Configuring MultiWave PE653 PE953 to Vera - Firmware 3.3

Other Devices & Integrations Water, Pool & Irrigation
#1

So, you did it. You got firmware 3.3 on your PE953 MultiWave pool controller. Congratulations!
(If you didn’t, see here: http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,24371.0.html)

Now, you have to connect Vera, the PE953 pool controller (the hard wired part) and the PE653 (the handheld part). For those who did this with MultiWave firmware 3.1, you certainly remember having to remove the batteries from the handheld PE653 after pairing. The geniuses at Intermatic (usikeman on this forum) fixed that problem somewhere after 3.1 and up to 3.3. No more unscrewing the battery cover to reset the PE653.

Let’s get into it. The gist of this comes from dkeefe. Thank you dkeefe and thanks to everyone for assistance getting this to work.I just got sick of looking for pg 8 of the 20+ page forum to find the core post!

This is Vera interface UI5 (Vera firmware 1.5.622). The Z-Wave firmware (Setup | Z-Wave Settings) is 2.78L:1.

Note: I have not tried this process with Z-Wave firmware 3.20.

RESET EVERYTHING

[ol][li]Wake up the PE953[/li]
[li]Press and hold P/S and ENTER for a few seconds[/li]
[li]Bring the PE953 near the PE653. (don’t worry about where Vera is) Choose #2 - RESET DEVICE[/li]
[li]On the PE653, press The BUTTON (inside the screwed door). Expect to see SUCCESSFUL[/li]
[li]On the PE953 Re-enter the config screen. Choose #1 - RESET CONTROLLER[/li]
[li]Choose #1 - RESET NET AND CFG[/li][/ol]

PAIR (include) the wired PE653 controller with VERA

[ol][li]Bring Vera near the PE653.[/li]
[li]Press the Vera Zwave button. Zwave LED will flash[/li]
[li]Press The BUTTON on the PE653. It should flash a bit, then the ZWave LED should flash a bit.[/li]
[li]Press the Vera Zwave button again. Wait until the Zwave LED turns on and remains on steady, then return Vera to her home.[/li]
[li]Look at Vera’s devices. You will now have six devices. Five are the contacts, one is the controller.[/li][/ol]

PAIR (include) the PE653 to Vera

[ol][li]Start Vera looking for new ZWave devices[/li]
[li]Bring the PE953 handheld close to Vera and get to the config screens again. Specifically, the CNTRL OPTION page.[/li]
[li]Choose #2 - RECEIVE NET ONLY. (Happy days! No battery pull needed!)[/li]
[li]End Vera looking for devices. She will add a seventh SCENE CONTROLLER device now.[/li][/ol]

Wait! The PE653 now shows OUT OF RANGE. The calamity! Hold on to your britches, son.

PAIR (include) the PE653 and PE953

[ol][li]Get the PE653 and PE953 close together.[/li]
[li]On the PE953 handheld, get to the config screens. Specifically, the LEARN MODE page.[/li]
[li]Choose 3 - INCLUDE DEVICE[/li]
[li]Press The BUTTON on the PE653. You’ll see some flashing and you’ll see SUCCESSFUL on the PE953 display.[/li]
[li]Get to the config screens again. Specifically the CNTRL OPTION page.[/li]
[li]Choose 1- PRIMARY SCREEN SEL.[/li]
[li]Set the PRIMARY SCREEN SEL to PE653 (not ZWAVE).[/li]
[li]Press ENTER and ENTER to exit the configuration.[/li][/ol]

You now have the PE653 and PE953 linked with VERA!

Please let me know if I made mistakes or oversights in this. Once it is in good shape, I will put it on the MIOS wiki for all to enjoy.

EDIT: Fixed the PE653/PE953 confusion. Thank you GWNorth and DBeck52 for the comments.

#2

what version of z-wave? 2.78 or 3.20??

#3

@dbeck52, I updated my original post to clarify the versions I used. Thanks for pointing this out.

#4

While I appreciate the effort, and haven’t reviewed it for accuracy, (I just got both my PE653 and PE953 included in my Vera network - not that it does ANY good) you have the whole thing backwards!

The PE653 is the wall mounted control unit.

The PE953 is the hand-held controller. You may want to edit your post for clarity.

Also note that the last section of your post uses the numbers correctly, and should not be modified (the Include button and flashing LED are on the wall-mount PE653).

One thing that I had to do in order to get the hand-held PE953 included in Vera was first program it to act as a secondary controller. The instructions to do this are in the manual. Without doing so, it could not be included in the Vera network - at least in my experience.

#5

@GWNorth, I’m curious. Are you on Z-Wave firmware 2.78 or 3.2? The Secondary Inclusion Server mode is different between the two Z-Wave firmware versions. I am on 2.78 mostly because my systems work and I was out of time to experiment.

Maybe the Z-Wave 3.2 version works if you change the handheld PE953 mode as you suggested in your earlier post. Please let us know.

#6

Are any of this Intermatic units work with Europe frequency?

#7

so what does 3.3 buy us? 3.2 broke vera integration for me but it sounds like they have restored it.

#8

Vera and the multiwave are integrated on v33. I skipped v32, so it sounds like we missed trouble.

#9

I am curious how you got the include mode (button 3) to work when you try and link the PE953 and PE653 once you have added the PE953 to Vera. At that point the PE953 (button 3 - include device) is inoperative for me. Pressing it has no effect. It does not wait for an item to add.

(I have upgraded the firmware to 3.3)

#10

I did not have this problem. Intermatic should be helpful here. Give them a call and report back with their response.

#11

I finally did the upgrade to 3.3 this weekend and everything went ok. It is nice to be able to remotely see the pool temp now. Yeah!

I’m not convinced that you can actually control the heater, though. I tried to set the temp, but vera complained about the thermometer not being configured, or something like that and the heater never kicked on.

Oh well. It only took them a few years to get this far… :smiley:

#12

Thanks for all your help. I’ve successfully configured the unit with my Vera and now the Vera controls my pump and heater. However, I’m having trouble configuring the PE953. I’ve followed these steps:

PAIR (include) the PE653 and PE953
Get the PE653 and PE953 close together.
On the PE953 handheld, get to the config screens. Specifically, the LEARN MODE page.
Choose 3 - INCLUDE DEVICE
Press The BUTTON on the PE653. You’ll see some flashing and you’ll see SUCCESSFUL on the PE953 display.
Get to the config screens again. Specifically the CNTRL OPTION page.
Choose 1- PRIMARY SCREEN SEL.
Set the PRIMARY SCREEN SEL to PE653 (not ZWAVE).
Press ENTER and ENTER to exit the configuration.

However, I get stuck after I choose 3 (include device). Nothing seems to happen (it typically would go to another screen where it would say to push the button on the device). I deleted all the settings and started the process from scratch multiple times, but I always get to this point and get stuck. The PE953 says “out of range” and when I try to include a device, I get to the learn menu, I see options 1, 3, 4 and 5 (not 2) but when I press 3 nothing happens.

Any thoughts on how to get this resolved? My unit is running 3.3, and I see the 7 devices on my vera (5 appliances, 1 controller and 1 scene control).

Thanks a lot!

#13

Well, I took the plunge and upgraded to ui7, with mixed results. All the devices still show up from the PE653 in the ui, along with the PE953 remote (I had it all working in ui6 previously), but only the main pump switch works like it should(switch one). All five switches show up as child devices of the thermostat. The other four switches don’t do anything when switched on, but turn of the main pump when switched off. Does anyone else have a different experience or know of a fix? I have contacted tech support, but they haven’t responded back yet. I’m sure they are swamped.

Support got back with me and made some unspecified modification to my vera3 light. It did not seem to make any difference and the device did not work as it did in ui5/ui6. I installed the latest update for ui7, and magically all my controls work again. So, I am functionally back where I was in ui5. :slight_smile:

#14

Curious to know whether anyone has successfully been able to use the Vera to control a variable speed (intermatic) pool pump?

#15

intermatic makes a pump?

I tried it with my pentair variable flow (the more expensive vf pump, not the vs one) and found the multiwave support extremely lacking. first of all, you lose variable flow if the multiwave is controlling it (not an issue with the vs pumps). This wasn’t a huge deal for me because I kind of hate the variable flow operation anyway. The bigger problem is you can no longer use the control panel on the pump to control it. This means your cleaning guy needs the remote to start or stop the pump or switch to the vac cycle, etc. This was the deal breaker for me.

I quickly reverted back to the pump’s internal controls. The kicker was the multiwave left the pump in some sort of hung state after disconnecting the communications cable. I had to call pentair to figure out get the control panel working again. No amount of time with the breaker off fixed the problem. Even pentair had no idea what went on and had to guess how to reset it.

This was a couple of years ago and it is possible that the later multiwave fw versions have added the ability to use the pumps control panel. I talked to intermatic about these issues and they agreed that the control panel was a problem but that they weren’t going to support the vf pumps. So, this may have changed.

The safe route if you have a pentair pump is to buy their interface for the pump. this allows you to have 4 different speeds or flows you can control remotely and I’ve been told it doesn’t lock out the pump’s panel.

http://www.pentairpool.com/products/automation-intellicomm-ii-interface-adapter-408.htm

#16

[quote=“ssubo, post:12, topic:180527”]7 devices on my vera (5 appliances, 1 controller and 1 scene control).

Thanks a lot![/quote]

are you sure the multiwave is running fw 3.3? iirc, what you are describing was the behavior with the 3.2 fw.

#17

Hoping some more knowledgeable people might be able to help me out. Just got a Vera and am also a relatively new owner of a multiwave controller. I have run into two problems.

When I try to pair the 653 wired device to the Vera, I get absolutely nowhere. I take the vera to the 653, get the orange light blinking, press the button, which doesn’t seem to do anything to the vera.

Oh well, I figured, and I tried to just link the 953 remote first. The remote was found by the vera, but it appears to have bricked my 953! The 953 now shows a screen that’s “on” with a backlight, but nothing displays on the screen. I left the batteries out all night and the same behavior is seen this morning. I now can’t control anything on my spa…

Any ideas while I wait to hear from Intermatic?

#18

good luck with intermatic.

you need to follow the steps verbatim and make sure you reset the multiwave to the defaults before you start.

posting which fw versions you are funning on the multiwave and vera also help a lot.

#19

Thanks. I spoke with them today and they just had me file a warranty claim for the remote. I did and it was accepted, so hopefully it won’t be too long before a replacement arrives and I’ll try it again then. In the mean time no temperature control for me…

You might be interested to know I spoke with them a few days ago regarding a problem with the logic on the freeze control on the multiwave system. I was told that a new software version was imminent and that while I waited for them to ship me a dongle I could use to do the upgrade a new version would be posted. I think I might just wait until that’s all done before I try this again.

#20

Has anyone gotten the Multiwave, with firmware 3.3, working with the VeraEdge? I had my Vera3 linked with the Multiwave working perfectly for two years. However, my Vera3 die and I had to get a VeraEdge. Now, I can’t get the PE953 included back to the PE653.

I am able to follow the steps to included all of the devices and the handheld to the VeraEdge, but after doing the “Recv Network Only” step, the include option in the handheld doesn’t work.

Any suggestions?

Called Vera Support and they said that everything was configured properly in the VeraEdge and to call Intermatic. Call Intermatic, they have no clue…not sure why I expected a different result…

Thank you in advance!

JP