All,
Am about to take the plunge into Vizia RF+ land and wondering the following, having read a fair amount through various posts that tackle specific issues people have had with scene controllers, etc. Basically, what is the preferred method at this point for Vera users for controlling Z-Wave lighting-- (A) having Vera control all scenes or (B) using Leviton Scene Controllers as well? Or do people prefer having both for “local” scene control from in-wall units in addition to access through Vera?
And do Leviton scene controllers have the ability to “trigger” other Z-Wave devices, or pass an event to Vera to have it trigger additional (non-lighting) events?
Sorry for such a newbie question, but I’m eager to hear exactly how fellow users prefer to implement their Z-Wave lighting and why…
Many thanks in advance,
Charlie
The leviton Scene controllers do have the ability to control other Zwave lighting devices. This is done through an association. However Vera seems not to be able to set these associations into a Leviton scene controller all though I am confident it will soon. Vera can handle the associations when a specific button is pressed on the leviton scene controller sort of like a tag team relay. It is faster if the local device does the action itself though especially if you are creating virtual 3-way switching.
At this stage, it’s going to come down to preference.
My preference is for Scene controllers that work directly with the Lights under their control. This is the older Method 1.
This avoids any delays introduced by the Automation Controller (Vera) sitting “in the middle” of each button press. This is the older Method 2.
The newer Luup releases let you “build” the connections between the Scene Controller Buttons and the Tasks to perform, as Scenes. The process appears simpler to work with than the Method 1 or Method 2 stuff described in the Wiki (although it’s probably working the same under the covers)
As both “types” are defined as Scenes, these can be exposed on the Dashboard and activated like any other (this is the “both” scenario you describe)
To me, by having the Scene Controllers “directly” control the lights, I avoid aggravation to others in the house when I’m working on (and rebooting) Vera to add stuff to it. It also limits exposure to any SW bugs… apart from those inherent in the ZWave controllers, that is 
In short, I can unplug Vera, and my house lighting controls, and Scene Controllers, will continue to work as expected.
Just to add my two cents…
Here’s my prioritized list of features for the Leviton 4/2/1 button scene controllers
that I use (highest to lowest):
- No perceivable delay when activating a scene.
- The ability to backup and restore scene controller settings to protect against tampering, make device replacement simple and to allow remote programming.
- The ability to trigger luup actions.
- The leviton handheld remote with latest firmware lets you set the scene ramp rate (when using leviton dimmers).
And for what it’s worth, I would’ve preferred Method 1 myself, when I recently installed a 4-scene controller, but one of the devices I wanted to control was a non-Leviton lamp module, and the scene controller wasn’t talking to it, so I had to go to Method #2 letting Vera control the scene.
So if you plan to use all Leviton devices, go for Method #1 - the response is dramatically better - but if you have a mixture of devices, not all of which are Leviton, Method #2 is probably your only option.