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Moved from HC2 to Vera, sharing experience


ivan.ruban

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Hello, I am the user of both HC2 and Vera for a long time. And I finally migrated all my ZWave devices from HC2 to VeraLite recently. HC2 is now powered off. I would like to share my experience with you - I hope it can probably be useful for somebody. But I am also looking forward for your comments/experience/ideas, especially also from guys having experience with different controllers.

Why did I select Vera over HC2?

1) My main consideration to select Vera was "dead nodes" problem in HC2. It is a killer of HC2!!! When I chose HomeAutomation technology a long time ago I selected ZWave instead of RfxTrx433-devices mainly because of reliabilty that ZWave protocol offers. And for example my HC2 works just perfect for a week and then device(s) can suddenly become dead. It is just not acceptable at all! One can say - the problem can be related to network configuration. But in Vera there is a "heal network" tool which analizes the routes in netowrk and saving the best routes. The similar functionality in HC2 "Reconfigure network" did not do the trick for me unfortunately. But I am not alone with this problem as I got from the forum. In Vera you just don't have this issue!

2) The integration potential in Vera is amazing. It is not limited by HTTP protocol as it is in HC2. For example I connected USB300 enOcean stick-controller directly into Vera and control now my EnOcean solar powered (I miss it so much in ZWave by the way) D/W sensors and wall-controllers. In HC2 you will need an OpenHab server running in the middle to achieve something similar. But even though all my 3-party devices in HC2 will be considered as virtual which I don't like, see the next point.

3) The flexibility of virtual devices that can be configured as a regular z-wave device. You can create f.ex. virtual dimmer or virtual thermostat - it works exactly in the same way as ZWave devices in mobile apps, but you can use whatever logic behind. In HC2 mobile app I have a lot of virtual devices instead while I like them to be categorized in a right way (light source, MMedia, climate). Without that the HC2 mobile app is not really useful for me. Another downside of HC2 mobile app - you cannot sort (and then save!) device order (

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).

4) Device support. HC2 does a great job in development the support for new and new devices. But it takes years, common! In my particular case I need a support for Remotec ZX-120 and Door locks. These devices are available on the market for quite a long time already.

5) A lot of iOS and Android applications, some of them allows even making custom UI! Fibaro is closed to only Fibaro apps. Why by the way? Why there is no one who tried to use HC2 API and develop the application?

What I miss now in Vera that I liked in HC2:

1) Faster hardware. VeraLite has 64 mb RAM which sounds ridiculous. But I prefer a ridiculous stable platform instead of fast controller looking as top class device but with routing problems.

2) Easy to use configuration and nice UI. That is where Fibaro is best on the market! But you normally configure the devices just once, and then normally don't use control panel, you use a mobile application instead. So I can live with ugly Vera's controller interface. But the possibilities it provides are amazing.

3) Event panel - i believe there is a plug in also in Vera for that, but have not just seeked for it yet.

4) Heating panel. You can configure quite easily the heating schedule in HC2. And 4 time groups is OK for me. Nevertheless there is no way to use virtual device as a linked device. And then the panel is useless...

5) Set temporary setpoint for x-hours on a thermostat. There are most likely also alternatives in Vera apps, needs to be investigated.

6) Different "button sets" for virtual device. Have not found anything similar.

The price factor is a secondary factor for me - I own both systems already. And I am OK to invest some money into reliability. In a perfect world I would like a commercial solution that can be used 24/7 without a restart. Vera seems to work fine, but I am bit unsure anyway to use it (and especially HC2) as a commercial product. Anyone who can recommend something else? Insteon, homeseer, iris, mcontrol ...?

I don't agitate for any of the controllers. I just share my personal experience, I can be wrong of course. I would gladly like to hear other opinions and sharing the experience.

And I must say HC2 is doing a great job in development of new products. It is a really a good product and I wish it to be the best. Currently it has the problems unfortunately and Vera works more stable in my case. But may be it is just in my case?

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Thanks for sharing, rally very interesting.

Just one question, why don't you go for the Vera 3 instead?

tx

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I can recommend www.perceptiveautomation.com

Their software is rock solid, with good support.

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/emoticons/default_icon_smile.gif" alt=":-)" />

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Guest mhn

I own HCL, Vera light, Homeseer 2+3 and a lot more.

It's Homeseer 2 that runs my house. I think Homeseer 3 is just about ready so I might change.

But this is a discussion for one of the non-commercial forums like domoticaforum.eu or zwaves.dk.

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Regards

Morten

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Thanks for sharing.

I have tried a few controllers but have not found what I am after yet. Sticking with HC2 for now. Please keep posting you experience.

Competition is good.

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Thanks for sharing! I've come to the conclusion that no single controller can do what i want so for me the hc2 is just a single component in my system. The important thing for me is that i can use some sort of protocol to communicate through my scripting server with the devices.

Neither fibaro nor vera allow for proper integration in my view.

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Guest GrZeCh

I've just recently moved from HC2 to openHAB (with Aeon Labs z-wave USB stick connected to ubuntu server placed in my garage) which I'm managing from ssh and HABmin interface and I'm using it from openHAB android application. It was a little hard at the beginning but now I would not switch this configuration for any other. Lack of plugin system and virtual device acting as only a virtual devices in HC2 was a showstopper for me.

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I've just recently moved from HC2 to openHAB (with Aeon Labs z-wave USB stick connected to ubuntu server placed in my garage) which I'm managing from ssh and HABmin interface and I'm using it from openHAB android application. It was a little hard at the beginning but now I would not switch this configuration for any other. Lack of plugin system and virtual device acting as only a virtual devices in HC2 was a showstopper for me.

Interesting. Have you tested other systems like Domoticz? Why have you selected OpenHAB over those?

Tx

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Guest GrZeCh

Yep. Domoticz was my first choice but not having possibility to create virtual device with multiple buttons make this not usable for me. OpenHAB was also tempting me with huge list of bindings (addons). I've successfully added my LogitechMediaServer with my squeezeboxes emulators (runned on RaspberryPi with XBMC) to openHAB configuration. I've tried also to add XBMC bingind but I've failed (for now). Voice recognition from android app is also very configurable but I have issues with polish natinal characters because they are not correctly handled during connection between android app and openhab instance (I've alredy reported this). I own also a few Plugwise energy meters/switches which I've bought few years ago and openHAB albo has binding for that (I didn't tested it yet). Ah. One one thing which was for me another showstopper when using HC2. Charts. Charts for everything I want. In openHAB you are configuring items for persistence and for each item its state is being saved to local DB. With this information you can create charts without any issues. So no more virtual devices sending temperature values to separate app (

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). Another thing is that everything what you see in web or android interface is configurable. Everything!

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I have also used homeseer, vera and HCL as z-wave master.

Nothing is perfect..

Vera is slow and ugly.

Homeseer is US focus, so alot of EU devices dont get support.

HCL is fast and simple, but unstable and to simple.

I am staying on HCL and just working around the problems. i am switching sensors and logic to embedded devices, and also setting up auto-reboot when the HCL do not respond.

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  • I can recommend www.perceptiveautomation.com Their software is rock solid, with good support.

    Did you try them by youself? As I can see I have to have a Mac OS which I currently don't have. But it's not a problem to invest if it's a good product.

    why don't you go for the Vera 3 instead?

    I bought Vera for a long time ago and I took Lite version just because it was cheaper. If I'll buy Vera now of course I will choose Vera 3 which runs easily with 200+ ZWave devices. The lite version becomes quite slow with 50+ ZWave devices. I am looking forward for Vera Pro version (1Ghz 1Gb RAM):

    Please login or register to see this link.

    I own HCL, Vera light, Homeseer 2+3 and a lot more. It's Homeseer 2 that runs my house. I think Homeseer 3 is just about ready so I might change.

    So you selected Homeseer over others. What is the main reason for that? I saw there is a Linux version of HS - I will definitely try that one day. Is RPi enough for HS? What HW do you use? What is the situation with mobile clients? Any issues with ZWave compatibility?

    I've come to the conclusion that no single controller can do what i want

    What are your main requirements that you have not found in other systems? I am very quirious. I assume it is custom UI and advanced heating schedule, or? As for custom GUI - I really like OpenRemote approach where you can combine different protocols in one place and customize your application view without any need in programming. In Vera there is something similar in SQRemote and ImperiHome applications.

    I've just recently moved from HC2 to openHAB (with Aeon Labs z-wave USB stick connected to ubuntu server placed in my garage) which I'm managing from ssh and HABmin interface and I'm using it from openHAB android application. It was a little hard at the beginning but now I would not switch this configuration for any other. Lack of plugin system and virtual device acting as only a virtual devices in HC2 was a showstopper for me.

    That is good that we have an OpenHAB user here. From open source solutions I tested by myself: Domoticz, Domotiga, OSA, OpenRemote, OpenHAB. OpenHAB impressed me most of all because of plenty of protocols. I tested OpenHAB with RfxTrx and Max - worked just fine. I considered this system very seriously and was just about to setup it as my main home system when suddenly found this (

    Please login or register to see this link.

    ) and I was a bit unsure if I should use it - I don't want the same problems as in HC2. And I came to Vera. How does it work with Aeon z-stick in your case? Is your ZWave network big enough? How to use virtual devices in OpenHAB? Any issues with OpenHAB, how often do you restart it?

    Another factor for me to choose Vera over OpenHab is a remote access. How do you connect to OpenHAB remotely from a non-local network? Your own VPN connection or? "my.openhab" sounds promising but no ideas when it starts to work.

    I am also very interested in alternatives to Sonos, and the Squeezebox emulator sounds as a good and cheap option - and with a sound system you want. Vera has also a Squeezebox plugin. Any link how to configure Squeezebox emulator could be nice to have.

    Regarding voice recognition - I want to it to be real-time. Neither HC2, nor OpenHAB has it as real-time. Why sould I press the button before I speak? There was some interesting options for real-time recognition on this forum but all were for Windows (using Windows speech engine) - don't want to buy windows server just for voice. I am looking for Linux or Android real time voice recognition. What I found for Linux is VoiceCommand, it shoud work fine since it is based on GoogleVoice. For Android wall tablet I plan to try Utter!+Tasker. Utter! can listen all the time.

    Nothing is perfect..

    Vera is slow and ugly.

    Homeseer is US focus, so alot of EU devices dont get support.

    HCL is fast and simple, but unstable and to simple.

    Completely agree regarding Vera. You need to be very patient when you work with it!!!

    Please login or register to see this image.

    /emoticons/default_icon_smile.gif" alt=":-)" /> But as I told before you normally don't use the control panel much - mostly just in the beginning when you setup the network. And when everything is configured I normally use the mobile app for device control. Anyway Micasaverde guys are working on the new UI -

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    And hopefully they will release Vera Pro soon so the hardware will be at least not from Nokia 3310

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    /emoticons/default_icon_mrgreen.gif" alt=":mrgreen:" /> or a router (in Vera 3 case). But so far I like Vera - it slow and ugly but works and I don't restart it.

    "Nothing is perfect.." - yes I agree. But I am ready to invest into new options. As I mentioned before I want to have a stable 24/7 wireless automation solution - I just don't know the right one. And I am not limited only to DIY sector, stable commercial solution is even more interesting to try.

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    What are your main requirements that you have not found in other systems? I am very quirious. I assume it is custom UI and advanced heating schedule, or? As for custom GUI - I really like OpenRemote approach where you can combine different protocols in one place and customize your application view without any need in programming. In Vera there is something similar in SQRemote and ImperiHome applications.

    I want far more than that... What I want is to be able to link lots of different types of devices together, no matter the protocol, not just control them from one common ui.

    So I want my television to talk to my lights.

    I want my door sensors to talk to my cooking plate.

    I want my speakers to talk to iTunes even if they don't speak airplay.

    I want my vacuum cleaner to turn up the preset light level, when it is turned on and back to the preset once you are done cleaning.

    I want my washing machine to tell my girlfriends phone when it is done (see at i did there?

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    /emoticons/default_icon_mrgreen.gif" alt=":mrgreen:" />)

    I want a very advanced alarm system which reacts differently based on whether we are home or not and if the dog is home, and which will not only alert in case of burglary, but also in case of fire or smoke (with different warnings). And even tell you if you've forgotten to turn off "dangerous" devices when leaving home.

    I want the heating to change based on my schedules, but also on door/window sensors and motion.

    I want my heat recovery ventilation to adapt to the conditions inside (humidity, CO2 and temperature) and out (temperature) as well as time of day, somit will turn up the ventilation in the bedroom during the day but turn it down at night when I don't want to listen to the noise.

    I want my sky lights to open when it is hot, but close when it is raining.

    I want my Tesla Model S (coming later this year) to speak to my smart meter so the car will only start charging when the electricity price goes down at night.

    In short, I want full integration, not just some common interface, which will let you do a little. I want one common protocol for every device, but I can't get that - and neither Fibaro, Vera or Homeseer takes me there... But I have achieved all that on a 35$ Raspberry pi! Hell, I could probably buy a 20$ zwave stick and ditch the stand alone controller all together, but the fibaro is powerful and allows for easy control of all my lights. That is really all I need from my zwave controller. And running on firmware 3.581 it is rock steady... Haven't needed a reboot for two months...

    So for me RPi is by far the best answer to my needs. It achieves all of the above together with the HC2.

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    Guest sztywniak

    Regarding voice recognition - I want to it to be real-time. Neither HC2, nor OpenHAB has it as real-time. Why sould I press the button before I speak? There was some interesting options for real-time recognition on this forum but all were for Windows (using Windows speech engine) - don't want to buy windows server just for voice. I am looking for Linux or Android real time voice recognition. What I found for Linux is VoiceCommand, it shoud work fine since it is based on GoogleVoice. For Android wall tablet I plan to try Utter!+Tasker. Utter! can listen all the time.

    look this :

    Tasker and Autovoice

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    Guest mhn
    So you selected Homeseer over others. What is the main reason for that? I saw there is a Linux version of HS - I will definitely try that one day. Is RPi enough for HS? What HW do you use? What is the situation with mobile clients? Any issues with ZWave compatibility?

    I got over the steep learning curve.

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    /emoticons/default_icon_smile.gif" alt=":-)" />

    I use a lot of protocols because I can with Homeseer

    Please login or register to see this link.

    (Mi-Light on the way.)

    The strength of Homeseer are the plugins. There are plugins for many things. Linux version have limited plugins. That might change but at the monent you will miss a lot.

    I run my Homeseer on a Intel NUC.

    I use HS touch and like it. The default project is no good so you have to make you own. But in HS Touch that's possible.

    As Elmstrom writes there are problems with Homeseer and EU Z-Wave.

    I don't love Homeseer I use it because it's the only way I have found to do what I want to do. If something better show up I will use it.

    Please login or register to see this image.

    /emoticons/default_icon_smile.gif" alt=":-)" /> But I haven't found anything better. I have tried since 2007 and bought a lot of masters on the way.

    I think I would go for HC2 if I was beginning today.

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    /emoticons/default_icon_smile.gif" alt=":-)" />

    Regards

    Morten

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    Guest GrZeCh
    I considered this system very seriously and was just about to setup it as my main home system when suddenly found this (

    Please login or register to see this link.

    ) and I was a bit unsure if I should use it - I don't want the same problems as in HC2

    I just started with openHAB so it is hard for me to say how it works. So far I'm happy. I had some issues with connectivity etc. but almost every day I'm finding new things in openHAB and since I'm quite technical person I like to test everything so my openHAB service is being restarted a lot. I think I could say more maybe in next few weeks. So far I'm mostly using only wall switches/relays. I have one flood sensor and three smoke sensors. I can say that I have some issues connecting battery devices (I've binded them with aeon labs usb stick but they are even not detected in openHAB - flood sensor has been recognized but it is dead, two battery powered smoke sensors are not recognized and one landline powered smoke sensor is online withotu any issues) but this maybe can be caused by low level of batteries in this devices. Regarding URL you've provided I thinkg some things changed in zwave openhab binding because you can set healing hour (just like it is in Vera?). I'm using latest snapshots of bindings with openHAB 1.4 (1.5 is just around the corner).

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  • I want far more than that... What I want is to be able to link lots of different types of devices together, no matter the protocol, not just control them from one common ui.

    As always, just positive emotions reading your posts.

    Please login or register to see this image.

    /emoticons/default_icon_wink.gif" alt=";-)" /> Thanks for thinking out of the box. That is one of the main problem in my case - I know I have a lot of smart things installed already. But to make them work together and to think about interesting scenes - it is really a talent! Sad that you are not from Sweden, would really like to discuss some things with a beer. I have also a lot of ideas which I would like to bring to the market, starting from software and ending from solar powered ZWave devices.

    - As for Tesla S, my friend from Russia (I am also russian) was just about to buy it but read of forums stopped him to do it since you normally can expect several hundred kilometers on a full charge in reallity, it's not 700 km!

    Please login or register to see this image.

    /emoticons/default_icon_confused.gif" alt=":-?" /> I don't know much about it myslef but that is what he told he me. By the way you can of course make a LUA schedule for your charging at night.

    - Speaking TV to lights - there is a XBMC plugin in Vera that listens for events. So you an dim down your lights when f.ex. start playing movie.

    - "vacuum cleaner to turn up the preset light level". You need a smart vacuum cleaner with http protocol - and there are on the market actually.

    - "I want my washing machine to tell my girlfriends phone when it is done" - Fibaro plug with LUA scene - if kwh<0.1 then send sms

    - "advanced alarm system" - yes, again LUA. No chance to have it via UI in any of Home Control systems (what I know at least), unfortunately...

    - etc - the other topics. Yes, you are completely right. It is againg scripting (JavaScript, PHP, LUA, ...)

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    /emoticons/default_icon_confused.gif" alt=":-?" /> RPi is really your best friend, I also have several running

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    /emoticons/default_laugh.png" alt=":lol:" />

    look this :

    Tasker and Autovoice

    Thanks a lot! In a Autovoice+Takser video that I looked before (
    ) - the guy pressed the button so I did not really checked the AutoVoice capabities. But "always listen" feature does the trick! So it is easier then Utter! app. Another good thing of AutoVoice is restart on crash - very good!
    I got over the steep learning curve.

    Please login or register to see this image.

    /emoticons/default_icon_smile.gif" alt=":-)" />

    I use a lot of protocols because I can with Homeseer

    Please login or register to see this link.

    (Mi-Light on the way.)

    The strength of Homeseer are the plugins. There are plugins for many things.

    In case if you have RPi (or anything other server running 24h) - take a look at OpenHab that has also integration for Milight, as well as for plenty iof other things. Vera also has Milight in the way of special plug-in that you can install. I had milight RGBW and played with it before on OpenRemote+Openhab on RPi. It worked fine unless the Milight controller died one day.

    Please login or register to see this image.

    /emoticons/default_icon_sad.gif" alt=":-(" /> Then I was a bit dissapointed in their quality (or maybe it is just my case?) and moved to Phlips Hue which just works... More expensive, but I am a bit pedantic in terms of quality. Just one thing I can complain about Hue - the green light sucks (I don't like lime color - I want it to be green!!! MiLight gives the full RGB)

    I think I would go for HC2 if I was beginning today.

    That tells a lot. If you choose HC2 instead of HomeSeer, than I would wait a bit with tests with HS I guess, as for now. But the main stopping factor is actualy EU Z-Wave compatibility in HS

    I think I could say more maybe in next few weeks. So far I'm mostly using only wall switches/relays. I have one flood sensor and three smoke sensors. I can say that I have some issues connecting battery devices (I've binded them with aeon labs usb stick but they are even not detected in openHAB - flood sensor has been recognized but it is dead, two battery powered smoke sensors are not recognized and one landline powered smoke sensor is online withotu any issues) but this maybe can be caused by low level of batteries in this devices. Regarding URL you've provided I thinkg some things changed in zwave openhab binding because you can set healing hour (just like it is in Vera?). I'm using latest snapshots of bindings with openHAB 1.4 (1.5 is just around the corner).

    I tested also OpenHab 1.4 before and it is also running on one of my RPi now - but I must say OpenHab needs defenitely more than RPi for running smoothesly! I am waiting for delivery of CuBox i4pro - should be enough for XBMC, OpenHab and OpenRemote all together!

    Issues with latest Fibaro products is more less OK. Even Vera who tells they provide 100% ZWave compatibility (which also is not 100% truth) had compatibility issues with Fibaro multi and smoke sensors - so they even had to produce a separate beta release for that. Healing hour sounds interesting in OpenHab - was not aware about that. In Vera I don't really know if it is every night, I thought actually it is just one time procedure. But what exists in Vera is plenty of advanced routing options for ZWave, insteon, ... - f.ex. "Use Vera routing instead of Z-Wave (requires 4.5)" - I think that is what makes it so stable - some kind of software logic based on experience, not allowing Sigma chips to do all the work.

    As for Logitech emulator, take a look also at MPD - plan to test it, works in the same way, you can stream audio to any room. The disatvantage in comparison with Sonos is anyway sync stream to several rooms. I am not sure if there is any alternative to Sonos allowing the synconized streaming to several streams.

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    I considered this system very seriously and was just about to setup it as my main home system when suddenly found this (

    Please login or register to see this link.

    ) and I was a bit unsure if I should use it - I don't want the same problems as in HC2

    I just started with openHAB so it is hard for me to say how it works. So far I'm happy. I had some issues with connectivity etc. but almost every day I'm finding new things in openHAB and since I'm quite technical person I like to test everything so my openHAB service is being restarted a lot. I think I could say more maybe in next few weeks. So far I'm mostly using only wall switches/relays. I have one flood sensor and three smoke sensors. I can say that I have some issues connecting battery devices (I've binded them with aeon labs usb stick but they are even not detected in openHAB - flood sensor has been recognized but it is dead, two battery powered smoke sensors are not recognized and one landline powered smoke sensor is online withotu any issues) but this maybe can be caused by low level of batteries in this devices. Regarding URL you've provided I thinkg some things changed in zwave openhab binding because you can set healing hour (just like it is in Vera?). I'm using latest snapshots of bindings with openHAB 1.4 (1.5 is just around the corner).

    it does not look like very mature option at this stage.

    I think in my case I will try to combine my HCL with Domoticz.

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    Guest mhn
    I got over the steep learning curve.

    Please login or register to see this image.

    /emoticons/default_icon_smile.gif" alt=":-)" />

    I use a lot of protocols because I can with Homeseer

    Please login or register to see this link.

    (Mi-Light on the way.)

    The strength of Homeseer are the plugins. There are plugins for many things.

    In case if you have RPi (or anything other server running 24h) - take a look at OpenHab that has also integration for Milight, as well as for plenty iof other things. Vera also has Milight in the way of special plug-in that you can install. I had milight RGBW and played with it before on OpenRemote+Openhab on RPi. It worked fine unless the Milight controller died one day.

    Please login or register to see this image.

    /emoticons/default_icon_sad.gif" alt=":-(" /> Then I was a bit dissapointed in their quality (or maybe it is just my case?) and moved to Phlips Hue which just works... More expensive, but I am a bit pedantic in terms of quality. Just one thing I can complain about Hue - the green light sucks (I don't like lime color - I want it to be green!!! MiLight gives the full RGB)

    I think I would go for HC2 if I was beginning today.

    That tells a lot. If you choose HC2 instead of HomeSeer, than I would wait a bit with tests with HS I guess, as for now. But the main stopping factor is actualy EU Z-Wave compatibility in HS.

    I have no need for RPi I use Jon00s Homeseer script. I own one of the first RPis but I never found any use for it. It's too weak in my opinion. I like the NUCs.

    I just got my Mi-Light. I hope the controller lasts.

    I have 6 Hue bulbs but I really like the price on Mi-Light. The plan is to use it for silly stuff. Time will show.

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    /emoticons/default_icon_smile.gif" alt=":-)" />

    I started back in 2007 with Innovus House Control. If I was at that point today I think I would go for HC2. I am not. With my multi protocol setup I can't find anything but Homeseer that makes sense. But I really hope HS3 is better at EU Z-Wave than HS2.

    I started out planning to only use Z-Wave. Now I can do what I wanted but not much of it is Z-Wave.

    I tried some of the Open source masters in the past. I used a lot of time with no good results. I have given up on that.

    Regards

    Morten

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    I want far more than that... What I want is to be able to link lots of different types of devices together, no matter the protocol, not just control them from one common ui.

    As always, just positive emotions reading your posts.

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    /emoticons/default_icon_wink.gif" alt=";-)" /> Thanks for thinking out of the box. That is one of the main problem in my case - I know I have a lot of smart things installed already. But to make them work together and to think about interesting scenes - it is really a talent! Sad that you are not from Sweden, would really like to discuss some things with a beer. I have also a lot of ideas which I would like to bring to the market, starting from software and ending from solar powered ZWave devices.

    - As for Tesla S, my friend from Russia (I am also russian) was just about to buy it but read of forums stopped him to do it since you normally can expect several hundred kilometers on a full charge in reallity, it's not 700 km!

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    /emoticons/default_icon_confused.gif" alt=":-?" /> I don't know much about it myslef but that is what he told he me. By the way you can of course make a LUA schedule for your charging at night.

    - Speaking TV to lights - there is a XBMC plugin in Vera that listens for events. So you an dim down your lights when f.ex. start playing movie.

    - "vacuum cleaner to turn up the preset light level". You need a smart vacuum cleaner with http protocol - and there are on the market actually.

    - "I want my washing machine to tell my girlfriends phone when it is done" - Fibaro plug with LUA scene - if kwh<0.1 then send sms

    - "advanced alarm system" - yes, again LUA. No chance to have it via UI in any of Home Control systems (what I know at least), unfortunately...

    - etc - the other topics. Yes, you are completely right. It is againg scripting (JavaScript, PHP, LUA, ...)

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    /emoticons/default_icon_confused.gif" alt=":-?" /> RPi is really your best friend, I also have several running

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    - Tesla, yes, I expect to get around 350 km on one charge. But Denmark is a small country (and Sweden isn't that far away either, so watch out about promising beer, I might hold you to it!

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    /emoticons/default_icon_cool.gif" alt="8-)" /> ) and Tesla SuperChargers are starting to pop up around the country, and I'm not taking my car across the borders anyway (i'm to lazy, i'd rather fly). So the range isn't a problem for me.

    - The tv part is achieved using samsungs own api. I don't have an XBMC box running at the moment (don't need it). And it is working quite well.

    - i'm moving to a new house soon where I'll have a central vacuum system installed. It has microswitches in each vacuum outlet, so I'm thinking of hooking up some universal sensors to the micro switches to not only get a start notification but also to turn up lighting in that one room.

    - The washing machine, that is exactly the way I'm doing it. But it needs to be a little more advanced as the machine is a combined washer/dryer with an A+++ rating so It needs to be below the threshold for a specified period of time.

    - The alarm system is already setup and integrated into my tablet interface. In case of an alarm, the tablets change screen to a flashing red background and a warning popup telling you what type of alarm and in which room (see attached picture). It also has a custom alarm for each individual type of alarm which will sound in all the tablets and in my airplay speakers. It has a "scene" builder where you can set up custom alarm scenarios and then choose which devices activates the alarm. And most importantly, it has a pin panel which can be used to activate/deactivate the system. This alarm system is very important to me as i didn't find that the fibaro alarm could do anything close to what i want and i don't want to have to install a separate system alongside the zwave systemwith motion sensors and door switches when the zwave system can be programmed to do all i want.

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