Leviton scene controller won't control scene

Other Devices & Integrations Lighting & Load Control
1

So I’ve got my scene controller added. It’s a VRCZ4 according to the sticker on the inside of the unit. Vera shows it as a VRCZC. I’ve added a simple scene that turns on a light and another that turns the light off. I’ve added the ON scene to all four buttons when turned on and the OFF scene to all four buttons when turned off. And nothing happens. Well, not quite. The LEDs on the controller itself turn on briefly with each press. It’s not clear to me how this device is supposed to work. Even though the switches are shaped in a way that would lead one to believe that pressing one side would turn something on and pressing the other would turn it off, I suspect they’re just toggles. Also, after adding the unit I have two new devices in the GUI, both labeled “_4 button zone controller (scene)”. One looks like a four button device and has the controls for each button. The other looks like a non-dimmable switch and only has on/off controls. If things were working properly I’d expect this to turn the global functionality on or off for the device. But no matter what combination of buttons and/or controls I hit, nothing happens. The log file shows activity but I haven’t learned all the ins and outs of reading this stuff yet. The thing that jumps out at me is the number of ‘scene is false’ evaluations. That seems odd. (See snippet below).

Apologies for the long post but I wanted to get it all out of my head. Hopefully someone will have clues to some of these issues.

Thanks

06 07/18/12 21:51:01.984 Device_Variable::m_szValue_set device: 20 service: urn:micasaverde-com:serviceId:SceneController1 variable: sl_SceneActivated was: 2 now: 3 #hooks: 4 upnp: 0 v:0xbf1ab0/NONE duplicate:0 <0x2be55680> 07 07/18/12 21:51:01.984 Event::Evaluate 1 AUTO_GENERATED scene eOn is false repeat 0/-1 <0x2be55680> 07 07/18/12 21:51:01.985 Event::Evaluate 2 AUTO_GENERATED scene eOn is false repeat 0/-1 <0x2be55680> 07 07/18/12 21:51:01.985 Event::Evaluate 3 AUTO_GENERATED scene eOn is true users:(null) allow:1 <0x2be55680> 08 07/18/12 21:51:01.985 Scene::RunScene running 8 eOn <0x2be55680> 08 07/18/12 21:51:01.985 JobHandler_LuaUPnP::HandleActionRequest device: 11 service: urn:upnp-org:serviceId:Dimming1 action: SetLoadLevelTarget <0x2be55680> 08 07/18/12 21:51:01.985 JobHandler_LuaUPnP::HandleActionRequest argument newLoadlevelTarget=100 <0x2be55680> 07 07/18/12 21:51:01.986 Event::Evaluate 4 AUTO_GENERATED scene eOn is false repeat 0/-1 <0x2be55680> 06 07/18/12 21:51:02.754 Device_Variable::m_szValue_set device: 20 service: urn:micasaverde-com:serviceId:SceneController1 variable: sl_SceneDeactivated was: 3 now: 3 #hooks: 4 upnp: 0 v:0xbf1af0/NONE duplicate:0 <0x2be55680> 07 07/18/12 21:51:02.754 Event::Evaluate 5 AUTO_GENERATED scene eOff is false repeat 0/-1 <0x2be55680> 07 07/18/12 21:51:02.755 Event::Evaluate 6 AUTO_GENERATED scene eOff is false repeat 0/-1 <0x2be55680> 07 07/18/12 21:51:02.755 Event::Evaluate 7 AUTO_GENERATED scene eOff is true users:(null) allow:1 <0x2be55680> 08 07/18/12 21:51:02.755 Scene::RunScene running 9 eOff <0x2be55680> 08 07/18/12 21:51:02.755 JobHandler_LuaUPnP::HandleActionRequest device: 11 service: urn:upnp-org:serviceId:Dimming1 action: SetLoadLevelTarget <0x2be55680> 08 07/18/12 21:51:02.755 JobHandler_LuaUPnP::HandleActionRequest argument newLoadlevelTarget=0 <0x2be55680> 07 07/18/12 21:51:02.756 Event::Evaluate 8 AUTO_GENERATED scene eOff is false repeat 0/-1 <0x2be55680>

2

Can you confirm that you bought a VRCZ4-MRX?
The second device that looks like a switch probably says ‘_4 button zone controller (switch)’?

The VRCZ4-MRX is a 4-button zone controller and an on/off switch in one physical unit, hence the 2 devices.
Did you hook up the switch? If not, the controls on the switch device won’t do anything.
The buttons on the zone controllers do have an on and an off side to them; i.e. they are not toggles (as on scene controllers).

From the log file, it looks like device 11 may have been switched on and then off, but only with a second in between. Did you quickly hit the on side of button 3 and then the off side?

For test purposes, I would go with a single light in a single on and a single off scene, assigned to a single button. Then test it. Key is to go slow between button presses when you test. Hit the on side and give it 30 seconds; etc.

(Another thing to try is to not assign the scenes through the [tt]Scenes[/tt] tab of the controller, but set up the triggers manually in the scenes. (Both ways should work, but I never use the [tt]Scenes[/tt] tab.))

3

Another thing the cropped up when I just installed my latest controller:

I have a Leviton controller in the bathroom to turn on several lights, all Leviton switches (2 relays on and 1 dimmer to 100%). When Vera programs the controller, it programs scene with the relays properly, but sets the dimmer to off. When I execute the scene from Vera, it works great. When I execute from the controller, the 2 relays turn on, and the dimmer stays/turns off.

I can reprogram the scene directly via the controller, which works for a while, until Vera goes to reconfigure the controller. I’m going to try to do some more investigation tonight and open a trouble ticket.

4

Thanks, oTi@, for the clarifications. This unit was installed when they built the house but I’m just now getting around to adding it to the network. Pulling out the device allows me to see a different label which reads VRCZ4-MR with no X. It also allows me to see the empty terminal for the switch. That means I can ignore the switch part. (Although I noticed a lot of activity in the logs for the switch. Set Polling to “0”). I tried clearing the Scenes I had set and adding triggers. Now I get an alarm on the device in the GUI saying “Failed at: Setting special association”. I didn’t get that when I tested it initially, after changing to Triggers. It happened while I was out. I’m going to try going back to Scenes rather than Triggers just to see if it clears.

Mike

5

PurdueGuy,

Turns out that’s what’s going on here as well. I added a non-dimmable switch to the scenes and they respond correctly while the dimmable lights show no response. Since my original idea was to use a button to control a virtual device to be used as a conditional elsewhere, I should be able to proceed with that part of the project, anyway! Keep me posted as to any fixes or workarounds if you don’t mind.

Mike

6

[quote=“mmesford, post:5, topic:172114”]PurdueGuy,

Turns out that’s what’s going on here as well. I added a non-dimmable switch to the scenes and they respond correctly while the dimmable lights show no response. Since my original idea was to use a button to control a virtual device to be used as a conditional elsewhere, I should be able to proceed with that part of the project, anyway! Keep me posted as to any fixes or workarounds if you don’t mind.

Mike[/quote]Will do! Glad I’m not going crazy. :wink:

Did you try to program the scene directly, albeit temporarily?

7

I’m not sure what it means to program it directly. My next step was to see if I could use one of my virtual switches as an intermediary.

Mike

8

This will only work with scene-capable switches (such as Leviton):

  • Press and hold the button until it flashes rapidly.
  • Set the lights to the desired state (in terms of on/off/dim)
  • Tap/release the scene button again (it will blink a few times to “learn” the scene)
9

Hmm. No luck with that. I got it to blink but it never flashed in a way I would call ‘rapid’. I tried changing a few lights while it blinked then tapping it. It simply stopped blinking and when I turned out the affected lights they stayed out even when I hit my ‘programmed’ button. I wonder if having one of the buttons associated with a scene already takes it out of programmable mode?

Mike

10

You can only use/adjust lights that are part of the scene already, since Vera should have associated them (it will ignore all other lights). You mentioned one dinmmer not working. Try adjusting just that dimmer.

11

Ah, that makes sense. I’d assumed it only looked at lights that changed while in program mode. In any case, it didn’t help doing it that way. The non-dimmable light is controlled fine but I had no luck directly programming the dimmable one.

12

I see.

[...] label which reads VRCZ4-MR with no X.
Excellent.

Interesting. Firmware 1.5.408?

Is that a Leviton dimmer? (As @PurdueGuy said, directly programming the scene this way doesn’t work with all equipment.)

13

Interesting. Firmware 1.5.408?[/quote]
Just tried it with a VRCS4 + VRP03: dimmer does not come on. Imported the scene into ThinkEssentials: dimmer does not come on.
Put 1.5.346 on Vera 3 and repeated: works.

So my assumption is this is broken in 1.5.408. Bug# 2480.

Thanks for bringing this up @PurdueGuy.

14

I have some kind of a similar issue with the scene controller. My symptoms are a bit more random and strange however…

If I assign a scene involving dimmers (10 all Leviton) to a Leviton scene controller, the scene only partly activates when the button is pressed. Some dimmers are turned on at 10% (even if requested 100% in the scene) and one or two dimmers do not turn on at all. Re-pressing the button on the scene controller turns off all the lights (even if I did not program a scene on the off button). Re-activating the scene again creates a variation where maybe all dimmers will turn on at 10%.

Does anyone think the problem is related or is there something I am doing wrong?

Thanks for any feedback or help.

15

Assuming you are using a VRCS2 or VRCS4, Pressing a scene button again will turn off all devices associated with that scene.

Say you have no scene activated (all scene lights are off):

  • Press scene1, and the scene activates, and the button LED turns on (with scene-capable devices, they should immediately go to the right level, other devices will be set when Vera gets to it)
  • Press scene1 again (to deactivate), the LED turns off, and all scene-capable devices (and any others you have manually associated) will turn off

It appears Vera is setting the controller for the associations, but Vera isn’t programming the scene correctly. Since the associations get programmed, the “off” will turn things off, but the “on” isn’t right.

Why things are random, is even different. I’ll try more testing tomorrow when I am home.

16

Thanks for the reply PurdueGuy.

I now understand the behavior of the scene controller even if there is no association on the off event of a button. I was under the impression that the button was merely treated as an event that would trigger a Vera scene, not that Vera would send the association to the controller. That raises questions and concerns.

  1. If Vera sends associations to the controller. Will the 5 controller limit be a problem for the devices if they are associated to more than 5 controllers? (I was planning to assign a “all off” scene including most devices to more than 5 controllers).

  2. Is there a way to force Vera NOT to associate the devices to the controller and just trigger a Vera scene on a scene click instead?

Now I am a bit screwed. I decided to do some more tests this morning and wiped all the controllers from Vera. I figured that maybe there was a problem with the way the controllers were configured and by reassigning them, it might fix the problem. Now I am trying to include them again and I can’t succeed. I get the devices added but when Vera tries to configure them, The messages ‘can’t get any information from node’ followed by ‘the node cannot be configured’ come up. I tried a couple times without any success…

I have a Vera Lite, latest Firmware and the scene controllers are Leviton RZCS4.

Please if you have any advice I would greatly appreciate it!

17

[quote=“nicholas.couture, post:16, topic:172114”]Thanks for the reply PurdueGuy.

I now understand the behavior of the scene controller even if there is no association on the off event of a button. I was under the impression that the button was merely treated as an event that would trigger a Vera scene, not that Vera would send the association to the controller. That raises questions and concerns.

  1. If Vera sends associations to the controller. Will the 5 controller limit be a problem for the devices if they are associated to more than 5 controllers? (I was planning to assign a “all off” scene including most devices to more than 5 controllers).

  2. Is there a way to force Vera NOT to associate the devices to the controller and just trigger a Vera scene on a scene click instead?

Now I am a bit screwed. I decided to do some more tests this morning and wiped all the controllers from Vera. I figured that maybe there was a problem with the way the controllers were configured and by reassigning them, it might fix the problem. Now I am trying to include them again and I can’t succeed. I get the devices added but when Vera tries to configure them, The messages ‘can’t get any information from node’ followed by ‘the node cannot be configured’ come up. I tried a couple times without any success…

I have a Vera Lite, latest Firmware and the scene controllers are Leviton RZCS4.

Please if you have any advice I would greatly appreciate it![/quote]

  1. I am not sure if Vera assigned reverse associations. I think it might, but I’m not 100% positive.

  2. If #1 is true, you could try making a delay of 1 second, and put all devices “off” in that delay. Vera will only program associations for devices that are listed under “immediate” since that’s all Leviton controllers can handle (they don’t have the concept of timing/delays).

18

Thanks!

Very good idea about the 1 second delay. If this works, it could solve my 10% scene problem. As soon as I succeed adding the controllers, I’ll give that a try :).

19

I posted a question on how to include controllers properly and oTi answered. I posted my findings in the other post but will copy them here to help anyone finding this thread.

Success! I was not waiting long enough for the inclusion to complete. It takes quite a while in my case (over 1 minute maybe).

Now that I can include the controller I could go back to my tests and do the following observations:

  1. If a scene involves only switches, assigning a scene to a controller button works quite well.
  2. If a scene involves dimmers, the results from pressing the button vary from either setting only a portion of the requested % or a fraction of the devices. The scenes triggered form the Web interface work fast and flawlessly.
  3. As suggested by PurdueGuy, setting a delay on dimmer scenes before the scene gets triggered solves the problem. The dimmers get all set at the requested %. The LED on the controller however does not get set.

I then have a workaround for triggering scenes from the controller if I am not too concerned with the LEDs not working and the small delay. However, this is still strange is it? Am I alone with this problem?

20

There is definitely something wrong with the Leviton controllers and dimmers, and oTi@ filed a bug on it.

Which controllers do you have? If they are the newer ones, you should be able to let Vera manage the LEDs so they appear appropriately.

Since switches seem to work correctly, can you leave the switches in the “immediate” delay, and put dimmers in the “1 second” delay?* The problem with LEDs might be due to how Vera presents itself to the Leviton controller. Since the controller doesn’t actually talk to any real “scene capable” switches, it doesn’t think the scene was set correctly, and therefore never turns on the LED.

  • Note: the delay could extend to a longer delay, since Vera will first set all devices in the “immediate” category before moving on, which could take longer than 1 second.