I’m new here and thinking of starting with a vera project to automate lights, shutters, music and my home theater system.
I’ve been reading a lot, but I’m not clear with the use of scenes and starting them.
Something I would like to do is when switching the light on in a room, automatically switch turn on my sonos system for that zone.
Is that possible with a normal z-wave wall switch.
Will it be possible to start a vera scene from a standard z-wave switch, or do you have to use a scene controller for this?
In a different topic I read that Vera is only polling the switches once in a while and that the scene only would start after polling it’s status?
You can use a zwave switch to trigger a scene.
When you do it is pretty much immediately triggered.
I don’t have a sonos so I can’t speak to how the zones work.
Since you are starting out… I would install the virtual switch plugin and create a few scenes with a zwave switch as a trigger etc. and switch on and off the virtual switch from that scene.
This will give you the idea of what to expect and something to build on.
Scene controller switches can start scenes on their own without the use of a z-wave gateway like the vera.
Normal switches can start scenes too, but only in combination with a vera gateway?
Confusing as it might be, there are two scene concepts.
Vera scenes - These are action “scripts” that reside inside Vera. They are used to manipulate devices, turning lights on or off, etc. Though scene controllers and switches have no awareness of these Vera scenes, Vera can use the activation of switches as triggers that will cause Vera to run such a scene when the switch is activated or motion is detected.
Scene controller(switch) scenes - These are stored within the scene controller switch and are lists of devices that the scene controller will activate when pressed. They are more close to device associations than the potentially complex Vera scenes. These local scenes are independent of Vera and Vera does not have a real awareness of these scenes or any way of activating them.
So why would you need a scene controller then if you are using a vera?
From what I’m understanding you can program any possible scene or list of commands in Vera.
The only thing that I can think of is that scene controllers will still work when Vera is down.
Scene capable switches and scene controllers can activate devices when Vera is down.
They can also be used to trigger scenes and more complex logic on Vera. A common scenario is the Leviton 4 button scene controller. It can directly control lights and dimmers. But, it can also be used to trigger scenes on Vera that do similar stuff or much more. But, they have no timers or schedules or programability like Vera offers.
Edit: Where as a switch has a directly connected load, scene controllers might have no directly connected load. They can directly control other Z-Wave devices, wirelessly over Z-Wave, or serve as buttons to trigger Vera scenes.
Another advantage to scene controller switches is if you don’t have the Vera interface in front of you. So if you have a “Movie” scene setup on your Vera that lowers the blinds, turns off the livingroom lights, and dims the kitchen and hall lights to 20%, you could simply press a button on the scene controller switch to activate it. Another button could be for your “Good night” scene that locks all the doors, turns off none essential lights, and dims the hallway and stair lights.