I recently purchased the Leviton VRCS2 2-button remote and struggled mightily to get it to work. I finally found all the pieces, but I had to do multiple searches and not everything was in one place. I thought it might help someone else if I put it all in one post.
First, this is a complicated device that is very flexible. It will take a little work to get it set up properly. Secondly, I was NOT able to get it to pair using full-power pairing nor using the VeraLite running on batteries. Get a long network cable and extension cord, and put a TV tray in front of the switch with your laptop and vera. I promise it will save you many hours of trying to get it set up. After I put vera on a tray in front of the switch, it configured first time, no issues.
Second, this device is a combination Scene controller and two appliance module switches. When you join the zwave network, it will no longer associate the buttons with the switches. They are NOT internally hard wired, but more like a remote control and two appliance modules in a small package. Unless you create a scene to map the buttons to the loads, the buttons will not control the loads after you pair with Vera. That may sound dumb at first, but it’s actually pretty cool. The wiring diagram wasn’t accurate and I wired it backwards, so my loads were reversed with the initial configuration. Had I known what I know now, I just would have reversed the scenes and not pulled it back out and swapped wires. You can have the buttons do anything a scene controller would do. It’s a pretty neat idea.
How to configure and include in your network:
I strongly recommend getting a long network cable and putting Vera on table within a few feet of the switch. I could NOT get it to work any other way.
First, reset the switch to it’s factory configuration. Do this by holding both buttons down for about 10 seconds. At 5 seconds the lights will turn amber. After about 10 seconds, they’ll turn red. Leviton recommends letting the light blink red at least two times before releasing.
In the Vera UI, go to Devices->Add Devices, and select the top option, Add Zwave switch. Select Option 1.
When Vera asks you to include the switch, press and hold the two buttons until they turn amber. Then release. My Vera did not see the device, so I had to select “I’m activating the device but it’s not adding to the list.” Very talked with the controller, then it showed up in the list. I think I also independently pressed button one and button two after it showed up, but I don’t think that’s necessary.
The buttons on the device no longer activate the switches.
Go to your devices and now test the appliance module/lights by pressing the on/off buttons on the device page in UI5. If everything is working here, you can rename the switches to reflect what they do.
Now lets tie the switches to the scene controller for local load activation. You’ll need to create 4 scenes. Turning on button 1, turning off button 1, turning on button 2, turning off button 2.
In UI5, go to Automation->Scenes->New Scene
Call this something like “Turn ON VRCS2 Button 1”. Find the appliance/light control that you just tested and want to associate with button 1. Turn the light on in the scene. Make sure it’s set to IMMEDIATE in the delay settings near the name.
Next select the TRIGGERS tab and add a trigger. Select the SCENE CONTROLLER devices that represents the Leviton VRCS2. Select “A scene is activated.” Put in a name for this (I used “turn on xyz”) and under “which scene number” put 1. For some reason Vera defaults to 0 here, which does nothing. This information was hard to find. Button 1 (top) uses scene 1. Button 2 uses scene 2.
Confirm Changes and save.
Next create a new scene for turning off the same appliance/light control that you just created a scene for turning on. Go to triggers for this scene, and add a trigger. Select the Scene Controller that represents the Leviton VRCS2. Select “a scene is DEactivated.” Give it a name and put in a 1 for “scene number” (use 1 for button one, use 2 for button two.) Confirm the changes and save.
After vera configures the device, you should be able to control the loads with the front buttons. Here’s why this device is clever… Since I had wired the device backward (button 1 to load 2, etc.) I could have just reversed the numbers in “which scene number” and button one would have controlled load 2, and vice versa. I wouldn’t have had to pull the switch and swap the loads.
There is also an alternate way to configure the triggers that I haven’t used but I’ll describe. I’m not sure if there is any advantage to this method, I like the previous method because that’s consistent with every other scene controller, and all my triggers show in once place. After creating and testing your scenes to turn the local loads off and on, you can go to the VRCS2 Scene Controller device and edit the settings (with the wrench icon). You’ll see a tab called “scenes” at the far right. In this tab you can directly select the scenes you want to activate when the buttons are turned off and on. They’re just a dropdown list of all your scenes.
I hope this helps save someone several hours work!
-G