Moving from Vera Plus

Hi all,

New user here. I've been using a Vera Plus for the last 4.5 years. Ever since then, the Vera platform has been unreliable for many different reasons, and although I've learned to workaround many of its issues, I'm finally fed up and want to move away. I use the Vera for many automations such as season-based control of pool filters pump control, shades, water heating, exterior lighting, pathway lighting inside the house, presence simulation and many other things. I use Z-wave mostly, but also control other devices through it the Vera, using webhooks (such as a door opener) and API connections, such as with Danalocks, Netatmo cameras and weather station, etc.

I do this currently using Reactor, which is an excellent third-party app and have used others to do the same, such as PLEG. I have programmed a bit of LUA as well, so I would describe myself as a power user with a fairly sophisticated house from an automation point of view.

BTW, I have no interest in Google or Amazon's assistants and interfaces, I'm not into voice control or cloud-based control at all.

But I'm getting sort of desperate to move away from Vera, which I believe to be a dead end, and will sooner rather than later, whither away as Ezlo is moving slowly and unreliably towards their new Ezlo platform which appears to be even worse than Vera.

So, based on this description, is the Hubitat Elevation a good choice for me? I'm mostly looking for reliability, wide compatibility with my existing gear, solid and sophisticated automation logic and long-term development and maintenance of the platform.

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If you can handle PLEG and LUA you can handle almost anything on the Hubitat platform and if you want to dig in deep and drive your own integrations you just have to get used to Groovy as a coding language and the Hubitat api's and features. I moved a lot of Vera / PLEG users to SmartThings / WebCORE years ago and now have them moving to Hubitat with their simple apps or Rule Machine.

My advice has always has been to start slow with one thing at a time. Look at the compatible hardware lists, look at the native apps and services, and also the community written drivers and services and start making a plan if you decide to go Hubitat.

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Thank you for taking the time to answer me. Actually I'm also looking at Homey Pro as well, I have to take some time to have a read of both forums and check the existing apps and compatibility lists. I think I will end up joining one or the other.

Long ago I was a vera user, learned some LUA and even wrote a plugin. I bailed on them and went to Homeseer.
Still am using Homeseer but slowly pushing more to Hubitat
You'll get charged up the ying-yang for decent plugins on Homeseer and I'm not sure of the longevity of them given it seems to not be a big company. I do have some Insteon devices that I'm using in Homeseer that I don't think there's a clear path forward. Anyway, give Hubitat a go!

I'm not really a programmer but I wanted to learn how to write my own apps in Hubitat. Mostly wanted to learn so I could customize community apps I was already using to suite me better. It took me about a week or so looking through other apps to figure things out but it's pretty easy now.

I've gone through several home automation iterations, starting with X11, then first trying out zwave with ADT and their pulse hub, then moving to vera, then smart things, home assistant, then finally Hubitat. I am now running about a 50/50 mix of Zwave Plus and ZigBee across about 300 devices.

The community here is what really makes it a great platform. Every single time I ran across an issue there has been someone that helped me get up and going again. I've gotten pretty good at finding ways to break things lol.

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Welcome!

I started with Wink due to ease of implementation and inexpensive platform. Tried a HomeSeer Pi where I learned details of z-wave mesh networks. After Wink went south, turned to Hubitat, three Wink hubs remain unused and I haven't plugged in my HS Pi in about 2 years now.

As stated before, you won't find a better, more flexible platform with the support that comes with Hubitat.

Nearly every tech platform is turning to some type of subscription based feature, which in today's business environment is almost a requirement in a sustainable business model. While others (Wink in particular) have reduced functionality without a subscription, Hubitat just added additional subscription based capabilities (remote administration for example) at a reasonable cost. Additionally, existing non-subscription methods of accomplishing the same function, such as VPN, remain fully viable options.

Again, what really sets Hubitat apart, is the outstanding support. Just last weekend developers turned around a firmware update to add two new capabilities based my feedback. You can find countless examples of the same throughout this community. I know of no other platform that offers this level of support or responsiveness.

My 2 cents - your search for a Vera replacement is finished!

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Welcome,

I started with Vera in 2015. Was constantly frustrated by the lack of support for new devices, the non-working firmware updates, and the infinite hoops needed to jump through to get even simple automations working. Got my HE in March and I never looked back. You'll find the various Apps (as they're called) will be able to do almost everything you can imagine. Take the time to learn how to use the Rule Machine and you'll be fine.

Move your devices to the Hubitat slowly. A few at a time and then let the system settle for a day or two before adding more. Don't try to do them all at once, especially if you have older, non-reporting, Z-Wave devices. I think you'll really like the ZigBee support. I've added quite few that were out of reach with the Vera.

And most of all, post your questions here. You'll find this community very helpful and patient with new users.

Enjoy.

Second this...one of the best online communities I've ever participated in - helpful, smart, tons of ideas and app/code-sharing, problem solving, just great.

Oh, and by the way, don't forget to turn out the lights as you leave the Vera community. :wink:

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Made the switch from Vera Plus to Hubitat about 2 weeks ago and gosh, what a breath of fresh air. I'm recommending the HE to everyone I meet.

What's funny is that despite having 1000 techie friends, I've never met another Vera owner in person. Pretty sure we were a rare breed to begin with. I received my first unit in 2009 and since acquired 3 more Vera controllers, all of them now out of service.

Even rarer were developers able and willing to work with the shoddy Vera firmware (hardware was solid but never completely without its shortcomings) to develop plug-ins (apps) and maintain them over the years. So rare that we came to know most of them on a first-name basis in the old MiCasaVerde / Vera / ezlo forum.

But then the company got bought out by a megalomaniacal billionaire whose personal conduct left much to be desired, and whose attitude toward the loyalest devs went from problematic to absolutely, unabashedly rude and dismissive at every turn.

That's why a huge bunch of us "left" -- the new company owner had summarily kicked us out of the Forum for various unfounded "rule violations" -- over the past year-and-a-half. We moved on to places like Smarthome Community (another great Q&A resource, btw) and ultimately here.

And that's why it's essentially crickets back on Ezlo, where only the unsuspecting sit around waiting for new hubs that don't work and firmware updates that will never materialize.

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Just an update to this, I did decide to go with Hubitat so I've just placed an order with a European online dealer.

Thx for all your comments and incentives and I guess that in a few days I'll start having questions.

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What method did you use to migrate? One by one exclusion/inclusion of devices?

I did one-by-one exclusion, but that process was not without some careful planning. For instance, in order to unpair/pair an outdoor receptacle, it was necessary to connect my Vera Plus to a (very) long Ethernet cable and carry it outside using a USB battery pack (the Vera can be powered temporarily through its USB port). I used this setup repeatedly for Z-Wave devices that were farthest away, especially after the intermediate "repeater" devices (like wall switches and plugs) had already been swapped over to Hubitat.

In hindsight, I could have connected the Hubitat that way and used it (not the Vera) for Exclusion. I had forgotten that was even possible, but it is, and I recommend you try that approach.

As for things like Vera plug-ins (which will become integrations or apps on the Hubitat side) and scenes (which will become rules or automations) and complex Reactor recipes (which could in theory become rules or WebCoRE pistons), I took my time going through each one, evaluating whether it would even be needed in the HE environment. (Let's be honest... so much of the typical Vera setup involves things that just keep the Vera running smoothly!)

Along the way, I was able to simplify many of my routines. Only at the end of the changeover did I bother to de-populate my Alexa's Smart Home list of devices and run Discovery anew once the Hubitat was ready. I then had to re-build a few Routines on Alexa, at which point I luckily remembered all the now-missing steps.

TIP: If you have Alexa routines, take a screenshot of each so you know which step(s) got deleted after clearing out old devices!

Good luck!

  • Libra

If you use your Hubitat for exclusion (which in hindsight I also which I did), just be very careful that no one in your household touches a switch already included while the Hubitat is in exclusion mode.

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Hello,

I'm a Vera user who is Hubitat curious. I bought a hub so I can run in parallel and test things out before making the leap. This might be anathema to the Hubitat concept, but is there a way to easily auto-generate a dashboard by room so all my devices are visible. I would look at this as a troubleshooting/startup panel from which I could then come up with dashboards. (This is similar to what I would see by just going to my vera homepage and scrolling through all of the devices).

I'm being a bit cautious as I have 2 properties on Vera, each with a bunch of devices.

Thanks!

Yes and No. I'm no expert, but of this I feel quite certain: To get all your devices "into" a Dashboard, you must first (a) create the (empty) Dashboard and Save it, (b) go back into the "Apps" UI ► "Hubitat Dashboard" and click the new Dashboard, (c) assign it any/all Devices, so they are available within the DB, (d) go into the Dashboard from the "Dashboards" UI, (e) click on "Dashboard Builder" at the top of the ensuing pop-up message, (f) and follow the prompts (i.e. check all device types, whether you want them grouped, etc.).

That's just my baseline knowledge on the topic, but should get you started.

My other suggestion would have involved setting up Reactor Multi-Hub, linking it to both your Vera and Hubitat controllers, and building a dashboard within its own Dashboard utility. But that's an advanced approach that you likely don't need.

Create a new dashboard in the Hubitat Dashboard app and select the devices that you want to include in it when you are creating the dashboard.

Save the dashboard from the Hubitat Dashboard app, then go to your "Dashboard" tab and select the new dashboard.

When the dashboard opens you will be prompted to either auto-load tiles or do it manually. The simplest approach is to allow HE by selecting the "Auto Fill Grid" option to automatically add all the devices you included in the Dashboard app. Tiles appear and then you can work to customize/modify as desired.

Click on "Hubitat Dashboard" to create a new dashboard

Name you dashboard and choose devices you want in it.

The Dashboard in the list after it's created.

Select the Dashboard tab on the left on the main HE menu and select your new dasboard from the list:

Choose the "Auto Fill..." option

Dashboard appears w/tiles for each device, as well as HSM status and a Mode tile. You can remove them if you don't want them - click on three dot menu on each tile for options.

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I too am moving from Vera Plus after many years to Hubitat. I am very pleased with the user community here and reminds me of the early days of VERA which was also a strong community but has dwindled recently due to the platform change.

I have been dabling with HE to get a feel for the capabilities given the many applications available. I have added a few devices and have been working on getting some stuff set up such as Alex voice control which we use everywhere. I have a few issues that I would like insight on how best to implement which should give me insight on my other implementations.

I have a sensor that when opened, will turn a light on if after sunset but only leave that light on for 10 minutes. How do you set a timer or create that 10 minute off action?

Modes: I am not sure how I want to set these up yet. VERA has a four state mode, AWAY, VACATION, HOME, NIGHT. I only use AWAY and HOME essentially toggling between these two modes. I have SCENES to change the mode state, so when I 'turn off away' the scene changes the mode from AWAY to HOME. What is the best way to achieve this?

Maybe along that same line, I have SCENES that appear as devices to Alexa, so I can turn off/on these scenes using ALEXA. Again what is the best way to do this with Hubitat?

I am pouring over the documentation and community posts but hope your answers will get me moving in the right direction.

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To your "Modes" question first: Check out the app Mode Manager. It does what Vera's "House Modes" setup page accomplished, plus so much more.

Secondly, my experience in the Hubitat Forum completely jibes with your sense that it's like the early MiCasaVerde days, before the company sold out to a lunatic who plundered all of our collective goodwill.

Third, as to your question about delayed turn-offs... that "DELAY?" is a built-in toggle for many of the actions you'll find in Rule Manager (always recommended) and (I believe) the app "Basic Rules". Stick with RM. It's got about 80% of the good stuff that Reactor (for Vera or Multi-Hub) offers, and 110% of what Vera Scenes could do!

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I hope that you don't mind, but after hearing (and using) many different dashboards associated with Hubitat, I'd like to put in a plug here.
My advice is two fold - depending on wheather or not you have an android audience or an apple audience. In deciding to do these two routes, I value speed, ease of use, and functionality. This is what I came up with:

  1. For the Apple ecosystem:
    Use HomeBridge, and then use the native Home (HomeKit) app on the device. Unfortunately this does require 2 additional components that you may have, or may be purchased. One - a small tiny PI (I have even used a PI Zero 2W $15), the second is on old IPad to serve as the "recipient". See the following add on:
    [RELEASE] Homebridge Hubitat v2.0
  2. For the Android ecosystem:
    This is much simpler. This is a great app, done by Joe Page.
    [RELEASE] Hubitat Dashboard - Android dashboard app

I have found both these alternatives to be superior to the built in dashboad.

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Great information from both of you. I have started to play with the Android Dashboard (android house...) and believe that will work for our phone use.

I will need to play with the Rule Manager some more to learn the capabilities. I have other questions which I think I will submit in a separate post so that they don't get buried here.

Thanks.....

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