M1XSLZW feedback

[ddennerline]

I just finished replacing my M1XSP/Z-Wave this week with M1XSLZW and wanted to provide some feedback to Cocooner’s. I have been using a M1XSP solution for more than two years.

1. The documentation is very detailed and includes integrated instructions for Elk and Leviton Z-Wave systems. There are detailed example rules lights, thermostats, and locks.
   
2. The M1XSLZW board has been redesigned. From what little I can tell, the RS-485 connectivity, baud rate jumpers, and general purpose jumpers have been eliminated. Integrating the VRC0P+3 was painless. I believe the Motorola 9s08 (http://www.datasheet...-datasheet.html) is the same on both boards.
   
3. The M1XSLZW does a complete scan of Z-Wave network on startup, so you don’t have to walk around to light switches and toggle them in order to get the entire system system correct.
   
4. You no longer have to use LumenLink to build groups and scenes into the VRC0P+3. The Leviton RF Toolkit now synchronizes all the “Areas” into VRC0P+3.
   
5. I could control the front door Kwikset lock immediately. Having a close all locks function when armed stay/away rule provides some extra piece of mind (if you forgot). I did install a VRP03+3 plugin dimmer halfway between Elk VRC0P+3 and front door. It does in fact take 6 seconds to fully lock door as documentation indicates.
   
6. Using Leviton RF Toolkit provides a much better experience than ControlThink as primary controller. It’s much easier to build, deploy, and troubleshoot network.
   
7. Lock low-battery support notification. This is a nice to have feature. I only have one lock right now and the lock light is supposed to flash red when batteries need to be replaced. But if someone had a Z-Wave lock on infrequently used entrance this would be helpful.
   
8. Multitude of lock, unlock, bolt failed notifications (I have not tested this feature yet).
   
9. Support for Z-wave Scenes (I have not test this feature yet).
   
10. Support for Group “dimmer level” support
    
11. A re-scan of Z-Wave network can be initiated by ElkRP rule (same as done during startup). You may run this task once a night just to make sure all your network status is accurate.

If Elk is listening, these items should be considered IMHO.

1. Support for infrequent polling of devices. The ElkRP rule driven network scan is a good first step, but it takes quite a while to scan whole network. What I really want is ping devices during periods where network activity is low. These queries should have lower priority than ElkRP rules.
   
2. Importing Leviton RF Toolkit lighting file – similar to recently added RadioRA2 solution. It’s a big pain to have to correlate and manual enter all the devices/groups/scenes into ElkRP
   
3. Having to manipulate locks using a good number of ‘text’ string rules (i.e., >UNLOCK1) is odd. ElkRP should have “advance lock” class – similar to thermostats.
   
4. (too late for this one). Board troubleshooting and activity status improvements using a more advanced mechanism that a single flashing led light (e.g., a two digit led).

 

[mghan]

Great summary. I have a similar setup (minus the locks). I'd also add that it's important to associate (using RF Installer) the VRCOP with any Thermostats (it's not selected by default).

Have you made sense out of the 24 "buttons" in the VRCOP? The M1 seems to be able to control the "buttons" more like a zone than a scene - in other words you can't set lights to preset dim levels, they simply restore to the prior level. If have found no information on Leviton's site.

Mike

 

[ddennerline]

If you look at page 7 of M1XSLZW, it shows an example rule where a group/area’s level is set to 60% [Note: the shipping documentation is wrong]. The Leviton RF Toolkit (LRFTK) > VRC0P+3 UI buttons are a visualization of which areas are synchronized to VRP03 – similar to how a 4 zone/scene controller is programmed. There was no way transfer the area/scene configuration prior to VRC0P+3. This is one of the biggest benefits in moving the VRC0P+3 is area/scene configuration synchronization.

From what I can tell, the VRC0P+3 supports 24 configurable areas. Note the terminology keeps changing – Area, Zone, and Group are all aliases for turning on/off a set of lights.

You can force the VRC0P+3 to accept scene configuration by converting lights within a group into a scene. Use LRFTK to expand associations > ElkM1 > GroupA > LightA tree control, then right click on LightA. You will see a Save Scene level button. This option create a scene on this LightA that can be controlled from the group command. The ElkRP uses the Automation > Lights > Set Level dialog entry according the latest “M1XSLZ L638 Rev. 1 1/30/2012” documentation reference page 7. You would set the level to a number from 1-5. I am not quite sure if 5 is correct as Leviton's switches only support four programable scenes.