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
- It was developed around ST’s Composite Device program: http://docs.smartthings.com/en/latest/composite-devices/
- 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!