Cooper Aspire RF syncing master and auxiliary switches

Devices & Integrations
21

Well, I’ve already bought and installed the five scene switches, so I’m a little stuck. I think I’m going to have to buy the controller, at which point I won’t be sure anymore what utility SmartThings has, presuming the controller can trigger scenes at set times.

22

Then it may well be that all you need is the lighting controller. Many people are happy with just that.

The main strength that smartthings has is the ability to mix both Zigbee and Zwave devices into the same home automation installation. In particular, many zigbee sensors are popular for things like open/close, temperature, light levels, or inexpensive motion detectors. And of course it’s nice to have zigbee smart bulbs as well. It also gives you limited but valuable options for doing cloud to cloud integrations for things like IFTTT, Harmony home hub, Sonos, etc.

But if what you mostly want is zwave Scene control for lighting, there are other controllers that may be a better fit.

23

I hope you don’t mind me reviving this thread, but my question is very similar to discussion thus far.

I’ve installed a set of Cooper Aspire dimmers (master and auxiliary, 9540/9542). I’d like to see if anyone can tell me if this is a problem with the switches that I can’t do anything about, or if my setup may be wrong:

  1. Both switches are included into my ST hub. I’ve associated both switches with each other with a Minimote. If I make a change (on/off or dimming level) from either switch, the other is updated to match. This is good.
  2. If I turn the master switch off via ST, it does not update the auxiliary switch to an off status. This is bad.
  3. Now if someone wants to turn the lights on from the auxiliary switch (which is on despite the master and lights being off), they have to press the switch twice. Once to turn it off, and then again to turn it on .
  4. Another problem is that changes made on the auxiliary switch (on/off or dimming) do not get reflected in ST until I press refresh for that device. This leaves me with incorrect lighting status at a glance until I force a refresh.

Have I done something wrong with my setup? I thought I did it all correctly since they update each other when changes are made manually at the switch.

Thanks.

24

I have the exact same problems — I think we all do. We need a SmartApp (similar to “The Big Switch”) that keeps the switches in sync without interfering with direct association.

25

I think you can use Smart Lighting just like The Big Switch in both directions (A follows B, B follows A) in addition to direct association and I believe all the statuses will update.

I know you can do it with The Big Switch, I just haven’t tried it with Smart Lighting.

The point is you don’t need the SmartApp for the light because direct association will control the light, but it should sync up the statuses.

1 Like
26

I ran into some wonkiness with The Big Switch. Sometimes switches would turn on right after I turned them off manually, and sometimes they would turn off right after I turned them on manually. I think the problem stems from the fact that direct association makes The Big Switch partially redundant. These problems would probably be eliminated if The Big Switch could ignore manual button presses and only respond to commands initiated by SmartThings.

I haven’t tried Smart Lighting yet. Is it any better than The Big Switch?

27

Yes, we need a solution that ignores manual button presses, if that is possible. I tried using Rule Machine, and it was overriding my manual switch changes. I haven’t tried Smart Lighting.

28

Are the cooper switches toggles instead of rockers or soemthing?

I have the linear dimmers with wireless aux dimmers and if I understand what you are describiing, does not have this issue of needing to click twice

1 Like
29

Ash,

Thanks for the info, I did order the Cooper Handheld controller anyway for some of the other functions it can perform. But I have a question for you. I have a virtual 4-way setup, meaning one master and two slave/accessory switches. I used my minimote (since I don’t have the Cooper yet) to associate:

  1. Master+Accessory1+Accessory2
  2. Accessory1+Master+Accessory2
  3. Accessory2+Master+Accessory1

I did seem to get an error when doing one of those three associations on the Minimote (red light). The end result is that I I can get two of the three to dim together, but it’s only ever two of the three switches and in different combinations, like Master will update Accessory1, Accessory1 will sync Acccesory2, etc.

Did I do too many associations or associate two many switches in one go?

Should I have done the following three associations instead?

Master+Acc1+Acc2
Acc1+Master
Acc2+Master

Final question, I can’t find in the Cooper manual how to include the handheld controller as a secondary controller (into Smartthings), how did you do it?

Thanks in advance!

G

30

Ash, did you ever end up building a device-type handler for Cooper RF9540s?
If yes, would you be willing to share?
If not, how are you able to interact with them using the SmartThings hub?

31

here is a link to my device driver… I have the switches hooked up to color smart bulbs so if you don’t you can either use something else or ignore the color option…

32

I’ve been trying out a few different dimmers and switches for a new home I’m currently building, and I finally settled on the Coopers. Everything was looking and functioning great until I decided to hook up the 9540/9542 combo for a 3 way. The bidirectional association with the Minimote worked great to keep the switches synced when manually pressed, but any control from ST would throw them off. My troubles truly began when my wife had to double tap the aux to get the light to turn on in the morning. I honestly didn’t pay it no nevermind, but when the wife started to complain it was all over. I decided to try the Smart Lighting app as suggested, and it has been working great to keep the aux switch synced even when turning off the master from ST. Now, it doesn’t keep the dim levels synced but that really isn’t important to me. The way I set it up is as follows:
Which light to control? 9542
What do you want to do? Turn On
How trigger action? Switch Turned on/off
Which switch? 9540
Turn on lights when… Turned On
Turned off as well? Yes

Hope that helps someone.

33

I had some compilation issues with your device @Lgkahn - (Org.springframework.dao.DuplicateKeyException, fixed by removing the 2nd capability “Switch Level” line).

No luck with device discovery on my RF9540.

Can you elaborate on steps to get discovered?

34

Try excluding first. In and off multiple times should work for exclusion and joining.

to exclude goto my locations.
select the gear on top right
scroll down
select the hub
select zwave utilities
select general device exclusion

start hitting the on off button on the switch till it excludes

then try rejoining

35

I toggled on/off multiple times, then as I was RTFM’ing on inclusion, saw this bit about inclusion:

“Then press the device switch one time to include it in the network.”

So…I went to discover device, then hit the switch ONCE…boom - there it was. Device type works great.

Thank you for assist!

1 Like
36

Can someone please explain the details on how to use the minimote for device association? The manual that comes with the remote only talks about adding or removing devices from the network.

I have 1 RF9540-N master dimmer and two RF9542 accessory dimmers connected in a 4-way setup. All 3 devices have been added to my home hub (v2) network but when I couldn’t get the accessory dimmers to control the lights, I found my way to this most helpful thread. I’m trying to follow Ash’s 8 step bi-directional association instructions. Just can’t quite figure out step 1, “Enter association mode”.

Thanks

37

Did some additional searching and figured it out. The minimote I purchased (DSA03202 v1) need the firmware upgraded first which makes the lower left unlabeled button the “associate” button. Do a google image search for AEON LABS minimote and you’ll see the difference.

I added the minimote to my home hub although I’m not sure I really needed to do that.

I did six separate associations, exiting association mode after each step.

  1. Master+Acc1
  2. Acc1+Master
  3. Master+Acc2
  4. Acc2+Master
  5. Acc1+Acc2
  6. Acc2+Acc1

Scroll down to the section of this minimote manual for instructions on Associating Z-Wave Lights/Switches/Gateways to Z-Wave Sensors in the Network.

2 Likes
38

Maybe this sounds a little bit dummy but my knowledge on electricity are very primary. The accessory dimmers RF9542 are the non RF, if I currently have a 4-way setting that I want to replace with the Cooper RF9540 I don’t need the accessories to have z-wave, correct?

Thank you,

YP

39

Here are end to end steps to create bi-directional associations with Cooper Aspire z-wave dimmers + minimote (DSA03202W-ZWUS v1 with firmware 1.19) and SmartThings Hub v2.

A) First Add the minimote as a secondary/inclusion controller;

1)	Press the button labeled "Learn" – The blue LED will blink slowly.
	(“Learn”  is the lower right button “Join” on the minimote DSA03202 v1 after upgrading to firmware 1.19)

2)	Press the button labeled "Include" on the other Z-Wave controller – The blue and red LEDs will blink quickly to indicate detection of the other Z-Wave controller.
	(On the ST hub, this would be the “add a thing” process)

3)	Consult the operation manual of other controllers for instructions on how to add the Minimote as a secondary/inclusion controller into an existing network.The blue LED will stay solid for 2 seconds to indicate success; the red LED will stay solid for 2 seconds to indicate failure.
	(On the ST hub, this would be the “add a thing” process)

B) An association is required to create a 3-way between 2 RF switches or dimmers. In such a case, 2 associations must be programmed; the first would be from the Master to the Accessory; the second from the Accessory to the Master.
The Minimote is capable of setting bi-directional associations:

1)	Press the button labeled "Associate" – The blue LED will blink slowly to indicate that the Minimote has entered Association-Mode.
	(“Associate”  is the lower left unlabeled button on the minimote DSA03202 v1 after upgrading to firmware 1.19)
2)	Press the Z-Wave button on the product you wish the sensor to communicate to – The blue LED will blink quickly to indicate detection of the Z-Wave device.
	(press the main toggle button on the Cooper Aspire zwave switch)
3)	Press the Z-Wave button on the sensor – The blue LED will stay solid for 2 seconds to indicate success, the red LED will stay solid for 2 seconds to indicate failure.
	(press the main toggle button on the Cooper Aspire zwave switch)
4)	Repeat step #3 for all sensors you wish to be controlling the device in step #2 or press any button on the Minimote to exit Association-Mode. (The blue LED should be blinking quickly again as in step #3.)

	For 3 locations, create six separate associations, exiting association mode after each step.
	1.	Master+Acc1
	2.	Acc1+Master
	3.	Master+Acc2
	4.	Acc2+Master
	5.	Acc1+Acc2
	6.	Acc2+Acc1

1 Like
40

Hi. Could someone with 95xx-N + 9542-Z associated, let me know if:

  • 95xx-N is off
  • 95xx-N dim level is physically changed while it’s off
  • 95xx-N is turned back on with a physical tap

Where does the 9542-Z level end up at (same as 95xx-N or at the level 9542-Z was previously at)?

Thank you!