Z-Wave Wall Controller (Switch) + Rule Machine

josh · February 15, 2018, 3:41am

Is there a recommended approach for using a Z-Wave Controller like the Intermatic CA5100 to control other Switches?

Historically I've used the Aeon Minimote to setup direct association between the controller and a z-wave lamp module, but with the local processing of Hubitat, I thought it would be a cool use case of these devices to control both Z-wave and Zigbee devices simultaneously.

As might be expected, the Intermatic CA5100 fingerprint wasn't recognized, so I manually changed it to a Z-Wave switch and the on/off events from the controller were coming across as expected. One of the issues I found with this setup is if the Controller was already "on", further "on" presses of the controller would not trigger events / state changes in rules. This meant that if I turned off the remote load some other way, then I couldn't turn it back on unless the Controller was first switched "off" and then back "on".

From what I can tell, Rule Machine was looking for a state change, so I just put together a simple Z-Wave Controller driver based on a Z-Wave Switch controller and modified the physical button press events to have the isStateChange: true flag.

Is this a reasonable approach or would you guys recommend something different?

github.com

joshualyon/hubitat/blob/master/drivers/zwave-controller.groovy

/**
 *
 *  Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except
 *  in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at:
 *
 *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 *  Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed
 *  on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License
 *  for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.
 *
 */
metadata {
	definition (name: "Z-Wave Controller", namespace: "hubitat", author: "Anonymous") {
		capability "Actuator"
 		capability "Switch"
		capability "Refresh"
	}
}

This file has been truncated. show original

Finally, in Rule Machine, I wanted to have a single rule per Controller, so I setup the following. Is this a reasonable approach or is there a preferred/better way to do this?

mike.maxwell · February 15, 2018, 5:26am

I would change this device to a button contoller, that would allow you to use the button controller app.
https://community.hubitat.com/t/hubitats-button-implementation/283?source_topic_id=494

josh · February 15, 2018, 4:01pm

Fair point, Mike. Thanks for chiming in.

JDRoberts · February 18, 2018, 11:55am

One very small point:

The zwave device class for this device is “Wall controller,” not just “controller.”

I know that seems trivial, but technically, there’s a really big distinction. The hubitat hub is a “controller,” and holds the full set of address tables and can establish the network. A wall controller doesn’t support any of the controller command sets and doesn’t maintain the address tables: it just uses association or some of the scene command sets to control a specific subset of devices or to send scene codes to the primary controller .