Vera for local device control and processing, then sending device status updates to ST via the MQTT Bridge. Vera devices would be created manually in ST as virtual devices in the IDE, and the MQTT bridge can set device properties in ST and send out ST-initiated device commands back to Vera.

This way you could let Vera do what it’s good at, while continuing to use the ST cloud for apps and cloud-to-cloud integrations.

It’s on my list. Once I complete Z-Wave network migration, I’ll look into Echo integration options. It’s not a super hight priority for me, but nice to have.

The iOS version got just as bad of reviews. 2.5 stars

Reading the reviews on Amazon and the app stores does not make me want to jump ship. Geo Fencing seems to be an issues and a lot of similar comments to ST like “Don’t pay to beta test this thing.”

How many devices do you plan to add? i am over 100, about half zigbee/zwave.

Both Vera Plus and SmartThings have 3.4 stars Amazon rating. Both SmartThings and Vera mobile apps are rated 2.5 stars on iTunes. Both have advantages and disadvantages. To me personally, the biggest advantages of Vera are:

  • It’s not cloud-dependent. Everything runs locally and controlled locally.
  • It has more options for third-party integrations, more open architecture.

But I’m not trying to convince anyone to switch. If cloud dependency does not bother you, by all means, stick with SmartThings. :sunglasses:

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Thanks to share your experience with Vera, Your objective opinion its appreciated, If vera its strong enough I will start to learn LUA

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Yes, I too would like to know how your experience with Vera so far has been.

I heard there were some issues with Vera Plus and ZigBee. Any truth to that our just a rumor?

I know LUA from my Control4 days. If the zigbee stuff works at all on Vera Plus it might be worth looking at.

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I will just leave this here:

http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,38125.0.html

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Add to that thread the ST’s own Poltergeist thread, sprinkled with a note or two from the great Winkenning and you have a pretty good picture of how fragile this new home automation market is. There are just too many things that need to fit just right, or else you’ll have a frustrating experience.

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Does Vera Plus provide ways to access devices from 3rd party applications? For example, would it be possible to create something like SmartTiles?

I’m pretty sure there are even third party apps for Vera, even. Yes, in short. But there are some things that give me pause about Vera. One of which is they announced in January that there would be a push for third party monitoring services. And then… radio silence. I’m not following them all day, but that’s just what I’ve seen.

Yes, Vera provides access to all device via HTTP API. This can be accessed either locally or remotely, via their forwarding server.

SmartTitles uses unique ability of SmartThings to serve dynamic HTML from the smart app. There’s no direct equivalent in Vera, so you’d need to host your HTML/CSS/JavaScript somewhere.

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So far, I have not experienced any connectivity issues with Z-Wave devices. I have not connected any Zigbee devices yet, so can’t say. Time-based scenes (both sunrise/sunset and absolute time) work like a clockwork.

It’s not a secret that both Z-Wave and Zigbee are susceptible to radio interference. If you’re unlucky to live in the area with a lot of RF noise, you’re going to have communication issues regardless of which system you use.

The nice thing about Vera is that it alerts you if any of your devices drop off. I have unplugged one of my plug-in switches and Vera quickly notified me that “Device NOT responding”. SmartThings can’t do that.

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Have you, now? :slight_smile: Any updates…?

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At this point, not having Alexa integration is pretty much the only thing holding me back

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What fallout are you experiencing to push you to this?

Honestly, I’m sick of the crap with the company. The platform has so much potential, but it seems like a good bottle of Jack takes priority.

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:disappointed:

Such a shame, sincerely.

Waste of a great open concept.

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