Using Vera with a non-Vera remote controller

Community Playground Getting Started & Initial Setup
#1

After months of looking, I finally bought a VeraLite and 1 light controller (I’ll add more later.). Because I am trying to replace the functionality I used to have with an X10 setup, I also bought a GE Wireless Lighting Control Remote. On my X-10 setup I have an automatic setting that turned the light on at a certain time and then off several hours later. Because sometimes you want the light on/off at other times than the scheduled time, I had a separate manual controller that I could push the button and turn the light on or off.

I want to duplicate that process with Vera. I setup a scene to turn the light on at dusk and off at 10:00PM. My wife doesn’t have a smart phone so I wanted a way to push a button on the GE wireless controller to turn on/off the light at other times. I can’t figure out how to use the GE device. Do I connect it as an additional controller to the Vera and if so, how do I do that? Can I pair my modules with both the Vera and the GE controller and if so, how is that done? For reference, the GE device is a Wireless Lighting Control Remote Model 45600.

Thanks

#2

Which GE remote? There are several.

#3

Lots of ways to skin this cat, but I’d recommend keeping it simple.

Add the handheld controller as a secondary controller, this will transfer all the information about the Z-Wave network’s devices into the handheld controller.

In the Vera UI5 click the Devices tab and then Add Devices. At the bottom of the page is the section “Advanced Z-Wave devices”, click Add and then “Add one”, etc.

Next you’ll need to associate a button on the hand held remote to a scene or device. To do that:

[ol][li]Click the wrench icon on the scene you wish to work with.[/li]
[li]Go to the Triggers tab and click Add. [/li]
[li]Give the trigger a name and set it to immediate.[/li]
[li]Choose your handheld remote from the Device dropdown and choose a scene is activated from the What type of event dropdown.[/li]
[li]Name the trigger.[/li]
[li]In the Which scene number field, enter the scene button number on the remote that you wish to assign to this scene. Let’s say 4[/li]
[li]Now click Confirm changes. Then click Save.[/li][/ol]

At this point pressing the Scene button and then button 4 on the handheld remote should run the scene you just configured, turning on your light.

#4

Thank you for the quick reply. Your answer works perfectly. I have one other question that I don’t understand. I created a scene that turns on the light and assigned it to button 1 on the remote. When I press the on from button 1 the light comes on and works great. When I press the off from button 1, the light goes off. I’m not complaining because that is what I want it to do, I just don’t understand how it is working. I don’t have a scene assigned to the button that turns the light off. How does it know to turn the light off?

As a test, I tried the other buttons as well. Every button turn on and off the light. Why is it doing that?

#5

This is a confusing “hidden” feature of this remote. Each numbered button sends two different commands(at least), Scene_On and Scene_Off(there is dim as well). Vera rather intelligently interprets the Scene_off as device_off or opposite of scene_on, rather than just end_of_scene.