Untamable Leviton 2-button scene controller

Other Devices & Integrations Lighting & Load Control
#1

I have quite thoroughly excluded, reset, and included this beast. It is still problematic, while its Evolve and GE/Jasco brothers and sisters are all around, never having a problem. In fact, it seems to create a weak spot in my mesh network whereby a nearby micro controller (the one I put in my oven hood) becomes unresponsive. I’m hoping maybe a few more network heals will sort this out, but I did already recently add a GE z-wave power outlet receptacle physically nearby, and it doesn’t seem to be helping much.

Quite often when I try to turn the hallway light off by pushing the switch, it doesn’t do anything, and the entire unit will cease functioning until I either turn the lights off/on via ui5 OR I just discovered that pushing either button twice quickly seems to turn off a light every single time. However, I’m sure many of you can relate, it will be annoying to have to teach this workaround to everyone who pushes this light switch.

Are there any advanced settings or other tricks I can employee to make this thing behave better?

Also, I have another question I’ve searched for but I just want to double-check: currently, when the lights are on, the status LED’s are on. When the lights are off, the status LED’s are off. Unlike most z-wave products, is it true that this cannot be changed to the opposite, i.e., LED’s are on when lights are on?

#2

I’m hoping to get these troubles ironed out, because I want to make an updated guide on how to get this thing working well, based on a post by biggsworld.

#3

It’s a 2-button scene controller and two switches in one package. The butttons are part of the scene controller. So you will have to set up [tt]on[/tt]/[tt]off[/tt] scenes in Vera for the buttons.

As it is a scene controller, the LED will be on when the scene is active. Having it controlled by Vera, you can possibly get inverted behavior, but I would suggest leaving it the way it is.

The device can be sensitive to signal issues. Also, the LED updates take a bit (seconds), so when testing, give it time. You can speed up the updates by taking a short cut (or some flavor of manual and automatic updates); have a read here.

Or, if you will never include the device in any Vera scene, you could consider doing exactly this.

#4

Hi

Thanks for the pointers. I have already set it up properly, or so I believe, based on biggsworld’s post and the mios faq. I will look at those links!

#5

It would make a lot of sense if the described antenna issue is true and the main cause of “signal issues”. Most of my reliable devices are behind it, where supposedly aluminum kills it, and while there stable devices in the forward direction, they are at an angle and blocked by furniture and/or walls. I can add another receptacle in this room but nothing will be line of sight.

#6

OK. So, if you press a button on the VRCS2, does Vera show the proper state after a few seconds; always?
If you control the built-in switches from Vera, do they switch; always; quickly?

#7

I’m glad you asked that:

Pressing the switch, not always. Sometimes nothing happens if you press either button, and sometimes they will start working later, but often times not.

from Vera, switching is always instantaneous, I think. I can verify later tonight.

#8

When you test this, make sure you’re in a known state. Perhaps turn off the load with Vera, verify the LED is off, then press the button on the switch. You should hear the switch click. But does Vera show it as being on, and did the LED come on? Repeat that a few times (but not rapidly).

(If the LED came on, then Vera will likely show the switch as being on. If the LED is not on, Vera may show the switch as being on. If so, there was likely a problem getting the LED update from Vera to the switch. If not, then there was a problem getting the instant status from the switch to Vera. Compare these results against running the scenes directly from Vera.)

#9

for information for who have this device,
I discover all the times I need reinstall this device because it crashes and I lost control of that, I could be solve the problem only power off the circuit of that belongs.

now when it stops I turn off and on the circuit and all is ok again.

#10

^for me, a periodic circuit braker flip is just not an acceptable solution.

I’ve added another z-wave device in the area, just in an attempt to improve things, but it seems that it’s no good. I think I may have to try static routing next, seeing as how this weak link in the chain is seemingly causing another device in the kitchen to malfunction.

#11

Try having the scene that is activated explicitly turn on and off the LED lights. I found that this was the only way I could get the controller to function consistently. Whatever your on scene is, go to the advanced tab, select the scene controller, select SetLight as the operation, new value set to 0 to turn off the LED and 1 to turn on the LED, and then Indicator to the LED button number 1st =1, 2nd = 2.

Here are more details about what I discovered with using a Leviton 4 scene controller. It’s now working consistently. I also added triggers for scenes to turn on the LED light is I turn it on using the regular z-wave wall switch instead of the controller.

Good luck!

Info was taken from my post in this thread:
http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,22379.msg167428.html#msg167428

[quote=“kenray536, post:13, topic:178757”][quote=“greysonmorrow, post:8, topic:178757”]Thank you all for the replies. So in theory, if I tie the wires together for an always on experience and use the GE 45631, linked below, it will work?

[url=http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003OUWABU/ref=s9_simh_se_p60_d0_i3?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=auto-no-results-center-1&pf_rd_r=1V3KXA0WZ1GCHZEQ7Y8K&pf_rd_t=301&pf_rd_p=1263465782&pf_rd_i=VRCS4-MRX]http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003OUWABU/ref=s9_simh_se_p60_d0_i3?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=auto-no-results-center-1&pf_rd_r=1V3KXA0WZ1GCHZEQ7Y8K&pf_rd_t=301&pf_rd_p=1263465782&pf_rd_i=VRCS4-MRX[/url]

I found the Leviton switch, but that is $144. Just hoping to save a little bit of money.
[url=http://www.homedepot.com/p/Leviton-Vizia-RF-4-Button-Scene-Controller-White-031-VRCS4-M0Z/100662458#.Us_rq3k7CdI]http://www.homedepot.com/p/Leviton-Vizia-RF-4-Button-Scene-Controller-White-031-VRCS4-M0Z/100662458#.Us_rq3k7CdI[/url][/quote]

I am using the Leviton switch that you mentioned the VRCS4-M0Z. My switch was controlling an outlet, so I tied the line and load wires together to make it always be on.

I have the top button controlling the philips hue bulb via an On Scene and turning it off via an off scene. The LED lights can be flaky causing them not to go on and off properly. This will cause the controller to get confused at times. To get around this, within the advanced tab of the scene, I select the controller and set it to explicity turn the LED light on or off depending on which scene I am running.

I have the 2nd and 3rd buttons running each running single scene that turn on/off my Kitchen and dining table lights. I’ve found that on these two scenes, the dimmer up and dimmer down buttons always work. The key is to use the setloadleveltarget in the advanced tab. This appears to put the switch/light into a mode where it allows the dimming via the buttons.

The 4th light runs an advanced Hue scene that turns on a total of 6 hues lights to the color and dim level I want and also turns off all other lights.

I’ve been running this setup for about 3 weeks now and it’s been great! The reponse time of the top hue button has been very fast for me with the light turning on 1 to 2 seconds after I hit the button. My controller is about 40 feet from the switch between 2 walls.

The controller was a little tricky to pair but easy to configure once it was added to the z-wave network. I have a seperate on/off scene for each button (8 total). And I make sure to explicity turn on/off the scene controller LED lights in order to make sure that my status is always correct and the scene is controller is in sync. I also have triggers on the kitchen and dimmer lights that set the scene controller LEDs to the correct status in case someone turns the lights on via the normal wall switch.

I bought mine from Amazon:

There is also a more expensive version of the switch that you can buy that has local load control if you don’t want to tie the two wires together. I believe you lose functioning of one of the buttons on the swich if you do this though.

#12

Check out this post for a solution to your LED lights:
http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,23055.0.html

#13

Wow I really procrastinated on this! My wife said to me several times lately “This light never works”. Well, it works, but inconsistently.

Am I right that all of the advice in this thread is actually related to the state of the LED indicators? This actually is a low priority to me. I need this light to turn on or off when you press the button. Is one of these tips you guys shared with me actually related to this and not the state of the LED’s?

Or is there a worthy successor to this beast that isn’t so problematic yet?