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ZWave-2 acting as sensor relay
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 Posted: Thursday Mar 26th, 2015 08:12 am
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slychiu
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When a zwave controller sends a command to a dimmer or switch, it polls it immediatelty to see whether it received the command so it is not the same as regular polling

There is a patent issue which prevents devices from automatically giving their status when it is changed. This is one of the problems with the patent system

There are many complications with zwave behind the scenes. Zwave works best when it is a simple controller-slaves situation, and you use the controller and slave evices from the same manuafactuer


Last edited on Thursday Mar 26th, 2015 08:13 am by slychiu



 Posted: Friday Jul 3rd, 2015 02:38 am
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xAPPO
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Ewen,
  Just to let you know I just bought a Z-Wave v3 UCM mistakenly believing it did exactly what you're trying to do out of the box with my Fibaro HC2. So I'm really disappointed and may well return it.   If there's anything Cytech could do, including non approved firmware supporting a sensor class then I would think it would help a lot of people out.

 I am interested to know how you're getting on with this solution however, and if it has evolved further at all ? My need is more around the PIR zone/input triggers being sent from Comfort in a timely and dependable fashion and when several changes can occur coincidentally on Comfort I suspect these might get missed with this dimmer work around.

  Instead I may well write a plugin for HC2 (when and if they become enabled again).  I currently have an embedded controller that I have programmed as an intermediary device between C-Bus (xAP) and HC2 virtual devices synchronising them in realtime using the http API. It works really well but of course this is a workaround as it should be a plugin.  As an extra feature I could use a serial/Ethernet UCM and support the Comfort protocol but I was (mistakenly) takingg the easier path because otherwise it will be another project that never makes it to the top of my ToDo list.

Kevin

Last edited on Friday Jul 3rd, 2015 02:39 am by xAPPO



 Posted: Friday Jul 3rd, 2015 08:42 am
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slychiu
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hi XAPPO, you say you are disappointed with the UCM/Zwave3 when it works according to the specifications. But you are not disappointed with Fibaro HC2 when the polling does not work and their firmware is not updated for a long time, plug-ins are not enabled etc.

Should you not consider returning the HC2 rather than UCM/Zwave, as you can do much more with Comfort + zwave? Slightly confusing:(




 Posted: Friday Jul 3rd, 2015 01:26 pm
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xAPPO
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Ohh... I am disappointed with the Fibaro HC2 because it could be so much better if they just invested a bit more in their development team.   However it does do some things really well and many things that Comfort just can't do especially with their LUA scripting and IP communication support. HC2 and Comfort have different functionality and HC2 is an integral part of many many aspects of my home automation system. As a controller it offers great programming 'smarts',  Comfort is a peripheral in that regard rather than my central intelligence.    

Although I didn't spend long on it the UCM virtual zones weren't working with my MCV Vera either which is a fully approved Z-Wave controller, although again badly supported.  Z-wave is totally new to me as I tend to shy away from wireless technologies preferring a hardwired bus like C-Bus or Ethernet - or even WiFi.  I appreciate the appeal of wireless (with associated battery implications) for easy PIR sensor installation but I guess my real disappointment now is with Z-Wave rather than the UCM.   

I realise the Z-Wave module may perform exactly as described it but it doesn't do what I thought or hoped it should do, which is to allow realtime bidirectional integration with a Z-Wave master controller.  Regardless of whether polling should be available as a feature from Fibaro it would still be a poor solution,  damaging to the Z-Wave bandwidth and also I suspect prone to missing zone trip information from PIR's which defeats the purpose for me.  I wanted instant 'push' status updates akin to how Z-Wave security sensors e.g. PIR's or magnetic reed relay sensors send them.

So it's just not the solution I was looking for ..  BTW - tech support from Cytech is great.

Kevin

Last edited on Friday Jul 3rd, 2015 01:43 pm by xAPPO



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