mikek Posted January 3, 2018 Posted January 3, 2018 Thanks to some very helpful advice in another thread, I'm ordering an ISY994iZW. Now I need to start choosing devices and am wondering if there are any particular brands to seek out or to avoid. Although cost is certainly a factor, I'm primarily looking for Z-Wave devices that connect easily and that are reliable and offer hassle-free performance. User asbril gave me a good head-start on this yesterday, but I'm looking for some additional input. I'm sure the system will grow over time, but I plan on the following to start (all Z-Wave for now): thermostat wall switches and dimmers plug-in modules (lighting only, not appliances) wall outlets dry contact sensors motion sensors door locks door and window sensors Thanks in advance!
asbril Posted January 3, 2018 Posted January 3, 2018 Thanks to some very helpful advice in another thread, I'm ordering an ISY994iZW. Now I need to start choosing devices and am wondering if there are any particular brands to seek out or to avoid. Although cost is certainly a factor, I'm primarily looking for Z-Wave devices that connect easily and that are reliable and offer hassle-free performance. User asbril gave me a good head-start on this yesterday, but I'm looking for some additional input. I'm sure the system will grow over time, but I plan on the following to start (all Z-Wave for now): thermostat wall switches and dimmers plug-in modules (lighting only, not appliances) wall outlets dry contact sensors motion sensors door locks door and window sensors Thanks in advance! wall switches and dimmers : Homeseer plug-in modules (lighting only, not appliances) : Inovelli
lilyoyo1 Posted January 3, 2018 Posted January 3, 2018 I use the Cooper aspire outlets. The do secure beaming so they can be used with door locks. The relay click isn't as loud as others and it simply feels like a quality device. My favorite sensors are the fibaro sensors. The design and features work well for me. Many others on here use the aeotech multi sensor. I don't use any plug in devices as I'm not a fan of wall worts. I try to avoid them as much as possible. Thermostats: I use the ecobee3. It runs outside of my ISY and to be honest, once programmed it does what I want on its own. No extra work involved. Any of the major companies will be fine. I currently use the Yale real living touchscreen but plan on swapping those once kwikset releases it's obsidian zwave lock. I use insteon switches for lighting as I haven't found any zwave switch that matches it's performance. I do have a couple of leviton vizia switches for testing. If I had to use zwave, those are the ones I would use.
kohai Posted January 3, 2018 Posted January 3, 2018 I was reading about z-wave versus zigbee the other day and was surprised to see such a low device limit on z-wave compared to zigbee. Z-wave limit is 232 devices. Zigbee is like 64,000 devices. I was curious what the limit was when I was thinking of what automation was feasible for a friends larger home that has a ton of light switches. In that scenario, a controller that speaks both z-wave and zigbee would be advantageous.
asbril Posted January 3, 2018 Posted January 3, 2018 I use the Cooper aspire outlets. The do secure beaming so they can be used with door locks. The relay click isn't as loud as others and it simply feels like a quality device. My favorite sensors are the fibaro sensors. The design and features work well for me. Many others on here use the aeotech multi sensor. I don't use any plug in devices as I'm not a fan of wall worts. I try to avoid them as much as possible. Thermostats: I use the ecobee3. It runs outside of my ISY and to be honest, once programmed it does what I want on its own. No extra work involved. Any of the major companies will be fine. I currently use the Yale real living touchscreen but plan on swapping those once kwikset releases it's obsidian zwave lock. I use insteon switches for lighting as I haven't found any zwave switch that matches it's performance. I do have a couple of leviton vizia switches for testing. If I had to use zwave, those are the ones I would use. The issue that I have (had?) with Cooper switches is that the sentinel light is ON when light is ON, while most (if not all) other switches have the sentinel light On when the light is Off. The latter is useful at night in the dark.
DrLumen Posted January 4, 2018 Posted January 4, 2018 The issue that I have (had?) with Cooper switches is that the sentinel light is ON when light is ON, while most (if not all) other switches have the sentinel light On when the light is Off. The latter is useful at night in the dark. That is odd. I can see it might be useful for a blind switch - like for a porchlight or security light but kinda useless otherwise. The leviton switches and dimmers have the locator LED as configurable but, so far, the ISY is having issues recognizing any manual switch operations. That &^(%^@!&*%^$^%$!!! Hail function.
asbril Posted January 4, 2018 Posted January 4, 2018 That is odd. I can see it might be useful for a blind switch - like for a porchlight or security light but kinda useless otherwise. The leviton switches and dimmers have the locator LED as configurable but, so far, the ISY is having issues recognizing any manual switch operations. That &^(%^@!&*%^$^%$!!! Hail function. I find the sentinel light On when Off very useful. Day or night it shows me the status of the switch (light) and at night I can easily find the switch.
mikek Posted January 4, 2018 Author Posted January 4, 2018 That is odd. I can see it might be useful for a blind switch - like for a porchlight or security light but kinda useless otherwise. The leviton switches and dimmers have the locator LED as configurable but, so far, the ISY is having issues recognizing any manual switch operations. That &^(%^@!&*%^$^%$!!! Hail function. Dumb question ... Since it seems that devices using the hail function should be avoided, how do I know which devices send that command? It doesn't appear to be something that shows up on datasheets or in item descriptions.
lilyoyo1 Posted January 4, 2018 Posted January 4, 2018 Dumb question ... Since it seems that devices using the hail function should be avoided, how do I know which devices send that command? It doesn't appear to be something that shows up on datasheets or in item descriptions. Exactly why I cant fully back Zwave. With that said, Leviton Vizia RF + zwave switches support instant status as do new homeseer switches. The cooper aspire line supports it as well.
lilyoyo1 Posted January 4, 2018 Posted January 4, 2018 The issue that I have (had?) with Cooper switches is that the sentinel light is ON when light is ON, while most (if not all) other switches have the sentinel light On when the light is Off. The latter is useful at night in the dark. I use their outlets not the switches. I prefer it that with those because if its off you end up with a blue glow in the room from it. I can see how it can be an issue though if the lights operate the same way.
DrLumen Posted January 4, 2018 Posted January 4, 2018 asbril, agreed. I like the switch locator LED's. Almost all of mine are configured to be on when the switch is off. The outdoor lights follow the switch as I can see they are on from the switch or without having to look out the window or go outside to check. mikek, the devices that use Hail are scattered around. Probably easiest to google whatever devices you may be interested in. Or, ask here. I think there is a fairly broad base of devices that the people here have and they will know about a device and issues with ISY. So far, I know the leviton ZW+ wall switches use hail but the plugin modules don't. Some of the Aeo controllers use Hail but then some of those also have a config option to switch between hail and status (unusual to have that config option). Seems like some of the Cooper switches do, or did, use Hail. By the same token, some controllers recognize Hail without issue. Unfortunately, the ISY is one that doesn't currently. As it is a pain for those of us working around them, there is likely quite a bit of info on net for devices and controllers. I had already replaced most all of my switches before I ran across the issue. I didn't even know it was an issue until I started using the ISY. SmartThings didn't have issues with Hail but did have issues with other stuff. Your Mileage May Vary
Mark Arzillo Posted January 12, 2018 Posted January 12, 2018 I'm using all GE in-wall switches and notice the following behavior using FW 4.6.2. Manual on/off/dim/brighten does not reflect in the ISY unless you run a query. GE Z-Wave Wireless Smart Lighting Control Smart Toggle Switch (12727) GE Z-Wave Wireless Smart Lighting Control Smart Dimmer, Toggle Style (12729) Manual on/off/dim/brighten reflects immediately on the ISY - no query needed. GE Z-Wave Plus Wireless Smart Lighting Control Smart Toggle Switch (14292) GE Z-Wave Plus Wireless Smart Lighting Control Smart Dimmer, Toggle Style (14295) Based on what some have said throughout this message forum, I didn't think I would see that behavior from the Z-Wave Plus devices unless I moved to 5.x. Not sure if it's the way GE switches implement Z-Wave plus or a lack of understanding on my part of what I should expect from Z-Wave and ISY v4.6.2. I really like the GE switches however, they are actually made by Jasco. Other observations about them are... You can control some aspects of the switch through Z-Wave configuration parameters based on the following page http://www.ezzwave.com/advanced-operation/ however they do not seem to have updated this page for the newer Z-Wave Plus versions. I'm hoping there are more configuration parameters. I've briefly played around with the ramp up parameters but the behavior does not seems odd. I will tinker with this some more. The default ramp up/down has a nice effect for the dimmers. The fade smooth and even based on the defaults. I have not found a parameter that can control the brightness setting when turning on a dimmer locally like you can do with the Insteon. The dimmers will use the last on value unless explicitly stating the level through a program or Alexa command. You cannot specify the brightness in a scene like you can with Insteon. Installation is relatively straight forward and clean however they are a bit bulky so putting 3 or 4 in a 3 gang or 4 gang box can get tight. They have tabs on both sides that can break off to reduce their width which is required when placing them side by side. Construction / build quality are very nice but not quite as nice (IMHO) as the one Insteon device I have which is the KeypadLink 5 button dimmer. Manual operation feels solid with a decent spring back and a mechanical "click" that can be felt and heard. This is not the same click heard when the load is switched on/off which just sounds like a typical relay. Manual dimming & brightening is smooth and done by holding the switch down or up until it reaches the desired level. In addition, I'm using several GE Add-On Switch (12728) switches that work like a 3-way. These are not actually sending/receiving Z-Wave signals but rather using the electrical system to send a remote command to the other switch through the traveler in a traditional 3-way setup. They do not show up in your ISY as a node or on your Z-Wave network for any hub. (again, not Z-Wave) What's interesting is they take on the behavior of the "master" switch at the other end of the traveler and will therefore act as a dimmer or toggle depending on the master. You can have up to 4 add-on switches tied to the same master switch however you must have a traveler wire to each. Amazon has them for $25 verses $39.50 and $34.50 for the dimmer and toggle respectively however I purchased two on Jan 4th for $20 so they just jacked up the price. (I have 4 total now)
berarduc Posted February 12, 2019 Posted February 12, 2019 Hello I've noticed this behaviour too - Manual on/off control does not reflect in ISY event stream - you must peform a query. Seems weird. Do you still see this? Any workarounds? Thanks.
asbril Posted February 12, 2019 Posted February 12, 2019 5 minutes ago, berarduc said: Hello I've noticed this behaviour too - Manual on/off control does not reflect in ISY event stream - you must peform a query. Seems weird. Do you still see this? Any workarounds? Thanks. As mentioned Zwave Plus switches report status of switch. For older switches you make a program that queries that status on regular set times. However (from experience) don't overload ISY by quering many devices simultaneously.
simplextech Posted February 12, 2019 Posted February 12, 2019 On 1/3/2018 at 12:19 PM, kohai said: Z-wave limit is 232 devices. Zigbee is like 64,000 devices. The Z-Wave limit is "per controller". Systems that are primary to Z-Wave support multiple controllers. So the only "real" limit to device numbers is the server capability of managing large numbers of controllers.
berarduc Posted February 13, 2019 Posted February 13, 2019 OK sorry can anyone tell me how to program ISY to simply poll a switch for status? Since certain Z wave (eg older GE) switches don't advertise status when manually actuated, I'd like to poll these switches for status every 1 min. Can't seem to figure out how to do this with ISY GUI. Just want: IF TRUE set switch to Query repeat every 1 min --> any help would be appreciated. Thanks! tom
simplextech Posted February 13, 2019 Posted February 13, 2019 I recently pulled all of my z-wave switches out of ISY, but here's a screenshot with a motion sensor where in the "then" statement you can perform a query. Not a functional example. Should be the same query option available for other z-wave devices. BTW I'm running 5.0.0.14
berarduc Posted February 14, 2019 Posted February 14, 2019 Yes that is exactly how I thought it worked. I was assuming if you had no condition in the "IF" section, it resolved to "true" and always moved to the "THEN" section. Does not appear to work that way. ?? I need to repeat the query once every minute. Simple question: How do you program ANY ACTION to REPEAT 1x/min forever?? again, thanks. tom
simplextech Posted February 14, 2019 Posted February 14, 2019 I don't know... let me add a z-wave device and do some testing.
simplextech Posted February 14, 2019 Posted February 14, 2019 How about this... maybe someone can chime in and tell me this is a disaster waiting to happen as I think it may be. Essentially: State Variable ZWave.Polling is created If ZWave.Polling = 1 Then query the z-wave device repeat every 1 minute To query ALL z-wave devices they would each have to be in the 'then' statement.
palayman Posted February 14, 2019 Posted February 14, 2019 18 minutes ago, simplextech said: State Variable ZWave.Polling is created If ZWave.Polling = 1 Then query the z-wave device repeat every 1 minute I think only the stuff after the repeat statement gets repeated, so the query needs to be after the repeat. See: https://wiki.universal-devices.com/index.php?title=ISY-99i/ISY-26_INSTEON:Action
gzahar Posted February 14, 2019 Posted February 14, 2019 For an If statement to run the ‘then’ or ‘else’ sections an event must happen to trigger the evaluation. You can not leave it blank. If it is blank, it must (AFAIK) must be called from another program. Also, just having a state variable that is true will not trigger it. It must change state for the if to be re-evaluated. Not sure what the best method to do what you want, but maybe something that runs on startup and includes the variable that is true or a schedule that is always true and then repeats every minute as mentioned might work. Not in front of my system, so don’t recall all the schedule options. Something that would trigger again if for some reason it were stopped would be key. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
palayman Posted February 14, 2019 Posted February 14, 2019 24 minutes ago, gzahar said: For an If statement to run the ‘then’ or ‘else’ sections an event must happen to trigger the evaluation. Couldn't you just enable "run at startup" for the program in the program summary tab to get the desired effect of the the repeat?
simplextech Posted February 14, 2019 Posted February 14, 2019 41 minutes ago, gzahar said: It must change state for the if to be re-evaluated. Correct. Allows for easy enable/disable of the polling or triggering it from something else.... but it was a really simple/quick mock up just to see if something could be done. I stated it was not a "good" program
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.