Leviton Smart Dimmer and Alexa: what to say to control brightness/dim value?

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Hi All - Just starting to play with my Hubitat and added a Leviton DZ6HD Decora Smart dimmer. I can control dimmer from Hubitat web GUI. I then added the Hubitat skill in my Alexa app and let Alexa discover my light switch/dimmer. I can turn the lights on or off by saying "Alexa, turn on the Living Room Lights" and it works :slight_smile: . But what do I say to control the brightness/dim setting?

I did watch some of the Tutorials, including Amazon Echo. Are there more Alexa tutorials that demonstrate more advanced devices/commands, like a dimmer?

Lastly, why are there 2 different items listed under Hubitat's "Apps" related to Alexa: 1) Amazon Echo App and 2) Amazon Echo Skill ?
On Hubitat's master list of apps, the description for both is the same "Choose the devices you want to control with Amazon Echo". Also, isn't Echo simply one of many Amazon voice-enabled devices (e.g. there's a DOT device too). I'm wondering if the app name should simply be called "Amazon Alexa" ?

TIA,
-Mike

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Mike

For me I say, Alexa Living Room light 40%, or Alexa, turn Living Room Light to 40%, either works for me

Rick

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Hey Rick - thanks for the fast reply. I tried "Alexa, Living Rooms Lights 30%", as well as "Alexa, turn Living Room Lights to 30%". In both cases she replied "Living Room Lights doesn't support that".

Which of the Amazon Echo apps do you have installed in Hubitat - the Amazon Echo APP or the Amazon Echo SKILL? I currently have both installed, which I think might be a mistake as even when Alexa does turn on the lights after I say "Alexa, turn on the Living Rooms Lights", after the lights come on she then says something about it be an invalid command.

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You should be using the Amazon Echo Skill. The ‘Amazon Echo App’ is an old integration that is being replaced by the ever Skill, in countries that the Skill has been released in.

To set a dim level, I simp,y say “Alexa, set the family room to 50%” and she does exactly that.

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Thanks, I'll try removing the Amazon Echo APP, leaving just the Amazon Echo SKILL enabled/installed in Hubitat.

Would probably be helpful if the AA APP was removed from the app list, or its description updated to indicate it is legacy/old...

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They did remove it for a while, but added it back for users in countries without the Skill being released yet.

I agree it is a bit confusing. @patrick, @bravenel - can the description for the old ‘Amazon Echo App’ be changed to reflect that users should use the skill if possible? It probably doesn’t help that the old ‘Amazon Echo App’ is the first one in the list as well.

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I did remove the AA APP, leaving just the AA SKILL. Sometimes Alexa reports "Sorry, the Living Room Lights is not responding" after either a request to turn the lights on or off. Yet the lights are being turned on/off. Sounds like Alexa isn't getting status feedback from Hubitat, or maybe not quick enough?

And, even with just the AA SKILL, I still can't control the dimming of this Leviton Smart dimmer.

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You might want to remove the Leviton Smart dimmer from within the Alexa App on your phone (not inside Hubitat.) Then, tell Alexa to Discover Devices again to see if it is properly detected as a dimmer. If not, I would recommend contacting support@hubitat.com.

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Thanks ogiewon! In Alexa I removed the 2 devices named Living Room Lights (there were 2 because I had initially added both the "Amazon Echo APP" and "Amazon Echo SKILL" apps in Hubitat). I deleted these duplicate device names within Alexa, then let it rediscover and it found just 1 device. I can now say commands like "Alexa, set the Living Rooms Lights to 20%". Or, "Alexa, turn on the Living Rooms Lights to 20%". I like the "set" command syntax better, as it's more logical for dimming...
But, Alexa still complains, about 8 secs after turning lights on/off, "Sorry, Living Room Lights is not responding". Yet it performed the commands perfectly. I guess I'll contact support and get guidance (I'm sure some log file somewhere...).

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Thanks to a post I found by Keo, I solved the problem of Alexa complaining "[device] is not responding". Solution was to change the HE device type from Generic Smart Z-Wave Dimmer to Generic Z-Wave Dimmer, deleted device in Alexa-> Smart Home , then clicked Add Device to let Alexa rediscover the dimmer again and now it works properly. Alexa now says "OK" about 1 to 2 secs after performing the requested command...

Before making this change, I noticed that even in the HE web GUI, the dimmer device was not listing the device's correct dim level setting. I think it always showed 1%. Now that the device type is no longer "Smart", HE GUI lists the correct current dim value.

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Great to hear you've got it working correctly. And, thank you for posting your findings as I am sure others will find this information useful!

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Sounds like you may have the old firmware for the Leviton dimmers. The Generic Smart Z-Wave dimmer doesn't work with the old firmware . Leviton z-wave plus dimmers - firmware update may needed to work with generic smart driver

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The Leviton dimmer that I bought several months ago is their model DZ6HD. The link you kindly pointed me to lists a Leviton DZD6HD dimmer (plus one other model). It is possible DZD6HD is a typo, and it should be DZ6HD? It doesn't sound like it's an easy thing for a newbie to update these Leviton dimmers, so I want to be doubly sure of model nos...

I wonder if there would even be any benefit to upgrading the firmware (assuming it's applicable to my DZ6HD)? Changing the HE device type from Generic Smart Z-Wave Dimmer to the not-so-smart Generic Z-Wave Dimmer seems to have solved my issues. Commands spoken to Alexa take about 1 to 2 secs to execute, followed by an "OK" from Alexa maybe another second after that. I imagine the updated firmware wouldn't be any faster? As far as response times when using the HE web GUI - nearly instantaneous. And the GUI is displaying the correct dim level - and remembering it between switching on/off... Is there some other functionality I might be missing by not using the Smart version of the device type?

The only thing that is a little disappointing is that the brightness of my LED bulbs controlled by this dimmer does not go low enough for my liking. Once the dim setting reaches about 10%, no further reduction in brightness is observed as I work down to 1%. Probably just limitations in my LED bulbs...

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Weird: I enabled Debug logging for this dimmer (wanted to see if its firmware ver was listed), then spoke a command to Alexa to just turn on the lights. Then I looked at log and saw text below. The odd part is that the dimmer was already set to 20% (before I turned it off), yet the logs list 99%. Alexa did turn on the lights properly, retaining the 20% level when it turned lights back on.

dev:332018-11-19 06:24:31.798 pm infoLiving Room Lights was set to 99% [digital]

dev:332018-11-19 06:24:31.797 pm infoLiving Room Lights was turned on [digital]

dev:332018-11-19 06:24:31.781 pm debugdimmerEvents value: 99

dev:332018-11-19 06:24:31.779 pm debugBasicReport value: 99 ok

dev:332018-11-19 06:24:31.772 pm debugparse description: zw device: 02, command: 2003, payload: 63

dev:332018-11-19 06:24:11.045 pm infoLiving Room Lights was turned off [digital]

dev:332018-11-19 06:24:11.035 pm debugdimmerEvents value: 0

dev:332018-11-19 06:24:11.032 pm debugBasicReport value: 0 ok

dev:332018-11-19 06:24:11.027 pm debugparse description: zw device: 02, command: 2003, payload: 00

dev:332018-11-19 06:24:03.729 pm debugafter settings: ['param3':'0', 'param4':'0', 'flashRate':'750', 'logEnable':true, 'txtEnable':true], state: ['polled':0, 'bin':-1, 'flashing':false]

dev:332018-11-19 06:24:03.654 pm debugbefore settings: ['param3':'0', 'param4':'0', 'flashRate':'750', 'logEnable':true, 'txtEnable':true]

dev:332018-11-19 06:24:03.610 pm warndescription logging is: true

dev:332018-11-19 06:24:03.607 pm warndebug logging is: true

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You are correct the Model should be DZ6HD, my apologies .

The generic "non-smart" handler will work but status updates wont be as reliable/fast as using the smart z-wave handler -with the appropriate firmware. The difference is, I believe, in the use of a feedback -zwave message to notify that the physical switch has changed. With the correct handler and firmware this is instantaneous.

This has been a source of some annoyance [RELEASE] Leviton Decora Z-Wave Plus Dimmers (DZ6HD & DZ1KD) - Community Created Device Types - SmartThings Community

Al I can say is that having managed to update the firmware things now work perfectly and it allows me to work reliably with scenes etc.

If you are starting out on this journey I can only wish you well. There are many on the community that will help you. This requires patience, as the firmware updates take time, and the addition of software and a z-wave stick.

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Thanks for the clarification Linvale! Does anybody know if there is a good example/tutorial on exactly how to update the Leviton firmware? Can it be done "over the air" directly in my HE environment? If not, is that a limitation related to Leviton, or are firmware updates for devices basically not a function of HE? If not a current functionality of HE, are there plans for it to be added?

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In the HE web GUI, can anyone explain what the Start Level Change (and Direction) and Stop Level Change buttons do? Also, how about the Configure button? As a newbie, I think it would be very helpful to have button-specific labels pop up when you hover mouse over a button that briefly describe what that button does. And maybe add ability to turn help labels on/off for the experts?

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Those are how buttons dim (or brighten). You press a button, it sets direction and start. When you release the button, the button sends the stop. We shorthand write this as press/release. Other button actions are press and press/hold.

Pico's are popular button devices here and they support all three button modes.

Take a 5 button Pico, for example. (I'm giving physical button examples here, but virtual devices work the same.)
Pico5

Button 1 at the top might be used for "on, full brightness" -- it's just a push. Same with button 5 at the bottom: "off" -- another push. That button 2 could be used as push/release to brighten, while button 4 would be the same, but the other direction.

Button 3 is often called "favorite" and could be used to set a specific dim level -- again using Push.

Configure does just that, it moves the configuration from the driver to the device. ZWave devices have many configuration elements, and the driver wants to set them so that driver and device match features.

That Pico also works with push/hold to give 5 more buttons! Yes, that Pico is a 10 button device. Short push = push while long push = push/hold. Push/release and push/hold are the same action to the human finger, the programming being the difference in interpretation.

If, when you join a device, it displays the correct driver, the config is done automatically. But anytime you change the driver, as you experiment perhaps, then clicking Configure will send that driver's "map of features" to the device, overwriting the previous driver, in many cases.

https://docs.hubitat.com/index.php?title=Device_Detail

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Thanks for the detailed explanation csteele! Written like a true programmer/developer - nice!! So, since I don't have any button devices like the Pico, those Start Level Change and Stop Level Change buttons on the HE web GUI screen are meaningless for me, right? They would not affect the physical buttons/controls on the physical dimmer, right?

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you can push them the same as On or Off. They'll do what they're intended to do..

"would not affect the physical buttons/controls on the physical dimmer" <-- not sure what that means, but I'll tell ya what flashed into my head.. those Mickey Mouse hands that come out of the ceiling to physically push a button. :smiley:

36%20AM
Screen Shot 2018-11-20 at 9.49.36 AM.png487×616 82.5 KB

Perhaps it's better to imagine that the switch you're replacing is swapped to a Relay. The ZWave circuitry controls the relay, the physical buttons tell the ZWave circutry what to do.. exactly the same as the radio commands from a hub. Physical does nothing anymore, except tell something it got touched.