I want to get into Home Automation and not sure what hub I should get Vera or Smartthings?  I will be using zwave and my Amazon Echo.  Any suggestions?  I also use a FireTV for Kodi and Plex if that matters.

Buy the vera and we'll swap. 

 

I have ST, not impressed, it leaves me wanting more. Everything is in the cloud too so if they're network is down or there is latency good luck turning on lights.

I use Homeseer. Everything is self contained in my network, no need for internet.

 

It's more expensive, but I've been using it constantly for many years, first with X10, then z-wave.

 

I like not being tied to external services. From what I've read, vera is a local controller, so some things still function without internet, but it's not seamless, it expects to be able to talk on the internet.

 

I don't have an echo, so I have no clue how well it integrates with homeseer. Supposedly it works, but is tied to internet access to function. That's a non-starter for me. I'm so used to my house doing things automatically, I'd hate to have it stop working if my internet is down.

Have Smartthings with Harmony hub remotes & 2 Amazon Echo. Amazon control for Plex is in the works. New Amazon & Harmony integration works pretty good for home theater stuff. Lighting works well too. Still working out the kinks with security cameras. My goal is to have a wall panel with live tiles. Its available now but kind of a kludge (android tablet running a web browser).

I have used Homeseer, Vera and am now on smartthings.

 

I can say I miss my Vera. Net goes out and smartthings goes dead. This was not the problem with my old VeraLite(unfortunately she died).

 

I found Homeseer setup to be a pain, as well as lack of good app support. This was about 3-4 years ago, and I have not tried it since.

 

 

I love how my Echo integrates with my Smartthings for lights, fans, climate(just temperature unfortunately for now), garage door. I wish Logitech would get off their asses and finish Harmony support though. I find the smart things app horrible compared to the options I had for 3rd party apps with my Vera.

 

Will probably switch back to Vera the next time the new controller goes on sale. May give homeseer a second shot too in the mean time.

 

Lack of smart configuration options on the smart things is the real killer. Need to use their API system and load up all kinds of third party setups in a very non-intuitive manner. I am a tech guy, minor programmer, and still find their system to be convoluted and awful compared to Vera's plugin system.

 

Hope this has helped a bit.

I have the veralite, it works, but I'm still on the old software version 5 (current one is 7) because the current one has too many bugs.

 

I hear many people complain about both vera and smartthings,  but I do hear good things about homeseer overall. I might get their arm based controller when it goes on sale

 

By the way, I have an amazon echo/alexa bridge container in the repo. That works wonders for voice commands and integrates easily with vera, harmony hub and nest (also integrates with homeseer but not as easily)

 

Homeseer is just too expensive and I hate how every little thing is extra money, cost you $1k just to do the stuff the others do out of the box. It does seem like it's very versatile and stable though.

 

I think they're going to release more on Google Home next month and the echo is also pushing directly into this space but it may take a year or so to catch up. There's also HomeKit if you're an iOS household.

 

 

I use all Apple devices (laptops and iPhones) but Siri is just dumb, Alexa is smarter than she is so thats why I like using the Echo.  Think I will try Vera.

 

By the way, I have an amazon echo/alexa bridge container in the repo. That works wonders for voice commands and integrates easily with vera, harmony hub and nest (also integrates with homeseer but not as easily)

 

yes I saw that, can't wait to try it out.

Ok after further thinking I might try the Universal Devices ISY994i. I hear it is very reliable

aptalca do you know if your plugin will work with the ISY?

aptalca do you know if your plugin will work with the ISY?

Not sure, but if it accepts http commands, it should.

 

The way it works is, the app running in my container pretends to be a hue bridge. You create some virtual hue lights that the fake bridge presents to the echo.

 

Echo interprets the voice command, sends the signal to my container to turn the fake hue lights on or off (or dim), and my container sends the appropriate http command to the controller.

Would this work then

 

https://wiki.universal-devices.com/index.php?title=ISY_Developers:API:REST_Interface

 

Notes

All calls use the HTTP GET method ( Except for uploading configuration files )

Not all features are implemented in the Rest API, for now, some operations are only available via the SOAP API

Would this work then

 

https://wiki.universal-devices.com/index.php?title=ISY_Developers:API:REST_Interface

 

Notes

All calls use the HTTP GET method ( Except for uploading configuration files )

Not all features are implemented in the Rest API, for now, some operations are only available via the SOAP API

Yup, this here's what you need: https://wiki.universal-devices.com/index.php?title=ISY_Developers:API:REST_Interface#Commands the on, off and dim commands