[OBSOLETE] GE/Jasco Z-Wave Plus Dimmer Switch With Double-Tap

Thanks @nathancu for confirming my suspicions that the associations are a native thing, and also that there’s no support for them being individual per action (e.g.: on vs off … would be a nice addition)
I am already using the exposed ‘buttons’ via smart-lighting to do what I want, I just thought that perhaps the associations might be an alternative to keep processing local, but unfortunately I’d need to be able to set associations for only double-tap off, and not have the same associations for double-tap On, in order to get my desired functionality.
(I use double-tap Off to turn off a group of lights, but double-tap on to set that dimmer to straight to 100% brightness)

1 Like

Thanks @JDRoberts for confirming on the hardare limitation, and for confirming my understanding of the association behavior. With the DTH in this thread, and it exposing buttons for double-tap, I guess it’s effectively working as a ‘scene command’ and that’s how I have it setup currently. It’s definitely more flexible, but also requires ‘cloud’ processing, rather than being entirely local (which would be preferrable, especially for during any internet outtages)

I don’t know if this helps any, but the payload is in hex. (The 4B Gives it away: that’s 75 in decimal.)

19 hex is 25 decimal, and so on.

I use text to speech software so I can’t read all the code, but those jumped out at me. :sunglasses:.

Never tell a network engineer that one command is effectively working as another because, you know, they don’t. The distinctions are really important. But they might produce a similar outcome, which I am sure is what you meant. :sunglasses:

In this case, association is working as association, It’s just that the hub is included in the association group so it can recognize that the command was sent even though it wasn’t sent as a central scene command. But The evaluation of that recognition is performed in the cloud just because that’s the way the smartthings architecture works. I don’t expect you to care about any of that, it doesn’t change the end result, I just wanted to clarify it for those who do try to follow the technical details as otherwise we get a lot of questions asked elsewhere later. :question::question::question:

Also, just to keep people from getting confused who read other threads, in zwave a “scene command” is a whole different category than a “central scene command.” “Central” In this context means the hub gets notified, where it doesn’t for the regular scene commands.

I know that probably seems trivial and nitpicky, but while it is nitpicky, it’s not trivial when it comes to selecting devices that will produce the results that you want. :wink:

1 Like

I know what you mean. I’m a software engineer (for 30+ years), with a hardware background and used to work, in a previous job, designing (both hardware and software) for network switches and routers (I contributed to some of the ethernet standards), so I can most definitely understand the frustration with people getting terminology wrong :slight_smile:

I’m just ramping up on SmartThings/Z-Wave terminology and technology still, so apologies for mixing up a few terms, and not being up to speed on stuff yet :wink:

What would be the correct term for how the exposed ‘buttons’ from this DTH are used to control either a scene, or other functionality through, for example, SmartLighting or WebCore ? (I want to make sure I get the right terminology for future). I was saying that it seemed like the exposed ‘buttons’ as used in SmartLighting/WebCoRE etc effectively behaved (end result) like a scene command, rather than an association.

I was unaware that “Central” Scene Commands were a thing (I hadn’t come across those yet), and have only setup a few Scenes in SmartThings.

BTW, is there any benefit to using scenes rather than separate actions ?
e.g.: having a scene that turns off a group of lights, and activating that scene via SmartLighting vs telling SmartLighting to turn off a list of lights ?

No problem, and in this case we’re dealing with multiple terminologies. Z wave has one set, zigbee has a different set, and smartthings has yet again a different set. And sometimes they use the same words to mean different things, which can be very confusing. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Since you have a strong technical background, you might want to take a look at the technical welcome FAQ:

http://thingsthataresmart.wiki/index.php?title=Welcome_FAQ

As I mentioned, I rely on text to speech, so I can’t read the actual DTH for the device in this thread (trust me, you don’t want to listen to groovy :wink: ). But if it has “capability.button” then in a smartthings context it will be treated as a “button controller,” Which means that smartapps and routines that allow you to specify “when button is pressed” can respond to the events of this device.

image

That’s a smartthings platform construct. You can have devices of many different protocols using different clusters or commandsets to fill-in the “button” values. Including a switch that uses double tap if it has the button capability.

You can use a button press to Turn on a single light, change the mode, start a routine, trigger a smartthings scene, it just depends on which automation you are using to process the button event.

Scenes

As far as “scenes”…Pretty much every home automation system has something they call “scenes” or “like scenes”. It just means the ability to set multiple devices to different states with a single request. It’s often limited to lighting devices, but it means you could have one light turn on, another light turn off, a third light be blue at 25%, A fourth light be orange at 75%, etc., and fire them all from a single trigger event, whether it was a button press, or a time of day, or a switch, or a motion sensor activate, or whatever.

If all you want is to have a list of lights come on at the same time, then you don’t need a scene.

If all you want is to have some lights turn on and some lights turn off From the same trigger event, then you don’t need a scene

But if you want to have two different devices turn on at two different dim levels, or two different colors, right now you can’t do that just with smartlighting or a routine, Because those will set all the devices to the same value. In order to have one light at 25% and another light at 50%, You either have to have two automations or use a SmartThings scene.

People have been asking for scenes for several years in smartthings, mostly just because it makes it easier to write multiple automations that create the same end result but have different initiating triggers.

Smartthings only introduced them about a month ago.

But Smartthings is a certified Z wave controller, and Z wave has both scenes and central scenes. Zigbee has scenes. The Hue bridge has scenes. And all of these have some subtle but important differences.

However, I don’t want to drag this thread too far off track. So I will just say that if you want to use double tap with the device in this thread to trigger a scene, it would depend on the double tap counting as a “button” and then you can do it with a single routine or a SmartLights automation. Or probably webcore. :sunglasses:

https://support.smartthings.com/hc/en-us/articles/115004258063-Scenes#Trigger_Scene

2 Likes

Thanks for some awesome clarification and info.
Yes the DTH in this thread exposes the double-tap via capability.button, and that’s what I’m currently using to trigger a scene for the off double-tap (turn off all lights in the area), and to trigger a single action (set just that light to 100%) for the on double-tap, via SmartLighting.
I haven’t really found any use for the multiple lighting-levels functionality of a scene yet, but that might come in handy as I add more dimmers, and more other devices. At the moment it’s just simpler to use the scene to turn off multiple devices, since I want to trigger it from multiple devices also (double-tap off any of the lights in the kitchen area turns off all of the lights in the area - main kitchen lights, breakfast bar, nook table, kitchen counter & utility hallway)

1 Like

This will seem like a ridiculous noobie question, but how do I go about installed this DTH in my SmartThings IDE? I have a bunch of the new GE on/off and dimmer switches and I would like to incorporate the double tap capability.

Thanks,
Chris

Here you go CL

2 Likes

Thanks! I had found it while still searching concurrent to typing that post.

So I have the DTH up and running, I deleted and re-added my switch and then updated my WebCore coding. My issue now is the switch status is no longer updating in SmartThings. I did not have this issue with the stock DTH. This is throwing off my piston. I have added some refresh commands in the piston but not helping.

Any ideas?

Also, since installing the custom DTH, my add-on switch is inverted.

Definitely losing wife approval on this one…Its the laundry room too :smiley:

The inverted button needed to be set to “UP” and “Not Inverted”. Kind of wish that button was hidden and the status was provided under settings instead. Has an interesting result on add-on switches I may add.

UPDATE: Works but leaving the error here for posterity

Added the new DTH and it works on one of my switches, doesn’t work on the other.

For the switch that doesn’t work I get:
java.lang.NullPointerException: Cannot invoke method multiply() on null object

Both FW versions are the same:
zw:L type:1101 mfr:0063 prod:4944 model:3038 ver:5.26 zwv:4.34 lib:03 cc:5E,56,86,72,5A,85,59,73,26,27,70,2C,2B,7A role:05 ff:8600 ui:8600

The switch doesn’t work from the app but works locally with the new DTH.

Any idea how to troubleshoot this?

Can I please get some help. I have the ge plus dimmer 14294 and I’ve been up and down core for the past 2.5 hrs and can’t figure out how to expose the double tap feature to turn on another light. Can someone please give me specific instructions? Thanks.

When you have the DTH installed properly you get access to two additional ‘buttons’. You’re trying to react to button 1 pressed or button 2 pressed events.

If device.Button1.pressed
Do stuff
Else
End if

My earlier post…

Thought I had double-tap working, was wrong.

Double -tap on my dimmer works from the ST app DTH but not from the physical switch. Double tapping the physical switch doesn’t seem to report anything in the event log.

Any ideas?

OK, I have it installed properly now and see the two buttons. But when I press it nothing happens. Where is this hex id number. I look up in the graph and I tried all types of IDs. Device Network ID, mfr, prod, model, cc…none of them work. I put it under Association Group 3 and 2 and when I press the main button, or the double click button nothing happens.
Also, what are the three spaces below association group 3 in the settings of the button?

The ON/OFF switch device handler is working great for me
but this dimmer handler doesn’t work at all, they do not respond even to turnON or OFF command. Tested on 2 versions
model:3038 ver:5.26
model:3031 ver:3.37

Is there anything else I can try?
Will removing the dimmer from the network and adding it back make any difference?

Thanks

lifeisfun
The ON/OFF switch device handler is working great for me
but this dimmer handler doesn’t work at all, they do not respond even to turnON or OFF command. Tested on 2 versions
model:3038 ver:5.26
model:3031 ver:3.37

I’m not sure what model 3031 is, I suspect that might be the old non-plus model, that may not work with this DTH.
For the other switch you may need to add that specific version of the firmware to the device handler, around line 71, for it to be recognized.

Edit: Nevermind, looks like 5.26 is the default version supported (I was remembering incorrectly), so I’m not sure what your problem is.
I did have to manually switch to this DTH for some of my switches (since they auto-installed with the default DTH), but haven’t had any real issues since that, apart from needing to go into the device in the app and hit refresh to get the double-tap ‘buttons’ to be available.

1 Like

Thank you for the help!
Refreshing from the ST App did the trick now it works :slight_smile:

Glad that helps. It seems to have that issue sometimes, but it’s inconsistent. Shouldn’t be an issue again tho’ for the same switch. Once it works it stays working :slight_smile:

1 Like