Vera Plus set-up

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I’ve experimented with several.  I currently am running Homeseer, Indigo through Alexa.

Vera is the easiest (and in my view) the most frustrating, Homeseer has the most effective UI, and Indigo is the most like XTension, but with built in Z-wave control.  Indigo also has the fastest sensor response. At one point, I ran an A vs B vs C response test using an Aeotec Multisensor 6 and a GE Z-wave dimmer.  Indigo turned on the light before I made the second step into the room.  Homeseer took about 6 seconds from the LED on at the sensor to having the lights on.  Vera is in the same ballpark as Homeseer but not quite as slow.  To solve this problem, both Homeseer and Vera had me do things like turning off polling, etc, but none of that made any difference.  

Alexa works well with Indigo, through the use of a Hue Hub plugin.  Actually, Alexa probably works well with all of them.  I currently have nine Hue plugins running, each with several devices.  The difference is that e.g., Homeseer has built-in Alexa processing, and two skills, one basic, and one that seems to use the hierarchical name built in Homeseer <Floor>,<Room>,<Device> to make statements like this: Alexa turn on the  <Floor>,<Room>,<Device> as well as having built in Alexa responses in the software.  So you can say something like Alexa, tell Homeseer to turn on all the lights in the Living Room - Homeseer’s bullt-in response Alexa response might be something like: OK, I will <Repeat command>  - but you can change that response to something like “OK boss, I'll’ take care of it”.  (I got really tired of having Alexa repeat all the complex commands).

It seems that Indigo doesn’t suffer from the same slowdown in response I got with Vera and Homeseer after reaching a level of 35 or so nodes, which is really easy to do, with some devices creating as many as six or eight child devices.

My bottom line, after giving up on Vera (and thus having no need for XTension) was to use most responsive and proficient system for its strengths.  Indigo is the most like XTension, and runs on my Mac, It has a very broad tech base that it supports, but that can have its problems, in that there are a lot of people with different skill levels and interests writing software to support e.g. multi-button scene controllers or other complex devices, or things like the Hue Bridge Plugin.  Some work and/or are supported - others not so much.

Homeseer has an exceptional, clear, and fast UI.  It supports a much broader base of hardware than Vera does.

Alexa is completely agnostic about where its devices come from, so if you use it to interact with your HA software, it may improve response times, etc.  Naming conventions become critical, though, as does maintenance.  I found that in setting up Alexa, it’s a good thing to regularly visit alexa.amazon.com <http://alexa.amazon.com/>, have Alexa forget all her devices, and rediscover them, cleaning out all the deadwood.

;)
.

> On Mar 4, 2018, at 5:42 PM, Jeffrey Lomicka <JeffreyLomicka at comcast.net> wrote:
> 
> Well, that's a disappointing read.
> 
> So if I'm giving up on X10, what is the smart and reliable controller to use?
> 
> I'm still hip with going to Z-Wave/Vera if that's the thing to do, but I'm getting the impression that some other controller would be better? I'm not deeply invested in anything yet, except for the outgoing X10 stuff.
> 
> I got three Zibgee Hue lamps and the Echo Plus for Christmas, and they have been a big hit with the family. But they are in another domain that can't interact with XTension in any way, yet.
> 
>     - Jeff
> 
> On 2/23/18 6:14 PM, David Bruce Nolen wrote:
>> I see.
>> 
>> Well, you may want to read this ==< http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php?topic=50063.0 <==
>> 
>> I  gave up on using Vera some time ago.  ;)
> 

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