Best Z-Wave Controller?

[Dean Roddey]

Definitely, on the beaming front, don't buy any battery powered units that don't support beaming at this point. And, for the non-battery powered ones, also get ones that support beaming so that they can act as repeaters for the battery powered ones. And certainly don't buy any that don't support associations.
 
Our latest Z-Wave driver doesn't support polling, because it's just so unwieldy in the Z-Wave world to do that. It depends on associations for status, except at driver startup where (if possible) it gets initial values from the units (if they aren't non-beaming battery powered units.) It can still do a very slow poll for some stuff that isn't async reported and doesn't require rapid polling, like battery level, but that's it. It doesn't attempt to poll non-reporting units at a rate that would make the status info fresh enough to be of use, because it just puts too much load on the Z-Wave network and any unit that's on the edge in terms of signal quality causes problems.

 

[Deane Johnson]

Got the new stick today.  It appears to be working OK.  I loaded Installer with the stick in the USB port and it loaded and appears to give me what I would expect to see.  All of the options are now available and not greyed out.  At this early stage, it appears the first two were indeed defective.
 
I'm wondering if Leviton put out some bad ones, or if Amazon keeps sending the same one back out.  We'll never know.
 
So, tomorrow it's build a new Z-Wave network.  With only 11 nodes, that wont' be the biggest challenge.  It's still white knuckle time getting it transferred to the VRC0P and then working in CQC.  No reason to think that won't happen, it's just always a tense time until you know the issues are behind you.

 

[drvnbysound]

There are some reasonable instructions in the Elk documentation for the XSLZW module on building the network and transferring the network to the VRC0P.

 

[Dean Roddey]

If you right click on the VRCOP in the Leviton software's Devices page, one of the options is to update the VRCOP. Don't put it into replicate mode manually, the software will do it. Once it completes, then do a rescan on the CQC side to pick up the changes.

 

[Deane Johnson]

Thanks both of you.  These tips and instructions help save a lot of frustration when I avoid doing the wrong thing to start with.  I tend to be a "push the button and see what happens" person rather than a read the directions and get it right the first time person.
 
I'll let this lie until tomorrow when I'm fresh.  Just spent the day at the Governor's Mansion supervising my installation chief who was re-doing some of the window treatments.  Interesting place with all of the security people running around in black suits with little earphones in their ears.  I was cleared for full access, so got to see a lot of things including  the Governor's private quarters.  I stuck my head in one little room and there were two guys in suits watching security monitors, just like in the movies.  This place was a carbon copy of the TV series West Wing.

 

[ddennerline]

It does appear that Leviton has silently pulled the 1.1.3.0. I would not use 1.1.2.0 as eventually a crash will trigger. I experienced all kinds of issues with any older versions. Just to reverify the instability issue, I downloaded software directly from Leviton. I just downgraded from 1.1.3.0 and now the, “Not connected to a supported RF Installer UBS Stick.” message is being shown.
 
I suspect Leviton pulled the software because older VRUSB probably does not play nicely with newer version (but this is just a guess).
 
If you call Leviton and beg them, they might provide the latest version.

 

[Deane Johnson]

To close it off, my Z-Wave is working to perfection with CQC.  I'm using the Installer software and the stick.  Levtion software is klutzy, but it gets by.
 
I think I may have figured out why the sticks kept coming up defective.  They have to be plugged into my laptop before the laptop is booted up.  I thought it would be sufficient to simply have them plugged in before loading the software, but not so.

 

[NeverDie]

@NeverDie: If I understand your problem correctly you just want to extend the range of the remote connections? Or do you want to have like a failover cluster - like for database servers (if one controller fails it should utilize the other one)? In case you just want to have a more reliable connection I could recommend Z Wave range extenders since Z Wave is fully mesh networking compatible. This is the Aeon Labs Aeotec Z-Wave Range Extender/Repeater which works quite well:

Repeaters can have a place, but in my experience if the number of hops is greater than two, messages can encounter lengthy delivery delays or just outright fail.  Maybe not every time, but a noticeable amount.  In theory Z-wave should be good for 4 hops, but in reality it seems that maybe two is all you can count on.  I suspect there is some fundamental flaw in the way z-wave implemented message routing.  Maybe it will get corrected in the new z-wave chips, but I doubt it  will help those of us who have a large sunk cost in legacy z-wave equipment.

 

[IVB]

I have a VRUSB from Amazon. Never worked and beyond return period. If I buy one from AO, can I have confidence it'll work?

 

[batwater]

At least you'll have support to work through any issues that come up.