Amazon currently has the Vera Plus for $109.99, about $40 off… I’ve read a lot of good things about using Vera as a Z-Wave controller and connecting to HA for all automations.
Trying to decide if I should switch to this from my Aeotec Z Stick. My primary complaint with the Z Stick is it seems to just barely not be able to reach everywhere I want it to, and the added hop has given mesome latency issues with battery powered devices.
Thoughts on if I should pull the trigger?
Appreciate the input!
I away moved from Aeotec stick/Open Z-Wave to a Vera Plus about 4 months ago. For the most part i’m very happy with the results. I do not need to worry about random failures of my zwave network anymore.
There is a noticeable latency with some devices which is worth noting, I overcame some of this by adding a script to the Vera Plus to reboot every night.
Range seems slightly better than the stick.
APPROACH VERA FIRMWARE UPDATES WITH CAUTION!!! - Honestly i cannot stress this enough they are terrible with firmware roll outs i bricked one of my units completely and there RMA is also terrible. If the features not required don’t update.
I am almost finished with moving about 50 devices from Aeotec Z Stick to vera… I think it’s a better alternative to the stick and open-zwave (to much hassle). So far so good!
I went the other way. My Vera died after a year or so. Vera’s support wasn’t that helpful, and the options were to buy a new one or use home-assistant. I don’t miss all the quirks with Vera software upgrades (super buggy experience). Being able to easily roll back HA if needed and keep my configs in git is a huge win.
I’m unsure how the z stick gives you an extra hop - doesn’t it just act as a controller, in the same way that the Vera has a controller in it?
@nd100 It does, but the range of the stick is just shy of being able to cover my whole home, so any devices I have on the outskirts must communicate through another device (the added hop). I’m cautiously optimistic that the better range I’ve heard about with Vera would give the additional coverage needed to eliminate this. It’s not a huge issue, I just like the idea of everything talking to the controller directly lol.
Have you looked at a zwave range extender? My experience was actually the opposite with My Vera3 and aeotec stick. My range improved with the aeotec - this may be as a result of a more optimal zwave topology, but I can certainly turn lights on and off further away more reliably, and without a range extender now.
Doing upgrades on Vera was incredibly brittle. There’s no way I’d ever go back to one.
Thanks for sharing! I haven’t looked into a range extender but will check it out.
@Brett_C One of the core features of Zwave is the mesh. You absolutely want hops to happen or at least be available. It is how you get complete and reliable coverage. An ideal situation would be that every device had multiple neighbors and should the primary path be temporarily disrupted, the communication between device and hub would be passed on by a neighbor.
Our homes are bathed in radio signals, both known and intentional, and unknown and random. It is very easy to have a random situation cause disruptions. Something as innocent as a microwave on at the same time as a bathroom fan or one of a million possible causes. Even someone standing at a particular spot in the house.
And forget range extenders. Just get another line powered Zwave device.
I’m fairly new to Home Assistant, my z-wave radio went out on my SmartThings and I jumped ship. I’m up and running on Synology through a Docker container (stock HA, not HassIO) with some z-wave integrations with the Aeotec Z-Stick and I’m really liking it so far. I am considering getting the VeraPlus (for zigbee) but I wanted to know how much configuration needs to be done on the VeraPlus?
Can I just give the VeraPlus a static IP and point HomeAssistant to it? And then add devices through the HA Z-wave or zigbee configuration pages?
Or would I need to log into the VeraPlus device to manage the connected devices?
I haven’t seen any videos or tutorials for using VeraPlus, so I’m trying to get an idea about it before i throw $150 at it.
Robby, I am currently a Vera/HASSIO user. I have 6 rental properties through AirBnB and each of these rentals are managed through Vera. I manage the rental properties door locks, HVAC, and Temperature Monitoring. I also control the occupancy modes by automating the AirBnB calendar to a Google Calendar for each of the rentals. Vera has a Google Calendar (GCal3) plugin which allows me to automate when the rental enters a home status the day a renter checks in and at the end of their stay, the system returns to the Vacation Status. My home has Vera and HASSIO running. At home I can control the Vera controls and scenes through HASSIO due to the Vera plugin. I also have connected the Google Home devices to HASSIO with the cloud connection in HASSIO. I have not had any issues, so far, with Vera and the interconnection of Vera with HASSIO. There is no need for a static IP if the two systems are on the same network. I am beginning to investicate when I can have a single HASSIO or HA environment with the ability to connect to all of the Vera controllers I have at different locations and provide a single pane of glass dashboard for all of my properties. There are several YouTube videos for using VeraPlus, just have to weed through the ones applicable for what you are trying to accomplish.