Z-Wave Starter Questions for Lighting Control

Community Playground General Discussions
1

I’m going to be using Verde and I plan to use Vizia RF+ devices. Two quick questions:

  1. The Vizia RF+ documentation says they have a 128 device limit. The Z-Wave device limit for a network is higher - around 225, correct? If I use the Vizia RF+ devices with Verde will I be able to have up to the full 225 limit, or will I be stuck with 128? The reason I ask is I probably will need around 175 total Z-Wave nodes in my network as I expand it over time.

  2. Vizia offers “zone” controllers and “scene” controllers. I see two different version of their four button in wall controller. I basically want to use these devices in a flexible way - for example, one button on the controller might turn on and off outside lights. The second button might activate a particular group of lights dimmed at a certain level. Is this possible, and which device makes more sense to get, the zone controller version or the scene controller version?

Thanks!

2

  1. I have no idea… I assume you still get the higher limit and 128 may just be the limit of the Vizia controller. I am using Vizia RF+ switches but am nowhere near the 128 limit.

  2. I have a 4 button scene controller and a 1 button scene controller. Honestly, I am not too impressed with them. They will do as you want (setting a button to a specific scene in vera). But, they are a little weird in the way they function. This is not due to vera, but to how the switch itself works. You can have each button push on the switch treated as an “event” in vera. Vera then takes this event and triggers whatever scene you wish. The action is not instant, and there are some funny “procedures” that have to take place in order to shut off your scene. I suggest you read through the MCV wiki page that deals with the vizia scene controllers. It explains this in full length. Honestly, I probably would not have bought them if I had known they would be so finicky. But perhaps when my network actually works the way I want it to and vera has conditional statements I will be able to setup some useful scenes triggered by them.

3

128 nodes is not a hard limit. It is the recommeded size and the largest amount of nodes that Leviton will officially support. You can add more just don’t call Leviton if you have issues.

4

I would agree with ASI . Large number of nodes will great a slow network.