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 
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Just using the central scene commandset doesn’t mean they have instant status update. Lots of devices have one and not the other. That was one of the original questions: would a dragontech device with the updated firmware then have instant status update?
Hmmmm… The conformance statements are actually very different for the two devices.
Every Z wave device conformance statement will list two different categories of commandsets. “Supported” commands are the ones that it can respond to. “Controlled” commands are the ones that it can initiate.
( people often get confused because they will see power level as a supported command. What that means is that the device will receive a request for power level and then respond to it. Same with version.)
Look at the differences. The Homeseer can initiate a central scene. The DragonTech can only receive instructions for participating in a central scene (scene actuator configuration means “update your instructions for what to do when you receive this central scene ID”). So the homeseer as certified is acting as a scene controller and the Dragontech as certified is only acting as a scene participant. Big difference.
Homeseer
Dragontech
Unfortunately very few of the Smartthings drivers are “complete”. A trial version of Homeseer will provide the information. Same goes for the openzwave web interface as well (though it can be painful to sort through).
Dragon could win a lot of customer loyalty right now by just doing the right thing and releasing an up to firmware.
I’ve seen the firmware version displayed in HomeSeer as well so it appears there may be a way to get the information from SmartThings. I haven’t noticed it being displayed from my early testing when developing the device handler, but then again I wasn’t specifically looking for it. I’ll try to dig a little deeper.
You should be able to request the firmware version from any zwave device. I don’t know the smartthings code but I’m pretty sure it’s in there. @rboy might know.
Dragontech added this to the z-wave alliance page for 2016 versions of WS-100 and WD-100:
“Z-Wave Plus introduces a new process for scene activation – “Central Scene
Control”. Press and release the button, it will send a certain command to the central controller via the lifeline association group 1. This allows the controller to react to key pressed, key released and key held down.”
Still, it’s not clear if this is actually true for dragontech devices. Once I get the WS-100, will post if can get instant status.
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