I am a recent Wink refugee and am quite impressed with the posts I find here in the community. People seem to be doing their best to be helpful, especially to us newbies. This is my first post.
HE 2.1.7.127
I have couple GoControl WD500Z-1 dimmers that are kicking my butt! Hoping for a little help. What will be most helpful is gaining insights about the HE debugging steps.
Background
1. These dimmers worked just fine in the Wink environment.
2. The dimmer device doc says to just touch the paddle when the hub is in exclusion mode.
3. The dimmer device doc says nothing about how to do a factory reset.
4. I was able to remove the dimmers from Wink using exclusion mode. They no longer appear in the Wink app.
5. Was able to configure a GoControl thermostat easily. Works great.
6. Have configured a couple Sengled Element Classic bulbs that mostly work. There are glitches. That's for another post.
7. Have a plug-in switch configured with the "Generic Zigbee Outlet" and it works flawlessly.
What I have attempted
1. Put the HE in Zwave discovery. Tried one click on the "up" side of the paddle. Tried 2 clicks. Tried holding for 5 sec. For 10 sec. It does not show up in "Found Devices:"
2. Tried all the same on the "down" side of the paddle. No luck.
3. The hub is about 10 feet from dimmer #1. Very close.
4. Tried all the same on dimmer #2. It is about 20 feet from the hub. No luck.
5. I examined the logs and see the hub going into and out of "Z-Wave Discovery". See nothing to suggest it is communicating with a device.
Welcome.
The very first Google entry I found has this ......
" In the event that your primary Controller is lost or otherwise inoperable, to reset the GoControl Dimmer and clear all network information, follow these steps: 1 . Tap the top of the switch five (5) times. 2. Press and hold the bottom of the switch for 15 seconds."
Looks like you can grab a manual from HERE
Thank you, Njanda. I SWEAR I did web searches about 8 times and did not find that guidance. I have the doc, but didn’t find “reset” when searching the PDF.
That was a pretty weak start and I sure appreciate your help. Will update this thread with progress.
An update .... No joy. Grrrr. Cannot get the damned GoControl dimmers to reset, or even “exclude” from the Wink. 5 clicks on the up side and hold it for 15 sec on the down side. Just didn’t work for me. Went to a 2nd GoControl switch and had the same experience.
Thank you, @bcopeland. Appreciate that guidance. The “requires polling” coupled with not being able to get them to reset pretty much seals the GoControl fate. Replaced the first GoControl with a GE 14294, which does all the expected things, like pairing, dimming, and switching. Yay! Guess I’ll be picking up a few more GE devices.
I’ll make someone a hellova deal on some slightly worn GoControl dimmers!
In another thread someone asked something like “What’s the most reliable and best dimmer?” Sorta question. Many folks seemed to like the Lutron devices and others who preferred not to have a 2nd hub in the config thought these GE devices were about the best out there. Does that remain the prevailing wisdom? Hard to go wrong with the GE devices? Is there another contender for a device that is full-featured and very reliable?
@drubdrub Features and price... I went with the red series dimmers.. They have notification features of the rgb light on them (this was the final selling point for me) … Not to mention the manufacturer provided drivers for HE to use all the advanced features...
Damn frustrated with the freaking GoControl dimmer. Can't get it to do the reset. Can't get the HE to recognize it. Set it aside for a couple months out of frustration. Now back at it and enjoying the same frustration. Meanwhile, I bought an Inovelli Red to replace the damned thing. Thanks @bcopeland
And, since the last post have added a couple of Aeotec Range Extender 6s to the configuration. One is about 8 unobstructed feet from the GoControl piece of crap. The Aeotec repeater reports green with its signal test.
Anyone with any last suggestions to get the worthless GoControl piece of crap to work?
If not, I'm going to take into the garage an adjust it a bit. I have a 3 pound adjuster and a 12 pound adjuster.
Have fought the temptation to use an adjuster on them, so far. I'm a cheap bastard? Makes me whimper to just throw away these $30+ devices and replace them with $40 devices. Ya know what I mean?
Thought to ask questions about debugging ...
Since the devices are not yet paired with the HE, assume there is no debugging info to be gained from the hub. False? True?
Is there gain to be realized by getting a Z-wave stick in an effort to discover and debug?
Is there a debugging guide? Haven't found it yet.
Sure appreciate this community so far. Seems like a minimum of hostility and put-downs, and a healthy show of patience. Bravo!
It's very important to exclude the device correctly first.
You can shutdown your wink hub and try exclude with the HE hub. Open an extra tab for logging while doing this so you can see the event.
I no long have this switch but didn't have any issue with pairing it.
I have 3 WD500Z-1's that were moved from Vera to Hubitat hub. I remember having to perform multiple attempts to get them paired but once they did I had no issues.
I would try a "RESET" and see if this helps. (I don't recall having this info when I moved them)
To Reset Unit (If Required):
In the event that your primary Controller is lost or otherwise inoperable, to reset the
GoControl Dimmer and clear all network information, follow these steps:
Tap the top of the switch five (5) times.
Press and hold the bottom of the switch for 15 seconds. The LED will increasingly blink faster to indicate that a Reset is taking place.
There are actually 2 of these devices and both have been working fine in a Wink config for a couple years. Only giving me grief in the cutover to HE. Grrrrrrrrr
LED is lit and it works fine as a manual dimmer. Grrrrrrr, again. So frustrating.
I've given both multiple, no, many tries. But perhaps diligence will pay off. Will try some more reset sequences on them. The light never blinks as the destructions suggest it will during reset.
Sigh
Sure appreciate this community's suggestions and support. Many thanks!!!!
Thinking back some more, I believe I tried pairing using both the top of the switch paddle and the bottom. I don't recall which finally worked or if it mattered.
Any luck? I have 1 that I just tried adding to hubitat and no luck. It used to be on HE but I replaced, and am now trying to add back in a new location.
Here is what I’ve tried.
Exclude - single tap, double tap, triple tap - both on and off
I too had issues pairing the WD500Z-1's. My recollection is I tried many times an finally got it. Its been a long time but I think I tried single then double taps to include (maybe even 3 taps)
I also moved the hub to near the switch.
When I finally got them (have 3) paired they have been working fine, maybe a year or so.
