z-wave replacement for 4-rocker in-wall switch

[Charlie Pendleton]

Brian,

Great write-up. What kind of lag time are you finding with the VRCZ4? The
situation I am in is actually at my mother’s house where there had been a
break in the wire many years ago to the outside front lights.

The light switch used to operate her front porch light and 4 other lights
out on her front lawn. After the break, the switch only works the front
porch light. However, I was able to find the wire somewhere after the break
and I have it wired to a z-wave appliance module. I have a z-wave switch in
place of the main switch (its actually a Leviton double-toggle, but don’t
recall the model #), and it was actually working for a short period where I
set it up as an association, so when the switch #1 was toggled, the main
porch light would come on and toggle #2 would be associated with that
appliance module and turn the rest on.

However, for whatever reason, it is proving to be unreliable in her house -
whether it be software updates, or something else, every couple months it
just bails and is a real pain to get her back up and running. Being an
Italian mother, she is never satisfied ;-) but now wants the ability to
turn on all her outside lights (front and rear) from multiple places (front
door and back door), so this is the impetus for my interest in the topic.

-- 
Best,
Charlie-

On September 5, 2016 at 12:53:37 PM, Brian Williams (brwill at me.com) wrote:

To all who may be interested, some, perhaps much, of what I will write here
has been presented in the past. We have had these discussions as we try to
find solutions that replicate some of the great X-10 device features, such
as the one raised here by Michael, and I infer, by Charlie.

The X-10 XPT with its family of faces provided so many opportunities. I
believe that Leviton put out a virtually identical product (all of my dead
transmitter bases seem to be X-10 Pro), but then offered the HCX4D, which I
still feel is/was a great product. I have one installed and one in reserve
– just in case. I still have a few of the X-10 Pro XPT units in place and
perhaps 2 in inventory - again, just in case. But I, too, have been looking
for an alternate technology replacement because as more electronics is
added to my house, AC noise seems to increase. I recently had to replace my
home theatre projector, and after doing so, I found that some of the X-10
devices on the same circuit would not respond, even with the projector
'off.' Unplugging the projector proved that even in 'standby' mode, it was
generating noise. I solved that particular issue with a plug-in filter.

In my kitchen, on the counter walls, I had (past tense explanation to
follow) 2 XPTs (3 button plus brighten/dim). On the side of the kitchen
peninsula I have an HCX4D. In recent times, if a button on either of the 2
XPTs was pushed, the associated LED on the HCX4D would reflect the command,
but the circuit being controlled wouldn't. In this case, neither of the
circuits under control are X-10 – 2 are Z-wave and one is a Barionet relay.
The three transmitters were obviously on one side of the split phase while
the CM11A is obviously on the other side, and the bridge seemingly is not
being effective. I have been thinking of some wiring changes intended to
improve the bridging by putting the CM11A nearer to said bridge. But, like
many, I am looking for ways to move away from X-10, and my experiences with
Z-wave have been fairly good so far (Vera still has shortcomings, but most
seems to work - which really is the crux of this discussion.)

The only Z-wave product that I have found that 'appears' to come close to
the XPT functionality is the Leviton VRCZ4-M0Z, which is a non-switch, 4
zone controller with dim/brighten – which, from a functionality
perspective, is exactly what the XPT and the HCX4D are. The problem is that
Vera treats this device as an 8-button scene controller rather than as a
4-button zone controller. When I look through the Vera discussions, I am
led to wonder if anyone else understands the distinction between scenes and
zones.

Vera seems to want to create scenes for lots of devices that aren't scene
controllers. In the kitchen, I replaced one of the XPTs with an Evolve
LTM-5, which is a single toggle remote (for Evolve switches and dimmers,
which I do not have) but which does not require a wired traveller. This,
too, Vera configures as a 2-scene controller.

I have 'succeeded' in configuring the LTM-5 and the VRCZ4-MOZ such that
XTention behaves as if they are X-10 XPTs. I will describe the setup for
each of these.

This may be a good time to acknowledge that I have tried to get the Insteon
2486 to replace the XPTs in its native protocols (i.e. not X-10). I have
yet to get a successful marriage between Vera and the 6/8 buttons of the
2486 through the Insteon Modem. I add this comment just to acknowledge this
apparent possibility that has yet to prove itself effective.

Michael mentioned the Cooper Evolve scene controller, and I am glad that he
shared his experience. I have been trying to get one, but the prices that I
have been quoted are too hefty, but with Michaels description, I see that
it would not be the solution. It is a scene controller, so considerable
bending is required to make it function as a zone controller.

So back to the VRCZ4, and Michael may recognize how Vera treats scene
controllers. When I installed the VRCZ4, Vera created a single device
(which I named 4Zone); however, interestingly, in the Scene page of the
device, there are 8 entries for scenes to be activated when the appropriate
button is pressed. For example, one defines the Scene to be activated when
button 1 is pressed On, and another scene to be activated when button 1 is
pressed Off. Each of the 4 buttons has these options. What is required then
is 8 separate scenes. But those scenes need to do something, so first,
using the Multi-virtual switch app (in Vera) I created 4 virtual switches,
which I named 4ZVS1 through 4ZVS4. These become Vera devices and XT units.

Then using the Create scenes feature of Vera, I created 8 scenes. Since I
had named my device '4Zone,' I named the 8 scenes 4Z1 On, 4Z1 Off, 4Z2 On,
4Z2 Off, and so forth until 4Z4 Off, and the action that these scenes would
invoke is changing the state of the assigned Virtual Switch. When scene 4Z1
On is executed, it turns on Virtual switch 4ZVS1, and that virtual switch
is toggled off when scene 4Z1 Off is run.

BTW, these scenes all show up in XT (as scenes), but they perform no
function and reflect no status; Vera sends no messages related to them, nor
for the 'mother' unit – 4Zone, when the buttons are pushed (although when
XT sends a command to this unit (4Zone), Vera acknowledges reflects it.
This is not useful here, but is elsewhere (see LTM-5 description below).

Then back to the VRCZ4 configuration, I assigned the 8 scenes to the 8
buttons. Pressing the On side of button 1 causes the execution of scene 4Z1
On which then turns on 4ZVS1, which Vera tells XT - and XT will perform the
action in the XT unit's ON script - and magic occurs. When the Off side of
button 1 on the VRCZ4 is pressed, script 4Z1 Off is run, which turns of
virtual switch 4ZVS1 and XT runs its Off script.

This is a working solution, but there are shortcomings. The VRCZ4 has LEDs
for each button - lit would indicate the zone is On, and unlit Off. Control
of the LED is not internal to the device but requires a separate command
from the controller. Since Vera doesn't know about this device as a zone
controller, the LED only flashes when press, then returns to dark.

And here I relate my efforts with the LTM-5. I have it installed in the
same fashion as the 4ZCZ4. Vera created a physical device entity and 2
scenes, and these three appear in XT, however, Vera will send no activity
messages regarding these three, hence a virtual switch is required, in
which to place On and Off scripts for XT to run. This all works well,
however, there is an LED on the LTM-5 and some intelligence that prevents
sequential identical messages (i.e. a second, third, or subsequent Off
seems not to be transmitted by it). This is whereXT sending a message to
the switch is useful. Because I am using the LTM-5 shares control of some
lights (a mix of Z-Wave and Barionet relays) with X-10 transmitters
(through XT). The lights may be turned on by the LTM-5, but off by a button
on the HC4XD (or one of the palm pads lying about). It is thus necessary in
the off scripts of the actual circuit to send a message to turn off the
LTM-5, or it will remain in an 'on' state (LED off), and a subsequent
pushing of the top of the switch will have no effect. The XT script for the
actual circuit (lights) issues the appropriate turn On/Off to the LTM-5.
That message goes from XT to Vera and back to the LTM-5, which brings the
LTM-5 back into synchronicity with the lights, and will respond properly
when either the top or the bottom of the switch is pressed. There are no
scripts (On nor Off) for the LTM-5 XT unit, since nothing no messages to it
are initiated on the Z-wave side. Similarly, there are no scripts for
either of the two scenes, since no messages are sent for them.

Hopefully, I have reported my experience and observations accurately. In
writing this, and flipping back and forth between Mail and XT, and punching
buttons, and testing scripts, I have actually fixed a couple of the
anomalies that I was experiencing, so writing this was a very worthwhile
exercise.

Clarifying questions or challenges are welcome.

Regards, Brian



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