z-wave newbie question about scenes

[RPerrault]

slooplinc here - creator of the infamous dusk scene (and i think that was done on my isy 26 - though it did require a custom plm)

i added the z-wave card to my 944 - its that 500 series thing - thought i was going to do a z-wave motion detector since insteon could not make one that worked - but ended up using a motion detector connected to the elk security system - when i got the board, i put in 3 repeaters - never did any other z-wave

until i saw someone post a blurb about iblinds - always wanted blinds automated but never saw a product that satisfied me AND i was willing to pay for - ordered one and fumbled through including it in the network - its not in a blind yet (it has to calibrate) but it does respond - high hopes it works because i'll need more

then i see led under counter lighting - the tape lights - very few a dimmable and 120v - and the leds with insteon dimmers don't excite me - so right now i have halogen undercounter lights - insteon dimmer and an inline dimmer with a couple of keypad keys assigned as controllers in a scene 

reading about dimming led strips with a led controller (24v) - dimming seems to be less offensive than the 120v dimming - but an insteon led dimmer controller?  z-wave has them - z-wave plus - but i don't know if my insteon dimmer and keypad keys can be used as a controller in a scene with the z-wave led controllers as responders - (i'd remove the load from the dimmer and use it as one of the insteon scene controllers) 

all the controllers would be insteon - i read about status updates with z-wave controllers updating insteon controllers in the same scene)

would that work?

also - what is up with those z-wave groups?  as in - what are they - is it like assigning multiple z-wave devices to respond as one?  i have a bay window and would like 3 iblind devices to respond as one

so cool that the open/close stuff works with shewhosenameshallnotbespoken - as in - shewhosenameshallnotbespoken, open the kitchen blinds

thanks for any advice

 

 

[RPerrault]

oh - on 5.0.14a - and on the polygluttonous thing with a few things - ring - sonos - ecobee 

[jec6613]

Generally, just add Z-Wave devices too a scene as you would Insteon.  The ISY on 5.x firmware handles the translation between the two, and uses all available Z-Wave features on the devices (e.g. device groups) to do so.  I'd also suggest going to 5.0.16C though, because they have been squashing bugs lately.

[oberkc]

My experience is that zwave devices can be added to scenes, just like insteon.  Having said that, zwave devices are better scene responders than they are scene controllers.  In my few scenes with zwave controllers, the insteon devices do not respond.  Also, I have had no luck using zwave devices to trigger “control” conditions in a program.

[TexMike]

May have been my thread about iBlinds. My experience with Z-wave scenes for iBlinds, it works but since all Z-wave communication has to go through the controller, I can never get the blinds to act as one. I ended up going back to using a program with a 7 second delay between each blind opening/closing for a cascade effect that I find a lot more pleasing than the unpredictability of a scene.

[RPerrault]

thanks for the replies

for the lighting - all the controllers will be insteon - one dimmer to control the z-wave led 'controller' and a few insteon controllers that are part of a room scene - hopefully it will behave if alexa sets the scene on

the blinds - alexa can 'open and close' the blinds - i don't have plans for any insteon controllers right now - the 3 for the bay window - i will have a program to open and close - have to figure out how to have alexa trigger that - my plan is to open and close daily at sunrise and sunset

since i do not have the blind yet, i have not experimented with setting how far 'open' is - the iblind installed as binary and multilevel switch - hopefully that will set the open amount as the default 

lutron does an excellent job of synchronizing their blinds but the cost is prohibitive and the interface to alexa and everything else is not clear in my mind - i will stage the opening and closing with iblinds but if one of the 3 blinds is open a little more than the others, that is going to drive me nuts - just not nuts enough to pay for the lutron blinds 

 

[RPerrault]

got 3 of the new iblinds devices - v3 - not having much luck with them - the v2 devices work great

i suspect the s2 security might be causing the problem - looks like the isy does not support that - the new devices use '700' instead of '500' (which is in my isy) - i assume its backward compatible but could be wrong

i was thinking that there is a zwave parameter that would tell the blinds to not use s2 - but cannot find any info on the parameters

anyone tried the new ones?

 

[lilyoyo1]

Are you on the latest firmware

[RPerrault]

for the iblinds device?  not sure - it is the new v3 model that he just got in - and i am not sure if the firmware can be updated 

for the isy, i just updated to 5.2.0 thinking it might help

 

[lilyoyo1]

55 minutes ago, RPerrault said:

for the iblinds device?  not sure - it is the new v3 model that he just got in - and i am not sure if the firmware can be updated 

for the isy, i just updated to 5.2.0 thinking it might help

 

I was referring to the isy firmware. 5.3 is the latest. I would try that one since it's official. Make sure that you clear your Java cache.

When did you get your v3

Edited November 5, 2020 by lilyoyo1

[RPerrault]

arrived about 2 weeks ago - got 3 of them in a bay window

the 4 v2 devices i have never miss a beat - these are my only zwave devices other than the 3 repeaters i have (the ones iblinds recommends)