Hope you all can help me out with the upcoming question.
I own the subject (an Inovelli dual channel outlet) and am not completely happy with the way it is shown within the smartthings app. Hoping there is a way to rectify the situation.
So, is there a way to rename the “channel 1”, “channel 2” within the app to something more user friendly?
Or is there another method out there to make this happen, I am currently using smartthings standard integration with this outlet.
Lastly, is there anyway to have this device just show up as 3 separate switches within the app. Like device 1, device 2, both devices instead of having to go into another level to get to 2 generically named non customizable device names.
Furthermore, I have changed the name of each channel within the IDE in order to be able to use this outlet with Alexa/ Google Home, however this last situation is bugging me a bit…
TLDR: At this time, there is unfortunately no way to rename the device within ST’s app – This is how ST’s app sees multi-channel Z-Wave devices. I’ve tagged a couple of folks from ST that have been extremely helpful in the past and hopefully they can help shed some light on when this capability will be available
@bflorian@Tyler – Feel free to skip to the section titled, “The Issue – How ST Can Help” – the rest is background/context for anyone who stumbles upon this issue
Good evening–
First, thanks so much for bringing this issue to life! We talked through this briefly in our email exchange, but I’m exceptionally glad we can work on this for the community’s sake as it’s an issue that we’d love to have resolved too!
Here’s how I’d like to answer this question if you don’t mind – I believe by adding more context, it will help anyone who happens to stumble upon this very same issue:
Give a brief background on the product (type of device)
Outline the way it interacts with ST App (from launch to current) – why we made the choice
Bring the issue to life and bring in the proper folks from ST to help
Background - What Type of Device Is This?
The Inovelli 2-Channel Smart Plug is considered a Multi-Channel Z-Wave device, which means it has two separate channels that act individually from one another under one plug (or device). Other examples of this include Zooz’s 5 Channel Power Outlet and GE’s Two Channel Device (they just came out with one that has individual control as well with USB outlets – looks like I need to step my game up!)
History of Pairing to ST
November 2016 - April 2017
Initially, when the product launched (formerly Show Home) it had to utilize two SmartApps for it to properly work. These two apps were, “Multi-Channel Control” and “Smart Lighting”
Multi-Channel Control unlocked both individual outlets and Smart Lighting helped set them up to control the “main” switch
April 2017 – Update broke the Multi-Channel App
Per this thread, there was an update which caused some issues with the Multi-Channel App and rendered the 2-Channel Plug useless (as it couldn’t detect the endpoints): Multi-Channel Control App not functioning
It was eventually fixed, but we needed to develop an alternate version that was more of a long-term solution in case the Multi-Channel App again failed
April 2017 - June 2017
Our first device handler was created* to allow users to no longer need the Multi-Channel Smart App
With this handler, when you paired your device and installed it, on the, “My Home” tab, three separate switches showed up (Inovelli 2-Channel Smart Plug, Inovelli 2-Channel Smart Plug Channel 1, Inovelli 2-Channel Smart Plug Channel 2) and you had the ability to rename all three of them
June 2017 - Present
In June we made the decision to have our handler officially published by SmartThings
We did this because the majority of users do not know how to install a device handler and by having the handler officially published, it allowed for the plug to be picked up naturally by the ST app when paired (included)
The limitation with this was that the prior device handler had to be modified to fit within ST’s app which does not allow “Child” (or the individual channels) devices to be shown on the, “My Home” tab, but rather they would show up under the, “Master” switch
As you’ve noticed, the individual switches cannot be renamed this way within the App, which poses a problem if you want to remember what you have plugged into this device
There is a workaround via IDE which can be found here: www.inovelli.com/nzw37-setup/smartthings (step 5) but as you mentioned, this does not change the device names within the app
The Issue – How ST Can Help
What I’d like to do here is explain the issue and tag some folks from ST who can shed some light on this and hopefully we can add this to a future update within the app as I believe from a user experience, fixing this is essential and necessary.
The issue:
Currently Multi-Channel Devices that show up within the ST App cannot have their child (channels) renamed
This poses an issue in that in our (Inovelli) case, there are two plugs that cannot be renamed via the ST app. In Zooz’s case, there are 5 different channels that cannot be renamed (which would get really confusing)
How ST Can Help: @bflorian@Tyler – is there any way we can help with the issue above? I probably get at least an email every other day asking how to change the child names within the ST app and the best solve I have for them is to change the names via IDE per my instructions above. This is a good temporary solve, but as Weston @Wtstreetglow points out above, this may not be feasible when opening up the device within the ST app.
Conclusion
While I know this doesn’t solve the issue, I hope that this gives some context as to why the device behaves the way it does and I hope that together with ST, we can get this fixed for you, other ST users, and all the other manufacturers out there who produce Multi-channel Z-Wave devices.
Let me know if you have any further questions and have a great night!
Eric
Founder | Inovelli
*Device Handler Credit: Credit goes out to @erocm1231 for creating our initial device handler. He did a fantastic job and we’re extremely grateful for the time and energy put in on creating it. Thank you Eric!
Thank you for looking into the device handler. Originally I added the device and used the standard smartthings (automatic) device handler. Once I found out it wasn’t going to work the way I wanted it to, I did a device exclusion. Then I added the 2 devicehandlers (custom written by @erocm1231) wi thin my IDE environment at this location https://graph-na04-useast2.api.smartthings.com/hub…
Afterwards I reincluded the device. Upon re inclusion, I was left with the same style of device handling(parent and then click into it and have 2 children). It was my understanding that using the 2 custom handlers that I would have 3 separate devices, all renameable.
I’m hoping by providing my workflow, you may see something of where I’ve made a mistake. Thank you for how helpful you all have been so far.
We’re checking into the device handler – there’s a possibility something broke during one of the platform updates. More to come and I’ll keep this thread updated.
You are correct in your assumption – with the old device handler, the app would show all three switches (Main, Channel 1 & Channel 2) on the, “My Home” screen. We’ll have to see what’s going on or maybe one of the engineers/customer service folks I tagged last night can pitch in if they know, but we’ll work on it from our end too.
Thanks again for bringing this to life and ultimately for your support!
Hi @Wtstreetglow, as @Eric_Inovelli mentioned, we had originally had the device handler create two separate child devices that could easily be renamed in the SmartThings app. After submitting the handler to SmartThings for official integration, they modified the handler to match how they created the Zooz Smart Strip handler (which only has the channels listed in the parent handler). This, as many have discovered, leaves no simple way for the channels to be renamed.
This is the handler that was submitted to SmartThings before they made modifications to it, but it has a newer fingerprint format so that it will be used during inclusion.
It is possible that you have a version without the newer fingerprint so upon including the device, it is still assigning the other one. As a note, if you manually change the device handler to this one, you have to delete the originally created child (channel) devices in the IDE, and go into the device in the SmartThings app, hit the “gear” icon, and then hit “done”. This initiates the process that should create the child devices in the new format.
I have excluded the inovelli plug already and have went into the device handlers and have deleted anything related to inovelli from previous test.
I will be adding the 2 device handlers referenced in the url above through the github integration. The github information that you list above is 1 of the 2 necessary items to get this going. Is that statement correct? (Sorry just checking)
So directly after the inclusion when the url says to go and look at the list of devices. I only have that one device shown. 3 devices are not shown. So my test failed.-- I have to be missing something simple but I don’t know.
So I excluded everything again. Went through the setup at the URL I gave slightly earlier. Then I went through your manual steps stated above. Manually changing the device handler on the parent, then delete the original child devices in IDE, then do the steps you stated in the app. You are right, regenerated the child devices to where everything is a separate option (master, ch1, ch2).
So it is working now (the hard way). Or is this the only way? So I guess the only question that can stem from this is, can you all help me figure out what is causing this to not be an easy process? I was under the understanding that all of that manual stuff I stated in the previous paragraph was supposed to happen automatically.
I won’t lie, that could kind of make these plug ins a pain in the rear.
Hope we can continue this conversation even though I have it working. The “working” definitely isn’t something I would want to do each time I buy one of these devices and God forbid something happens to my network and have to do that to each one of these I purchase. – I am def liking this plugin so far, but I would like to nail down what is going on so this won’t plague me in the future.
You guys are awesome here. I am so appreciative of the time you all spend helping people you don’t even know. Thank you all again!!
Glad you got it figured out – I think the best way for this to become easy is if we can get ST to change the app to allow changes to the child devices
However, what I’d like to do in the meantime, is completely understand what you did so that I can re-draft the instructions so that they are not completely confusing (full transparency, we hadn’t checked them in a while since they worked fine prior to the official handler being published – I’m guessing the fingerprint Eric’s referencing is what’s causing the issues, but I’m not sure).
So, I’m going to replicate your install process when I get home and then run it by you to ensure it’s how you did it so that others can benefit from this process as well.
So it is working now (the hard way). Or is this the only way? So I guess the only question that can stem from this is, can you all help me figure out what is causing this to not be an easy process? I was under the understanding that all of that manual stuff I stated in the previous paragraph was supposed to happen automatically.
But I would say that unfortunately it is the only way at this point since you are essentially over-riding the official ST handler and there is no way to edit the channels within the app
I won’t lie, that could kind of make these plug ins a pain in the rear.
I agree… keep in mind it will be any multi-channel device, so the more people we can get this issue in front of the better, so I appreciate you writing this up and keeping the conversation going. Hopefully someone from ST will weigh in here.
We’re all in this together that’s the best part of SmartThings and their community!
I just tested the following and it did work for me. I made sure my handler was installed from the github post I linked to from above. I excluded one of my Inovelli Dual Channel devices and included it again. It was installed with my handler from Github and the child devices that appear in the “Things” list were created.
That makes sense as this is how the inclusion process works. These are the steps that SmartThings goes through when assigning a handler:
first, it looks for any user added handlers that match the mfg, product, model fingerprint.
second, a SmartThings published handler that matches the mfg, product, model fingerprint.
third a user added handler that matches the in and out command cluster information.
fourth, a SmartThings published handler that matches the command cluster information.
lastly, a SmartThings published handler that is the closest match to the command cluster information.
The user added handler with a matching mfg, product & model fingerprint should take precedence (as it did in my case) and any time I add a new Inovelli dual channel outlet, it should pick up the user added handler.
So, I am not really sure why yours didn’t do that. My only theories would be that maybe your device has a slight variation of the fingerprint. If you can paste the fingerprint found in the IDE than we can verify that. It is in the “Raw Description” field.
Or the handler that you just installed from my Github didn’t get published? That is actually a common mistake for people so I have to make sure.
I just installed this unit and it will work for what I need it for. I only really need to control one device, but thought for a few extra $'s, why not get the dual control. So I guess at this point, for SM, it appears as only one device, when in fact, it should show up as at least 2, maybe three devices? The first thing I wanted to do is rename the child devices, but obviously I learned that isn’t possible. Since most of the time the item I am controlling will be “on,” none of this is much of an issue, but I’d still like to have this control. And here’s a question I don’t think I’ve seen so far: How do you individually control the left plug and right plug through an automated process? In other words, if I have an app. look for a condition (e.g. door open) and I only want to turn on or off the left plug, how do we do this? Is this impossible to until the above issues are fixed?
Update. I think I just answered my own question I used Core and I can see that Core sees each channel separately, which is just awesome. If we can individually name the channels, that would be even better
If you change over to the custom device handler (in the ide) spoken of just a little earlier in this topic you can. I have attached the screenshot for you
First, thanks so much for your support! It really means a lot and definitely humbled you chose us for your home automation needs.
To clarify here – it shows up as one device on your, “My Home” screen, but it should have individual control of each outlet within that device (ie: if you click on the device, it should bring you to another page that has, “Channel 1” and “Channel 2” on it)
For instance, this is my, “Family Room Inovelli 2-Channel” that I use personally in my house. I use it to control two floor lamps separately:
You’ll see the “Main” switch at the top – if you touch that, it will turn on/off Channel 1 and Channel 2 simultaneously.
Channel 1 & Channel 2 can be controlled individually
NET: One device, three separate switches (Main Switch, Two Individual Switches)
Hopefully you’re seeing this on your end?
I can certainly help you here
If you were to add a SmartApp such as, “Smart Lights” the individual switches should show up. By default these switches show up as “Inovelli 2-Channel Smart Plug”, “Inovelli 2-Channel Smart Plug (CH1)”, “Inovelli 2-Channel Smart Plug (CH2)”. (More to come on this below).
Obviously this can be confusing and also annoying for Alexa/Google Home (hence the plea in this thread to ST to fix this – however, this is a limitation at this point and I hope there is an end in sight).
Option #1: Renaming the Channels Within IDE
This can be accomplished by following the directions here: Knowledge Base Redirect – Inovelli (Step 5)
When you rename your devices, they will show up with the new names when you use a SmartApp.
Here’s some context that may help.
Going back to my example above (Family Room Inovelli 2-Channel Switch), I’ll show you how you can see the individual switches within the, “Smart Lights” SmartApp and can set individual schedules.
What you are seeing here are the two channels that are the child switches within the master “Family Room Inovelli 2-Channel” switch.
By default they show up as, “Inovelli 2-Channel Smart Plug (CH1)” and, “Inovelli 2-Channel Smart Plug (CH2)”
Again, frustrating on multiple levels – especially if you purchase multiple 2-Channel devices or try saying those names to Alexa/GH – that is a mouthful!
So, by following the IDE instructions, I renamed them, “Floor Lamp #1” and “Floor Lamp #2”
Here I’ve renamed the “Inovelli 2-Channel Smart Plug (CH1)” and, “Inovelli 2-Channel Smart Plug (CH2)” as, “Floor Lamp #1” and “Floor Lamp #2” and they now show up in the SmartApp
From there you can select one or the other and setup schedules that way.
Option #2: Installing the Old Device Handler
As mentioned above, if you install the old device handler, you can have the same benefits as the officially published one, but rather than only having one device show up on the main screen, you can have three of them show up (Main, CH1, CH2).
I agree – hopefully people who are using other multi-channel devices (Zooz, GE, etc) can start to weigh in and maybe collectively we can help ST fix the app.
Hopefully this made sense? It’s late in Michigan so I may have rambled on – Thanks again for your support and for commenting here – I believe this will help further users of our device (as well as other multi-channel Z-Wave devices).
Thanks, Eric…nice, compact unit. I will take a look at the suggestions and see if I can figure it out
Update: Your website has clear directions and figured it out.
Yes, I think the user should be able to decide whether they wan’t the devices to show up in their “things” list and not be stuck with the default. At the very least, make it possible to rename the channels in the SmartThings app and not just through the IDE (how they show up in their parent device as well as how they show when selecting them in an automation) . Of course, these requests will require the cooperation of the SmartThings developers.
I have performed the steps (at the URL above) a dozen times and this still does not enable Channel 1 and Channel 2 on my home screen. Every time I perform the step within the SmartThings app to “Save” (after having deleted Ch1 and Ch2 in the IDE), Channel 1 and Channel 2 reappear as “child” devices and do not appear on the home screen. I’ve confirmed I have the same fingerprint (fingerprint mfr: “0312”, prod: “B221”, model: “251C”), and that fingerprint is in the Device Handler (and yes I published both handlers).
I’m pretty code-savvy and this really doesn’t seem THAT hard…copy/paste the code, publish, etc…and it is just not working for me. Any thoughts? I see the last post was from August - has a recent ST update broken this again?
that’s the best part of SmartThings and their community!
I used Core and I can see that Core sees each channel separately, which is just awesome. If we can individually name the channels, that would be even better 
