[OBSOLETE] Button Controller Plus, HS-WD100+ HS-WS100+

SmartApps & Automations Community Created SmartApps
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UPDATE 06/16/17 I have changed from using my own Button Controller Plus and instead I am highly recommending to now use @stephack Advanced Button Controller smartapp! Yes it really is that much better that I switched to ABC. :smiley: [OBSOLETE] Advanced Button Controller (ABC)

I modified Button Controller+ so that it could be used with the Homeseer HS-WD100+ or HS-WS100+ switches that have instant status, secure inclusion and the added abilities of double-tap, triple-tap and press & hold features to the paddle switch. Button Controller+ had previously fixed all the shortcomings of the stock Button Controller smartapp. The original app had four buttons to match the Aeon Minimote but these new Homeseer switches needed six button controls to handle the additional features of scene control.

Button Controller Plus works in conjunction with custom device handlers by @Darwin that he blogs about here. Darwin device handler code or @erocm1231 here.

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The control options available per button are > Lights to Toggle; Dimmers to Toggle; Lights to Turn On; Lights to Turn Off; Dimmers to DimLevel 1; Dimmers to DimLevel 2; Fan to Adjust - Low, Medium, High, Off; Shade to Adjust - Up, Down, or Stop; Locks; Speaker music player; Modes; Hello Home Actions; Sirens; Custom Message; Push Notifications; SMS Notifications and Associate a Momentary Button.
I added this long screen capture so you could see how it displays. My favorite has been the multiple dimmer settings and the fan speed control.

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@dalec

Living Room Lights:
SmartApps

  • Button Controller Plus
    – FIRST button
    – – Associate a Momentary Button
    – – – Pushed TV Virtual Switch
    – SECOND button
    – – Associate a Momentary Button
    – – – Pushed Current Activity
    – THIRD button
    – – Hello Home Actions
    – – – Pushed Good Morning!
    – FOURTH buttion
    – – Hello Home Actions
    – – – Pushed Good Night!
    – FIFTH/SIX button
    – – NO CONFIG – –

  • Automate Lights & Switches
    – What do you want to do?
    – – Turn On & Set Level
    – Dimmer Level
    – – 40%
    – Select Trigger
    – – Switch
    – Which switch?
    – – Living Room Lights
    – Turn on & set level lights when
    – – Turned On
    – Turn off as well (True)

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Thanks for your reply above that helps. I think if I understand your issue correctly you should be using only the Button Controller Plus for everything? Two questions:

In Automate Lights & Switches, you didn’t say what you selected for
“Which lights do you want to control?” Is it the same Living Room Lights that is connected to your HS-WD100+ switch? Maybe this is why then in the description to the problem you say each time you “Press and Hold”… that is the 5th/6th buttons so did you want to configure them in Button Controller Plus? You could move the actions of the Automate & Lights into either the 5th or 6th button. There is no need to use the other Smart Lighting Smartapp since you have nothing to gain. Even though this app is local it doesn’t help you because your device handler is not.

If not I am a little confused with why you Press&Hold.

That being said however, if you want to use the HS-WD100+ in the Smart Lighting app then you need to change the way you configured for:

  • “Select Trigger” select Button (not switch)

  • “Which Button?” select Living Room Lights

  • “Button number” select One through Four depending which one you want.
    * Remember the HomeSeer switches 5th and 6th buttons can’t be
    seen by this app. The standard Smart Lighting app that comes
    with the system is unable to distinguish the Press&Hold functions
    only the first four multi-tap buttons.

  • “Button action” select Pushed (not Held)

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Yep, both apps were trying to run against the same HS-WD100+ switch (Living Room Lights).

My wife/mother-in-law tend to hold the paddle down to use the native dimmer functions. When they do this today, it doesn’t “stop” when they let off. Instead it either shuts off entirely, or powers to 100%, then back to the preset dimmer level.

Perhaps, purely out of ignorance, but I didn’t see a method to allow a single tap to set the dim level in your app (buttons 1-6 only control multi-tap/held), I wasn’t quite sure how to use BCP’s 5/6 buttons to allow dimming. I can pull the second app, and it is probably wise to do so. It pre-dated your solution, and I didn’t expect any conflict.

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Thanks for the clarification. OK, So part of the problem is just understanding operation of the new switch. If 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. This is important to know because it does add confusion. I posted this question in the device thread to see if there is a different way to operate button 5/6 without also dimming.

It may not be what you want but the system is doing exactly as you configured in both smartapps and the HomeSeer device handler works, the wife is manually overriding the dimming level and as soon as she is done the Smart Lighting app is telling it to go to 40%.

[quote=“jshessen, post:4, topic:48931”]
Perhaps, purely out of ignorance, but I didn’t see a method to allow a single tap to set the dim level in your app (buttons 1-6 only control multi-tap/held), I wasn’t quite sure how to use BCP’s 5/6 buttons to allow dimming.
[/quote] You are correct. A single tap isn’t available for controlling in BCP because it isn’t available as a button. The single tap simply turns on the last level out to the load.

The way you currently setup the Smart Lighting smartapp could be setup on BCP because when you press&hold you could have button 5 to “Dimmers to DimLevel 1” and in “Pushed” select your Living Room the “DimLevel 1” to 40. This would give you what you were attempting to do I think? I programmed my HomeSeer button 5 with the above setting and it worked fine. This way it is all in one smartapp. That seems to be what you desired below except it is trigger from a Press&Hold not just single Press.

So help me understand exactly the issue you have then and what you want it to do: You want to have the family have local dimming override,Yes? In addition you don’t like the way the device single taps on to its last commanded dim level. So instead you want to be able to automatically turn it on at all times to 40% level, Yes?

I don’t know what your “Pushed TV Virtual Switch” “Pushed Current Activity” switches are in the sequence but I assume those are working ok for you.

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I concur that my setup was the root of the issue. I did pull the Smart Lighting app, and of course the override went away.

I will try this recommendation when I get back home, as a test.

[quote=“dalec, post:5, topic:48931”]
So help me understand exactly the issue you have then and what you want it to do: You want to have the family have local dimming override,Yes?[/quote]
Originally, yes.

I believe this will be my ultimate solution. I can live with load going back to the default level. I will likely use a routine to have the dim set to specific levels if necessary moving forward.

This was just some nonsense I had to trigger some Harmony virtual switches as a proof of concept.

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First off let me say how much I appreciate your work. I am noticing an issue with all of my homeseer dimmer switches and maybe it is a misconfiguration. I set button 1 (double tap up) to set the dimmer level 1 to 100%. When I double tap the light takes a few seconds and then turns on full bright with no dim up to that level. Is there a way to have the app dim the lit to that level instead of just turning it on to that level? I set triple tap up (button 3) to set dimmer level 1 to 100% on multiple lights in the area and those all dim up to 100% but in the double tap case it just turns on to the dimmer level with no dim ramp up.

Ideally I’d like double tap to dim the light up to 100% as a configurable option and the same for triple tap but triple tap is working the way I expect.

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You are asking if you can slowly ramp up to the dim level you are asking for instead of it going to the level immediately? That would be a function of the device handler by @Darwin. That is a great question and I don’t know if he has plans on doing an update.

I’m curious, what bulbs or switches are you using below where you like the slow ramp up to 100%[quote=“ewa8949, post:7, topic:48931”]
set dimmer level 1 to 100% on multiple lights in the area and those all dim up to 100%
[/quote]

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I am actually using the device handler by DarwinsDen Maybe that is the problem? His was the most recently updated so I went with that one. I find that double tapping and then 3 seconds later having the light come on full bright was a bit fast. I wanted to try each combination (instant on vs slow ramp) until I decide which one fits my mood. I really wish there was a way to run everything locally because the cloud delay is too much sometimes.

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It is a catch 22. You could use the Smart Lighting app that can be locally run but it only has 4 button control so you loose the 5th, 6th button function. But the real problem is to achieve local control you would also need to load the standard device handler for a dimmer. The standard dimmer has no support for the 1-6 button feature. You are stuck in terms of local control until ST supports this new device handler and the Button Controller Plus smartapp. I have the smartapp submitted but I am not sure if @Darwin has submitted his DHT yet.

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Just to clarify, I’m assuming you have configured double-tap to set the dim level of the same HS-WD100+ switch, and triple-tap is configured to set the dim level of other non-HomeSeer switches? Otherwise, as @dalec mentioned, this is a function of the device and device handler for the HomeSeer switch, since double-tap and triple-tap should behave the same for the same actions.

Unfortunately, while the HomeSeer dimmers support configuration options to set the dim rate when controlled manually at the switch - and it would be easy to add a preference for this to the device handler, the HomeSeer dimmers do not appear to support a configuration parameter for controlling the dim rate when set externally. I was hoping my HomeSeer controller would show this as an undocumented feature when paired with the switch, but it only shows the documented local control dim rate options.

This is disappointing as even the GE dimmers support this basic capability. Dim rate control really belongs on the device itself for many reasons, and the only other option would be to modify the device handler to track the dim level and attempt to send multiple intermediate dim commands. This adds a lot of normally unnecessary complexity to the device handler, and I’m afraid added cloud latency might make this almost unworkable.

I’ll keep thinking on it though - and maybe relook at the handler. I believe this quick ramp-up behavior could be causing issues I’ve seen with some LED bulbs. A simple(?) mod the device handler to provide an option to allow just a couple of incremental dim levels might workaround this LED bulb issue I’ve seen as well. I’ll also ping HomeSeer to see if there is a chance they will be upgrading the firmware at some point to support this. If anyone has any other suggestions, please let me know,

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I totally agree! I think I am going to send an email to HomeSeer and have them look into modifying their firmware for a possible future feature.

@ewa8949 it might also be possible to do this via a smartapp as well such as CoRE by @ady624 So if it is important to you to have a slow ramp function to your desired dim level, take a look at CoRE because I bet there is a good bet it will do it there. :slight_smile:

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There is a “Fade to level” device task that takes the target level and duration as parameters. Does the rest. Works best with long durations. Especially when you enter the realm of minutes or higher.

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I did a quick test with the WD100+ device handler, and a dim increment of 5% each with a duration of 20ms looked a lot smoother than I expected. I’ll look at adding this to the device handler with customizable preference parameter options so that you can set the dim rate for all remote commands. Maybe it will also fix the issue I was seeing with some bulbs. On the down-side the would result in ~20 extra Z-Wave commands when remotely dimming up from off to 100%.

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That is correct. It is a bit jarring to double tap and then nothing happens for 3 or 4 seconds (cloud delay) and then suddenly it comes on full bright. I actually would rather it just turn on full bright but it is that cloud delay that really messes up the user experience. I am coming from Lutron lights with sliders on the side and those had a nice click feel to them that instantly turned on so I am adjusting to these lights.

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Gotcha. Well, I’ll see about adding the dim ramp up options which should make it less jarring and hopefully fix other issues that the quick ramp up rate may be causing. Once the device handler gets a little more simmer time, I can submit it for publication so that hopefully it can run local at some point.

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You are my hero for the day :slight_smile:

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I’ve updated the HS-WD100+ Device Handler to add the option to specify a fade-up rate for the dimmer on for remote commands. 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 would ramp up more smoothly than I expected considering it’s being managed by the device handler and not on the switch where it 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. Let me know how it goes…

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You rock @Darwin! Off to GitHub :slight_smile:

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@dalec @Darwin Looks like HomeSeer is releasing new firmware for the HS-WD100+ which will support ramp rates for local and remote control. See post #25 from the thread here http://board.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=182044&page=2 They have previously released a firmware fix for the HS-WS100+ which is supposed to fix the on/off/on cycling issue sometimes encountered when controlling those switches manually, and which I am plagued with currently. (Thread on that problem here: http://board.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=181083) My question for all of you smarter-than-me folks is, how can I push both these firmware updates without purchasing a HS3 controller to do it? Is there a way? If not, I’m strongly considering purchasing their $40 USB Z-Wave dongle and using their software on a trial basis to update all my switches. On principle, I’m not happy to pay them more to fix their screw up myself, but $40 is a small price to pay to avoid RMAing and re-wiring 16 switches. Thoughts?

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