I have a system of about 30+ leviton vizia rf+ switches that all support “instant status” feedback. I believe there are other switches on the market that support this as well, I am not sure if they are all implemented the same way though.
It appears to me that when a switch that supports this is operated at the local level (i.e. manually pushed) it sends a message out to vera (the primary controller) something like “hey something just happened, poll me!” and in return vera polls that device almost instantly. The poll comes back and vera reports the switches new status…
Has anyone else noticed this? I noticed it was working in a previous build, but may not be anymore in the Luup beta (build 940)? Can anyone else confirm or deny this?
Also, feel free to correct me on what is going on here or if vera has ever even supported this “feature” (it appeared to work according to my crude testing methods)… I know there are people on here that know the zwave protocol much better than I.
I noticed that there is a huge difference between my devices. The ones manufactured by Merten are always appearing with the correct status on the dashboard. When I push one of these switches the status will change on the dashboard seconds later. Other switches I have from duewi (much cheaper) do not work this way. The dashboard does not even show a status at all.
What is interesting is, that most of the time the cheaper ones act like the Mertens when I copy and paste the Merten’s capabilities in the device section. Unfortunately that only lasts until Vera configures the node again.
Leviton uses HAIL feature to send change feedback to the controller. AFAIK there can only be one HAIL destination, unfortunately. Also, a Leviton device will send a HAIL message to a pre-configured controller ONLY when it gets switched locally OR by that one controller. That means, if it was changed by another controller, the HAIL won’t be sent to anyone.
Kind of limited implementation… Especially, if you consider using Scene or Zone controller or even multiple remotes. With Scene/Zone controller you definitely want the devices it controls to send HAIL back to that controller, otherwise it gets out of sync.
Leviton Master controller has this under Menu → System Setup → Advanced → RTS Devices → Set Hail