[OBSOLETE] Leviton VRCS4

@bdahlem - This is great. I am a recent vera convert and thanks to your device handler and smart app, my 8 different scene controllers can continue to work. By the way, I ended up editing the smart app further with a few enhancements:

  • Defining light scenes for each button including on / off and different dimming level selection for each light.
  • Ability to turn-off all lights used in a scene at the second press of the same button (toggle function for the scene).
  • Custom naming for each instance of the app installed (e.g. to indicate which controller the app instance is managing).
  • Short-cuts to settings of each button from main page vs. only sequential access.

I am attaching the link below as reference in case others are interested in the same functionality. I am new to Smartthings & GitHub. Feel fee to merge the changes to the original source code.

Thanks again.

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Hello,

I’ve been reading through these instructions and the posts in this thread.

I’ve recently introduced the SmartThings hub into my Z-Wave outfitted home and have a great success until getting to the VRCS4. I was able to exclude it from my network and then include it using the first part of the instructions (pressing buttons 2 and 4) and then adding it.

But now, I’m a bit lost,

"To get SmartThings to control the load, you need to go into the api, and reassign it from ZWave Switch to my VRCS2 Button device type (The device type is available here: https://github.com/bdahlem/device-type.VRCS22195).

To use the scene control buttons, you need to go into the api and reassign it from a ZWave remote to my Z-Wave Scene Controller device type. (The device type is available on github at: https://github.com/bdahlem/device-type.Z-Wave-Scene-Controller275) Now when you press the buttons, the remote should report which button was pressed. You may need to open up the device tile and press the configure button."

I’ve already found the post which address the broken link, however I cannot find any information which guides me on how to “go into the api and reassign…” per the instructions. Can someone please provide some additional information or a link to get my on the right path?

Thanks

The link below might be helpful…

Thanks, I appreciate the reply. Was able to find my way to this site:

https://graph-na02-useast1.api.smartthings.com/

And then was able to create the handlers, using the instructions at the URL you provided.

Things still aren’t quite lining up as it looks like my hub found what is labeled as a Z-Wave Controller, not a remote. And the instruction to use buttons 2 and 4 to find and connect to a switch doesn’t appear to do anything.

I’ve verified that I do in fact have a VRCS4, but things don’t seem to be behaving in a way that I can follow the instructions, word-for-word.

Any thoughts?

Not sure where you are stuck. Did you get the scene controller working fine and trying to add the load switch now? There are two versions of the scene controller, with and without a built in load switch. Are you sure you have a built in load switch?
You use button 1 & 3 to add the scene controller to Smartthings. If there is a built in load switch, you can use buttons 2 and 4 to add that to Smartthings. Unlike the scene controller, the load switch doesn’t even need any special device handler (at least to control through the smartthings app). If you had it, I would have thought Smartthings would have found it.

I think I figured it out.

Ultimately, I ignored the instructions related to controlling the load; I thought I was hooked up that way, but perhaps not. My hub did not discover a device called a “remote” but it did discover what was called a controller. I then ensured the handlers were installed for the button device type, the scene controller, and I also installed the SmartApp and was able to confirm that the button presses were now being logged.

I got basic functionality (toggling a few lights) off of button one, so it looks like I’m good to go now and just need to map things to different switches, etc.

The key to most of this was just having the link to the “API” as it was referred to; then things fell into place (after figuring out that the first URL was broken and another reply contained the correct one. :slight_smile:

Thanks for the link to that “how to” - that helped to get the ball rolling.

Lou

Does LED state work for anyone else? Or am I the only one that cares. My use case is a bit different (I ended up doing direct associations, and led state is kind of crucial there (It won’t send off’s if LED is off). So I had to reverse leviton’s “proprietary” led handling algorithm, to get the led’s to line up. But I’m only using this to toggle sets of lights (so more of a zone controller), vs a scene controller.

Can somebody jump in and let me know if these Leviton four-button controllers could help me out?

I have three lights and a fan that I want to control independently - each is currently wired with always-on power. I plan to add a “smart” controller to each of these devices, and add them to smartthings. I also have “always on” power run to an electrical box where I plan to mount one of these controllers.

Could I use of of these to turn my three lights and fan on/off, and dim them (adjust fan speed)?

@ygelfand, Can you share the LED algorithms? I used to care a lot for LED states, but kind of gave up after switching from Vera which was able to control each LED indicator separately. I am not using direct associations and don’t need the off functionality, but would be great to see which scene is active.

@dmrichards26, through Smartthings with the device handler on this thread, I believe you can do on/off on all 4, but without dim and speed control. Or you could control two of those devices with dimming control by dedicating two of the Leviton scene buttons to each device as up/down. In the device handler here, Leviton’s physical dim up/down buttons don’t trigger anything. The other buttons simple signal it was pressed and you can program them to do whatever you want, including dimming things up or down. Leviton scene controller is originally designed to be able to do all 4 on/off and dim up/down with direct associations, I just didn’t see it with Smartthings.

@ieguz I pushed up my dth

It may be somewhat unique to my needs, so be careful. But the core you want is the

def setLightStatus(one,two,three,four) 

Color values are:

options: [0: 'None', 1: 'Green', 17: 'Orange', 16: 'Red']

(0x00, 0x01, 0x11, 0x10)

Function. Note I only have vrcs4-0z’s so haven’t tested with anything else, and I use a smartapp that manages led state (but again, I use direct association). When testing, I saw some strange behavior w/ non-direct associations, so be ready to debug. If you find anything cool or have questions, let me know.

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Hello,

I am a newbie to Smartthings, but not home automation. I have converted all of my ViziaRF+ switches to ST, and all is working well. I have 3- 4 button controllers. I have them working and have setup different things for each button. My issue, is that once i configure the second controller, the first stops working. I am not sure what i am doing wrong, and have combed through this forum, but have not found anything.

Thanks in advance for any support that leads me to fixing this issue!

If you need more info on my setup, etc. just let me know

Thank!

JT

Just to add a bit more information as i start to understand ST better. Once i configure my first 4 button controller, it works fine. When i configure the next one 4 button controller it works fine. However the first controller then loses its association with the VRCS smartapp, and as a result only the latest controller that was configured works.

Any suggestions on this one?

JT

If I understand your question, you probably need to install one copy of the smart app for each switch that you are going to use. Otherwise you were just overwriting the original information, which would lead to the problem you are seeing. This is typical of SmartThings.

There are two kinds of smartapps.

The older kind, which I’m just going to call original style smart apps, Store the device ID once they are set up (it’s a little better not to say “configure” for that because “configure” has a specific meaning in Z wave which has to do with information stored in the device itself). So they only work with one device. If you want to use the same smartapp with a second device, you need to literally publish a second copy of the Smartapp and then set it up for the second device ID.

A little over a year ago, SmartThings introduced a new kind of smartapp called parent/child smart apps. The official smart lighting feature is one of these. In this case you just install the parent smart app, and then when you use its set up wizard, it creates a child smartapp for each device you go through the set up wizard for.

But many developers still write original style smartapps, in part because they use a few less resources.

So I don’t know for sure, because you didn’t mention which smartapp you were using, but it does sound like you are using an original style smartapp and just entering information for a different device.

Instead, you either need to install a second copy of that original style smart app and then use it for the second device, or just stick with smart apps which use the parent/child structure, such as the official smart lighting feature. And then you would add a new automation (child) for each separate device.

I may be mistaken, and the problem might be something with the smartapp itself, but this would fit the pattern that you’re seeing.

These screenshots show the two different kinds of smartapps.

SmartLighting is a parent/child smart app. Only the parent will show in the list of automations. Then if you click on the parent you will see its children.

“Switch changes mode” is the older original style of smart app. For that one, I had to install one copy of the same smart app for each switch. I could have renamed the smartapp in the IDE, I just didn’t bother, so it makes a good example for this post. :sunglasses:

And here you can see what happens when you click on the SmartLighting parent app in the list of automations: you get the list of its children and the opportunity to add a new one.

Thanks for the information. I am currently running an app call VRCS Button Controller.

So i am thinking this is an “original app” as you described it. I am also unclear as to how to install another copy of that app…

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Just go through exactly the same steps you did to install the first copy. Then you can change the name on it if you like so you can tell them apart. Each smartapp is given an internal ID by the system when you install it, so the system itself won’t have any trouble telling them apart. Which is why it’s fine for me to run three copies of the same smartApp, one for each of three switches. The system processes them by their ID, not by the name I called them.

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Thanks for your help. VERY much appreciated. This worked and all is working as it was before ST.

JT

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Does anyone know what’s involved in directly associating one of these controllers to a load-controlling Vizia switch/dimmer? I have a room where, because can lights were retrofitted, I have two switch boxes, but only one controls the load to the lights. The other switch box has a hot wire but is on a different, older circuit. (The lights were previously controlled using a Lutron RF dimmer in the load box and a Pico remote in the other that controlled the dimmer but wasn’t wired to mains power. I’m essentially looking to recreate this virtual 3-way setup but with a wired controller.)

I would think that from a purely hardware perspective, the controller I have (1 button VRCS1-1LZ) should be able to directly associate with and control the dimmer controlling the load (VRMX1-1LZ). In theory, the VRCS1 wouldn’t even need to be visible to the ST hub (and I don’t care if it isn’t), as long as it can just tell the VRMX1 to turn on or off. Anyone know if this is possible without buying the stupidly expensive Leviton remote or USB?

@ygelfand, you mentioned that you’ve used direct associations with the Vizia controller line, so maybe you’d have some insight here?

You can use a minimote, typically available for about $20, to create zwave direct associations if both devices support that.

That’s an administrative function, so you can also separately use it as a handheld button controller remote for any smartthings function.

I haven’t looked at these specific switches to see if this is possible, but that would be the way to do it if it is. :sunglasses:

Also, the VRCS1 can’t be “invisible” to the hub – – the hub owns your zwave network. Z wave direct Association only works between two devices which are on the same Z wave network. So you will have to add both devices to your SmartThings network first. And add the minimote. After that, the minimote can set up the association.

The button presses from the VRCS1 will probably be invisible to smartthings, but the device itself will show up in your things list. If it doesn’t, the association won’t work.

Also, the VRCS1 and the switch to be controlled will have to be within one hop of each other (about 40 feet in a typical US home).

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Thanks so much. I will try that. One of the reasons I went for the more expensive Leviton switches was for the bells and whistles like direct association so hopefully this will work!

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