I have several Leviton in wall controllers that have never worked, a couple are sitting in boxes now and I have two that just act as light switches now (really, really expensive light switches). My issue has been that Vera refuses to add them…no matter how many different things I try or how many times I ask on this and other forums, they just won’t work. So, if I bought one of the Leviton handheld programmers (which I’m optimistic will work with these scene controllers), will it pass the controllers over to Vera after I’m done?
Hmm; which ones?
Well, I have:
2 - VRCS2-MRZ (one is in a box now and one acts as a light switch in my garage)
2 - VRCZ4-MRZ (again, one in a box and one is a light switch…which seldom gets used)
1 - VRCS4-MRZ (just sitting in a box now)
Does knowing this help decide if the remote will pass control back to Vera?
Strange, I have:
2 - VRCS2-MRZ
1 - VRCZ4-MRZ
1 - VRCS4-MRZ
and all of them are working properly (Vera 2 with latest 1.1.1362, but also worked properly with version 1.1.1338)
I have always done a full power inclusion, as I found out, low power one (using battery pack) did not work properly. 2 and 4 scene/zone controllers take quite some time to register, so be patient. On my first unit (VRCS2-MR) I actually took a laptop and opened the Vera interface while the inclusion process was taking place, it least I could see if Vera was actually doing something or not; it took approximately 3 minutes (maybe longer) to include the unit. One more piece of advise, do one unit at the time, that is include one VRCS unit, take Vera out of inclusion mode make sure the unit works, then go back to the second, third, go get the point.
Once the unit is registered, I did not use the SCENES tabs on the actual controller to automatically create relationship the relationships with the actual scenes, I perform this process manually (automatic, was a hit or miss, manual seemed to work properly all the time); so:
- create a scene (turn on main light for example)
- Go to the EVENT tab on the scene and add a new event
- Device: Zone/Scene controller you want to use
- Trigger: When a scene is activated
- Scene Name: anything you like
- Which Scene number: button number on the controller that you want to use to activate the scene (1 through 4 on VRCS/Z units and 1 - 2 on VRCS2 units)
LED might not work properly until you create associations on the actual controller (and this is still kind of flaky, but much better than before), so go back to the actual scene/zone controller and select the DEVICE OPTIONS tab:
- Under association, create a new group (group number correspond to button number you)
- Select the device(s) that need to be before the LED on the scene/zone controller turns ON (in my case light switches, and the LED turns green when the scene has been activated)
So far, this extremely lengthy process is the only way that I have been able to make the scene/zone controllers work properly with Vera. Hopefully this will work for you, and let us keep our fingers cross for UI5 to have this fixed (although by the looks of it, UI5 seems to be loosing popularity around this forum).
Thanks. I was looking to respond to both your problem statement, as well as your proposed workaround:
- All the controllers you mention I have been able to include without issue.
- You’d probably have to include the remote (the VRCPG) into Vera’s network, then controller shift to the remote, so the remote is now primary and Vera secondary; then do the inclusions and shift control back. (I have not tested this particular route.)
[quote=“markiper, post:4, topic:169798”]Strange, I have:
2 - VRCS2-MRZ
1 - VRCZ4-MRZ
1 - VRCS4-MRZ
and all of them are working properly (Vera 2 with latest 1.1.1362, but also worked properly with version 1.1.1338)
I have always done a full power inclusion, as I found out, low power one (using battery pack) did not work properly. 2 and 4 scene/zone controllers take quite some time to register, so be patient. On my first unit (VRCS2-MR) I actually took a laptop and opened the Vera interface while the inclusion process was taking place, it least I could see if Vera was actually doing something or not; it took approximately 3 minutes (maybe longer) to include the unit. One more piece of advise, do one unit at the time, that is include one VRCS unit, take Vera out of inclusion mode make sure the unit works, then go back to the second, third, go get the point.
Once the unit is registered, I did not use the SCENES tabs on the actual controller to automatically create relationship the relationships with the actual scenes, I perform this process manually (automatic, was a hit or miss, manual seemed to work properly all the time); so:
- create a scene (turn on main light for example)
- Go to the EVENT tab on the scene and add a new event
- Device: Zone/Scene controller you want to use
- Trigger: When a scene is activated
- Scene Name: anything you like
- Which Scene number: button number on the controller that you want to use to activate the scene (1 through 4 on VRCS/Z units and 1 - 2 on VRCS2 units)
LED might not work properly until you create associations on the actual controller (and this is still kind of flaky, but much better than before), so go back to the actual scene/zone controller and select the DEVICE OPTIONS tab:
- Under association, create a new group (group number correspond to button number you)
- Select the device(s) that need to be before the LED on the scene/zone controller turns ON (in my case light switches, and the LED turns green when the scene has been activated)
So far, this extremely lengthy process is the only way that I have been able to make the scene/zone controllers work properly with Vera. Hopefully this will work for you, and let us keep our fingers cross for UI5 to have this fixed (although by the looks of it, UI5 seems to be loosing popularity around this forum).[/quote]
Thanks for the info but my problem with them all is much more basic. No matter what I do, Vera won’t add them. When I do a full power include I just get the barber poll until the “No Devices Added” window pops up. I’ve tried to exclude them, I’ve pulled a network cable to them and brought vera right next to them, I’ve done factory resets on them, I’ve moved them to other locations in the house…nothing…on any of them. It’s easily the weirdest problem I’ve ever had with a z-wave product and I’ve never had problems with any Leviton products. I bought a couple of the Monster in wall controllers when they were on close out and they joined with no issue so I have no idea what’s going on with them. I can’t believe I have 5 bad controllers that I bought from 2 different distributors several months apart, which is why I was thinking about trying another product to get them on my z-wave network.
That is really strange. So let’s take the VRCZ4. You’re saying if you hold down button 1+3 until blinking red, then hold down button 1+3 until blinking amber, and then do an exclude from Vera, you don’t see any indication on Vera that a node was removed (something like ‘[tt]removed unknown node[/tt]’)?
[quote=“oTi@, post:7, topic:169798”]@mbairhead,
That is really strange. So let’s take the VRCZ4. You’re saying if you hold down button 1+3 until blinking red, then hold down button 1+3 until blinking amber, and then do an exclude from Vera, you don’t see any indication on Vera that a node was removed (something like ‘[tt]removed unknown node[/tt]’)?[/quote]
Correct, it’s like Vera just ignores them all. To be honest I haven’t tried for at least 6 months, probably longer but after having so many problems with them I had my laptop with me and followed the instructions to the letter from both Leviton and other users on this forum.
I see. I’d try again, before spending money on the remote, as I’m not convinced the latter is going to help. Especially for an exclusion, I think Vera has no knowledge of the node and just tells it to ‘reset itself’.
Do you have any other controllers (like a spare GE remote) that you could make a primary for test purposes?
I had the same problem with the older RZCS4 controllers. I have 3 controllers (2 scene, one zone). Two of the controllers worked fine. The remaining controller refused to add no matter what I did. It didn’t matter whether it was low or high power include. Exclude seemed to work fine. Trouble ticket got closed with a “this will be fixed on some future firmware release”. Never happened.
I finally gave up on Vera and reverted to a dumbed down system completely using the Leviton remote to create the network. Everything included just fine.
I upgraded the Vera to UI5 and have been unsuccessful in transferring the Leviton network over to Vera. I’m going to try to rebuild everything from scratch just using Vera/UI5 (want to get christmas automated and that’s an issue with the current Leviton setup since some of the outdoor controllers are unreachable from handheld remotes depending on where in the house I’m standing – probably a routing issue).