Elk and Vizia two-way comm not working

[shenandoah75]

I remember reading a similar post, but my attempts to search for it haven't proven fruitful...

I've had elk integrated to vizia for years... I am not sue exactly when two way stopped working, but it has. I've rebooted the elk, the rzcop to no avail. Elk is on latest firmware/etc (using elk wireless version). Outbound commands work fine. i.e. from the m1xep or third party integration (read: J9), telling elk to turn on/off or change level works. And the level is recognized in the elk. But turning on/off lights at the switch doesn't reflect at the elk at all.

Any tips appreciated.

 

[shenandoah75]

I've tried a few things...

Using lumenlink to see if i get notification
monitoring serial port with realterm to see if rzcop sends any info when a device state changes

Both seem to imply the answer is no. I get nothing on serial port when changing any dimmer's on/off/level
I've issued an update command to the RZCOP with no change in behavior...

 

[johnnynine]

I posted this over on the LumenLink forum, but I'll post it here as well:

Since I also have ViziaRF in my house let me stress how easy it is to corrupt your installation. I have have this happen several times and had to factory reset everything and reconfigure (not fun).

If you were an early adopter like me (and as I recall you were) then you likely have a buggy remote (like me) and the installation process can give you problems.

When the ViziaRF network gets corrupt it is very common for the RZC0P to not to announce device level changes to the pc.

In my case I also get virtual 2 way switches that don't get the receive the state change message from the manual change (such as turning on a dimmer switch).

I'm not sure if that is what you are seeing but I wanted to make you aware of it.

I hesitate to say it, but to be honest I've had so many ViziaRF network problems that I should have taken Martin's advice and gone with UPB... but then who knows what adventure that could have been too. -_-

Johnny

 

[shenandoah75]

(also copying from the other forum):

Yep we were both earlier adopters and all my in-wall units are pre RF+... I did upgrade the remote to the RF+ version though...

Any way to tell if it's corrupt? and/or things to avoid to insure i don't so so in the future? The handheld looks good, my scene controllers all seem to register there associated devices ok still... My virtual three-ways all work in both directions with response on the controller if changed on the dimmer.

 

[shenandoah75]

thx to john for asking about difference in old/new remoptes, i solved my issue...

In the old remote, associations were straight forward - you went to association menu. On the new remote, the associations on the RZCOP still showed all devices linked from that menu item. But when i went to test menu, source = any dimmer, dest = rzcop, i got "all failed". So i went in from the other direction (the device (via dev properties instead of the controller) and nothing was checked (again despite the fact that RS232 setup association menu showed everything was.

Not wanting to go and manual reassociate all devices one by one, went back to associations and resaved. It began updating and when done, two-way is back on (and the device level now correctly shows the association too).

I'm happy... (luckily i only had to rebuild my network from scratch once and it s when i swapped to the newer remote) I have added dimers and controllers since then and updates have gone smoothly. I have no idea what caused the partial delink of the RZCOP, but it's all back up now ...

 

[johnnynine]

That's good news.

I've tried to get Leviton to replace my Master Remote since I have never been able to get through a full installation without the remote locking up or some other bug. This has caused issues with each attempt to configure the network. My remote is one of the originals so it doesn't have upgradable firmware.

Unfortunately Leviton is not willing to replace my remote. There response was that I needed to buy a new one or send my in for an upgrade at my expense... so much for the warranty I guess.

I wonder if the ThinkEssentials software could "fix" my ViziaRF network. I'm not looking forward to reentering all my device names using the ViziaRF remote yet again.

Johnny

 

[pgray007]

I hate to resurect an old thread but I'm having a similar problem and also an early adopter with old "non Plus" switches, VZC0P and remote in effect.

All the Vizia stuff in the wall works great, including the 3 ways. The Elk interface however probably successfully controls the lighting about 5% of the time and doesn't seem to get any status updates (to test I made a rule to have the Elk say something when I pushed various light switches, and it never worked).

How can I "rebuild" my network, and will that even help? Do I need to upgrade something on my remote or VZC0P (my Elk has the latest firmware).

Any help is hughely appreciated since we've largely given up on automating the lights and have about a grand in (very pretty) non-automated switches.

 

[intozwave]

I wonder if the ThinkEssentials software could "fix" my ViziaRF network. I'm not looking forward to reentering all my device names using the ViziaRF remote yet again.

Johnny

The ControlThink Pro software should be able to fix your network and you will also be able to optimize the network B)

 

[intozwave]

I hate to resurect an old thread but I'm having a similar problem and also an early adopter with old "non Plus" switches, VZC0P and remote in effect.

All the Vizia stuff in the wall works great, including the 3 ways. The Elk interface however probably successfully controls the lighting about 5% of the time and doesn't seem to get any status updates (to test I made a rule to have the Elk say something when I pushed various light switches, and it never worked).

How can I "rebuild" my network, and will that even help? Do I need to upgrade something on my remote or VZC0P (my Elk has the latest firmware).

Any help is hughely appreciated since we've largely given up on automating the lights and have about a grand in (very pretty) non-automated switches.

A couple of quick questions - Is your remote firmware upgradeable? Are you running the latest firmware? Is it RZC0P-1LW or an old VRC0P-1LW? Neither of these are field upgradeable - the new VRC0P-1LW which just came out is.

 

[etc6849]

I would use the ControlThink software and stick over the remote (or the leviton stick plus the free vizia rf installer software). Basically, the remote is a complete waste of money and I wish I'd never purchased it! It does have some nice features, but you can get the USB stick + software for under $50 and it's to setup the network too... You also can unplug your primary controller (USB stick) after you're done setting up your network.

I'm not sure how the Elk's uses the VRC0P, but on my installation I found I could reduce the error count by a factor of 100 by not appending ,UP to every RS232 command. If you use this method, you'll still get status feedback on manual presses. I only get ~5 failed transmissions out of 10000 commands doing this on a 40 node network. The draw back may be if you use other scene/zone controllers with the network and don't issue all commands ending ",UP"...I'm not sure if all controllers would get the update!?! They may, but I haven't tested this type of set-up.

I use my PC (via my cellphone, any web browser, X10 palm pad remotes, URC remotes, etc) to issue all z-wave commands anyways so this doesn't affect me. The setup I have works great with an Elk M1G and Vizia RF+ so you may want to check it out (see links in my signature). The software is free and the VRC0P driver has been through 100's of hours of testing and is open source.

 

[pgray007]

A couple of quick questions - Is your remote firmware upgradeable? Are you running the latest firmware? Is it RZC0P-1LW or an old VRC0P-1LW? Neither of these are field upgradeable - the new VRC0P-1LW which just came out is.

I have the initial Vizia stuff, so my interface is just marked RZC0P (no VR or 1LW to be found). My remote also appears pretty old, and has no USB cable or other means of upgrading firmware. Firmware on the Elk appears to be the latest and greatest.

So to clarify, it sounds like my approach should be:

1) Replace RZC0P with the new model above
2) Abandon the remote (I never used it for anything other than programming) and get the ControlThink Pro software and USB interface
3) Rebuild the network
4) Enjoy working lighting bliss

Anything I'm missing?

 

[pgray007]

I'm not sure how the Elk's uses the VRC0P, but on my installation I found I could reduce the error count by a factor of 100 by not appending ,UP to every RS232 command.

How would one accomplish this on the Elk, or is this a setting in ControlThink?

 

[etc6849]

I doubt this can be accomplished on the Elk. Since the Premise driver is open source I just modified things to behave this way. It did speed things up and reduce the error count and is worth looking into if you use a PC based system that is open...

How would one accomplish this on the Elk, or is this a setting in ControlThink?