Stepping up my Home Automation Game
After a lot of thought I have decided to change elements of my now archaic VB6 coded home automation backend. I needed a new system that could meet a set of requirements that I have tailored over the years of custom coding my own solution. Moving to an off the shelf solution has a number of advantages, the first of which is the fact that I don't have to code every solution from the ground up. Sometimes it's handy to implement something quickly even though it might not have every feature I want.
In comes the Vera3, a small router based platform based on OpenWRT, this unit has a light weight HTML interface with a LUA scripting back end. This device checks off all of the boxes above but those don't account for its strongest asset, it's user community. The Verde forums are full of users just like me that have created custom drivers via LUA script to support everything from thermostats to light switches and everything in between. The compatibility list is immense and due to the simple XML based scripting language it's easy to take one plugin and transform it into a custom plugin that supports new devices. The Vera3 interface is not targeted as an end user interface, it can best be described as middleware. Think of it as a Bus between physical or virtual devices.
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