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Topic:
Snap AV OVRC
This thread has 41 replies. Displaying posts 16 through 30.
Post 16 made on Sunday June 26, 2016 at 11:30
Richie Rich
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I use Wattbox(en) exclusively for power in all my systems.

Cannot say enough good things about them and all the time/hassle they have saved me, as well as my clients.

The only thing I didn't like was that I had no way to enable client level access to handle things like rebooting cable boxes. I will say that getting a text, opening an app, pressing a button and waiting a couple of minutes before asking "is it behaving now" is a ton easier then rolling a truck to a site 30 minutes to 2 hours away.

Sounds like an end user version of the app is pending, so good news there.

I did have a couple of the early units fail, one lost the network card, the other just straight up died. Snap replaced both under recall. The later ones have been bullet proof so far.
I am a trained professional..... Do not attempt this stunt at home.
Post 17 made on Sunday June 26, 2016 at 12:28
PSS
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On June 23, 2016 at 18:51, TAAVS said...
Just wait until they start charging for OVRC access..... Don't think they'll do it? They would be a fool not to turn on that switch.

They do talk about charging for some of the more in depth aspects (think Ihiji), but not for the current Wattbox solutions. Look at some of the webinars.
OP | Post 18 made on Sunday June 26, 2016 at 12:45
SB Smarthomes
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On June 26, 2016 at 12:28, PSS said...
They do talk about charging for some of the more in depth aspects (think Ihiji), but not for the current Wattbox solutions. Look at some of the webinars.

Right... the webinar talks about a new "OvrC Hub" product which will work with 3rd party IP devices similar to Ihiji.  Sounds like this would be a paid for service with RMR possibilities.

I ended up ordering over $3k worth of OvrC products to test.  Router, managed & unmanaged switches, WAPs, NVR, cameras and several different WattBox products.
www.sbsmarthomes.com
Santa Barbara Smarthomes
Post 19 made on Sunday June 26, 2016 at 13:56
PSS
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On June 26, 2016 at 12:45, SB Smarthomes said...
Right... the webinar talks about a new "OvrC Hub" product which will work with 3rd party IP devices similar to Ihiji.  Sounds like this would be a paid for service with RMR possibilities.

I ended up ordering over $3k worth of OvrC products to test.  Router, managed & unmanaged switches, WAPs, NVR, cameras and several different WattBox products.

Please keep us informed on your testing. I use Wattboxes on just about every job for the last year. It's helped to reset some WAPs, URC TC systems, Directv receivers, Apple TVs. I'm sure it's also auto rebooted modem/ routers I don't know about.
I've been using Ubiquiti for network (hosting on Amazon) reliably and a little hesitant to switch from something that's been reliable but it would be nice to "see" everything on one platform.
Post 20 made on Monday June 27, 2016 at 10:37
Ranger Home
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On June 26, 2016 at 11:30, Richie Rich said...
me, as well as my clients.
The only thing I didn't like was that I had no way to enable client level access to handle things like rebooting cable boxes. I will say that getting a text, opening an app, pressing a button and waiting a couple of minutes before asking "is it behaving now" is a ton easier then rolling a truck to a site 30 minutes to 2 hours away.

Pretty much from day one we've been able to set up a "user" account and give the homeowner the IP address of the wattbox. This allows them to reboot on their own. You can set up an icon on their iphone that takes them directly to the wattbox as well.

Granted, not as elegant as an end user OvrC app, but has worked and will work until the app comes out.
Post 21 made on Monday June 27, 2016 at 10:55
KeithDBrown
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On June 26, 2016 at 12:45, SB Smarthomes said...
I ended up ordering over $3k worth of OvrC products to test.  Router, managed & unmanaged switches, WAPs, NVR, cameras and several different WattBox products.

Since you will already be running tests.... can you test the WAN-LAN throughput of the router? I have been meaning to do that for...I don't know...forever. But I never get around to doing it.
OP | Post 22 made on Monday June 27, 2016 at 13:02
SB Smarthomes
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On June 27, 2016 at 10:55, KeithDBrown said...
Since you will already be running tests.... can you test the WAN-LAN throughput of the router? I have been meaning to do that for...I don't know...forever. But I never get around to doing it.

Sure, but my ISP download speed is only 50-60Mbps so I won't really have the bandwidth available to really tax the router unless I go through the exercise of setting up a local device on the WAN port to do specific testing.
www.sbsmarthomes.com
Santa Barbara Smarthomes
OP | Post 23 made on Wednesday July 6, 2016 at 16:42
SB Smarthomes
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On June 27, 2016 at 10:55, KeithDBrown said...
Since you will already be running tests.... can you test the WAN-LAN throughput of the router? I have been meaning to do that for...I don't know...forever. But I never get around to doing it.

My unscientific throughput test follows:

I used speedtest.net with Ubiquiti EdgeRouter Lite and saw speeds of 42/5.3Mbps and then swapped to the Araknis 300 Series router and saw speeds of 54/5.1Mbps.

My download speeds usually swing between 40-60Mbps so I don't think the Araknis router is really any faster than the Ubiquiti & Mickotik routers I've been using , but it's definitely not slower either.
www.sbsmarthomes.com
Santa Barbara Smarthomes
OP | Post 24 made on Wednesday July 6, 2016 at 17:22
SB Smarthomes
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I've had the SnapAV OvrC enabled products installed for about a week now and haven't found anything yet that would keep me from using the products for a client project.

So far I have the following up and running at my own home.

Araknis 300 Series Router
Araknis 110 Series 24 port switch
Araknis 110 Series 5 port switch
Araknis 210 Series 8 port POE switch
Araknis 500 Series WAPs - Qty.2
Luma 500 Series 4 Channel NVR
Wirepath 750 Series Dome cameras - Qty.4
WattBox 700 Series Chassis Mount 12 Outlet
Wattbox 300 Series 5 Outlet

I also ordered a few of the Strong VersaBox models to to try out.  The 14" x 14" that can hold the 5 Outlet WattBox looks like a neat solution, but I haven't actually installed it yet.

The router and networking gear all came online without issue or fuss.  The router is dead simple to configure, but I haven't setup any VLANs or VPN.  I don't rely on VPN that much anymore, but at some point will test it out.  I also don't need VLANs at my own place, but will probably move the NVR and Cameras onto a separate VLAN at some point to test it out because I do tend to utilize VLANs at larger client projects.

The ability to label ports on the Unmanaged+ (110 Series) switches is really great and saves the burden of having to maintain this information in a spreadsheet or other notes.

No issues so far with the WAPs, but my house isn't really a very good test for wireless.  Normally we only have two iPhones, one iPad and a NEST thermostat and two NEST Protects on Wifi.  Sometimes my laptop will be online...

I went ahead and disconnected wired Ethernet from an AppleTV and joined it to the wireless to see if it had any problems streaming.

The lack of an outdoor rated WAP is a big deal and I've been told one is under development.  One of my WAPs is outside so I had to install it into a 12" x 12" PVC enclosure.


I'm familiar with Wirepath cameras, so physical camera installation wasn't an issue except for the fact that I had to pull CAT5 wire to my camera locations that were previously analog over coax.  Setup with the NVR was really smooth and the web and app interfaces seem to work well.

The cameras & NVR are missing some features and capability that I'm used to with IC Realtime.  Not having Desktop OS based Video Management Software is a disadvantage, but not a deal breaker for most projects.  It sounds like they have PC based VMS in development, but the majority of my residential clients are Mac based so this still doesn't help.

There's currently not a good solution for camera systems larger than 16ch.  The upcoming VMS software is supposed to work across multiple NVRs and there may also be a 32ch NVR in the future.  I occasionally do jobs with up to 32 cameras so have to make sure the solution can scale at least that large.

WattBox stuff is great!  No issues or surprises with it.

I ended up with about 2 pages of notes, questions, small issues and product suggestions that I passed back to SnapAV.  G. Paul put me in touch directly with the product category managers who have all been responsive to my feedback and suggestions and connected me to the right employees to resolve a few small problems.  Even received several replies over the holiday weekend.

Overall I haven't come up with any show stoppers and currently plan to start ordering in product for a couple upcoming projects.  I'm also really interested to start retrofitting/upgrading some older equipment at previous projects.  I have a lot of properties installed 3-10 years ago that could benefit from router/wifi upgrades and also benefit from WattBox functionality.

The OvrC features haven't disappointed.  The monitoring seems to work and is quick to update.  Centralized management and the ability to easily control, configure and upgrade equipment is really neat!

Looking forward to testing new features and functionality with OvrC Home and OvrC Hub.
www.sbsmarthomes.com
Santa Barbara Smarthomes
Post 25 made on Wednesday July 6, 2016 at 17:48
Brad Humphrey
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Over on IP, I posted about an issue with the 500 series WAP. It seemed however no one had one to test, to see if it was a firmware issue or just the WAP I had.
Did you set the channels for your 2.4GHz & 5GHz radios? If not, try setting them to a fixed channel, save, then change the channel assignment again - see if the 5GHz radio takes a dump.
Also, don't like that you can't set the power level for 5GHz separate from the 2.4GHz radio.

The WAP is a straight EnGenius WAP with Anaknis firmware, and you can set the power levels separate in the EnGenius firmware. So I don't understand how SNAP missed that feature for their firmware.
OP | Post 26 made on Wednesday July 6, 2016 at 18:53
SB Smarthomes
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I didn't set channels... both radios are still on auto (default).  I did notice in the advanced settings that you couldn't alter transmit power independently for each radio... maybe they'll bring this functionality in with firmware update.

I'll try altering the channels as you suggested.  Did the 5Ghz radio break for good, or did a reboot or setting back to original channel or auto fix it again???
www.sbsmarthomes.com
Santa Barbara Smarthomes
Post 27 made on Wednesday July 6, 2016 at 22:56
imt
Long Time Member
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On July 6, 2016 at 17:48, Brad Humphrey said...
Over on IP, I posted about an issue with the 500 series WAP. It seemed however no one had one to test, to see if it was a firmware issue or just the WAP I had.
Did you set the channels for your 2.4GHz & 5GHz radios? If not, try setting them to a fixed channel, save, then change the channel assignment again - see if the 5GHz radio takes a dump.
Also, don't like that you can't set the power level for 5GHz separate from the 2.4GHz radio.

The WAP is a straight EnGenius WAP with Anaknis firmware, and you can set the power levels separate in the EnGenius firmware. So I don't understand how SNAP missed that feature for their firmware.

I just tested this out. Had same result as you. Running latest firmware. But... if you change the 5GHZ back to auto it comes back after a min after uploading the changes. I then did it again just trying to change just the 5GHZ radio channel. 1st change fine. Second one the 5GHZ disappears when checking in wifi explorer. Switch it to auto and then it comes back up again within a min and all OK
Post 28 made on Thursday July 7, 2016 at 02:08
Mario
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OVRC saved me another truck roll few days ago.
Upgraded client to Araknis router but ran out of time to set VPN.
Logged into the router using OVRC's remote access and had full access to the router.
Created VPN service and was able to make changes to Russound and other units.

So thanks for ability to do this remotely, not wasting 2 hours driving. My reward -- I was able to play work on my tractor :-)
Post 29 made on Thursday July 7, 2016 at 04:27
Brad Humphrey
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On my Anaknis 500 series WAP that 5GHz radio would stay disappeared until I pulled power for over 15 minutes. Then it would come back, found no other way to get it to work.
It would stay working again until I changed channels, then a 2nd channel change would cause the 5GHz radio to die again. And again, only pulling power for 15+ minutes would bring the 5GHz radio back.
Post 30 made on Thursday July 7, 2016 at 08:37
Mario
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On July 7, 2016 at 04:27, Brad Humphrey said...
On my Anaknis 500 series WAP that 5GHz radio would stay disappeared until I pulled power for over 15 minutes. Then it would come back, found no other way to get it to work.
It would stay working again until I changed channels, then a 2nd channel change would cause the 5GHz radio to die again. And again, only pulling power for 15+ minutes would bring the 5GHz radio back.

Did you talk to Ajit or Ayham over at Snap about it?
If they're not aware of it already, I'm sure they'll like to know about it so they can address it.
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