So here is what I want to do (GE dimmers) manually
If the light is on dim/full and I tap the bottom of the switch, I want the light to turn off immediately or ramp
If the light is on dim/full and I press and hold the bottom of the switch, I want the light to dim according to switch settings
If the light is on dim/full and I tap the top of the switch, I want the light to turn on full immediately
If the light is on dim and I press and hold the top of the switch, I want the light to undim according to switch settings
If the light is off and I tap the top of the switch, I want the light to turn on full
If the light is off and I press and hold the top of the switch, I want the light to undim until I release
Can anyone help with this using a Vera3?
fyi switch settings are parameters 9 and 10
If the dimmer switch supports this directly and you just need to configure it … then it might be doable.
Otherwise, I am not sure what you are asking for is doable … maybe I misunderstand the scenario.
It sounds like you want your Vera3 to be able to detect what you are doing with the GE Dimmer buttons and have it control the dimming function of the dimmer.
Two Problems:
- GE Dimmers do not have instant status … It’s going to be a while before Vera even knows you touched the dimmer. And If they did they would not provide events to distinguish a quick or a long press of the buttons.
- The dimming action is actually tied to the physical buttons. When you click a dimmer button it’s going to control the dimmer directly. You can always over-ride it at a later point (ms to seconds to minutes later depending on how fast Vera can detect and respond.).
Thanks for the reply. A little clarification…
The turn off is what it is and I can live with it. You tap the bottom of the rocker and the dimmer ramps down according to parameters 9 and 10. You press and hold the bottom of the rocker and you dim the light until you release.
It’s the turn on I need help with. Effectively, I want to bypass the previous dim level and current dim level when I tap the top of the rocker. I can’t find any parameters in the GE/Jasco booklet that will allow me to do that so I though I might be able to get vera to do it. The switch does send a turn on event when going from off to on, but I don’t know what it sends when changing dim levels. It seems to send something because it changes within a few 10’s/100’s of milliseconds on the UI5 screen if I change it via my iPhone. Is there someway I can see what vera is getting real-time to see if there is anything I can trigger on? If I can find something, I can create a scene or use a PLEG.
I was playing around last night and found that setting parameter 9 to 99 and parameter 10 to 1, I effectively get the on/off behavior, but I have to press and hold the rocker for longer than just a tap. This, however, means I cannot manually dim the light since it’s ramp rate is at maximum.
Thanks
Your IPhone is talking to Vera … Vera initiates the control … so it knows what it sent to the GE dimmer.
Have someone toggle the switch and see how long Vera takes to notice you changed it.
And your IPhone will be one polling interval later!
I do not know the details of programming the GE switch. But there should be some documentation around for configuring it’s options.
“Your IPhone is talking to Vera … Vera initiates the control … so it knows what it sent to the GE dimmer.”
While that may be true, I, after reading that, turned on iVera and walked up to all of my switches and tapped the top of the rocker while watching iVera. After them going from off to on, or dim to full on, the iPhone updated in less than half a second. So there is something the switches are sending without vera polling every minute.
Again, is there a way to monitor the events coming into vera real-time, so I can see what the switches are sending as things happen?
You would need a Z-Wave USB dongle … and a Z-Wave sniffer to watch what going on. Vera does not provide low level Z-Wave tracing … at least that I have ever seen.
There are some ways to emulate instant status. This works with the GEs; to an extent.
Regardless, I’m not sure you could detect the difference between a tap and a long push on Vera, and it is like @RichardTSchaefer said, the buttons control the dimmer directly; you can only try to later ‘correct’ the hardwired actions with Vera.