Are GE z-wave switches two way pollable?

[simonmason]

This may have been answered already but I found it difficult to search for this because the search function won't allow two letter search words - "GE"!

I think that it is inherent in Z-Wave - all devices are two-way so you can always tell what their status is? Is this correct and therefore the GE switches will transmit their current status each time it changes? Thanks.

 

[naething]

I think the only big missing feature people from the GE z-wave switches is the "Association Command Class".

When I change my GE switches they are updated in my vera 2 within about two seconds. That is also about how long it takes my lights to full "brighten" from off, and there is surely a little latency in the GUI. My vera is only set to poll the lights every 60 seconds. So, evidently the switches send their status any time there is a manual change.

I like my GE switches quite a bit. I changed the blue led light to be on when the switch is on instead of off (the default) on a few of them. You can also change the dim rate and flip the "dim/brighten" sides of the toggle. I also had no problem with the three way switches - installation was pretty straightforward.

Hope that help. If you need more info or want me to try something else with them just let me know.

-Rick

This may have been answered already but I found it difficult to search for this because the search function won't allow two letter search words - "GE"!

I think that it is inherent in Z-Wave - all devices are two-way so you can always tell what their status is? Is this correct and therefore the GE switches will transmit their current status each time it changes? Thanks.

 

[etc6849]

Rick, this sounds very interesting as I thought that this type of feedback required association with a controller. Do the GE outlets act the same way with Vera also?

I haven't tried the switches yet, but I use the outlets and they don't offer feedback when I manually turn them on. I'm using the ControlThink stick and a VRC0P (not Vera). However, I'm considering switching the VRC0P out for a Vera 2 and using the VRC0P plug-in (once it's released) to emulate the VRC0P with my HA system.

 

[simonmason]

Thanks, this is helpful. I don't currently use Z-Wave. I use all X-10 and I was in the process of switching to UPB but stopped this process a little while back because of two issues - cost and the appearance of the switches - I think they should look a lot better than they do when paying premium pricing. I started looking at Z-wave and was getting ready to take the plunge. Then I saw the post about Radio Shack clearing out the product so this weekend I visited three local Radio Shacks and picked up all of the inventory.

So now I am about to jump into the Z-wave world! I am just waiting for the Z-wave interface for Homeseer to show up that I ordered.

 

[naething]

I haven't tried any GE outlets yet. I have a giant box of GE z-wave devices (including some outlets!) in my garage that I just haven't gotten around to installing yet. I'm sure they would work the same way, but since you are interested I'll try to stick one in the wall sometime this week. I am a little confused about your post because you said "I thought that type of feedback required association with a controller", and the vera is a z-wave controller?

I'm quite happy with my Vera so far. It seems well designed and does what it promises. Simonmason, the z-wave sale at radio shack prompted my entry into HA (that and I'm a new first time home owner with disposable income and some free time finally after 7 years of grad school!). No complaints about any of my z-wave equipment. I think it is well designed and much more reliable than x10. I would strongly recommend getting a $10 GE lcd remote at radio shack if you can - I use it as a secondary controller to the Vera and add devices without unplugging or rebooting the Vera. That probably works with homeseer too.

However, despite being very happy with the Vera I plan on extending it with some a custom perl HA program running on a separate computer. The $2.50 ds10a door/window sensors, $6-8 ms16a/ms10a motion sensors, and dirt cheap remotes from x10 are too tempting! The Vera is pretty extendable internally with Luup (Lua based) code, but it is really easy to control externally as well. The best way seems to be polling with json and then using http requests to command/control. I'll probably use the Vera standalone when I'm not at home to save on power. Also, the remote access to Vera works great - I've logged on several times from work to unlock my house and to see what is going on on my ip cameras.

-Rick

 

[etc6849]

Vera plus the radioshack switches sound like a great value! Premise is a free option for you to explore if you want better X10 + Z-Wave integration (follow the links in my signature). If you do choose to go with a software based approach for HA, I hope you try out Vera's VRC0P Vizia RF+ emulation plug-in and report back I'm interested in using the plug-in with Vera so Premise can control locks (the VRC0P doesn't allow for control of locks yet and this is the protocol the Premise Z-Wave module is written against).

What I was trying to say earlier is not all switches allow association with a controller and not all controllers allow association with devices. Further, once a device is associated with a controller, there's sometimes a "HAIL" option that allows two way feedback and my understanding is not all z-wave lines can do this. I'm very impressed that the GE switches apparently allow for association and are hailing Vera. I know the $10 GE remote from RS didn't support associations and hailing, so I returned it.

The only other explanation could be that Vera is constantly polling all z-wave devices and this is why it takes a few seconds for a manual switch state change to show up. Either way, it sounds like your system works well, and it's impressive that a $10 switch can allow for feedback as I paid lots of $$$ for my Vizia RF+ dimmers and switches to gain this capability.

I haven't tried any GE outlets yet. I have a giant box of GE z-wave devices (including some outlets!) in my garage that I just haven't gotten around to installing yet. I'm sure they would work the same way, but since you are interested I'll try to stick one in the wall sometime this week. I am a little confused about your post because you said "I thought that type of feedback required association with a controller", and the vera is a z-wave controller?

 

[naething]

Can you integrate X10 with Premise via the cm15a? Or would I need to go get another X10 interface?

Premise /w control of z-wave through the vera is a really promising approach...

 

[etc6849]

For X10 RF: W800RF32 or X10's MR26a
For X10 over power line: CM11a or equivalent.

If the CM15a shows up as a virtual COM port it may work with the CM11a Premise module, but you'll have to download Premise and try. As for vera and premise , please let me know how things work with the Vera Vizia RF+ Emulation plug-in. Your other alternative for Premise is the VRC0P which is a secondary rs232 z-wave controller. The VRC0P module is open source and works well.

Can you integrate X10 with Premise via the cm15a? Or would I need to go get another X10 interface?

Premise /w control of z-wave through the vera is a really promising approach...

 

[etc6849]

Forgot to mention if the CM15a doesn't have a module for Premise that will work, you could make one eventhough it's USB, but you would have to use the Premise SDK and build the driver in C++ or vb.net. Luckily, the SDK is also free

 

[JimyT]

Any ideas why the MASTER switch local actions are picked up by vera, but presses to the SLAVE to not get updated? That's what's happening to me. Press master button on/off, vera gets the status and shows the change. But when I press the slave switch, the light works but vera does not update. I assume the slave switch simply tells the master what to do and does not communicate with zwave/vera.

 

[JimyT]

Also, regarding installation, I followed the GE instructions, specifically connecting SLAVE WHITE/RED to black/hot. It seems to work (except for above post). But in looking for installation discussions (there are many), I found one amazon review that stated the instructions are wrong and that slave white/red should go to white/neutral. Anyone have any experience or input? Could this be related to my polling problem?