xlurkr

You don't need to upgrade the dongle to run 5.0.16C. That's the last release that supports the original dongle. However, you may find that some of the nodes still won't work after showing up. This is device-dependent. I have a couple of ZooZ switches for which that is true, and plan to upgrade the dongle and firmware to deal with it. It will cost you nothing to try 5.0.16C first, and see if it solves your problem. -Tom

If the switches are linked by being part of an ISY-defined scene, you should be able to send a REST command to turn on the scene, rather than the one light, and it should work like you want it to. -Tom

Sorry if this is irrelevant, but are you sure you're not having a problem of too high of an RF signal to the MSs? With mine, I always need to move them to a location inside of a drawer or cabinet to write links successfully. They will trigger existing links correctly and I can almost always read their status correctly in situ, but for some reason writing updates to them doesn't work unless I attenuate the RF level to them somehow. Others have reported this, too. -Tom

I forgot to add: having an ON level of <100% is really nice built-in Insteon behavior. If the ISY is down, or you want to or need to remove it from the environment, you can still have a low lighting level set with the first press, and go to 100% with the second. I remember loving it when I was first starting out with Insteon and didn't have my ISY, 20 years ago. -Tom

Thanks for the clarification. I only have 6 button KPLs, but I can understand why an 8 button toggles the load on/off by default. There's no off button! I still don't see how variables can fix the following issue: a switch doesn't appear to generate either a control or status event if it is turned on when it is already at its ON level. Without a means to trigger the ISY to know this has happened, how can the ISY do anything to establish the desired state? If you suggest using variables along with not having an ON level of <100%, then I get it. -Tom

This may be true for the non-load-controlling keys on a KPL, but I believe that the KPL load acts like a dimmer or relay, so it will go to the ON level on first press, then 100%, then ON level, then 100%, etc. Looking at the Event Viewer, it looks like an ST event is triggered when the switch is turned on manually ONLY if the status is not the same as the ON level when it happens. If so, it goes to the ON level (whether that is higher or lower than the status; i.e, down or up) and there's an ST command. If it is at the ON level, it goes to 100%, with no ST command. So maybe the solution will involve setting the light programmatically to be 1% away from the ON level, so you will always get an ST command if it's manually manipulated. Also, turning the switch on, no matter what its current state, always generates a DON 0 event, so maybe just look for those somehow. Dimming doesn't generate a DON 0, but does always lead to an ST event, in my testing. -Tom

I think the problem is one I noticed a few months ago - that the ISY does not change the status of a switch when it is turned on a second time. The status remains at the pre-defined ON level of < 100%, if that's how it is defined. I just checked, and if the on level is defined as 100%, and you programmatically lower it, then when the light is turned on again, status correctly shows 100%. So maybe you need to set the light's ON level to 100%, and lower it to wherever you want it every time it is turned ON from OFF. -Tom

Thanks. BTW, "Fast On" is triggered in Insteon by a double click. Maybe that's why there's no double press. If you're willing, please test this. -Tom

@edentel: Sorry, but I missed your response to my Zen32 thread. I think you made it very clear. -Tom

@edentel: Can you detail what you did to get it to work, if anything? Did it just get discovered and create all of the right nodes automatically? I have a Zen32, and the scene controller functions are not working. I'm on 5.0.16C though, with the series 300 dongle. I just bought the series 500 dongle, and am looking for motivations to install it. This could be one. -Tom

OK, so I bought one. The picture shows the nodes that were created in 5.0.16C. The first one (Binary Switch) is the only one that changes under any circumstances. Pushing any of the 4 scene buttons does nothing, other than toggle the LED state for that button. I guess that's the bad news. The good news is that the Binary Switch status is updated instantly when actuated, and it can be controlled by the ISY. So once again, a ZooZ switch has met my minimum requirements. If you have been following my saga, you will know that I now have the 500 series dongle. Some day I'll install it - I'm still worried that my Schlage lock won't be reachable based on others' reports. But then maybe the scene buttons will do something. I'll probably start a new thread at that point, but I'm curious if anyone has been able to get ZooZ scene activations to do anything useful with 500 series/5.3.X or greater. -Tom

This thing looks like it would make a great fan timer controller if it is fully supported on the ISY. The big upper button controls a load. The smaller lower 4 scene buttons could probably be used to both turn on the load through the ISY, and start a timer, so you could get 4 pre-defined timer settings. I'm still unsure if the ISY currently supports scene controllers like this well, and specifically if it would support all 4 scene buttons as control triggers. Control of the LEDs on the scene buttons (e.g. turning off when the timer expires) would be great, but not necessary. Anyone with experience? -Tom

From this post: Scene with only Zooz ZEN23 switches - ISY994 Z-Wave - Universal Devices Forum (universal-devices.com) It looks like scenes and Control as a program trigger were reported as not working in 5.0.15, and I don't see anything in the release notes to suggest that this was fixed in 5.0.16. I have ordered the 500 series dongle and will upgrade to 5.3.3 (or later) when it arrives. Wish me luck on my Schlage lock when I do. -Tom

You might be right, but let's see if anyone else who is still on 5.0.16C can help me out. -Tom

Thanks, but I'm in that post at the end. @asbrilrecommended something, but it's only available in >5.2. Unless I'm wrong, there's nothing in that post that describes how to fix the problems I'm having on 5.0.16C and series 300 dongle. Did I miss something? -Tom

Short story: I recently installed a Zooz Zen30 dual switch. It has a dimmer on top and a relay below. It's only partly working. The relay reports its status when it is manually actuated. The dimmer does not. Both report status when controlled by the ISY, or when queried. Neither will generate a "Control is switched On" (or off) trigger in programs. As you might guess from the observation above, "Status is On" (or off) will trigger programs for the relay, but not for the dimmer. Please give me your advice for getting the dimmer to report status, and for both to generate Control triggers - if it's possible. Note: I'm on 5.0.16C with the 300 series dongle, so my Z-Wave menus will be somewhat different than yours if you are on 5.3.X. Thanks. -Tom

I want to turn on the fan in another bathroom. They both exhaust into the same duct, and there's some crossover. So I want to have both fans on whenever either one is switched on. Eventually I'll add some timer logic, too. Status will probably work. I won't know until I automate the other fan. It doesn't need a double switch, so I might go with Insteon for that one. Still mulling it over. -Tom

According to the release notes, this "Basic Node" stuff was added in 5.2.0, so I don't have that option. -Tom

It seems to work with Status, but not Control. Maybe I can make that work. -Tom

I declared victory too soon. The relay switch does report its status to the ISY when manually actuated. But a program that starts with If 'ZW 033.1 On-Off Power Switch' is switched On' never triggers. Dang it. @asbril, I'm guessing you have programs triggered by the relay. Do you do anything special to make it work? -Tom

Wow, that ended up being a lot of worry for little reason. The solution started (I think) when I observed by accident that the Zen30 worked well when I had the dual outlet box rotated so that the GE outlet was facing the ISY. If rotated the other way, it was flakey. Was the Intermatic shielding the GE, or interfering with it, or intercepting the signal and relaying it incorrectly? Who knows, but I took the Intermatic out of the box and, lo and behold, the Zen30 worked as long as the GE was between it and the ISY. That gave me the confidence to proceed with the installation. I replaced my bathroom outlet with the GE, and installed the Zen30 and a KPL. Right now, it's all working...except the dimmer STILL needs to be queried if I want the status to be correct when it is manually actuated. Later I'll capture some logs and post here and/or create a support ticket. I can turn it on and off in programs, and the status shows correctly then, and that's probably all I really need. But I'm accustomed to being able to use every switch as a controller or program trigger, so that's my ultimate desire. @asbril, thanks for the support, and especially for being the original guinea pig for this switch. It is an (almost) perfect solution for me. -Tom

@asbril As far as (*), that's exactly how it is configured. I have always included it about 5 feet away from the ISY (since first trying about 10 feet away and failing). It works fine there, with rapid response and no communication errors. When I unplug it and move it any significant distance from the ISY, the errors start, and get intolerable by the time it gets to where I want to install it, which is less that 20 feet from the ISY, with a few walls between. As far as (**), I have done that, too. I have another pigtailed box with two outlets in it: a GE/Jasco and an Intermatic. Both of them are easily controlled by the ISY. As my final attempt to fix the problem, I plugged it in halfway between the ISY and the Zen30 final location, with only one wall and less than ten feet between them. First I tried it without healing, and then with a network heal. I still get the errors. All this time, all of my other Zwave devices - that double outlet box, another GE/Jasco outdoor plugin module, and my Schlage lock (thank God) - have continued to work without a hitch. So I'm thinking it's the Zen30, and either it's bad, or it isn't well enabled with 300 series/5.0.16C. Given that it does work OK within 5 feet, I'm thinking the former. But also given that the relay and the dimmer behave differently, and the dimmer doesn't report status for me like you say it does for you, maybe the latter? I'll probably never know unless I upgrade, but I'm worried about the Schlage lock and 500 series range problems. -Tom

This thing is totally kicking my butt. I've done 11 excludes and includes now, and one hardware reset of the switch (after exclusion #7 or so). I can't seem to get it to behave well any more than 5 feet from the ISY. I have tried putting another device between it and the ISY, and doing a network heal several times, but it's no use. It keeps getting "can't communicate" errors on the dimmer part, but not on the relay. Another weird thing is that several actuations of the relay button can make it connect again - sometimes - but eventually it fails again. I'll probably permanently install it tomorrow, because I really need a dual switch in that box, even if it isn't automated. But if anyone has any suggestions on how to get this thing to behave - other than upgrading my dongle and moving to 5.3 - I'm all ears. @asbril: did you ever try this switch with the 300 series dongle and/or 5.0.16? How far is it from your ISY? -Tom

Updated to 5.0.16C, and the pending updates are gone. I hope they'll still be gone in the morning. The Dimmer node still must be queried, and there are still no options for setting the variables. After I do the physical installation, I'll do a network heal and see if anything changes. If not, that's OK. I only need to be able to set the dimmer on/off. The relay MUST be sensed when manually switched. Someday I'll upgrade to the 500 series dongle and >5.0.16, but the war stories of that dongle with the Schlage locks are holding me back. -Tom

I'm halfway through installing one of these and it's not going great. First, let me state that I'm on FW 5.0.16B, and have the 300 series dongle. After several false starts, I have the set of nodes displayed in the attached image. I can control the Dimmer Switch node, but I need to query it to get it to show the correct status. It also doesn't have an Options button, and looks exactly like an Insteon dimmer, so I'm wondering if the ISY got confused when adding it. The 26.1 On-Off Power Switch can be controlled, and also automatically updates the status. Cool. The Binary Switch and Scene Buttons are blank, but that's consistent with what everyone else is reporting. I could probably live with it as it is now, except that, as the image shows, it claims that updates are pending to everything except the On-Off. It's been that way for 8 hours now. I have clicked "Write Changes" on the dimmer, right clicked and selected "Write Updates to Device", rebooted the ISY, and nothing changes. I can certainly exclude it and include it again (will be the 6th time), and might just try that after posting. I could do a network heal, too, but I'm reluctant to, because I spent 4 hours yesterday adding a Schlage lock, and I'm afraid to do anything with network-wide consequences unless absolutely necessary. Also, the Zen30 is in a temporary box close to the ISY to do the inclusion and setup, and I'd rather not heal until it is installed in its permanent location. Recommendations, anyone? -Tom