Hi all!
Wondering if the board can assist me on this issue…
I have two old style pull cord lights that I put ZigBee bulbs in. I recently installed a near by zwave on/off wall switch, hoping to be able to include them into
switch on-> bulbs on; switch off → bulbs off scenes.
When I physically hit the switch, the bulbs do not turn on. When run the scene in ui7, it works. Thoughts?
Does someone have a better way?
Are you using the switch ON as the trigger for a scene that switches the Zigbee bulbs on and the switch OFF as the trigger for a second scene that switches the Zigbee bulbs off?
I’ve been doing it this way for ages in my kitchen where a physical switch controls 2 other zwave plugin modules that together handle 3 under cabinet LED strips. (I have the outlets and didn’t want to run wiring up and down the walls. 
if your Zigbee bulbs show as devices in Vera it should work the same way. Just making sure you use a seperate scene for On and Off modes. Each fired by the state change of the Zwave switch. Note that since most of my switches connect directly to Vera, I have instant status even for the ones that don’t have that feature. If your zwave switch does not support instant status or does not connect to Vera directly, this may not work as Vera won’t know the instant you flip that switch on or off.
lol, i have no idea what either of you are talking about, you lost me at hello… sounds complicated…
[quote=“BOFH, post:2, topic:193469”]Are you using the switch ON as the trigger for a scene that switches the Zigbee bulbs on and the switch OFF as the trigger for a second scene that switches the Zigbee bulbs off?
I’ve been doing it this way for ages in my kitchen where a physical switch controls 2 other zwave plugin modules that together handle 3 under cabinet LED strips. (I have the outlets and didn’t want to run wiring up and down the walls.
if your Zigbee bulbs show as devices in Vera it should work the same way. Just making sure you use a seperate scene for On and Off modes. Each fired by the state change of the Zwave switch. Note that since most of my switches connect directly to Vera, I have instant status even for the ones that don’t have that feature. If your zwave switch does not support instant status or does not connect to Vera directly, this may not work as Vera won’t know the instant you flip that switch on or off.[/quote]
I set up separate scenes for on and off. Do you think the issue is with the different protocols [zwave to ZigBee]? I’m not sure if my switches connect directly to Vera, I’ve included them into the network, but how do I tell if they connect directly to Vera?
Set the switch up so that turning it on triggers a scene and turning it off triggers a second scene. Use the scenes to turn the lights on and off.
That’s what I did. When I physically ‘actuate’ the switch on-- the zigbee bulbs do not turn on, even though they are programmed to do so. When I ‘actuate’ the switch off-- the zigbee bulbs do not turn off, even though they are programmed to do so.
However, when I run the scene in Vera-- everything works fine. That’s why I’m stumped. My ‘Trigger’ switch is a Go Control/Linear WS15Z-1 [on/off].
That’s what I did. When I physically ‘actuate’ the switch on-- the zigbee bulbs do not turn on, even though they are programmed to do so. When I ‘actuate’ the switch off-- the zigbee bulbs do not turn off, even though they are programmed to do so.
However, when I run the scene in Vera-- everything works fine. That’s why I’m stumped. My ‘Trigger’ switch is a Go Control/Linear WS15Z-1 [on/off].[/quote]
I think your missing step two.
After you included or added the switches to vera you should now see them in your dashboard and when you turn on and off the switch you should see that status change in vera. If this doesn’t happen then the scene will not run.
The other problem your going to run into is this switch is not an instant status switch. Without instant status it could take up to a few min to update (tell vera) that the switch has changed from on to off or vis versa. So using a non instant status switch to control a direct light is almost always going to no work correctly and add delays of 20sec to 5min with no two times being the same (see polling to understand why).
So with that said I think your zigbee bulb would be ok, but I generally use a z-wave wall outlet instead of a zigbee bulb. Your wall switch should be changed out to a switch that supports instant status or is a “scene controller”.
A scene controller (wall switch) with direct association to another z-wave outlet is your best option for good results. Z-wave association allows fast direct communication from the switch directly to the outlet without needing vera at all. If you stick to zigbee the switch (instant status) will tell vera, vera runs a scene, then sends on to bulb.
by wall outlet I mean this type
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0013V1SRY/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_p=1944687622&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B00JFK1YRE&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=RKFTW6A44KBEXKZYDH13
or could even be like this but I use the one above.
https://www.amazon.com/GE-Z-Wave-Wireless-Lighting-Control/dp/B0013V6S0Q/ref=sr_1_8?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1472156917&sr=1-8&keywords=ge+zwave+light
That’s what I did. When I physically ‘actuate’ the switch on-- the zigbee bulbs do not turn on, even though they are programmed to do so. When I ‘actuate’ the switch off-- the zigbee bulbs do not turn off, even though they are programmed to do so.
However, when I run the scene in Vera-- everything works fine. That’s why I’m stumped. My ‘Trigger’ switch is a Go Control/Linear WS15Z-1 [on/off].[/quote]
I think your missing step two.
After you included or added the switches to vera you should now see them in your dashboard and when you turn on and off the switch you should see that status change in vera. If this doesn’t happen then the scene will not run.
The other problem your going to run into is this switch is not an instant status switch. Without instant status it could take up to a few min to update (tell vera) that the switch has changed from on to off or vis versa. So using a non instant status switch to control a direct light is almost always going to no work correctly and add delays of 20sec to 5min with no two times being the same (see polling to understand why).
So with that said I think your zigbee bulb would be ok, but I generally use a z-wave wall outlet instead of a zigbee bulb. Your wall switch should be changed out to a switch that supports instant status or is a “scene controller”.
A scene controller (wall switch) with direct association to another z-wave outlet is your best option for good results. Z-wave association allows fast direct communication from the switch directly to the outlet without needing vera at all. If you stick to zigbee the switch (instant status) will tell vera, vera runs a scene, then sends on to bulb.
by wall outlet I mean this type
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0013V1SRY/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_p=1944687622&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B00JFK1YRE&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=RKFTW6A44KBEXKZYDH13
or could even be like this but I use the one above.
https://www.amazon.com/GE-Z-Wave-Wireless-Lighting-Control/dp/B0013V6S0Q/ref=sr_1_8?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1472156917&sr=1-8&keywords=ge+zwave+light[/quote]
Yeah, I’m not missing/forgetting step two, and I’ve included about 250 devices and programmed several successful scenes, some including intricate luup coding, so I’m not an entire noob here.
To your other point, I do think it is a hardware issue. The in wall switch is not a good scene trigger for the instant status/poling reasons you mention. I just wanted some corroboration on that troubleshooting.
As far as another approach, the outlet isn’t a good option for my situation, but can you recommend an on/off in wall actuator that supports instant status?
Ok, so when you turn on the light/wall switch does the vera dashboard reflect that change? I wasn’t quiet clear when you say the scene doesn’t run but you never say if Vera actually sees the switch change.
I guess that goes back to the first question.
If vera see’s the switch change and still doesn’t run the scene then you might check closer at the scene it’s self and make sure it’s setup right (I actually used PLEG instead for everything) if that still looks good then logs will be next.
If vera doesn’t see the switch change then back to hardware or hardware install.
Well there is many… Any scene controller or look into cooper & leviton brand switches mostly and read the info on them. I think the dragons now and maybe others. I have started switching to The homeSeer switches myself. I had alot of GE’s before but they are not a true instant status. Only when they are direct to controller. I heard newer models should be coming with instant status soon.
I’m thinking of trying out some automations in PLEG. The ui7 Scene builder is pretty intuitive. What do you like about using PLEG over Vera scene builder?
90% of my Events were not able to be done in scenes since you can’t do if/and/or order of operation or many other things. PLEG just allows you to do much more complex operations.
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