Has anyone modified the “switch” device type to support the “double” and “hold” events? My understanding (which may be 100% incorrect) is that the standard GE / Jasco wall switches send a different command depending on the interaction with the switch. The demo code to detect a double-tap don’t seem to work for me and I’m wondering if it requires the switch to signal two “on” or “off” events and am speculating that my switch is just sending a single “double” event? Reading things similar to this with the Vera: http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php?topic=9551.20#msg_85198
Two things:
First, the GE/Jasco does not report instant status when it’s pressed. There’s a dumb patent that Lutron holds with this. If a company does not license the patent their Zwave device can’t tell the Hub: I’ve been turned on! or I’ve been turned off! Now, SmartThing intelligently gets around this because the switch does send out a node broadcast message when pressed. This broadcast doesn’t contain data about it’s state, but the Hub can see this broadcast. When the Hub see the broadcast it polls that switch to see if it’s on or off and then updates accordingly.
BUT… this node broadcast is NOT sent through the mesh. Other devices do not repeat this broadcast, which means that if you’re device is not in direct communication with the Hub it can’t can’t run this little trick and can’t update instantaneously. So if the switch in question is a bit of a ways away from the hub this might be why it isn’t responding to double taps.
Second, A double tap is all about the rhythm! It took me a while to figure this out. You don’t want to do a: “Tap-Tap.” Instead try: “Tap-pause-Tap” Give about a half to a full second between the taps and see if that helps. I have one switch setup in my house to do this using a modification of the double-tap example program. I really like it because I use it at my back door as a garage door opener.
Thanks! Looks like that was it. I was expecting a totally different event type to fire and was getting pretty confused. Glad I didn’t start digging into creating a new devicetype.
debug Detected two taps, change state
That being said, does it mean that we won’t be able to get a “hold” event working due to this patent restriction you mention?
I suspect so, though I don’t know for 100% sure. That’s probably be a question to direct to support.