Hi everyone,
I’m aware that the Aeotec Dimmer / Switch S2 is more limited than alternative brands such as Fibaro. However, I’m wondering if it’s possible to be more ‘creative’ with Edge drivers for these devices?
I use S2 on my Fibaro dimmers to trigger scenes with my Zigbee bulbs. S1 is a connected load for ceiling lights and S2 is an associated scene for triggering lamps in the same room, via ST.
I know that the Aeotec’s generally allow for S2 to be a direct Z-Wave association and at the moment the DTH driver cannot distinguish between a button push on S1 or S2. I can use the Z-Wave tweaker to ensure S2 doesn’t control the connected load.
I think perhaps this is a firmware issue as it would be up to the physical device to send a scene ID rather than a driver to see an S2 button push. However, I am wondering if anyone has tried to overcome this with an Edge driver somehow? The ‘stock’ Edge drivers provide no further functionality than the DTHs. I don’t think the device is sending a scene or a difference in button pushes between S1/2.
I don’t think the SmartThings Hub supports association groups, unlike the Fibaro and Vera kit. The APNT-19 article on Vesternet describes how these dimmers can be set to control other devices via the hub instead of a direct device association.
I have moved some of my switches over to Fibaro, but they’re £52 each, so not cheap when I’ve got a few Aeotec’s already purchased and in-place. (Everything is toggle switch as I can’t find any momentary switches I like, so some of the cheaper Z-Wave modules are not suitable - either because they don’t dim or are momentary switch only).
Any ideas?
Edge drivers are just DTHs written in a different language that run on your hub. If the device itself can’t do something, then it can’t do it. I’m not familiar with many Aeotec products and not sure what work has been done by the community on yours. Is this the Aeotec Nano Dimmer you’re talking about?
If you can see any kind of difference in the z-wave commands that the hub is receiving, then that would be the easiest/best way to use the switches as separate buttons. You’ll need to see the logs of the actual z-wave commands to figure that out - they’ll show up in CLI logs if you have the device on an Edge driver but you may not see the raw commands if you’re looking at live logging for a DTH.
It does support association, but the stock DTHs and edge drivers aren’t written to make them easily accessible. Many community DTHs/drivers (including Tweaker) will expose them, and it’s not too complicated to do so.
Assuming the device is the Nano Dimmer and that you’re correct that the device doesn’t report S1/S2 separately out of the box, then a workaround could be to add the hub node (which should be 1) to the association group for the switch that isn’t being reported. Based on the table below from z-wave alliance, that would be association group 4. Doing this would cause the device to send a Basic Set command to the hub, which should be different from any other command that it’s currently getting. You would only be able to distinguish ‘on’ and ‘off’ - no reporting of levels, multi-tap, or how long the momentary switch is held. The driver would have to then be written to interpret the Basic Set as a S2 button push.
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Hi,
Yes, it is the ZW111. I have set it to group ID 4 but I can’t see anything reporting back as being from S2 or S1 on the DTH logs. It just says ‘button pushed’. Nothing about scene activation that I can see. But I’m not sure if the logs are totally raw from the device or just what the driver can interpret? TBH, I’ve not looked at what happens with this action on an Edge device yet, but I don’t expect it’ll be much different.
I am not too fussed about any reporting of levels etc for S2, I just want to see a toggle of a button or scene change for S2 that is independent of S1 and doesn’t control the local load.
“Z-Wave Metering Dimmer”. There’s no custom DTH for the Aeotec dimmer / switch that I can see.
As for the Edge version, I’m using the stock “Z-Wave Switch” from callaway.smartthings.com
