Migrating from Insteon to ZWave, questions.

Other Devices & Integrations Lighting & Load Control
1

Hi,

ZWave noob here. I skimmed the forum looking for answers to my questions, but couldn’t find anything. I apologize if these questions have been covered before.

I have been using Insteon since it has been available to the public, and X10 before that. Insteon was 100 times better than X10, but I found that Smarthome was run by incompetent, disorganized people and decided that it was not in my best interests to continue to do business with them. For that reason I have begun my migration to ZWave, starting with a Vera 2, a couple of plug-in lamp dimmer modules and a couple of plug-in appliance modules, all by Home Manageables.

I love the quick response time, the reliability and the simplicity of the front end for basic setup and functionality. However, there are a few things that I am missing from my Insteon setup. I’m wondering if I am overlooking some functions:

  1. Ramp rate settings for how long it takes for a light to fade on or off (Is this available with certain modules? Can it be set with scenes?)
    2)When I run a scene with one appliance module set to ON and a lamp module set to on, I cannot seem to set the level that I want the light dimmer to go on to when the scene is activated (It always comes on at 100%). Is this possible?
  2. Creating a scene with those same two modules set to OFF gives me a message that says that it is not a valid scene when I activate it. Why?

Thanks for any help you can give me on my initial round of questions. I look forward to exploring ZWave and MiOS.

2
1) Ramp rate settings for how long it takes for a light to fade on or off (Is this available with certain modules? Can it be set with scenes?)
You can do it though a Scene I guess through the advanced tab, or via some Luup code (I remember seeing a code snippet for that), but the disadvantage will be that this will only work for the scene and not for a manual switch. A lot of the models support changing the ramp rate through sending configuration commands to the switches; the advantage here is that the switch will also ramp at the rate you set when switched locally/manually. What dimmers do you have?
2)When I run a scene with one appliance module set to ON and a lamp module set to on, I cannot seem to set the level that I want the light dimmer to go on to when the scene is activated (It always comes on at 100%). Is this possible?
This should be possible as I have a couple of scenes that set ambiance for watching TV etc where I dim some lights and switch an on/off module on. Again, maybe post your hardware and also perhaps a screen shot, or description of how you've set it up?
3) Creating a scene with those same two modules set to OFF gives me a message that says that it is not a valid scene when I activate it. Why?
There's no reason why this shouldn't work either and I cant think of anything that you could set up incorrectly with to make it fail?

How about if you start with one module at a time to see if you get the same message?

3

Thanks for your reply.
I have the Homemanageables Appliance Module (Model HM-AM001) and the Homemanageables Lamp Module (Model HM-LM001). Both are listed half-way down this page: http://www.z-wave.com/modules/Products/?id=37&chk=36f4cf3f7ab54e6d8af23e0bcde973bf

The scene was set up as a basic scene that contained the two devices. No advanced features were set. I can post a screen later, as well as try your suggestion for my third question.

Thanks again.

4

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work whether I use one device or two, and it seems that the program is buggy in this case. I tried to edit a scene by clicking on the wrench after it had been created to check off the second device instead of the first and close the scene and they were both checked when I opened the editor again. I could not change it after multiple attempts.

Here is a screen of the only settings I used for the scene. The devices are operational if activated or turned off on their own and the scene that turns them on is functional, though the dim level of the lamp module is not set to the level that I want.

http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/2511/unled1os.jpg

EDIT: I found my mistake. I did not hit the tiny “Save” button at the top right. I’ll be sure to suggest repositioning that button and making it way more prominent in the appropriate forum.
Sorry for the trouble regarding points 2 and 3!

5

@strangely and @Quixote

–edit–
identical link replaced with correct one

I looked up some threads on ramp code and dimming.
These look promising (at least parts of the suggested code should help?)

http://forum.mios.com/index.php?topic=2386.0 | Slow dimmer code
http://forum.mios.com/index.php?topic=3015.0 | Emergency light (sBlink helps set ramp time?)

[quote=“strangely, post:2, topic:168616”]

1) Ramp rate settings for how long it takes for a light to fade on or off (Is this available with certain modules? Can it be set with scenes?)
You can do it though a Scene I guess through the advanced tab, or via some Luup code (I remember seeing a code snippet for that), but the disadvantage will be that this will only work for the scene and not for a manual switch.
A lot of the models support changing the ramp rate through sending configuration commands to the switches; the advantage here is that the switch will also ramp at the rate you set when switched locally/manually. What dimmers do you have?[/quote]

6

As @strangely suggested, the module may support different ramp rates through a configurable parameter. However. the 2-page instruction sheet that I found does not mention any.

What kind of ramp rate are you looking for?

7

@Henk: Thanks for the link (they are both the same though. :))
The ramp of that code is not what I’m looking for, but I’m sure I will find it very useful, all the same.

With Insteon dimmer switches, the light level rises from zero smoothly to the predefined level. It gives a very nice effect, especially with elaborate scenes involving many lights and different ramp rates.
I truly hope this is possible with ZWave products!

@oTi@: I didn’t receive a manual with the product, but I will take a look at the one I found at this link: http://www.homemanageables.com/manuals/HM-LM001%20Manual%20Final.pdf
Thanks.

8

@Quixote

Sorry for that… fixed it!
http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php?topic=6977.msg44325#msg44325

[quote=“Quixote, post:7, topic:168616”]@Henk: Thanks for the link (they are both the same though. :))
The ramp of that code is not what I’m looking for, but I’m sure I will find it very useful, all the same.[/quote]

9

Yep, that’s the sheet I found too. Doesn’t look like there are configurable parameters for the ramp rate.

[...] I truly hope this is possible with ZWave products! [...]
Sure; just depends on the product. The GE dimmers, for example, say the 45602 dimmer module, has configurable parameters for the ramp rate. And if the Z-Wave device supports true Z-Wave scenes, say a Leviton, the ramp rate is part of the scene (but not configurable through Vera, I believe).
10

Whew! Good to know. I’ll have to do a little homework next time I buy another batch of gear. These ones I bought were inexpensive and suit their purpose for now, though.
Thanks.