Control of Merten Radio Roller Shutters 503519 & 507801

Can I control this devices, from Vera, to a predefined position (eg: 25%, 50%) ?

According to “http://wiki.micasaverde.com/index.php/Supported_Hardware”, the slide bar does not work with the 503519. But with Luup 1.0.879 I should be able to use the GUI buttons to move my shutters to such intermediate positions, right ? Or I have to send UP / DOWN / STOP commands to “manually” achieve such positions ?

What if I use Merten 507801, instead ? It does not show up in the above supported hardware wiki…

Any experience with this European devices is very welcome.

If you are comfortable with Lua/Luup, see http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php?topic=1937.0

I will test whether the slide bar works with the latest UI2 firmware and report back.

merten 504560 with 580698/580699

Version: 6,2,27,2,3 and 6,2,27,2,4

Capabilities: 201,12,0,4,9,0|38,49,80,96:2,112,114,117,133,134,142,158,

Firmware version: 1.0.979

Working:

[ul][li]All buttons (Close, Open, Up, Down, Stop)[/li]
[li]Scene “Close and after 5/10/… seconds Stop”[/li][/ul]

Not working

[ul][li]Slide bar (only 0% and 100% do work)[/li][/ul]

For mission critical applications I would recommend to use the proprietary Z-Wave parameters 177-180 and to check whether the reconfiguration was successful.

I’m still considering to go for Vera, so I don’t have any experience with it…

Currently, I have a X10 system and besides the known reliability issues, one of my biggest challenges was to set my shutter’s position to say 30%, without first taking it to 0% and then open in by a certain number of increments. I had to develop fairly complex coding to track the status of each shutter, as X10 is stateless.

But now I have 5 available shutter scenes in my projector’s room to deal with different types of content (eg: regular TV versus “real” cinema) and daylight conditions. I like to have the shutters as open as possible, while providing optimal viewing conditions, specially if I’m watching an HD movie.

When you say that the scene “Close and after 5/10/… seconds Stop” works, do you mean that I can only send commands relative to the current position (eg: from the current position, further open during 10 seconds) ? Or there is any way (maybe using parameters 177-180, subject to testing) to have a UI button labeled “30%”, like with lights dimming, which does all the work (using either Vera or Merten capabilities) ?

Thank you for your interest and efforts so far…

Command Class 38 (http://wiki.micasaverde.com/index.php/ZWave_Command_Classes) is supported by the merten device, so in principle it should be possible to retrieve the current dim level (=current position of the shutter) via Vera or to instruct Vera to “dim” the shutter to a specific position - but it does not work!

Workarounds:

[ul][li]File a compatibility claim (http://wiki.micasaverde.com/index.php/GuaranteedCompatibility).
[/li]
[li]Add a user defined UPnP variable “My Current Position” to your shutter devices and record the current position there … Write Lua code to move the shutters up and down (using Vera scenes or proprietary Z-Wave parameters) … Note that Z-Wave-reconfiguring the shutter device may take some time (seconds?) and may fail … Note that Vera scenes depend on Vera’s job scheduler and may fail …
[/li]
[li]Try the duewi shutter controller (http://www.duewi.de/index.php?productid=37344) - but according to http://wiki.micasaverde.com/index.php/Supported_Hardware the slide bar does not work either.
[/li][/ul]

Now it’s clear ! Just one question regarding the duewi shutter controller: Does it also support Command Class 38 ? Can I instruct Vera to “dim” it to a specific position, for example using a scene (without extra coding) ? The slide bar could be usefull, but I could live without it for a while…

I will get hold of a duewi shutter controller in a few days and will report back.

At the meanwhile, I got the following answer directly from Merten: “its not possible to control shutters with values, the actuators in the radio system are only for driving blinds complete open or close”.

It seems that, at least with Merten technology, I must use coding just like with X10 ;-(

I’ll be anxiously waiting for your findings with duewi.

As I own some düwi and one Merten shutter devices I like to share my experiences and pain with you.

Under Vera’s control both devices are kind of digital. Opened or closed. You can send a dimming command to the düwis and they will react in some way. The shutter’s position then is by chance; meaning not predictable.

I had some conversation with düwi’s developers. They told my that they implemented the “Multi Position Motor Device Class” which is a two year old (new) class because of some advanteges compared with the older window cover device class. Since september 2009 I try to encourage MCV to implement this class but never get an answer. The last time I asked for was yesterday.

Unfortunately I never get through to the Merten developers, but I’m pretty sure that they have also implemented the multi position motor device class. The answers you usually get from these high price companies are written by marketing people. So I wouldn’t bet on their answer. My experience with Merten devices is that they are the most functional, most reliable but also most expensive ones.

So for me our problem is not düwi or Merten but MCV.

huwu

If Multi Position Motor Device Class = COMMAND_CLASS_MTP_WINDOW_COVERING (0x51/81), then my merten devices do not support this command class (if MCV does not filter the device capabilities shown on their GUI …):

Capabilities: 201,12,0,4,9,0|38,49,80,96:2,112,114,117,133,134,142,158,

@huwu:
Could you please post the capabilities of your duewi devices?

BTW, http://www.digiwave.dk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=15 seems to have an up-to-date list of the command classes.

düwi:
210,156,0,4,17,3|37,38,39,112,114,117,130,133,134,135,

Merten:
201,12,0,4,9,0|38,49,80,96:2,112,114,117,133,134,142,158,

Probably the most elegant solution (=workaround) would be to develop a (manufacturer-specific) “dimmable” shutter plugin with appropriate UPnP variables and UPnP services based on MCV’s shutter implementation …

I just received a mail from merten’s customer support, which states that merten’s
shutter device does support command class 38 …

@Ap15e: Did Merten give you a complete overview, a list of build in capabilities?

huwu

No.

One last idea to find out whether merten’s shutter device is “dimmable” (via command class 38 oder via manufacturer specific commands): Check the product description and the manual for merten’s “Funk-Zentrale”.

…unfortunately not. I tried that last year.

Just some ideas for a shutter plugin. Any takers?

New UPnP Variables:

Device_Initialized: ´ yes/no
Current_Shutter_Position: 0…100 (%)
Time_to_Open_Shutter: 0… (s)
Time_to_Close_Shutter: 0… (s)
Device_ID: 2… (MCV’s device ID of the physical shutter device)
Device_Type: merten, duewi, …
Use_Manufacturer_Specific_Methods: yes/no

New UPnP service:

Set_Shutter_To_Position

Implementation (pseudo-code):

Set_Shutter_To_Position(pos)
begin

if pos < 0 then pos = 0 end
if pos > 100 then pos = 100 end

if pos = 0
then

 Open(Device_ID) 
 Wait(Time_to_Open_Shutter + 5)
 Current_Shutter_Position = 0
 Device_Initialized = true  

end

if pos = 100
then

 Close(Device_ID) 
 Wait(Time_to_Close_Shutter + 5)      
 Current_Shutter_Position = 100
 Device_Initialized = true  

end

If NOT Device_Initialized
then

 if is_dark 
  then 
   Set_Shutter_To_Position( 100 ) // recursive call, check scope of variables ...
  else
   Set_Shutter_To_Position( 0 )
      
end

if pos < Current_Shutter_Position
then

 if NOT Use_Manufacturer_Specific_Methods 
  then 

   Up(Device_ID)
   Wait((Current_Shutter_Position-pos)/100*Time_To_Open_Shutter)
   Stop(Device_ID)

  end
  else
   if Device_Type = merten
    then

     Save_Old_Z_Wave_Parameters(Device_ID)
     
     repeat Set_Z_Wave_Parameters(Device_ID, pos, Time_To_Open_Shutter) until success
     
     Open(Device_ID)

     Wait((Current_Shutter_Position-pos)/100*Time_To_Open_Shutter  + 5)

     repeat Restore_Old_Z-Wave_Parameters(Device_ID) until success

    end
   elseif Device_Type = duewi

    ...

    end

end

if pos > Current_Shutter_Position
then

 if NOT Use_Manufacturer_Specific_Methods 
  then 

   Down(Device_ID)
   Wait((pos-Current_Shutter_Position)/100*Time_To_Close_Shutter)
   Stop(Device_ID)

  end
  else
   if Device_Type = merten
    then

     Save_Old_Z_Wave_Parameters(Device_ID)
     
     repeat Set_Z_Wave_Parameters(Device_ID, pos, Time_To_Close_Shutter) until success
     
     Close(Device_ID)

     Wait((pos-Current_Shutter_Position)/100*Time_To_Close_Shutter + 5)

     repeat Restore_Old_Z-Wave_Parameters(Device_ID) until success

    end
   elseif Device_Type = duewi

    ...

    end

  end

end

Current_Shutter_Position = pos

end

I would …gladly…

Problem is that the stop command does not work neither with Mertnen nor with düwi. By sending this command the shutter changes it’s direction. The best thing is: not always but most of the tries! >:(

say the word and i’ll setup a project at code.mios.com

@huwu:

The stop command seems to work for my merten devices (at least using Vera’s UPnP interface/Intel’s UPnP Device Spy) - but perhaps I should try harder … Which merten shutter firmware level are you at?

As a last resort one could use manufacturer-specific Z-Wave parameters - but this requires Z-Wave-reconfiguring the shutter …

BTW, do you know the specific Z-Wave parameters for the duewi shutter devices? Never got a reply from duewi’s customer support. The values of the Z-Wave parameters are mentioned in duewi’s manual, but the numbers of the Z-Wave parameters are missing from the manual. :frowning: