I hooked up one of mine to bench test today. I added it to Vera, and have created a scene for each of the top two buttons, one to turn on a GE outdoor module, and another to turn it off. It’s working, but it’s not great. For one, I’d rather turn devices on and off with a single button. It appears I can only switch between scenes. If a button is pushed, and I push it again, the led goes off for about 2 seconds, then comes back on. The GE never changes. So you can’t use a single button for on/off. I think there’s a workaround to make it toggle, but it gets tricky if you have more than one device in the scene and there’s a chance that one or more of the devices is changed some other way.
Sometimes it seems to change states more than once from a single on/off change. Like off, then on produces off/on/off/on. It is most likely to happen when I switch fast. Sometimes it also causes the state of the leds to get out of sync with the device’s state. And it always gets out of sync if the switch on the GE is used to turn the device on or off.
So it’s OK, I guess. Especially for $20. If I paid full price for a Leviton version, and didn’t have Leviton devices to create associations with for fast response and accurate sync, I don’t think I’d be happy.
You got further than I did. Mine added without anything available under the scenes tab. I was able to associate it with a Leviton dimmer and I can use the dimmer buttons to operate it.
I’ll try excluding and including again. It is just frustrating when scene controllers never seem to include correctly, although it appears to have gotten close because it works to some degree. Any tips are appreciated.
To do direct association with the Leviton/Monster scene controllers the device needs to be scene-capable(Leviton). If you want to utilize non-scene capable devices you need to use the 4-Button Zone Controller. Programmatically the devices are handled the same way - internally they are not 8)
Nothing shows up under the scenes tab on the scene controller. Things started to show up under the control tab after I created some scenes in Vera with the scene controller as the event trigger. I don’t have any Leviton devices to associate with, so it’s Vera scenes or nothing for me I guess.
Thanks Tom I believe that is missing from the Wikis, that you have to create scenes with the scene controller as the trigger or the wording needs to be changed as it says to go to the scenes tab.
[quote=“shady, post:25, topic:168473”]Thanks Tom I believe that is missing from the Wikis, that you have to create scenes with the scene controller as the trigger or the wording needs to be changed as it says to go to the scenes tab.
I got the 4 button controller and it added right into my Vera 2 without issue. However I’ve not been able to get past 1 button to turn on the device and a second to turn off the device. It works okay at best. I did try the toggle state and it was all over the place - didn’t work well at all. I did see the following text on the wiki that I’m going to try next:
…to report when the ‘off’ side of a scene is pressed. If there are lights or other devices you want to turn off, and which are not scene capable and thus not turned off directly by the scene controller, create a scene to turn them off and attach an event ‘Scene is deactivated’ and use the same button ID. This scene will get run when the scene button is turned off.
Will let you know if this works tomorrow. Otherwise this controller, while a great deal, has little value to me.
I tried this. The button’s led would go off, stay off for about 2 seconds, then come back on again. It never triggered the “scene deactivated” scene.
Since enableing my first scene on this thing, it has never been in a state where none of the leds are on. Now that I have two secnes enabled, either the top or second led is on.
I agree that this thing isn’t that useful without Leviton or Monster devices. Does anyone know if it has more functionality when paired with one of the Leviton RS232 controllers?
They seem to only be able to activate, trying to use the same button and using the “deactivate” option, does not work.
I wonder if MCV could take a look at these scene controllers and add better support, or if they are just going to be subpar. They identify themselves as “Monster”.
I did get around to the de-activate and had the same result as everyone else. Toggle state has not worked for me either. The scene sometimes activates but as others have said, the LED is always out of sync. So for now I use 1 button for on and the other for off, that works but the LED does not match as it should. Odd thing, no matter how I have programmed, except the 1 on 1 off, this device has worked oddly, it runs the scene and then auto shuts off. It will turn the screen off and then back on. After a few minutes the device seems to stop working altogether. Within Vera it says the controller has changed state but it doesn’t activate the scene.
I’m guessing without Vera support for the device it is a single button switch with LEDs on/off at best.
So each scene button (3 of them?, 4th is a dim control?) has an on (left) and off (right)? And the on can be associated with vera scenes, but the off cannot?
I’ve ordered three of these since the Intermatic CA5000’s I have will not work. Has anyone made these into 4 way toggles yet?
I have not successfully set up a scene controller, but I did notice that the controller is not on the certified device list http://wiki.micasaverde.com/index.php/Z-Wave_Certified_Devices
Does anyone have a link for a luup howto? If you can only call one scene with a button it couldn’t be hard to have that scene force the state to the NOT value of the current state…
It seems you can’t make these scene controllers work properly, you can’t use the “deactivate” option with Vera, so you end up have to press a button sometimes twice to get it to fire. Nothing I have tried can get these working with the “activate” and “deactivate” options for each button. Seems like we will only be able to get 1 scene for the button, and since they where designed to be toggles (with a GREEN LED) that comes on and off at random, they are pretty useless.
If there is no solution to this, I am sending mine back.
I am satisfied with the current level of control. If I can have the buttons “activate” scenes it gives me enough to go on. I have one at the front door with Room on, Room off, All on, and All off buttons and scenes to match and it works well. I haven’t tried any toggle Luup code, but I do have two Leviton Dimmers that associations and dimming work well (I just need to decide where I’d need that pairied control and use the dimmers there).
I just like the idea of adding power and getting direct control from a switch on the wall. I think I might cut-in a couple boxes directly above my bedside power outlets and drop wire down the wall to power them. Or doing the same thing behind the couch to get more switches on the wall as an alternative to using a remote most of the time. I have been lucky as scene execution seems to be responsive, but I know if Vera were busy scenes could be slowed. Due to the work around approach of getting these to play nice with others, I guess it is what it is. I am happier than I was with the GE 45631 battery scene switches for set-up and control.
maybe tha tis your experience Shady, but the one I have setup, the scene will not fire properly, unless you select another scene first. I don’t have ANY Leviton switches, I have all GE, so I need Vera to work correctly with these.
I have the first button firing a scene that is also fired by a CA9000 motion detector, it only fires once in a while. If I fire off a different scene via a different button, it seems to work, but if I wait 10-15 minutes after hitting button 1 (hallway lights for 5 minutes), it does not work. I can hit the button again, and again, it still does not fire.
I removed and re-added it, and setup the scene trigers again, still no go.
I am not impressed by these, anyone need up to 6 of them, or I will be sending mine back.