When will naming multi gang switches (in Edge Drivers) finally be fixed?

@nayelyz @posborne @Brad_ST

Is there a forecast of fixing in the api the possibility of renaming devices with more than one channel and that they can appear in alexa/google? Not being able to rename the switch brings a huge problem for those who use switches with more than one gang and mainly because only main appears in alexa.

tagging @Mariano_Colmenarejo because he’s been putting a lot of effort into adding new edge drivers and it’s sure to be something that many users ask for him

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thanks @JDRoberts by renaming the title

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Please, I have the problem, I sincerely ask for help to solve this issue! Thank you very much!

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I also ask for help on this issue, honestly this problem is very disappointing.

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Apologies for my ignorance but can someone explain the issue in greater detail? I am unsure what is being discussed though clearly a number of users are experiencing it.

Multi component devices like 2 gang switches:

image

Power strips:

Or dual relays:

Having a DTH with A parent/child construction allows the user to give each child a custom name and allows you to then voice control them from Alexa.

Multi component Edge drivers don’t at present allow the user to change the name. Even worse for many users is that only the equivalent of the parent is exposed to Alexa. You can’t control the child components by voice at all. :disappointed_relieved:

@nayelyz is aware of the issue, but no timeline has been given for fixing it, and it is limiting the usefulness of edge drivers for a number of people.

Existing discussion thread:

[ST Edge] Issues with multi-component devices and third-party integrations

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Come on…

as you can see in the image when you add a device that has more than one channel (example of this one that has 3). There is no possibility to rename them (it only has these default names main, switch1, switch2, etc.) and only the most appears in alexa and google, the others do not. In my living room I use one of these and today I can only turn on a light by voice command because the others do not appear in alexa. Another problem is if using smart lighting in the device list all switches appear together and it is impossible to know which is which. So it would be very interesting to be able to rename each channel and for them to appear independently in alexa or google (the same thing happened with DHT). Did you understand?

@Mariano_Colmenarejo told me that this is not possible because the api doesn’t allow it.

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that’s terrible.

To be honest, I gave up using drivers because of that. All my switches are 3 channel and I was only using voice to trigger the first one

I apologized in advance as this is well outside the scope of my day to day job responsibilities at SmartThings. Please understand that the Edge architecture is still in beta and that support offered by non developer-relations individuals such as myself is often on my own time. Your patience is appreciated.

Thank you. I was not aware of this limitation but this helps me understand the issue at least.

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I understand. As most users have a device with more than 1 channel this is a huge problem. But I hope the team can look into this as soon as possible, as via the LAN api this already seems to be possible. The problem is occurring from what I was told in zigbee and zwave

waiting :slight_smile:

Ok, in order to avoid more confusion, here’s more information:

  1. The issue is that the label is ignored in the device UI, even if we assign one to that component (in the device profile), the ID is displayed in the app instead (detail View), which is already reported.

    • It happens for all the integration types DTH, ST Schema, direct-connected, etc. So, it is not limited to Edge drivers
    • The label appears correctly in the Routines tool.
  2. But users being able to change the components’ label of those devices that use a stock DTH or driver through the ST app would be a feature request.

    • This name cannot be changed through the API but devices that use a profile in “development” status can be edited to set a new label (profiles endpoint).
    • In Edge drivers, when we install the device, its profile is published, so it cannot be modified through the profiles endpoint

I will create the feature request for this change.

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Sharing my experience with groovy vs edge on this context. In groovy one could have a multi component device (just like edge) and the same problem existed there also. Only the DTH could assign the name to the component and that’s how it would show up. However in groovy there an option where the multi component devices could be represented as wholly separate devices, so a 4 button device could be displayed as 4 separate devices when the DTH created the device and then the user could rename each device separately.

I’m still working through the EDGE drivers but I don’t think that option for creating new devices is available to zigbee and zwave devices (it’s available to LAN devices).

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Exactly…this is fantastic

that’s exactly what @w35l3y old me

surely this is a big problem that many users are experiencing. We have a community here in Brazil and telegram groups that are all facing this problem

@RBoy described very well what it was like and what it is like with the drivers

Ok, I already found the report I previously made about that so, I’ll talk to the team to get their feedback.

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Thanks!!! :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

We appreciate you around here!

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You summed it up very well.

Separate ZIGBEE child devices would solve 3 problems in one… individual commands (we wouldn’t need to access detail page of main device), individual custom names and recognition by other integrations (Alexa and Home Assistant as well)

I developed a workaround as proof of concept using LAN child devices.

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As is often the case, I take a slightly different view. I find components to be a far more elegant solution.

The problem isn’t the lack of child devices, it is the failure of the mobile apps to better expose components in the UI, and the failure of the Google and Alexa integrations to do anything at all with components.

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I really like to have individual control over each child device.
All my switches have 3 buttons, sometimes I only need 1 for the room and I use the others to control curtain or air freshener, for example. And I just hide these buttons because I don’t intend to use them by the app ever.

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