Zwave Power Strip from AEON

Devices & Integrations Connected Things
1

Just saw this on eBay and decided to pick one up:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Aeon-Labs-Wireless-Smart-Power-Strip-DSC11-ZWUS-4x-z-wave-outlets-2x-reg-/111232264410?pt=Home_Automation_Modules&hash=item19e5f5a8da

AEON Power Strip

6 outlets total… 2 are always on, and 4 are controlled by Zwave. There’s some contradictory info on how they work according to the ebay listeding:

All z-wave outlets appear at VERA dashboard as 4 switches, controlled independently.
4 switchable power outlets in 2 groups and 2 constant-power outlets

So, first of all, I’m not 100% sure this will work with SmartThings, but Urman (I think) said before that if we have any z-wave device that doesn’t work right away, we can send it to them and they’ll type it for us and send it back, so I’m pretty sure this should work.

Secondly, I’m not sure if it will show up as two outlets or four.

I’ll report more when I get my device.

1 Like
2

@ben_edwards, @philsst,

Just wanted to alert you two to this thread because you expressed interest in the ZigBee Power strip thread.

3

I ordered one from Staples earlier this week:

http://www.staples.com/Aeotec-Smart-Strip/product_279180

Mine is scheduled to arrive today. I’ll report back my findings too.

4

It’s funny… the Staples write up definitely seems to indicate that it’s 4 separate outlets:

Smart Strip lets you individually control 4 out of the 6 power points.

…but the picture on Staples shows them grouped in twos. I’ll be very curious to hear what results you have.

Also… looks like I got screwed on price a little bit. :frowning: Staples is a LOT cheaper.

5

My fear is that it is going to be locked down to the Staples Connect platform (hence the price discount). I have never had any issues with z-wave devices being platform specific in the past (unlike Zigbee which are almost always platform specific) so I am hoping that holds true.

Each outlet seems to have an LED light above it to indicate power on/off, so I hope that means each of the 4 outlets is independent. The description also seems to indicate the outlets will report power usage which would be a huge plus for my intended set-up.

6

We’ve had this for a while, and it works with the Aeon Smart Energy Switch device type, but you can only control the entire strip.

We’re still looking at the best way to deal with multiplex devices like this. We’re thinking of adding the ability for the device to create “child devices”, so you could use each controllable outlet individually as a metering switch.

7

@duncan I think child devices would be great. My expectation was that this was going to show up as 4 separate things anyway…

8

Yeah, unfortunately since it’s a single Z-Wave node, it can only show up as a single device with the way our system currently works. We have child SmartApps though, so hopefully it won’t be too long before we get this working.

9

@chrisb, @trotsky40 - While early firmware for the device was 2 groups of 2 outlets, our contact at Aeon Labs has confirmed that the 4 outlets are individually controllable.

10

@chrisb, @trotsky40

Until ST figures out how to implement multiple switches on one device you could create a custom device type. See my custom device type for the Intermatic PE653 at the link below. It uses the Multi Channel ZWave Command Class formally Multi Instance on older devices. With this custom device type you will be able to control the all four outlets. The only problem is that you will need to create custom smart apps if you want to switch one of the outlets automatically.

http://build.smartthings.com/forums/topic/intermatic-pe653-pool-control-system/

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11

Thanks @bigpunk6 I’ll have to check it out. One of the big things I want is power usage by outlet.

My shipment was delayed so I just received the power strip. It is closer to the one pictured above by @chrisb than the picture Staples has posted. I won’t be able to try it out until I get home tonight though. My first impression is that it is much bigger than I anticipated. It is the same length as the standard 8 outlet power strip under my desk and about 50% thicker. One benefit is the outlets are nicely spaced (1.25" apart vs 0.5" on the standard strip) so even big power bricks should fit just fine.

12

Thanks from me as well @bigpunk6.

I’m poking through your device type a little bit. Is the information used here pretty standard stuff?

I’m guessing I’m going to strip out the stuff about the pump (preferences section) and the stuff about switch 5 (only 4 switches here). But the “instance” stuff… should that be standard?

If so, seems like it should be pretty straight forward. I’ll have to play with the app too, but looking at the device type it looks like it’s just I’ll be calling device.on1() or device.off2() instead of device.on() or device.off(), right?

I think I’d like to add name and icon tiles as well. I’ll have to figure out how to do that. And I think ideally I’d like to see a “master” tile that will show on if any of the 4 switches are on or off if all switches are off.

1 Like
13

Thinking more about the smartapp… there might be an easy way to make this pretty compatible with other programs. I’m thinking I could create a modified version of my wireless three-way app that let’s you pick a number, 1-4, and bind a switch with that outlet. Then I create 4 virtual on/off devices and bind them to the four outlets so that if one turns on, the other turns on. Or if one turns off, the other turns off.

Because virtual devices are “standard” devices, you can use any old app to control those. Then the three-way picks it up from there and turns on/off each individual outlet when it sees the virtual turn on/off.

14

@chrisb

That’s a good idea I wish though of that.

You can still call device.on() but you have to include the switch number like device.on(2) for switch 2. The only reason i had to enumerate the on’s and off’s is that as far as i know the standardTile does not allow you to call on(2) only on2 so i had to make a command for each switch. If there was a way to do that then i could simplify the code.

15

@bigpunk6,

Well, my initial trials proved very futile. I tried using both your unedited code for the device type as well as my edited version (removed preferences section and any reference to switch5). The device seemed to show up in the mobile app correctly… I basically had 4 on/off swtiches. However, tapping on any of the switches did not cause a change in any of the outlets. :frowning:

Tapping on one of the tiles does send a command to the device:
9 Dec 2013 23:39:44 - 9 minutes ago COMMAND on4 on4 command was sent to Z-Wave Metering Switch false true

But nothing happens in the devices. Any bright ideas?

@duncan,

Do you have any time table for being able to support this? I sure everyone is asking the same thing about their personal pet desire, but I’m just looking for a broad idea (weeks? months?) I just don’t want to spend too much time trying to get this working if SmartThings will have a solution in the near future.

Thanks all,

Chris

16

@chrisb

Try this

//switch instance
def on(value) {
log.debug "value $value"
	delayBetween([
		zwave.multiChannelV3.multiChannelCmdEncap(instance: value, commandClass:37, command:1, parameter:[255]).format(),
		zwave.multiChannelV3.multiChannelCmdEncap(instance: value, commandClass:37, command:2).format()
	])
}

def off(value) {
log.debug "value $value"
	delayBetween([
		zwave.multiChannelV3.multiChannelCmdEncap(instance: value, commandClass:37, command:1, parameter:[0]).format(),
		zwave.multiChannelV3.multiChannelCmdEncap(instance: value, commandClass:37, command:2).format()
	])
}

//switch1
def on1() {
	delayBetween([
		zwave.multiChannelV3.multiChannelCmdEncap(instance:1, commandClass:37, command:1, parameter:[255]).format(),
		zwave.multiChannelV3.multiChannelCmdEncap(instance:1, commandClass:37, command:2).format()
	])
}

def off1() {
	delayBetween([
		zwave.multiChannelV3.multiChannelCmdEncap(instance:1, commandClass:37, command:1, parameter:[0]).format(),
		zwave.multiChannelV3.multiChannelCmdEncap(instance:1, commandClass:37, command:2).format()
	])
}
17

Okay… I’ll try and give it a shot tonight. I need to repeat the Def on1() and off1() sections for swtiches 2,3, and 4 right?

18

No luck. Still the same thing. I see the 4 switches, tapping on them doesn’t do anything though.

19

@chrisb

In the IDE under My Devices select the Device and post the Raw Description data here.

This tells me what Z-wave command classes are supported by the device.

20

Hey @bigpunk6,

I appreciate you looking into this… don’t spend too much of your free time on it though. I know SmartThings will eventually get to it so I don’t want you to miss any Christmas Parties because you’re doing this (I mean, unless you want to miss some of those parties!).

Here’s the Raw Description:

0 0 0x1001 0 0 0 a 0x25 0x32 0x27 0x70 0x85 0x72 0x86 0x60 0xEF 0x82

Thanks!

Chris