I have been using the "Generic Z-Wave Smart Dimmer" driver for my Leviton Z-Wave Plus dimmers and it works just fine but lacks the ability to change some configuration parameters.
Just noticed a new driver specific for these dimmers and gave it a try thinking it would expose those parameters, but it seems exactly the same and now I get all events as Physical, the generic one does have proper physical / digital reporting for me.
@bill.d reported the exact opposite experience on another thread.
I think what is happening is that there is a custom driver floating around for these Leviton switches that people use to update parameters and has some code in the Refresh method that writes the manufacturer name (Leviton) in the "manufacturer" DataValue instead of the ID (29) and that caused the Generic driver to stop properly reporting. I read somewhere else in this forum that the Generic drivers use this value to determine some of the functionality in the device.
I realized of that long ago and wrote a custom driver just to be able to fix this DataValue on all my devices back to 29.
@mike.maxwell is my assumption correct? is that the only difference with this new driver?
BTW, there are 2 models of this Leviton Dimmer that only differ in their load capacity (DZ6HD with 600W and DZ1KD with 1000W) so I think it would have been better to call it "Leviton Z-Wave Plus Dimmer"
Yes, in the case of this driver the manufacturer id value is used to to make reporting and configuration decisions.
The dedicated driver doesn't count on this value as the generic does.
The leviton devices are extremely difficult to deal with as each device seems to function differently in terms of which commands they use for reporting, there are also just so many different models.
I'm not going to pretend that we'll ever have perfect digital physical reporting across all of them.
So this driver is specifically named and coded to support the DZ6HD device only.
That's probably what happened to me. It would be nice if someone with some knowledge re-wrote the custom driver as these dimmers have a lot of capabilities that would be nice to access without having to go to the basic Z-Wave tool.
As far as I know they've had 3 models of Z-Wave dimmer in their line for quite some time since 2016-17. The package insert documents all the Z-Wave commands. The imperfect community driver(s) at least showed the way. It's too bad this new implementation didn't take advantage of the opportunity to expose those capabilities.
You can use the custom driver and then switch back to the stock driver and even if you use configure with the stock driver it will not change those settings, at least this was the case with the generic z-wave driver. This is the way I set all my settings and it did not cause any problems.
But I am not sure with the new Leviton driver, can someone confirm that if you configure the device with this driver will it modify or reset settings aside from what you can change in the device page?
Yes, true. One of the community drivers made the 'on' level parameter a custom command. That enables one to set the physical switch 'on' level in RM.
Well you made it sound like it was difficult based on the Leviton model range and command inconsistency. Not sure the reluctance to expose parameters that the manufacturer documents to users in its install manual. It would seem to be a selling point for Hubitat to do so.
I'm pretty sure that functionality starts off at the default switch level and then Hubitat adjusts to the level set in the mode. No thanks. Looks totally cheap-o, especially if Mode level is less than the start level. One reason that I will not use Caséta dimmers that start at 100% and are not configurable. Modern LED lights are bright and 100% is almost always too bright especially in retrofit spaces.
Nope this is wrong, I use it myself, the light turns on at the level I set in mode lighting. This is one of the reasons I use the Leviton dimmers, is for the set on level function.
Edit; It does not matter if the light is at a higher or lower level then what I setup my mode lighting automation to, it will still turn on at the set level. There is no "dimming" up/down either, just on at that level.
I can tell you after I fixed the "manufacturer" DataValue in my devices fingerprint back to 29 they all started working perfectly fine with the Generic Z-Wave Smart Dimmer and Generic Z-Wave Smart Switch drivers. I have been using them like that for over a year...
As I mentioned, the custom driver people is using is modifying that DataValue and writing the word "Leviton" there and I think that is why you had to write this new very specific driver. If this is the case then this is going to be really confusing because different devices of the same model may require different drivers depending on what they have in that DataValue. A much better solution would be to do a small modification to the Generic Drivers to fix this, simply they either recognize the word "Leviton" and use the same capabilities as the value 29 indistinctly or add a couple of lines on the refresh method where if the manufacturer says Leviton then change it back to 29.
BTW, this new driver reports all events as Physical for all of my device models, including the DZ6HD.
Oh, another thing that may contribute to this confusion is the firmware version, the original firmware had a bunch of bugs some of which were around reporting (didn't report changes when physically done from remotes), all of my devices have been upgraded to 1.20 which is the latest (and only one) available firmware update.
That works well in the case where one is controlling the light via a Hubitat-programmed button or motion device.
But it does not work when controlling the lights via the physical switch/dimmer. In that case it starts at the hardware-programmed level and adjusts to the level set in the Mode app. If your hardware-programmed level is set to the previous light level that would only happen once per mode. Which might be acceptable and certainly better than a Caséta dimmer that always starts at 100%. But I'd like it to happen zero times per mode with an absolute level set in the hardware.
That's possible. The previous firmware totally sucked. I stopped buying Z-Wave devices because of it (not knowing what the issue was, thinking it was a generic Z-Wave issue in my home). After the change they work great and I added some more Leviton devices.
The Hubitat people get a lot of devices and have limited time to revisit older devices. I get that. But Leviton is one brand that you can go to Home Depot and buy off the shelf, not some fly by night brand that will be gone in two years. (They have the same issue with the Zooz 4-in-1 Z-Wave sensor. Previous versions were slow, newer versions are as fast as a Zigbee sensor. But the reputation has lived on including on one of the Hubitat Live sessions.)
No the light always comes on at the set level using the physical button, I have been using this for years at this point and its always worked this way. I have all my switches setup this way for bedtime mode so I am not blinded by a bright light in the middle of the night.
There is no adjustment either, when using the physical button. If my mode app is setup to turn the light on at 10% during bedtime, then even if the light was 100% when I last turned it off, it will still turn on directly to 10%, there is no dimming happening.
What level do you have your dimmer preset level set to (Z-Wave parameter 5)? My guess is that you have it set equal to or lower than your lowest Mode level. So the transition is natural as light moving from dim to bright is the standard fade direction. Which is an effective way to simulate changing the hardware preset level. One that I will try out even as I'd prefer to do it in hardware.
It's set to 0 which is the default of last dim level. There is no fading, in fact some lights have 4 second fade set in the Leviton firmware, yet the light still comes on at whatever level I have set in the mode app.
I programmed the dimmer hardware to have an on level of 99 with a long fade on of 4. With no Mode app running it works as expected - goes to 99% over 4 seconds.
I set up a Mode app to come on to 15%. When turning on the dimmer starts the ramp to 99%. But the Mode app starts quickly (can't measure precisely as there is no Mode app logging) and sets the level to 15% before the 4 second ramp to 99% can finish. The mode app is not instantaneous. My lights go up higher than 15% (goes to the 2nd level indicator led on the dimmer) before the Mode app brings it down to 15% (the first indicator led). Also, the faster the hardware ramp, the higher the lights get before the Mode app kicks in.
So the Mode app can more or less effectively emulate a hardware level 'on'. One may have to adjust default 'on' levels and default fade rates on the dimmer. The only big-ish issue I see is that Mode app doesn't have a fade 'on' parameter. Which can be addressed by using RM rather than Mode app.
Thanks so much @mike.maxwell for including a driver for the Leviton DZ6HD-Z Z-Wave Dimmer. As mentioned, this is probably one of the most widely available z-wave dimmers in Canada as it's the only z-wave dimmer sold at big box stores, primarily Home Depot and Canadian Tire.
I would also love to get a driver for the non-dimmer, regular switch version. The base model number is DW15S. This is probably the most widely available regular z-wave switch in Canada and is the equivalent to the dimmer version above.
Although the generic driver does mostly work for this switch, the LED indicator can't be controlled from the driver as well as some other parameters.
Normally I wouldn't ask for a one of device to be supported but given that the dimmer is supported now, this switch is so widely available in Canada, and is a good switch from a reputable company, it would be great if it was fully supported!
I also agree with this comment. Although Leviton might make a bunch of devices, these are the only ones very widely available and most commonly used in Canada, 1 switch, 1 600w dimmer, and a plug in outlet. Personally I don't see the 1000w dimmer and plug-in dimmer outlet was widely available or used.
Using the new 2.2.0 MakerAPI feature that provides the switch event type (digital or physical), I noticed that when I changed to the DZ6HD driver, there is no reported distinction between the two switch event types,
When I change back to the Generic Z-Wave Smart Dimmer driver, the switch event type correctly reports digitally-initiated transitions and physically-initiated transitions.
