Strange, I have not seen this problem except for one vent but that was because it is a little further than the others. Zigbee range is significantly worse than Zwave and it is not Vera’s fault. The vents are battery operated so they don’t act as network repeaters. I just had to take the vent out and walked 3 ft closer to the vera and it joined the network again without me having to do anything.
The fact that it is 2.4GHz makes it interfere with home wireless phones, BT, Wifi (and sonosnet) and a sludge of other devices (for me ecobee, plantlink and philips Hue). Keep your Zigbee channel at 25 so that at least it is further away from any Wifi frequency. The higher frequency Vs Zwave also makes it consume a lot more power to go through walls and reduces its range so plugged in devices like the hue work ok using a more powerful radio but battery operated ones are much more unstable. The worse is that every one is implementing their own proprietary zigbee network with its own level of protocol customization (Xbee for irobot roomba, some version for ecobee, philips hue controlling lights only etc…Ones who use the generic HA stack for zigbee tend to want to use their own hubs too: hue, plant link and keen.) so we end up with several networks clogging the spectrum and not being compatible with one another.
I am currently scratching my head on the implementation of another zigbee device: The plant link which has to reach a wider area in my yard. Similar problem: range and interference problems… Zigbee is really flawed in this regard. Much better designed for proprietary closed network than a general home automation hub concept.
I’ve got a few Keen vents I’m trying to connect, but I can’t find anything after July (where the issue was solved with a new firmware). My firmware on my VeraPlus is 1.7.2138 and when I try the instructions at the top of this thread, I get nowhere. As much as I enjoy waiting for a device that never replies, I’d really like to mix it up and get one of the vents working. Any ideas anyone has here are appreciated. So far I have:
- Reloaded luup
- Disconnected Hue hub and bulbs (to see if Zigbee had too much noise)
- Restarted the computer before trying to add
- Trying a different browser to add
- Moving the vent everywhere from an inch to 8-10 feet away
- Putting VeraPlus in different positions to see if there’s a reception issue with the location
- Chanting the contents of a luup file at the stroke of midnight
(Sorry, I’ve been trying to connect these for so long I might have gone a bit silly)
Open to all suggestions, up to and including actual chanting.
I managed to get my vents working by following the Window Covering modification referenced above. But now I’m having trouble controlling the vents.
Controlling them them via the device slider in Vera let’s me open them to any amount I please. But trying to programmatically control them through PLEG, the only way to get them to open or shut seems to be to manipulate the [font=courier]urn:upnp-org:serviceId:Dimming1 SetLoadLevelTarget[/font] variable. The only problem is that setting this to any non zero value just opens the vent up all of the way - there’s no ability to open only to 50% for example.
Attempts to do the same thing in PLEG through this code yields the same results:
[font=courier]local service_id = “urn:upnp-org:serviceId:Dimming1”
local action = “SetLoadLevelTarget”
local args = {newLoadlevelTarget=50}
local dev_num = 160 – Vent device number
luup.call_action(service_id, action, args, dev_num)[/font]
What seems odd to me is that the same variable when viewed under the Advanced tab for the device itself corresponds exactly to the slider level and mirrors desired levels between fully open and fully closed. So what he Vera device code is ultimately sending to the vent versus PLEG is a mystery to me.
Poking around online, someone has code up on Git to add Keen Vents to Smarthings but, other than some Zigbee idiosyncrasies, nothing jumped out at me, so I am stalled for now.
Any suggestions on how to proceed? For the record, I’m not a LUA wiz but am capable of some cut and paste if there’s some analogs out there.
[quote=“bohemian, post:23, topic:192381”]I managed to get my vents working by following the Window Covering modification referenced above. But now I’m having trouble controlling the vents.
Controlling them them via the device slider in Vera let’s me open them to any amount I please. But trying to programmatically control them through PLEG, the only way to get them to open or shut seems to be to manipulate the [font=courier]urn:upnp-org:serviceId:Dimming1 SetLoadLevelTarget[/font] variable. The only problem is that setting this to any non zero value just opens the vent up all of the way - there’s no ability to open only to 50% for example.
Attempts to do the same thing in PLEG through this code yields the same results:
[font=courier]local service_id = “urn:upnp-org:serviceId:Dimming1”
local action = “SetLoadLevelTarget”
local args = {newLoadlevelTarget=50}
local dev_num = 160 – Vent device number
luup.call_action(service_id, action, args, dev_num)[/font]
What seems odd to me is that the same variable when viewed under the Advanced tab for the device itself corresponds exactly to the slider level and mirrors desired levels between fully open and fully closed. So what he Vera device code is ultimately sending to the vent versus PLEG is a mystery to me.
Poking around online, someone has code up on Git to add Keen Vents to Smarthings but, other than some Zigbee idiosyncrasies, nothing jumped out at me, so I am stalled for now.
Any suggestions on how to proceed? For the record, I’m not a LUA wiz but am capable of some cut and paste if there’s some analogs out there.[/quote]
I just tested your code and it works perfectly fine on my Keen vents…
Thanks for checking. And of course, it’s now working for me too.
Sometimes I think just posting on the forum makes things work. Some hidden super secret API between this forum and my Vera no doubt 
Naw, no API. We just hack into your system and fix things 8)
Now that things are all happy between Vera and my Keen vents, I now have something that ties my vents together nicely with my Ecobee thermostat and its various climate settings. The Keen app claims to do some of that, but the degree of control isn’t very granular (six hour windows) and it’s really just leveraging the Ecobee’s remote sensors (admittedly a strong suit of the Ecobee) as an input.
Minus the inevitable ongoing scope creep that is home automation, at this point I’ve put all of my vents under Vera control and relegated the Keen hub to (hopefully) a Zigbee repeater.
I’ve also created what I think is a low battery alert for the vents, which looks at a power level variable which may (or may not) represent some 0-31 scale representation of battery power for the vent. I will see if that variable actually changes over time.
:o
Can’t pair Keen vent to my VeraPlus.
Controller doesn’t see Vent at all.
I downgraded to 1.7.1754 - same thing
I upgraded to 1.7.1975(beta) - same thing
I upgraded to “latest and greatest” 1.7.2935 - same thing
Is there any trick?
Really like these vents and want them to be paired…
Please help.
Thanks
Can’t pair Keen vent to my VeraPlus.
Controller doesn’t see Vent at all.
I downgraded to 1.7.1754 - same thing
I upgraded to 1.7.1975(beta) - same thing
I upgraded to “latest and greatest” 1.7.2935 - same thing
Is there any trick?
Really like these vents and want them to be paired…
Please help.
Thanks[/quote]
How are you attempting to pair? You know you have to go into the zigbee devices and add a generic zigbee device right?
Issue solved.
I migrated from Vera2 to VeraPlus about a 3 months ago and seems like ZigBee doesn’t work properly on my unit.
Vera support provided HTTP link to enable ZigBee pairing and now I have paired 5 Vents.
Another problem: Vera lose connection to Vents very often and I have to reload it 
The only other residual weirdness I’m seeing is that Vera seems to think that my Keen Vent ‘Window Coverings’ are in fact smoke sensors. At least when I view devices by type. Doesn’t impact anything but sure looks odd.
I am not and have never seen this. Are you sure you have your device category and subcategory set correctly?
[font=courier]device_type = urn:schemas-micasaverde-com:device:WindowCovering:1
device_file = D_WindowCovering1.xml
device_JSON = D_WindowCovering1.json[/font]
So, nothing jumps out as ‘Smoke Sensor’ to me.
You have to look at the advanced properties of the device: http://wiki.micasaverde.com/index.php/Luup_Device_Categories
Yeah, category_num and subcategory_num were both set to 4 for all vents. Odd, since I didn’t set them manually.
Changed them to match the respective window covering categories for what it was worth. Thanks for the pointer.
For those having used these automated vents. Would you purchase them again? Any pros and cons of these vents not already listed in this thread?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I would purchase them again. Keep in mind that I’m solving a very specific problem - vents working with my Ecobee to send more airflow to our small second floor for pre-bed cooling / heating. Other than that, I’m not getting too sophisticated.
Once set up, the seem to work well although it would nice if we could get battery access to things like battery level and other Keen Vent variables. So, a specific Keen device for Vera, rather than ‘tricking’ Vera into thinking these are window blinds. That’s less on the vents than it is some smart Vera developer though.
Has anyone had a problem pairing more than 6 - 8 vents (like the forum link below)? I had no problem pairing 5 of these vents, but after that, VeraPlus would not add anymore. Vera support had no clue, and mentioned this forum and just said that they don’t support this keen vent on there website. 
I did a work around with Wink 2 hub, and its plugin, but I personally don’t like that solution as it isn’t that seamless, and there is a delay of course. Lastly, whats the point of VeraPlus Zigbee controller then?..
Any thoughts/help? It would be greatly appreciated!
http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,49059.msg321957.html#msg321957
I’m running exactly 5 vents right now and they work fine.
I’ll be adding a couple more when they start shipping again and will update this thread with the results. I was originally going to go the Wink route, but had trouble getting it to work with my VeraPlus.
I am running 6 of these and have not had any issues. I did read somewhere of a strange limitation to 8 zigbee device though but never observed it myself.