Why did I buy this glorified router? Originaly it was an investment into Home Automation. Now it feels like an investment into anxiety. I've dropped over $800 into my Home Automation project with the Mi Casa Verde Vera at the heart of it and taking up the majority of the component costs. If only it did more than provide a 802.11g network for me.
I tried applying for the developer special - might be a farse. Its been 3 weeks since I submitted my plugin proposal and still no word where thats at.
The highly touted Z-Wave dongle flat out doesn't work. No devices were found. Tried resetting my z-wave network, still nothing. Tried updating the Vera to the latest version and that failed. Tried just focusing on the 'supported hardware', its not really supported I'm finding.
Tried contacting Tech support, no response outside of the automated confirmation email. Magically, the device started working a day later... well, it allowed me back into the interface through my PC. I still couldn't find a way to pair any of my Z-Wave devices with it.
On this wiki page, Vera describes their device as "Guaranteed compatible with all Z-Wave devices". I say, "Prove it!". I scoured the forums and couldn't find any help for getting my devices paired up. I started new threads and got a couple replies, but nothing that has helped resolve these issues.
They say that it works with the iPhone, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, and other smart phones. Well, not my wifes Blackberry Storm. The file fails on install, "907 Invalid Jar Descriptor missing required attribute: MIDlet-1" or something very similar. I try accessing findvera.com from my Droid, "Web Page Not Available: The Server failed to communicate. Try again later." Fail.
Mi Casa Verde, I'll try a few more times before this things get shipped back, but you've got a long ways to go to win this consumer over. Hey Vera support staff, what gives?
UPDATE - 3/1/2010
Mi Casa Verde has sort of redeemed themselves - this product now works close to the way it was advertised.
UPDATE - 10/5/2010
The new UI4 firmware on my Vera unit works much better than previous versions. There are still several bugs with the Mobile versions of their site and with other Home Automation apps that interface with Vera. My wife has since ditched the Storm and gone with the R2D2 Droid 2 - a much better Android phone with more Home Automation capabilities.