I mistakenly used the button controller. I was able to control the lights with the buttons using your app without issues, thanks! The dimming isn't working quite right. I set a button with 3 different dimmer switches, When I dim one right responds immediately, up and down without hesitation. The other lights goes full on then off, then they all go off. I tried it with a single light and had the same issue. Then all the z-wave lights in the house go off and I'm left in the dark... but I can turn them right back on again, I'm working out the quirks and my limited experience with the system thus far, the fix may be something simple.
Hm. Not sure what you mean by "mistakenly used the button controller", but maybe you want to share screenshots of your app and driver configurations?
I had first used the Button controller app that was built into HE, but the realized I needed to use the app your app. The problem I keep having is the dimming. I set 2 leviton z-wave dimmers to the first button. They go on and off fine, but it I try to dim them, One light will start to dim, I stop pressing the dim button. then both lights go to max. brightness, then dim all the way to off, come on again brighten then dim, then all the lights that are on the zwave network go out, as if it resets. After a minute or two. I can turn the lights on the network back on. I found that this happens on all the buttons if I try to dim.
Hmm...that's curious. You're using both my app and my driver?
I only have one Eaton z-wave dimmer (directly) on any of my VRCZ4s (everything else is Hue devices), but that dimmer dims perfectly from the VRCZ4.
Is it possible that you have those other z-wave dimmers linked to each other, and there's some sort of "tug of war" going on between devices? I did have an issue where one of my VRCZ4s was controlling a Hue group (of two Hue bulbs), and I also had an Eaton z~wave dimmer bound to the group, and when I'd dim the Eaton the bulbs (and the Eaton) would start fluctuating randomly (but all in sync). (This was back when I was still on Smartthings.) IIRC, it was something to do with tracking only one of the bulbs in the group, and I resolved it by taking the Hue group out of the equation and binding both dimmers directly to both bulbs.
What's on those two other dimmers? And have you tried it with only one?
The dimmers I'm using are Leviton VRI06-1LZ dimmers. The only link they have is in an automation that tuns them off at night using the rule engine with HE. I have tried only 1 light on the dimmer, it does the same hit time once it goes all the way to bright then again and they go off. The load on the lights are can lights.
Strange indeed. Have you enabled debug logging on all the involved devices and looked at the log stream when this happens?
I looked at the log, the dimmer switch is acting as an digital on & level to 99% then as a digital off. no actual dimming of the switch.
Given that the VRCZ4s themselves employ some vendor-specific (and kept-secret) command language, I wouldn't be surprised if your Leviton z-wave dimmers are similarly idiosyncratic.
I wonder what you see in the logs when you dim those Leviton units directly?
When dimmed directly, you get "level" and then the percentage.
Funny...I hadn't tried my own "VRCZ4<->z-wave dimmer" link since I completed my migration from Smartthings to HE -- and in fact, my dimming (on this device only) is also broken now. It seems to be acting like yours.
Have you seen anything like this?
I wonder if the latency improvement from Smartthings->HE (which is dramatically visible elsewhere) is affecting just these Z-wave comms? I'll be away for a few days, but I'll try to look into this when I'm back.
I have been experimenting. I took the VRCZ4 off HE and reestablished the Leviton zwave to see if I could see any differences. The the VRCZ4 driver offers on/off and a scene controller. If I used the scene controller selection for the button, I could not control the on off dimming turning on it always ramped to 100 percent. but I could dim properly after that. once I reset the button to on and it it always came on with the last dimming level, here is what the leviton installer driver interface looks like.
Here is the odd thing with my old connection to Smart things. I had the original version of smart things and with allowed me to include the Levition switches without excluding them from the original zwave network. This worked great for me because my VRCZ4 was not connected to the Smart things hub, it controlled the lights independent of Smart things. The new version of smart things doesn't work that way.
I will look for the log file. If I can get these button controllers working. I can move on to other challenges.
I've never seen that Leviton Installer driver interface (even though I bought the little Leviton USB stick at one point -- I never got the software that goes with it to do much of anything useful for me).
Not sure I follow your description fully: Are you saying that with the "On/Off" selection, it works perfectly (on/off and dimming)?
To be sure, my driver/app are not using z-wave association at present...and I was thinking that, if you can use z-wave association to your other z-wave dimmers instead, I'm not sure you'd even need my driver and app at all? (Won't help with zigbee bulbs, or course...)
In any case, I'm still planning to have a look into why my driver's no longer correctly dimming another z-wave dimmer since I migrated the code from Smartthings -- I suspect it might be to do with the reduced latency on HE. But the Philips Hue (zigbee) bulbs are all dimming perfectly.
Will keep you posted
The Leviton USB Stick and installation software basically includes the devices, sets up the associations and then programs all the devices with the routing and switching. Once set it doesn't need to be connected to the system. Nice set up, but it's limiting when you need to add or connect devices like HE. HE is not supporting a secondary hub configuration to an outside primary controller. I was trying what you had suggested with the association, but once I associated the HE with the Leviton system I hit a road block, The nodes were set, but HE would not allow the drivers to associate with the notes from the Leviton system. So getting the VRCZ4 working is my only option.
In the Levition driver for the VRCZ4 the scene selection just dims full or off, but in the on/off selection the dimming works.
In order to connect HE to the system I have to exclude the devices from Levition which breaks the associations. I believe that the VRCZ4 sees your driver as controlling it like a scene possibly. And the generic driver for my VRIO6 only recognizes the button push as all on or all off. I do appreciate you taking a look. This device is the root of my lighting control in the main living area. Once I get past this I should be set.
I took a look at the code. I'm by no means any type of programmer, just looking at the logic of the parameters. It looks as if the dimmer buttons are setting the value of the dimming to the working level and the working level is set to 0 or 100, it is missing the increment part somewhere there if I understand the dimming and the result it is giving.
I went in and slowed the diming down just to see the reaction of the event log. It doesn't look like there is a command to stop the dimmer at the setting. It looks like a recursive loop to 100% or to 0% it keeps incrementing. Is there a way to add a stop level on release of the dimmer buttons. The event log for the light shows a constant level increase or decrease. The event log on the button controller shows just on and off.
tired of smartthings (they broke my zwave mesh yet again), so looking to switch. Is that smartthings vrcz4 code that you ported from me working here? (specifically led controls probably, but direct association too, though I assume that'll just work). I reversed it a number of years ago, so can probably help on the "blackbox" of things, if it isn't, unless there's some real road block.
Hi @ygelfand -- good to see you here!
Yes, I hear you on Smartthings. And yes, I did get my VRCZ4 adaptation of your VRCS4 code working on Hubitat (or mostly, anyway -- I've been away for a good while, but still need to revisit the reported issue above about dimming behaviors.)
I thought I'd included hyperlinks to my app/driver in three different postings above (Dec 20, Jan 26, and Feb 4), but I guess I hadn't put the code up yet -- try Leviton VRCZ4-M0Z Switch Mapper and Leviton VRCZ4-M0Z Zone Controller
still debugging why some of my light controls don't work, but I believe the dimming stuff is because you mess w/ groupId: 5 (you shouldn't associate to buttonNum+4), groupid 5 is dimming related. but not 100%
