Unfortunately that’s the wrong code. What happened is that the original author stopped using smartthings and moved onto a different hub and no longer maintains his code.
When smartthings made major changes, as they usually do every year or two, another community member stepped up and created a new version, which is the one linked to from post 209 in the tweaker thread.
As for which DTH they would have used originally, the best thing would be to create a new topic with the title
“Best DTH For Eaton 9540 Master Dimmer and RF9617 Accessory?” and hopefully someone who currently has those devices working will respond and can tell you what DTH they are using.
The following community FAQ is very old and the examples are out of date, but the concepts and terminology are still current and should help. The topic title is a clickable link.
Groovy is a programming language, like Java, Lua, Python, PHP, etc. It is not a SmartThings construct, it’s just the language That the original smartthings developers chose for their platform. However, smartthings is in the middle of a major architecture change, and support for the free groovy cloud from smartthings will be discontinued soon.
The new equivalent of device type handlers are “edge drivers“ which are written in Lua and will run on the smartthings/Aeotec hub.
Some power users may choose to continue using groovy and they can, but they will have to host it themselves and then communicate with their smartthings account through the API.
Other power users have chosen to go to a competing hub, Hubitat, which also uses the groovy language but runs everything locally, no cloud.
Also, I forgot to say that, yeah, if you can use physical traveler wires, the Leviton devices might be a better choice. Because the Tweaker is one of those groovy DTHs that will stop working pretty soon. And then I have no idea how you will set the parameters in the future. It was honestly kind of astonishing that the community had to create the tweaker to begin with.
Sorry, I edited the previous post while you were replying.
But yes, some of this I’ve figured out. It just took some time. This whole experience illustrates exactly why I DIDN’T select Hubitat, and tried but abandoned Home Assistant platforms. I did not want another hobby or job. My expectation was that “Works with SmartThings” meant what it said. I had a similar issue with Z-Wave Honeywell thermostats, but I got them working (or Samsung did). But I know, I’m preaching to the choir. It’s a shame, the Eaton devices are solid.
Ultimately, I don’t want to be a “power user”. I just want things to work. I’d love to see everything moved to local control (à la matter), but I still don’t care to know “how the sausage is made”.
Oh, yeah, sorry about that. I am quadriparetic and use voice software to dictate posts. Which means I have to do a lot of editing to correct errors from the dictation. So my posts usually go through multiple revisions before they’re done. (It’s also the reason you’ll see random capitalizations in my posts. If I pause for any reason, the dictation program will think it’s a new sentence when I come back.)
As for “just works“ smartthings has always been pretty, But never quite seemed to understand the “works out of the box” concept. They are a certified zwave hub, but then they put this extra abstraction layer on the top of it which breaks a lot of things or hides a lot of features. Out of the box you should get a basic on/off but anything other than that often ends up requiring more work than it should, IMHO of course.
I personally switched all my own critical use cases to Apple HomeKit A few years ago because in my situation I need very good reliability that lasts. What engineers call MFOP (maintenance free operating period). But I still use ST for some of the fancy stuff you can’t do easily on platforms that don’t have customization options. And I have hope that Matter will help once it does arrive. We will see.
I edit and re-edit just because I don’t like what I’ve typed, or I left out something I thought was important, or after cooling off, it doesn’t sound so good.
But your responses are too fast for me, so I’ll try not to do that.
I changed the DTH for both devices just so that I could update the Tweaker. That worked fine, and I see some nice new options and functionality. I removed the “companion” switch, re-added it, and attempted to associate it with the master switch. I am sure I selected the appropriate association group and the device ID of the master switch. Then I did the cleanup (it retained its associations), and reassigned it to its original DTH (having made note this time).
The IDE (and my iPhone app) show the companion switch as “connected”. The IOS app does not have a power on/off switch, but shows the state as “off” or “on” appropriately. The LED indicator on the switch agrees (powered on vs. powered off). However, nothing happens to the lights. Live logging (on both switches) says they’re waiting. So I’m still stumped.
I’m still not convinced that a binary on/off accessory switch will successfully trigger a master dimmer: they use a different set of commands. The master might get the “on“ but lacking a dim level treat it as 0%, so it wouldn’t change the light.
That’s why I suggested asking Eaton support about that since that’s a question independent of the smartthings – specific stuff, it’s just part of the basic Z wave specification.
You can even ask them a hypothetical, like “ if I get a vera Z wave hub can I set it up so the accessory switch will control the Master?“ and use your model numbers which I’m too lazy to include in this post.
Because I’ll be honest, I just don’t know if it will.
I forgot to mention that the whole point of Z wave direct association is that the messages go directly from one end device to another, they don’t go through the hub. So I don’t think they’re going to show up in live logging, which is a hub utility unless you also included the hub in the association group.
Understood, messages bypass the SmartThings hub completely.
You raise some good questions. This might just work if I had the right companion switch. But at this point, I don’t want to “try” another switch, and I’m not inclined to deal with Eaton’s support folks anymore. If I have to make just one more trip to Lowe’s, it will be to return my switches. Since I’m replacing a dumb 3-way setup with traveler wiring installed, I’ll just go with the “it just works” style solution – the Leviton combo.
The ID for the master switch is “0A”. I assume that’s hex. I put it in that way. Messages from Live Logging make sense. This seems to suggest (as you already mentioned) that this companion switch is indeed incompatible with my master dimmer switch: d234911e-db73-45cd-87c2-0a42f172b0ae 1:31:05 PM: info Association Group #2 has name: Basic set
d234911e-db73-45cd-87c2-0a42f172b0ae 1:31:03 PM: warn sync(): Device does not appear to support ASSOCIATION or MULTI_CHANNEL_ASSOCIATION command classes.
As for the Hub device ID being it that group, I don’t know if it is or not.
It makes me angry that I HAD the correct companion switch, but returned it and eventually bought the wrong one. I’d love to “win” this, but I really need to just be done with it. If I return the wrong switch, buy the right switch, there’s still no guarantee I can get it to work.
On the other hand, if I just return them and replace with Leviton, it’s a pretty sure thing.
Not sure if I should create a new topic or ask here. I made the mistake of removing my accessory switch and when I added it back, I think it now has the edge driver from my researching the last few days. Is there anyway I can associate the accessory switch back with the master switch?
I’d love to see everything moved to local control (à la matter), but I still don’t care to know “how the sausage is made”.