HRT4ZW - Assocation with ASR ZW under Vera

Other Devices & Integrations Climate Control & Temperature Sensors
#1

Hi All

Can someone explain to be what the association/grouping stuff does in the Vera setup. In my current (brand new) setup, I have a Vera 3 and a 3 zone HVAC controller by 3 x HRT4ZW and 3xASR-ZW.

Without the Vera, each HRT4-ZW is paired with an ASR-ZW and they all communicate independently.

With the Vera 3 in place, it seems we must create a single z-wave network of all the devices and then ‘associate’ each HRT4-ZW with it’s correpsonding ASR-ZW receiver.

Now, I have read two different ways of doing this.

a) Include all the devices with the Vera (L mode on the HRT4-ZWs / press the network button on the ASRs). Then manually assoicate each HRT4ZW with it’s ASR using the ‘A’ mode and the network button again.

b) Set up assoications in vera (UI5). This appears to involve assigning a group id under ‘Device Options’ under each HRT4 - ZW. However the instructions I have seen elsewhere are very vague. Should all 3 pairings be in the same group or should I assign groups 1, 2, 3? And what is the text box for to the right of the checbox in the ‘set assoication’ screen?

Thus far, I have had limited success with (a) and none at all with (b). However, I fear that the manual associations are being lost when Vera reconfigures the nodes or at least something is causing the ASR-ZW’s to go into ‘lost connection’ mode (network light on/steady). Also, the manually created assocations don’t seem to show up in Vera making me think that these two ways of working are not necessarily doing the same thing.

Hope someone who really understands Z-Wave can explain what is going on here and/or what I should be doing.

Regards
John Jameson

#2

Well, seeing as no one has replied I’ve carried on playing about and now have a much clearer understanding. The correct method is (b). Method (a) works until Vera re-configures the HRT4-ZW nodes at which point the manually associations are lost.

What is crucial (but missing from some of the instructions I have found online) is that in creating the associations in Vera, the Group ID (z-wave class) must be 2. This is because the communication between the HRT4 and the ASR is proprietory to the Hortsmann ASR. Setting a group 1 association doesn’t work.

Please to report my 3 zone system now working through Vera giving the ability to schedule and/or automate changes in the zone set points.

This documentation is the most helpful I’ve found: http://wiki.zwaveeurope.com/index.php?title=Horstmann_HRT4_in_Vera

#3

Hi,

I’m intrigued with your solution as now I’m suffering from repeated loss of connection between HRT4-ZW and ASR-ZW. I applaud your solution (b) but how do you add ASR-ZW i.e. the on/off switch into vera network before HRT4-ZW?

Please advise.

Cheers

#4

I have an HRT4-ZW associated with an ASR-ZW and another associated with three Fibaro FG211 relays. In both cases I used Vera to set the association on the HRT4-ZW using group 2. They have both been working for months without any issues and also respond to commands from Vera. I also have ASR-ZW controlled by logic in Vera which works fine as long as the state is refreshed every 30 minutes to satisfy its fail-safe watchdog.

So, in my system at least, these modules seem to be compatible with normal Z-Wave.