ZWave slaves + "Real" virtual devices

General Discussion
21

@Andrew:  Thanks!

22

@urman: Am I seeing correctly that there’s no way to pair devices through the IDE, only that you can remove them?

23

@gray correct

24

Hmph… is there a missing API call, then, … i.e., search for new device?

Or maybe it’s just hidden :wink:

…CP.

25

Yeah, CP, I hunted around for a while.  Looks like the only way to pair a new device is to use the iOS app.  You can’t do it using the online IDE, and there’s no android app yet.  Presumably this functionality will be coming to both of those soon.

26

Based on @MJ’s success with the GE remotes I decided to try the Intermatic “Homesettings” Remotes.
First was the Mdl: HA09 handheld. After much trial and error… Success!

Adding Intermatic HA09 basic remote – only

Do the following:

  1. Remove your remote from the current z-wave network. See Resetting Your Network AND Channels in the HA09 manual.
    Command – Press and hold INCLUDE and DELETE buttons at the same time for 10 seconds. The red and green LED’s will flash.
    Hold the Channel 1 ON/DIM and OFF/DIM buttons until the green LED turns solid.

  2. Add your devices to the SmartThings app.

  3. Add your Intermatic HA09 to SmartThings under add a device and:
    Press and Hold the INCLUDE button, then Release when LEDs flash
    Press and release the Channel 2 OFF/DIM button.

  4. The SmartThings app will try to identify an unknown device for quite sometime. I just aborted after about a minute and was able to see the remote identified as an unknown device under SmartThings.

  5. Now add z-wave devices to your remote.
    Press and Hold both the ON and OFF button for the chosen channel. Release when both LEDs are flashing.
    then Manually turn On and OFF the zwave device (switch) you want assigned to that channel.
    The Green LED should flash then go off.

  6. At that point you should be able to control these devices from both the app and remote control. Control response is much faster as it never has to go through the cloud for control.

27

Inadvertently changed the tags, this post is to fix it.

Also trying the Intermatic HA07 tabletop with LCD screen. Will post back on those findings.

28

Great stuff! Thanks for the step-by-step.

Now as long as the SmartHub detects a change in state on specific controlled Z-Wave devices (e.g., a particular power-lamp module), then that could be used to Trigger an App (perhaps a set of lights, or lock the door, etc.) – WITHOUT having to read the event direction from the “Unknown Device” – perhaps?

Of course, mapping the actual Z-Wave datastream into Smart-API events would be preferable; not sure if that is something the Developer community can hack, or if it has to come from within SmartThings’s team.

29

I just added a GE remote 45600 to ST following the method (Setup and 9-6-7) MJ provided. It showed up in the ST app as a “Zwave Remote”. Is there a way I can go back to assign my 45601 remote to this type?

30

I was able to change the type via the ST Web interface. Under My Devices I clicked on the Unknown Device and set it to type Z-Wave Remote.

31

Thanks, Dean.

I had not noticed that Device Type before.

Drilling down on the device instance, it does not seem to be capturing and/or reporting any events, though.

Is yours?

…CP.

32

If I drill down to one of the remotes and click “List Events” and then click on “all from device” it appears to show only a few events from when I first added the remote, but nothing else.

ID Date Source Displayed Text Raw Description Displayed State Change
a6831782c-1f57-4660-960b-60e408a0fdc7 17 Jun 2013 17:52:28 - 1 day ago DEVICE Zwave Remote is now inactive Zwave Remote is now inactive false false
b88392da-bdb8-41bb-997f-354e4dfe79b8 17 Jun 2013 17:41:08 - 1 day ago DEVICE updated updated false false
191348ec-60cb-436f-87eb-a96472286dd3 17 Jun 2013 17:41:08 - 1 day ago DEVICE Thing is now active Thing is now active false false

33

I got the GE 45631 secondary remote working with smart things. you need another GE remote to create it as a secondary remote in the system. I used a GE 45600.

1. Add GE 45600 to the network using the instructions earlier in this thread.
2. put GE 45631 in to Replication mode 
   a. place 2 controllers close to each other.
   b. press and hold both add and remove buttons until orange LED blinks twice
   c. press and release the off side (left side) buttons in order 1,2,3,4
   d. the orange LED will start blinking.
3. put the GE 45600 in to create secondary controller
   a. press and hold setup until both the red and green leds blink twice
   b. enter 9661 on the numeric keypad.
4. both remotes will blink a green LED 2 times

I then added a GE 45603 plugin outlet to the GE 45631 group 1 by
1. press and hold the add and remove buttons until the orange LED blinks twice and the release.
2. press and release the add button
3. press and release the group button
4. press and release the on button for the key you want to assign the device to. The orange LED will start blinking.
5. press the button on the GE 45603 outlet.
6. the green LED on the GE 45631 will blink twice.

you can now control that outlet/device from the GE 45631.

34

So I have my SmartThings package, hub, outlets, motion, multi. I’d like to buy the GE 45600 from Amazon (it is under $8), and then use it to control the SmartOutlet that came with the ST package (it’s a zigbee HA device I believe), as well as eventually controlling other lights switchs. Lifx devices are coming at some point. Has the hub/ST software evolved to a point that makes this possible? Effectively can the ST hub detect button presses from the GE 45600 controller?

35

@Calcman:

I’ve asked this a few times, but the answer is still no.

There may not be any way for the SmartHub to ever do this due to peculiarities of the Z-Wave network protocol.

First, on/off keys on those remotes (I have 2) are only “alive” if they are paired with a specific Z-Wave device (though the keys can be assigned to scenes or groups… Right now these are also only programmable in relation to a set of Z-Wave devices too).

Second, the hub is only able to capture/send events from/to devices, not other “controllers”. They should create a FAQ on this, because I don’t understand the details. There are both technical and license restrictions involved. I would hope that pressing a “Scene” button on these remotes would send a detectable Z-Wave message; but maybe it directly talks only to the end devices.

I hope a workaround is possible; maybe best to start from scratch and build a remote that uses Thing Module (prototype using the Shield), because that can send / receive any message to / from hub. That would be fun project!

36

I’ve tried to get that to work with the GE 45601. The problem is the only way it associates a button to a device is when you include the device through the remote. When you hit a button on the remote it sends the command directly to the other device – our hub isn’t involved at all. I tried to include the hub to add it to a button, but since our hub is a controller, not a slave device the remote doesn’t recognize it as something to add to a button.

So, I couldn’t find a way to get the remote to send commands to our hub. I’m more optimistic about getting this to work with the Aeon Minimote because it has Z-Wave association groups and some configuration commands that can change its behavior, but I haven’t gotten to that yet. I’ll try to remember to update here when I get a chance to check it out.

37

CosmicPuppy (@tgauchat) & @Duncan: speculating here, would it be possible to create multiple ‘virtual z-wave devices’ so effectively fake lights that only lived inside the SmartThing hub. Then logic in the hub that translated the read/write status of those victuals and presented it as switchs that could be connected to other ST items, lights, door locks, SmartOutlets. It would likely involve deep code on the hub and I don’t know if we as non ST employees would have enough access to do it. What do you think?

38

Yes… The “virtual device” idea is a reasonable direction.

The problem is that Z-Wave protocol is proprietary and strictly licensed… Licensees (like SmartThings) are not allowed to mess around and simulate virtual devices, etc., even if they reverse engineer enough of the protocol to do so. I rather believe that the technical limitations can be overcome… The license restrictions are much harder.

Other communication options (SmartThing Module, ZigBee, Bluetooth, WiFi, IR) don’t have this restriction, except it’s still a good idea to find widely adopted standards for the use case, so that if we build a remote or bridge then it may be usable / compatible with multiple vendors.

39

Hey guys- I was hoping you could help me. I just picked up a GE 45601 and was able to get it added to SmartThings. I’m trying to add my 3 switches (1 is a dimmer) to the remote but it always fails when waiting. Any suggestions? All of the switches are connected to SmartThings and work with no problem that way. I have also tried to add my thermostat which also fails. Thanks in advance for any tips!

40

Well, looks like resetting the remote and re-adding the devices did the trick. I was even able to get my thermostat connected. It doesn’t tell me the temp, but I can at least adjust the setpoint, fan, and mode. Thanks guys!