I’ve recently noticed an issue with one of my VRMX1’s. This particular switch has 4 LED recessed lights hanging from it. If I recall correctly, I set the minimum dim level on this switch to something like 10%. Failing to do so would not light the lights at the dimmest setting.
If I manually dim the lights (from the switch) down to the lowest level, I’ve noticed that Vera switches the status in the console to “off” even though the lights are still on at a very dim level - as they should be. This of course, messes up automation/PLEG actions, etc.
Mine is a very repeatable issue. If I stand at the switch and dim all the way down, the lights are still on (dim) and the switch physically still says “on” (LED not lit) but Vera shows the status as “off” in both the dashboard and phone app.
[quote=“tbully, post:3, topic:189744”]Yeah that is odd. All your dimmers act that way?
Mine is a very repeatable issue. If I stand at the switch and dim all the way down, the lights are still on (dim) and the switch physically still says “on” (LED not lit) but Vera shows the status as “off” in both the dashboard and phone app.
Grrrrrr![/quote]
I just tried that. If I dim mine all the way down to the single LED, the bottom “off” LED is still dark and the lamp stays lit. At Vera PC dash I see 1% and “on”.
As an update, I had a scheduled call with MCV today. Alexander was friendly and did try to help. The good news is we do see this as a Vera issue. The bad news is, since they no longer support UI5, they can’t help fix the issue. (I don’t plan on moving to 7 until the Vera Plus comes out.)
In the logs below, you can see where the ZWave frame shows a status of 1% but Vera sets the status to 0% (off).
The thing is, it never used to do this. So something changed on my controller even though there have been no software updates, etc. I was guessing it could be a plugin that changed the dimmer device file(s) but Alexander said everything looks OK. (I don’t know where those files are stored to check them myself.)
I’m holding off on UI7 until I either go to VeraPlus or move off the platform completely (possible Homeseer).
It’s frustrating that Vera admits they see a problem but refuse to have a look due to it being a deprecated platform. I work in the technology industry and do somewhat agree with the argument but this seems like something that someone could look at for a few minutes. I’m suspicious that even if I did upgrade that the problem would remain. I’d then have to work with support anyway and have to deal with the suspected UI7 fallout to boot!
I didn’t think it’d be a big deal to wait but this is impacting several areas of logic. (When the lights are off, do something. Problem is, they are just really dimmed and I don’t want the controller to “do that something”!)
/rant
The fact that nobody is complaining about this makes me wonder if I screwed something up that effects all dimmers (I have several of this model throughout the house - all exhibiting the same behavior). The Vera tech said that everything looked OK on the surface, however.
OK; thanks. Just wanted to make sure you did this on the dimmer itself, and not in Vera.
I’ve looked at that a long long time ago, for other Leviton dimmers. Can’t quite remember, but possibly the dimmers map the manually limited range to the full Z-Wave range (i.e. the 10% you set on the dimmer, is reported as something other than ‘level 10’ in Z-Wave). Vera also messes with the values, as she maps the Z-Wave range to a ‘normal’ human range (i.e. 99 vs 100).
Anyway, I believe I have a VRMX1 laying around, and I’ll see if I can reproduce this some time.
If you a do manual poll of the dimmer after Vera reported ‘off’ even though they’re on; does anything change?
[quote=“oTi@, post:10, topic:189744”]OK; thanks. Just wanted to make sure you did this on the dimmer itself, and not in Vera.
I’ve looked at that a long long time ago, for other Leviton dimmers. Can’t quite remember, but possibly the dimmers map the manually limited range to the full Z-Wave range (i.e. the 10% you set on the dimmer, is reported as something other than ‘level 10’ in Z-Wave). Vera also messes with the values, as she maps the Z-Wave range to a ‘normal’ human range (i.e. 99 vs 100).
Anyway, I believe I have a VRMX1 laying around, and I’ll see if I can reproduce this some time.
If you a do manual poll of the dimmer after Vera reported ‘off’ even though they’re on; does anything change?[/quote]
Doing a manual poll is a good idea. I’ll test that.
I was thinking a few scenarios:
I messed up Vera by changing the minimum - to your point.
I’m using LEDs and perhaps the load is too low at the minimum dimmer setting (if it does load sensing?)
But I do have several of these around the house that I haven’t customized. The best test case was the one that controls the floods above my fireplace. Those are old-school halogens and the issue is happening there too. Unless customizing one dimmer screwed up the map for all devices of that type?
@oTi@ - When/if you test, can you check what your control granularity is from the console? Are you still on UI5?
The reason I ask, is I noticed that if I push the +/- buttons, I move up and down by 10% increments. This is also true if I slide it carefully with my mouse. I don’t use the console much (Veramate) and this really isn’t an issue but thought I used to have a little more control than that. Perhaps it sees anything under 10% as 0/off…
Based on your statement that you see this even for dimmers that do not have a custom minimum level, I did some remote testing, and pulled up the following:
(You can set the level to 1% using a Vera scene and the [tt]Advanced[/tt] tab. When executed, this will show 1% in the GUI, presumably because Vera just goes with the value set in the scene, but gets changed to 0% when polled.)
When you limit the dimmer to 10% on the device itself, it reports this lowest value as ‘1’ to Vera, who changes it to ‘0’.
Thanks for testing. I was able to confirm that if I set it to 1% via a scene, that it goes to 0% the next time it is polled. Anything above that - such as 2% - works fine and stays there. I tested this on both the switch that had its minimum adjusted as well as another one.
I’m remote too so I can’t actually see what the switch (or load) is doing but will check that later.
Still doesn’t really solve the problem of why it goes to “off” when dimmed to the lowest setting from the front of the dimmer. (Either the dimmer that has a new “A-2” setting or an untouched one.) I suppose it could be going to 1% at the lowest setting. That’s what my log shows above, after all. However, @chuck1026 tested this and it seemed fine. Maybe he didn’t wait for a polling event (or force one).
The logic that is failing used to work so I thought this was a new problem. Maybe I’m going crazy and its a Leviton vs Vera issue. (Leviton says 1% and Vera says “off”) I may need a UI7 person to test and see what happens…
Agreed that not all observations here appear consistent. @chuck1026 said it worked (i.e. 1% was seen on the dash), but also reported that the Vera dash doesn’t update when the dimmer is changed locally…
I do think it is a generic issue (at least for me), due to the handling in Vera. Note that that post is exactly 2 years old. I’m on Vera3 and UI5.
Right, the Leviton reports ‘1’ (not ‘10’ or something else), but Vera changes this to 0. (Side note: and she changes 99 to 100; and doesn’t program scenes correctly into the Levitons. Which is why I always use ‘95%’ in scenes, for ‘full on’. I don’t do a lot of dimming to minimum settings via the buttons; mostly in scenes, to like ‘5%’. So it hasn’t been an issue for me and can’t necessarily know if it’s always been that way.)
I don’t do that, either. (Usually use 5% - 95%) My wife has a habit of putting the dimmer all the way down prior to bed while watching the news which then makes the “going asleep” crap fire off. I was going to install an IR blaster to shut off the TV as part of the logic but will wait on that for the obvious reasons.
I will continue to test but this is a pretty bad miss on Vera’s part and I’m surprised that I/we are just catching it now. (Which is why I was initially blaming myself or something local to me.)
Assuming the wife does not interact with Vera, but does interact with the physical dimmer buttons and the remote for the tv, possibly, as alternate implementation, you could use a Z-Wave energy monitoring switch to detect tv on/off state. Turn tv on (and night? and …): dim lights to 5%. Turn tv off (and … and …): kill lights?
(I don’t know if they have implemented energy events yet in UI7… I did my own years ago, in UI5. Use cases: if computer on → set motion sensor to bypass; if tv on → set motion sensor to bypass; if garage door opener built-in light on → turn additional garage lighting on.)
The ‘full on’/‘use 95 instead of 100’ issue was reported on 2012/07/21.
Yes, both are related in that they have to do with Vera mapping Z-Wave dimmer range to a ‘human’ value for the GUI. But I imagine these are separate pieces of code. I can understand what drives the mapping at the high end (99 → 100); not sure why they did this at the low end (1 → 0).
The ‘full on’/‘use 95 instead of 100’ issue was reported on