I was hoping for a little bit of direction, I recently purchased 4 of these switches (2 WD + 2 WS), and although one of the WS seems to be experiencing the on/off/on cycle (I will attempt a RMA soon), I seem to be getting what I believe to be a bit of cross-talk with the dimming modes.

I did not define any configuration for buttons 5/6, but my Living Room WD switch uses both the “Button Controller Plus” (for 2/3 tap actions) and the default “Automate Lights & Switches” to turn on and set level.

Each time I Press and Hold, my lights seem to go full max, full min, or snap back to the dimming level. Has anyone had a similar experience, or does this switch option not play well with the other SmartApp?

The apps should work great together. It just sounds to me like you setup competing configurations which you didn’t intend. Let me know exactly what you configured for each of the buttons in Button Controller Plus as well as “Automate Lights & Switches”. Maybe I can help you figure out what you got going on. Maybe you found a bug in the smartapp?

FYI: it is always a good practice to post your question about a custom smartapp in the thread on the smartapp itself. That is the one that the author and other users with questions or issues typically monitors. Someone with your same issue might not be seeing it here.

Moving my discussion to the other thread.

As a result of working with @jshessen I need some feedback. Can someone help verify how this switch works when using the 5th and 6th button features that are triggered by the Press & Hold on the paddle?

The best I can tell the switch can not differentiate between the local dimming control of the switch by a continuous press and the button 5/6 operation of Press&Hold. It appears that when one wants to implement use of local dimming it also triggers the 5/6 button actions (press&hold) as well? I experimented with mine and I didn’t see how to operate the paddle and not have both (local dimming & 5/6 button action) occur simultaneously.

So that means that if I only want to manually change the dim level of my lights that are connected to the switch I will automatically trigger the 5/6 button operation as well. And the same is true in reverse, if I only want to trigger a 5/6 button action with press&hold I have no choice and I will manually be changing the dim level of the switch simultaneously as well.

UPDATE: Heard back from HomeSeer and they confirmed the operational quirk above on the dimmer version. Of course this only applies to the dimmer version not the HS-WS100+

That has been my experience so far. I just didn’t use the 5 & 6 buttons to do anything because I didn’t need them.

As discussed in the [RELEASE] Button Controller Plus, HS-WD100+ HS-WS100+ thread, I’ve updated the HS-WD100+ Device Handler to add the option to specify a dimmer fade-up rate for remote commands. The dimmer ramp up behavior is managed by the device handler itself by sending intermediate level commands, since the device does not currently appear to support a native configuration to set the remote dim rate.

It’s off by default, but can be set in preferences via the gear icon by selecting “Enable remote dim fade-up”. In preferences, You can also change the default values for the % size of each level (currently 5%) and the ms duration to spend at each level (currently 20ms).

In general, the dim level ramped up more smoothly than I expected considering it’s being managed by the device handler and not on the switch where it ideally belongs. Occasionally though, as expected with the cloud and mesh network, I could see some jitter and every so often an out of order level command.

I’m curious if enabling this slower ramp-up behavior will help anyone who is seeing issues with some LED bulbs when turning them on by remotely by setting them to a specific level.

Would it be possible to define a minimum light level that the dimmer would not go beyond when using the app ?
The issue is that my led recessed lights does not like to go lower than 18%, then they start flashing ! While this is a shame for “dimable led lights”, I have to live with them… So setting up a minimum light level would be great.
Also note that this is one of the solutions found by manufacturers on non-remotly controled dimmer : add a small fader on the side to set the minimal light level to ensure lights don’t blink…
I’m bored

I have around 9 WS-100 and 1 WD-100 Dragon Tech branded switches that I bought late last summer, before Homeseer released their rebranded version. I was curious if I could upgrade them as well. I recently bought a Homeseer license and Z-Wave Network Adapter because I wanted to get better information from the Z-Wave side of the network and to perform firmware upgrades when needed. I have Homeseer added as a secondary controller in my network. Yes, I’m that kind of geek.

I could not get the Homeseer firmware file to download to a Dragon Tech switch, the Homeseer firmware file has an .HEC extension, and the error was saying I needed a firmware file with an .HEX extension.

After much searching I found one (only ONE!) site where I could see there was the 5.14 and 5.13 firmware files with the .HEX extension for the WS-100, and 5.13 for the WD-100.

I took a chance and tried to upgrade my switches - SUCCESS! I can confirm I’m running 5.14 on all my Dragon Tech WS-100 switches and 5.13 on my WD-100. Prior to the firmware upgrade the WS-100 were running 5.5 and the WD-100 were running 5.6. Interestingly enough I do seem to be having a bug where if the switch is turned on it will immediately turn off and then back on again - so I think the thrashing problem is still there. It was not happening on v5.5.

This leads me to think that Homeseer is not developing the firmware on their own, but working with Dragon Tech to distribute firmware for their branded devices.

Now just to be clear - I cannot vouch for the reliability or authenticity of this link, I don’t know who posted it other than it appears to be someone working with technology, and it showed up on the first page of Google results. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. Generally you will NOT be supported by any warranty if you have a problem and used a “non-official” firmware release on your devices.

http://www.cecg.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2

@Darwin

thanks for putting this together!

I would suggest a bit more caution when considering applying the above firmware. The website is a single post phpBB site. If you hop up to the top level, the organization claims to have been around since 1978, but the site is just a bit flash with a rolling trailer.

The domain is registered to an individual named Mitch Geier, and the address according to Zillow is to a single family home in NJ. There is a company that appears in the yellow pages as “Computer Emergency & Consulting Group Inc” at the address, and connected to that is some YouTube videos of a couple of people who are doing magic tricks.

Just a few things to think about before you load the firmware into your light switches. If you do decide “go for it”, you might consider buying a box batteries and a flashlight beforehand.

Be prepared to call 911, and think about how you will explain your decision tree to your insurance adjuster, or… if the fire spreads… to whomever it is that is selected from the local prosecutor’s office after your neighbors urge the local principality to send you to jail for whatever losses they experience. One of your neighbors might have just gotten a new puppy.

乌

As I mentioned use at your own risk, but as someone who’s been involved in the industry for a long time I think you are overstating the risk by a significant factor.

It’s not like this is the Y2K bug and if you get it wrong then airports will shut down and mortgage records will disappear. Oh wait, that was only what some predicted would happen in 2000.

I’ve enjoyed reading this thread. I’m pretty excited about these switches - it might be time to replace my (more expensive) leviton switches!

Question: I think I understand that you can dim lights with these switches directly from the paddles themselves? How does that work? And most importantly to me, after you’ve manually dimmed it from the paddles, can you configure the switches to always go to full brightness the next time the paddle is pressed to turn it on?

Thx!

Dimming on the paddles is accomplished by just holding the paddle down. I think you could use the double or triple tap option with the custom device handler to go full bright, but I’m not sure (haven’t done it).

While there is some tongue in cheek in the previous post, I would generally tell someone to be careful about loading firmware found off sites that seem to have no purpose but to deliver the one file.

If you examine the download, and compare its content to what HomeSeer is handing out in their firmware upgrades, you will find that no matter how you shift things around, the two files are not the same. Maybe the contents of the files off the website are garbage or maybe they do something, but whatever they do it is not the same as what the HomeSeer firmware is doing.

Looking around online, there is at least one PDF attached to a similar set of files that will just redirect you to one of three malware sites.

Making the assumption the firmware posted is malware for a switch, and if not some will come along at some point, then the question would be “how much damage could someone do?”

User upgrades a bunch of switches and then at a later point the switch get flipped on and off at whatever rate the relay will allow. Odds of some device not appreciating this? I would say decent odds are something would sparkOdds of some device not appreciating this? I would say decent odds are something would spark.

The above scenario would require mischief of malevolence, both of which normally require a personal attachment to the outcome.

More likely? Malware invades home and requires someone to pay a ransom to recover their home. Will the average person pay over doing the tedious and expensive chore of replacing all the devices held hostage in the home? Probably.

Is there a large enough market to support someone building a malware stack to do what I just wrote about? Probably not, but if not today, then tomorrow is more likely.

Looking at the two scenarios I temper my opinion about number one being unlikely mainly because since the dawn of the BBS, so before mass adoption of the Internet, we would see people publish applications which did nothing more then annoy people. It is sadly not out of scope.

Even before I compared the HEX output, the website raised an alarm in me. If someone wanted to just post a file that wouldn’t need to go to the expense of installing a website just to post a file.

The HomeSeer files are in a slightly different format and appear to be obfuscated. They also do not work on Dragon Tech branded switches even though the hardware is the same. I confirmed with HomeSeer this is intentional.

Given that I don’t think any useful comparisons can be done between the two other than stating that both exist.

I get the impression this is really an important issue to you, which is fine. My admonishment stands, use the files at your own risk, if at all. I don’t think beating the horse any further is going to change any minds - it certainly doesn’t mine.

I’m a technology professional with over two decades of experience, I’m comfortable with the meager risk that was presented after my own due diligence. Your mileage may vary.

When I compared the 5.14 to versions I got a different result, and I think I know what was done between the two to obscure the binary firmware. I installed the above mentioned firmware on a device and will just log it on a private channel for a bit to see what it is going. I’ve been meaning to crack one of these open so who knows how easy might be to just see what all is inside. Personally I would love to see a device that could would support an open source firmware.

The Z-wave Alliance lists two Dragon switches. The second one has a feature list that resembles HomeSeer’s.

The end state of the what the device reports is that it lists Dragon as the manufacture and firmware as being HoomeSeers. I’ll leave this running for a while and see what pops up. The version numbers for the firmware on the Dragon side no longer lines up (mine was at 5.5 before the upgrade, now it is at 1.14).

Putting your need to admonish me aside, which is sort of weird, your need to state you professional experience in order to back what you say. It doesn’t add much to your statement. You have two decades? Awesome, I have three. Maybe my three were assembling PC’s and you are a certified Novell network engineer. Who knows, and frankly I don’t know that it matters. Each person brings a set of skills to the table.

My $0.02. This is a new ecosystem which is just taking of. New adopters will want to participate where they find communities of people who are welcoming. This being their homes? People will turn toward solutions they consider safe. Something to think about.

Does anyone know how I can determine what firmware my HS-WD100+ is running? I don’t see a sticker on the dimmer that indicates a firmware version number.

Hi all, I just purchased and installed 1 Homeseer version and 3 Dragontech versions of this dimmer switch. I am using DarwinDen’s device handler for all of them. At this point I do not see a difference between any of the dimmer switches. I can configure all to double tap and am receiving instant updates in the app when they are switched locally. I thought only the firmware on the HS version allowed these capabilities. Is this normal or are there differences I haven’t seen yet?

Also, I the LED status setting doesn’t seem to make a difference. The LEDs are always on and showing the current dim level.

Per z-wave alliance specs, dragontech WS-100 and WD-100 from 2016 have central scene command set and thus same capabilities as the homeseer version. Just ordered two WS-100 switches - hopefully they’ll have the 2016 firmware/features.

Here’s the dragontech 2016 WD-100 info:

Edit: just saw that @BrianAker mentioned this already

The LED status control is vestigial from the stock dimmer handler and has no effect on the HomeSeers. Since I’m not aware of a similar supported control for these switches, I’ll remove this from the device handler. I’ll also update the DH to support native dim rate configuration parameter control that HomeSeer also recently added to their dimmer firmware.