Vera UI7 is the 7th version of firmware available for Vera’s line of smart home controllers. It was released as an optional download last year and has now become the default version for all new controllers sold. It's designed to be more user friendly than its UI5 predecessor (the short-lived UI6 was really just a stepping stone to UI7). It offers simple to follow wizards for adding new devices and setting up scenes, special home "modes" for simplifying certain tasks and it also utilises a re-vamped access control system which is designed to be faster and more reliable when connecting to your Vera remotely. There’s a new Geofencing feature which allows the system to know who is arriving or leaving home based on mobile phone location, a streamlined dashboard view, support for the latest devices utilising Z-Wave’s newest Gen5 chipset plus much more.
Vera UI7 Dashboard
When we first tried UI7 back in August last year, we weren't overly impressed. It was buggy, device support was fairly limited and performance appeared to take a sharp nose-dive when compared with UI5. Many of the great 3rd party plugins most of us have become dependent on were also no longer supported. It showed promise but was clearly not ready for prime time.
Fast-forward to now and the situation is a lot better. The last couple of versions (currently v7.0.6, otherwise known as v1.7.569 for the VeraLite/Vera3) have worked well with the majority of devices we've tested, i.e., most of our product range. Of course, there are still bugs to be ironed out (as you'd expect with any major software release) but overall, we think these are fairly minor and will probably go unnoticed by the majority of users.
In terms of actual look and feel, the interface has been criticised for its use of big device controls and excessive use of white-space. Honestly though, we're not too fussed about this. We think the layout makes sense and it should be a lot simpler to use for beginners which has been a primary objective for Vera with this release. In any case, once you've setup your devices and created the scenes you need, there shouldn't be much reason for spending hours in front of the UI manually controlling your home. This is the exact opposite of what home automation is all about!
Perhaps one disappointment for us relates to the new Vera mobile app. Yes, it’s free and looks nice (a responsive theme consistent with the desktop look and feel) but it is painfully slow, especially when first connecting to Vera, even over WiFi. We are confident this will be addressed in a future update, particularly since one of the selling points of UI7 is centred on the improved authentication system, but for now, we find it too slow and tedious to be taken seriously.
UI7 is clearly the future for Vera and you can expect it to become bigger and better over the course of the year. Overall, we like it a lot and feel it has many great improvements over previous versions. We’ll continue monitoring its progress closely so stay tuned for more updates.
See our range of UI7 enabled Vera home controllers here.
Fast-forward to now and the situation is a lot better. The last couple of versions (currently v7.0.6, otherwise known as v1.7.569 for the VeraLite/Vera3) have worked well with the majority of devices we've tested, i.e., most of our product range. Of course, there are still bugs to be ironed out (as you'd expect with any major software release) but overall, we think these are fairly minor and will probably go unnoticed by the majority of users.
In terms of actual look and feel, the interface has been criticised for its use of big device controls and excessive use of white-space. Honestly though, we're not too fussed about this. We think the layout makes sense and it should be a lot simpler to use for beginners which has been a primary objective for Vera with this release. In any case, once you've setup your devices and created the scenes you need, there shouldn't be much reason for spending hours in front of the UI manually controlling your home. This is the exact opposite of what home automation is all about!
Perhaps one disappointment for us relates to the new Vera mobile app. Yes, it’s free and looks nice (a responsive theme consistent with the desktop look and feel) but it is painfully slow, especially when first connecting to Vera, even over WiFi. We are confident this will be addressed in a future update, particularly since one of the selling points of UI7 is centred on the improved authentication system, but for now, we find it too slow and tedious to be taken seriously.
UI7 is clearly the future for Vera and you can expect it to become bigger and better over the course of the year. Overall, we like it a lot and feel it has many great improvements over previous versions. We’ll continue monitoring its progress closely so stay tuned for more updates.
See our range of UI7 enabled Vera home controllers here.
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