I have a situation where, when I turn on/off a Zooz Zen76 S2 Switch, it sends a command to also turn on/off a Z-Wave outlet. The Z-Wave outlet powers some low voltage landscape lights and the switch powers an outdoor sconce on the side of my house.
I got this set up via Basic Rules just fine, except whenever I use the switch there’s a slight (maybe around a second) delay before it then sends a signal to the outlet. This causes the landscape lights to come on noticeably delayed from the sconce light.
Is there any settings/approaches I can take to make these turn on closer to or actual simultaneously?
I tried dabbling in groups/scenes for these devices but I didn’t get far; despite reading tutorials I’m struggling a bit to wrap my head around this. When I did bring both of these devices into a group and tested the group by toggling it on/off both devices triggered simultaneously then. However, I cannot figure out how to tie toggling a group device onto the switch for use.
I just set up a basic rule for a Zooz switch and outlet and no long delay. Maybe a teeny tiny one, but that’s expected. I’m on a C8Pro running 2.5.0.153 and the devices were LR and ZWJS, 7.23.4.
Maybe see if you can duplicate the problem by substituting another outlet or plug if you can.
Probably should go into more detail about the outlet.
I recall running into this with some GE/Jasco switches in the basement. I had to set some (unobvious) parameter that got it snappy again. So, if the outlet is GE/Jasco, maybe?
I don't know why you would expect those events to be synchronous. The switch is directly switching the power when you turn it on, so there is essentially zero delay there, just the time for power to travel through the wire at the speed of light. The automation behind the event being sent to the hub is always going to take longer.
After you turn on the switch, it sends the command through the network to the hub, the hub has to process that and send the event, then the automation has to receive the event, and trigger the rule, and then that rule has to send a command back through the network to the outlet, and the outlet has to respond.
This will also be related to how loaded your hub is, since the hub processing is in the middle of the automation to turn on the outlet. If your hub is fairly busy, the only way to decrease that processing time is to buy a pro hub with a faster CPU.
Edit: You could make them more synchronous if both the light and outlet react to an event in an automation. If you used doubleTapped from the switch as the trigger, and have the rule turn on the Zoos switch and the outlet, they should turn on at about the same time.
@CuriousB thanks for the help here. I followed the instructions in the link you sent without issue but the outlet isn’t Zooz branded so I was unable to assign a relevant driver to it as the guide suggested. I think that’s the reason Direct Association didn’t work for me? I’m not sure.
Speaking of which…
@velvetfoot yes, I should’ve mentioned that in the original post, sorry. The outlet is GE enbrighten In-Wall Z-Wave Tamper-Resistant Smart Outlet ZW1002. I’d be open to substituting the outlet with another recommended brand/model, but I didn’t find another comparable outlet through my searches.
@chrisbvt thanks for the explanation. I’m aware of the limitations. I suppose my hope was maybe there’s a way to “disable” the “normal” switch function and, instead, when the switch is pressed, send a signal to the hub that then relays back to both the switch and outlet so they’re more synchronized? I found the ability to disable the physical switch function in Hubitat, but that, in turn, disables any signal that would go back to the hub as well.
Edit: I do not have many automations/rules set up in my hub; at the moment just four.
To set up a direct association on a GE/Enbrighten Z-Wave outlet, you must program the controlling device (the master switch, button, or sensor) to talk to the outlet, rather than configuring the outlet itself. Direct association is a one-way street where the trigger device directly broadcasts commands to the target device's Network ID / Device Network ID (DNI). [1, 2, 3]
Before starting, ensure both devices are paired to your hub with the exact same security level (e.g., both S2 Authenticated or both unsecure), or they will not be able to talk to each other. [4]
Step 1: Find the Outlet's Network ID (Target) [5]
You need the unique hex or decimal ID of the GE outlet so the controller knows where to send the signal. [2]
Hubitat: Go to your Devices tab and look at the Device Network Id (DNI) column for your GE outlet. Note this value (e.g., 0A or 12).
Step 2: Set the Association on the Controlling Device [1]
Depending on your hub platform, use one of these methods to program the master device.
Option A: Using Hubitat
Hubitat provides a community utility called the Z-Wave Tweaker or the built-in Z-Wave Association Tool app to bridge them. [7, 8]
Go to Apps > Add Built-In App and select the Z-Wave Association Tool.
Click Create New Association.
Select your master trigger device as the Source Device.
Select your GE outlet as the Destination Device.
Select Group 2 (the standard Z-Wave group for basic on/off control).
Click Done. [8, 9, 10, 11]
Alternatively, if your master device's specific driver exposes an "Associations" preference section, you can simply paste the outlet's DNI directly into the Group 2 field on that device's details page and click Save Preferences. [1]
I’m thinking this is the issue then. I have two of these outlets that I purchased from eBay (new) at different points in time. While the plug and model number are the same, the boxes they both came in are a bit different than each other. I’m starting to wonder if one of these outlets is an older version of the model that doesn’t utilize security…
I’ll first set the Zooz switch to have no security just so their levels can at least match for now to test your solution. I’ll report my findings back soon.
I got mixed up on my GE/Enbrighten Z-Wave outlet boxes. Them being different sizes was indeed the tip-off: One advertises S2 security + SmartStart support while the other doesn’t, and I got the two boxes mixed up.
I’m ordering another one of these outlets with S2 + SmartStart support and, once I swap them out, I’ll continue with your tutorial @CuriousB and report back (likely in a week or two).
You should be able to re-pair the outlet without security. S2 is not mandatory except for things like locks. It’s just the sending device (wall switch?) and the receiving device (smart outlet) must be paired the same way.
Use the swap device in setting to swap the current device to a temporary virtual device. Then remove the outlet with S2 (exclude). Then pair it the old fashioned way (without smart start) and when it asks for security or not decline security. The swap from the virtual device back to the newly paired one so all you automations and dashboard remain intact. Then both devices will have none for security and should be able to direct associate on to the other.
I will say a rule that triggers on one device turning on to command another on should be quite fast. So this might be a lot of work to shave 250-500mseconds……
I feel like I’m going crazy. As a test, I’m throwing the GE outlet out of the equation and just testing against two Zooz ZEN76 switches. Both have S2 security, SmartStart enabled, etc.
Before proceeding, I set the drivers for the switches back to their defaults (which is “Zooz Zen76 S2 Switch”, in this case).
Once the apps were installed, I opened the app and told it to have Switch A (source device) associate with Switch B (destination device), using Group 2:
How do I disable it for the devices? The only way I'm aware to do so is through the Hubitat app by going to the SmartStart section.
The switches were indeed set to Long Range and I changed them here, but the changes didn't seem to update on the devices themselves (checked their statuses in Settings > Zwave Details).
Thanks again, everyone. I’d like to write down the solution to my woes here in case anyone else runs into similar setbacks (also for me to reference in the future in case I forget!).
These steps are to create Direct Associations for Zooz branded on/off switches and GE/enbrighten outlets. Your mileage may vary for other devices.
Ensure your devices are added via SmartStart using the Hubitat app
Ensure no power is going to the devices you want to add. If your hub is on the same electrical circuit as the device you’re wanting to add, you’ll need to temporarily move the hub to a different circuit in order to kill power to the device.
If your device has been added to your hub previously, you will need to fully exclude it from the hub prior to performing the step above.
Scan the device’s SmartStart QR code or manually enter in its DSK.
Upon entering the info in, ensure the following options are set for the device:
Disable Long Range (LR) mode for the device. For my purposes, I set the devices in question to “SmartStart Boot Mode”.
For quicker, more instantaneous/synchronized on/off action between associated devices, you should not use any security levels for the two devices in question. Set its Grant Keys to Security 0 - Unauthenticated.
Restore power to the devices and they should be correctly detected/added into your hub with your customized settings applied as mentioned above.
Download the Zooz custom driver for its switches to utilize Direct Association actions
Install the Zooz ZEN Switch Advanced Driver and assign it to the Zoon switches you’d like to associate/control other devices with.
Side note: I tried other drivers such as the parent Z-Wave Association Tool and its child Z-Wave Association, but these did not work for association with my Zooz switches. They might work for other branded switches, but you’ll need to test to confirm.
Re-open the Zooz switch’s device info with the newly assigned Zooz ZEN Switch Advanced Driver, go to the “Preferences” tab, and find the Device Association - Group 2 field.
In this field, type in the DNI of the devices you want to be controlled via this switch. Separate more than one device with commas.
You can find a devices DNI value on the main Devices landing page in your Hubitat dashboard.
If all went to plan, you have a Zooz switch that utilizes Direct Association with other devices that has minimal/perceptually zero “lag time” between the switch itself turning on/off and the devices its controlling.
To reiterate some things:
The associate switch and associated devices must be using the same Grant Key/security levels. It’s recommend to do Security 0 - Unauthenticated to reduce any “lag time” between the switch being toggled and it toggling any associated devices.
Long Range mode (LR) must be disabled for the devices in question in order to associate with one another.
Here’s some information about Hub Mesh, if you’re curious. As @aaiyar said, it actually has nothing to do with z-wave (or any wireless protocol for devices paired to a hub).
