Excellent new Fibar z-wave switches - a 5 minute test and review

Other Devices & Integrations Lighting & Load Control
1

Several Z-wave suppliers now carry the new line of Fibar Z-wave switches and dimmers (see: http://fibargroup.com/eng/index.php?ID=instalacja). They are designed to work with your existing (rocker) light switches, rather than replacing them with their own on and off push buttons. The modules are small, designed to be mounted in the pattress box behind your existing switches.

There are several models:

  • a single switch for a load up to 3kW
  • a double switch for 2 loads of up to 1.5kW
  • a dimmer
  • a controller for blinds.

The price for each of these is around €55. I ordered the double switch unit, out of curiosity. It arrived today and I gave it a quick spin; here are my findings:

First off, the module works just fine with Vera. After adding it, I got 3 new “_appliance module” items rather than the expected 2. One of them is a control thingy where you set the optional device parameters; the other two modules control one relay each. Finding out which is which is a bit of a hassle; the control thingy will be the appliance module that does not react to a state change of either switch on the device.

The unit can be configured for use with monostable (pushbutton) and bistable (rocker) switches. You can use your existing light switches or add any type of switch, but be aware that one pole of the switch will have to be hooked up to the mains live, so do make sure the switch has adequate electrical insulation. There are some other amusing programmable features, such as turning the relay off after a specified amount of time has passed (10ms - 2,5s).

They can apparently also be programmed to react to alarms (turn on/flash), when paired with a sensor such as a smoke, co2 or flood sensor (I did not test this).

The device appears to do Status Push; when I switch a light from on to off or vice versa using the wall switch, Vera displays the status change instantly.

Another nice feature is that the relays are completely isolated from the rest of the circuitry; you can hook them to the mains, but also use them to switch a separate circuit, 12v appliance,

Thus far I am very positive about this little device. The fact that it can simply be placed behind existing switches makes this a winner. In addition, having status push and an electrically isolated relay in combination with a lot of configuration options, means that this thing can be used for a lot more than just switching lights on an off… I can see a number of other interesting applications.

2

I’m just after getting the Fibaro single relay switch. After inclusion I also ended up with three appliance modules - each looks identical but the first two created can operate the relay whereas the third does not ???

3

Maybe the manufacturer was lazy and gave the 1 and 2 relay devices the exact same firmware, with the only difference being the relays themselves. :slight_smile: You can ignore the module that does not control the relay. Check the Advanced settings of each. One of them will show the name of the other device under “controlled via…”. That will tell you which is the controlling device, and which is the relay device. The controlling device will say “controlled via zwave”; you don’t need to do anything with that device either, except change the device options if required.

4

It occurred to me also that maybe the same firmware is used on both model’s.
But when looking though the forum I came across this bug report http://bugs.micasaverde.com/view.php?id=1514
I’m not sure if it’s the same issue without delving into the entire thead.

5

A small update: I’ve mounted this device in its final location. It does indeed fit nicely behind a standard light switch, but getting it positioned inside the patress box proved hard, with all these thick mains wires hooked up to it.

During setup, I came across another nice feature: you can choose between having the light turn on or off whenever the switch is changed (I installed it behind a standard rocker switch), or have the light on when the switch is closed, and off when the switch is open. In the latter case you can still control the light via Z-wave, but if for instance you turned the light off via Z-wave and want to turn it on again manually, you’ll have to open the switch and then close it again.

Anyway, I have ordered a few more of these. One double relay device will be mounted near my front door, with one relay triggered by a pushbutton, to trigger my “away” scene in Vera, and the other relay hooked up to a switch mounted in the deadbolt well, so that I can check remotely via Vera if I locked the door :slight_smile:

6

It looks like these are not available in the US yet?

7

These sound ideal - I’m fed up with the range of zwave in the UK - unless you fancy spending £250 on a Merten or Vitrum switch you can only get cheap plastic looking stuff.

Where can you buy the modules?

8

Googling for Fibaro FGS221 will turn up a few stores. I got mine from www.tane.nl, or try store.zwaveeurope.com if Tane does not ship to the UK. I haven’t come across a US version of this thing yet.

9

I have seen this switches, too.

Since I have still problem with the Merten 4 Gang switch (which was indeed the only one which can replace nice, metall looking switches e.g. from Jung.

The issue with using them with Vera is still open.

Therefore the new Fibar switches looks quite good.

Does anybody test the blinc control? Is it possible to set the position e.g. to 50 %?

In my opinion, only the Düwi can do this?

Stefan

10

Just out of curiosity, I went to their website and noticed that their unit looks much like the Vera. I wonder if they are using MCV’s system and had the interface customized? Being that MCV is an OEM, this does not sound so far fetched.

  • Garrett
11

I’ve got my first fibrar sample yesterday.
I have to say, they are fantastic!! I got myself the 2x1,5 KW relais switch. This is the ideal universal module I think.
You can switch 2 loads independantly, you can also use them as simple sceene buttons, or both.
The are triggered by normal mains current, monostable or bistable - so you dont have throw out any rocker switch - just use them.

And the best is, vera works with them. You get 3 switches, one ist the main module and two individal switches.

Thanks for the link to those modules. I think I will put them behind every single wall switch now.
Cheers
Umtauscher

12

Just to clarify: That is an ingenius idea. They still have two trigger inputs, so you can use the one that has no relay as a normal light switch or sceene switch.
The status can even be set my the controller so you can even toggle a sceene with it.

13

That’s a nice idea. I think one of the biggest gaps in the range of Z-wave stuff on the market (in Europe anyway) is wall switch replacements, which have separated the relay from the switch.

What I want, for example, is to replace the light switch for my living room’s ceiling lights with a Z-wave switch. When I operate the switch manually, I want all the other lights in the room to switch on and off as well. But when I turn the ceiling lights off via Z-wave (by remote or a Vera scene), I do not want all the other lights to react as well. The device that comes closest to this is the Duwi.ME switch, where you can separate the relay from the controlling switch, but alas, the switch isn’t scene-capable (grr). But by using the Fibar switch as you describe, I can do this.

14

[quote=“garrettwp, post:10, topic:169312”]Just out of curiosity, I went to their website and noticed that their unit looks much like the Vera. I wonder if they are using MCV’s system and had the interface customized? Being that MCV is an OEM, this does not sound so far fetched.

  • Garrett[/quote]

…I thought the same as soon I saw their “little black box” (same front leds and tags than vera2)…but one thing its a fact…their UI looks better than MCV’s …but this is just for EU Zwave market???

15

I installed one Dimmer and one double switch from Fibaro for testing.

The dimmer works fine. It shows as a single device, and pushes it’s state to Vera when it’s manually triggered. Just what I was looking for…

However, the switch doesn’t seem to push it’s status to Vera. More, I created associations for Group 1 and Group 2 and they don’t work. Then I upgraded Vera to 1.1.1338 with Z-wave 3.20 and nothing changed. Now, I can’t even exclude the switch using both methods described in the manual. Any clue ?

16

Hmm, I can only tell you that much:
I am on 1.1.1338 as well. My double switch pushes its changes just fine an instantly.
I haven’t testest exclusion though, since I have it in a productive environment already.
The switch shows as 3 devices as I mentioned earlier. Perhaps you tried to exclude one of the slaves and not the master?

17

The release notes of 1.1.1338 refer to an issue with Fibaro 2-way communication that is addressed. So, I’m sure that once I exclude the switch and include it again under this release, it should be able to push it’s status to Vera.

The problem is that I can’t exclude my switch. So far, I tried the following methods:

  1. Full power exclusion (Vera sits close to the switch), then push 3 times Fibaro’s service button
  2. Take Vera close to the switch with the batery pack and put it in exclusion mode (hold Z-Wave button 3 secs), service button as above
  3. Within 5 secs after turning on the mains, tap on switch 1 and then press and hold switch 2 (as in Fibaro’s manual)
  4. Delete the controlling device from Vera. The device seems to be deleted, but a new one (3 devices) appers with the default settings, as the deletion does not remove the Z-Wave connection, at least from the switch’s perspective. Also tried to delete all three devices, same results.

Has anyone tried to remove a Fibaro switch ? Am I doing something wrong ?

18

I managed to exclude it by taking the Vera to the switch and putting it in exclusion mode using the service button, but like with most devices it sometimes takes a few tries. As per the manual, you need to press the button exactly 3 times (or press/flip S1 3 times) for this to work (not 4 times or more).

19

From reading the fibaro manual I would supect, vera is not able to exclude this node properly.

  1. in the Fibaro manual in Method1 I don’t see a pressing 3 times is the way to go. So I would supect the controller has to exclude the node by itsself. I cannot see the possiblity to exclude a specific node in the vera UI.
  2. I suspect method 2 would reset the switch, but not delete the node from Vera.

Once in UI1 in Vera there was a procedure “remove dead node”. I cannot find that in UI4 - maybe I’m blind. I would speculate, that resetting the Fibaro with Method 2 and “remove dead node” in Vera would do it, but I wouldn’t know how.

I would definately think pressing the button 3 times during exclusion is not the way to go.

Anyone else?

(seems I was too slow. :wink:

20

Method 1 (push 3 times service button) just didn’t work form me, even after trying dozens of times, maybe because I used firmware 1.1.1245 to include it…

However, I was finally able to exclude my switch through method 2, pressing button 1 once and holding button 2 within 5 seconds after powering the mains. I tried this before, but I was disconnecting the wrong circuit by mistake, sorry guys…

Now, after re-including my switch with 1.1.1338, it is able to push status changes to Vera, likely due to the changes introduced by the latest firmware. I was also able to exclude it again by pressing 3 times the service key, at my first atempt :wink: