[RELEASE] Hunter Douglas PowerView Hub integration

Thanks for the swift response @johnvey , may attempt it if I’m feeling brave! :grimacing:

EDIT Please ignore - this just started working, just think Alexa needed a little more time to setup.

Hi @johnvey - I’ve only just integrated my devices into Alexa, I can see that Alexa shows a ‘power level’ 0-100% indicator, but changing this level does nothing to the blinds, is this a bug or am I doing something wrong?

I’m using your integration with a V2 hub. Many thanks once more for your help :slight_smile:

I love this app, thank you very much. I haven’t opened my powervue app in months. Problem is that my powervue “scenes” look like a switch is SmartThings but the switch button doesn’t work. You have to open the switch and tap the momentary ‘standby’ button to get a scene to work. I don’t think it’s a problem with this code but probably an issue how SmartThings recognizes the device. There is no feedback so the switch is always on. It would be nice to not have to click into the switch to activate the scene. Screenshot_20200516-201155_SmartThings|279x499

@Davefromcamp correct, the scenes don’t have any notion of on/off. Nevertheless, I added an explicit event back to ST so that any response from the PV hub will force the ST switch state to “off”. Any generic “on” command should then subsequently work.

Update the device handler from the same repo to get the change. It looks okay from just looking at the logs, but please report back on whether it’s now doing what you expect. I don’t actually have anything wired up to issue “on/off” commands to that device handler.

@johnvey, in case you (or any other dev) is interested somebody posted an official api document for the powerview v1/v2 hub at the link below. Not sure if you ever had one to work off of but its great to have as a reference.

In the classic app the scene switches work fine, I think it’s a nuance of the new app by the looks of things…

You are correct the old app works great, samsung it seems will move everything to the new app. Currently scenes are recognized as switches that selecting on/off does nothing, you have to open the switch and press standby. It does work from alexa no problem.

I updated from the repo, and the switches are still non functional from the main menu. I am going to try and uninstall the blinds then reinstall and get back to you. Thanks

Okay, let me know if you have any intel on how the new app is different with respect to the device handlers. I’m running the old app on a v2 hub so I don’t have access to any of the latest hardware or software to verify anything.

Not sure if I should post in here or create a new thread. Having some issues with this. Only just got the blinds and just set this up this evening. I can see the app in the Smartthings app, I can see my hub, I can see my blinds and scenes and can select them. My problem is when I press done I get the error “We are having trouble connecting. Check your network connection and try again” any ideas what might be causing this?

Thanks

@Phil_Craig1 you’ll likely need to inspect the debugging log in the IDE to narrow down the problem. I don’t know of any issues currently affecting this app so it’s hard to say.

That specific error message is thrown by the ST framework, and has recently been reported across a multitude of other devices. It may be a temporary issue with ST itself, or perhaps a breaking change in ST that causes incompatibilities.

Thanks for that, I’ll take a closer look tomorrow :+1:t2:

So I checked the log and it came back with

“physicalgraph.app.exception.UnknownDeviceTypeException: Device type ‘Hunter Douglas PowerView Shade’ in namespace ‘johnvey’ not found. @line 428 (installShade)”

I assumed I’d been daft but when I checked by doing update repo there wasn’t the option to install anything else. I’ve got the repo set up as smartthings-hd-powerview (master) but it’s not giving me the option. Any ideas what i’m doing wrong ?

Edit: I’ve just deleted the app and tried to add it from the repo again. It only shows
" smartapps/johnvey/hunter-douglas-powerview.src/hunter-douglas-powerview.groovy"

All sorted, I had to update the device handlers and had only updated the smartapps. Sorry for the confusion.

Hello - Anyone facing issues with this integration after switching to the new app? All of my scenes stopped working - tried recreating but with the same issue. All blinds gets added but nothing happens.

Something new called ‘Momentary’ is there with a value StandBy and if I press that it works, but not the actual On/Off switch.

Any ideas?

UPDATE:- RESOLVED - I had to update all the automations in the new app. It allows ‘Press Momentary’ feature. Sorry for the false alarm.

Hi all - through numerous support visits from my local HD tech and support calls between the local tech and HD, HD has decided that I need a second hub in my house because the HD repeaters simply aren’t powerful enough to (i) detect all my shades and (ii) operate some of the shades it can detect (i.e. I’ll have two hubs operating in the same house on the same network). Does anyone know if this is going to cause an issue with this smart app and the shade device handler (I don’t use the “scenes” handler)? I’m hoping that the second hub will act as a more powerful repeater instead of a second hub, but I’m not sure at this point.

I don’t have any information on whether a secondary hub is able to be subordinate to a primary hub. I think the test would be whether shades associated with either hub will show up in both Powerview contexts.

I would predict that the hubs are not that sophisticated and will simply present as 2 different shade sets, with 2 independent hubs. Given that, I think the second hub will require a second instance of the SmartApp to be installed, which is bound to the second hub’s IP address. I don’t think that anything configured in your existing SmartApp would be affected.

I sympathize with the RF hassles for PV shades. I had to put in five of the puck-shaped repeaters before I finally eliminated my coverage woes. And this is just with a dozen shades, over two floors. I only have the one hub so I don’t know if a second one would require being setup as a separate system or not. It would be supremely annoying if that were the case. But I wouldn’t put it past HD to half-ass the solution.

Thanks for the quick response. Just had the second hub delivered and installed late last week; it was basically plug and play and works as a more powerful repeater, not as a second standalone hub. All of my shades are still on my primary hub and things have been working much better in the last couple days from a coverage perspective. I didn’t need to do anything within SmartThings.

I lost PowerView connection with new app! Anyway to get it working again?

@johnvey I’m interested in hiring somebody to write a similar integration to a home automation hub that uses powerline signaling to control lights/etc. (UPB). I’m guessing it will be very similar to integrating with PowerView except in this case, I have access to the developer who should be able to provide the protocols and API. Any interest or referrals? My apologies for posting in this thread, I’m not sure how to directly message somebody.