Vodafone V-Home locked vs unlocked Wifi Hub comparison

Devices & Integrations
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I was curious about the Vodafone V-Home units as they are for sale in Germany/UK for dirt cheap. (I bought a new V-Home safety kit for 15€)

Anyways, the first ET-WV523 wifi hub (left in the pic) I bought was Vodafone branded but installed with no problems. it did however add a V-Home services and V-Home monitor applets, which are pretty cool when the devices are set up. I was able to add a V-Home siren, a non V branded Smartthings multipurpose sensor and even the V-Home camera that all comes in a Vodafone kit. Despite saying a couple times during the install that video is a paid service, the camera functioned properly locally.

I then bought another newer V-Home kit that somehow has an IMEI number and I could not add that ET WV523 hub(right in the pic). It’s components added to the first hub no problem but this hub was a no go unless I downloaded the VHome video app and registered/paid etc.
I will also soon try the V-Home components with a regular V3 hub as soon as I get it.

Anyways, I wonder why one is locked and the other is not and what the IMEI number means for that.

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This may be useful info for some of you out there…these V-Home kits cam be had in the ads and eBay for dirt cheap and are worth it even just for the multipurpose sensor and siren.

If anyone out there has the skills to dig into the firmware and find a solution to the locked units, I will happily ship you a brand new unit free. Just can’t help but think the volume of these V-Home units that were given out by Vodafone to customers that are collecting dust in basements could become useful if the community figures out a solution.

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Dear Sir,
I have bought the same HUb as yours (ET-WV523). Being in Morocco we don’t have Vodafone internet provider here. I tried to connect the HUB with my smartthings app but, It didn’t work. Can you help me please ?

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I haven’t found a solution. If someone in the community is keen to dig around the firmware, I would send them a hub.

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My understanding is that it’s not a firmware issue, but rather that smartthings reserved a specific set of serial numbers for Vodafone to use for their V home initiative. So the lockout occurs when the hub reaches the smartthings cloud.

At one point there were a couple of members who contacted SmartThings support in their country and were able to get the hub connected to a smartthings account without a Vodafone membership after the V home project was discontinued.

However, I believe that was only done for customers who lived within the Vodafone service area, which was the UK and some EU countries. If you don’t live in a country where smartthings is officially supported, I’m not sure they’ll do it for you. But you can try.

If you open the smartthings app and contact support from there, you should be put in touch with support for your region.

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