Hi All...
I just got off the phone with Leviton tech support with a bunch of questions about Vizia RF in general and also their compatibility with the Acenti devices. I thought others here might be interested, so here are my questions and their answers. Of course, this is somewhat paraphrased and is not a word for word transcript.
Q. Are Vizia dimmers compatible with Acenti, so I can have an Acenti dimmer at one end of a circuit and a Vizia dimmer at the other end?
A. No, these are not compatible. The electronics won’t allow for that.
Q. What about Vizia and Acenti three way switches?
A. No, not at all. There are still electronic issues. A Vizia must pair with a Vizia, an Acenti must pair with an Acenti and a Decora must pair with a Decora.
Q. Are there any plans to make Acenti devices Z-Wave compatible?
A. Currently, Acenti home automation plans involve the use of a wired, low voltage system. There may or may not be Acenti Z-Wave devices someday.
Q. Are the Monster Z-Wave devices exactly the same as the Vizia devices are there differences?
A. “I can’t comment on that.”
Q. It seems that the Leviton training materials and documents use the term “zone” and “area” interchangeably. How is a “zone” different that an “area”?
A.
The term “zone” refers to a geographical place, like a bedroom or a kitchen. It does not refer to any particular device or set of devices.
The term “area” refers to a group of actual Z-Wave devices to be controlled together. An area is a list of devices found in a zone, so all the switches and dimmers in your kitchen, for example.
Q. In a wired 3 way circuit, must I use Z-Wave enabled Vizia devices at both ends, or does just 1 end need to be Z-Wave?
A. Right now, in a wired 3 way circuit, one end is a master Vizia Z-Wave unit and the other end must be a “coordinating” slave Vizia unit. The coordinating unit is not a Z-Wave device and it has no LEDs. The “matching” slave device is also not a Z-Wave device but does have LEDs and should work, but the LEDs on it are interfering with the master dimmer in a way that creates unreliability. Engineering is working on this problem.
Q. Is this a problem in a virtual 3 way circuit?
A. This is not a problem in a virtual 3 way circuit (one that is RF only and has no wires directly between the switches). For a virtual 3 way circuit, use a Vizia master device on the load and a Vizia 1 button scene controller as the virtual other end of the circuit.
Q. What does a "virtual switch” need as far as power?
A. Just an unswitched 110VAC power feed.
Q. Are there any plans to have a battery powered virtual Vizia switch?
A. Marketing is evaluating the market for this. It has been requested.
Q. Will a Harmony 890 remote work with Vizia?
A. Yes, but all the support for the remote will have to come from Logitech. Leviton will still support the devices but not the remote.
Q. One of the issues raised with the Logitech remote is that it can only be a primary remote. Can the Leviton remote be secondary?
A. Yes, it can be primary or secondary
Q. Is the Leviton remote with timer capability available yet and if not, when will it be?
A. Not yet, a few months.
I just got off the phone with Leviton tech support with a bunch of questions about Vizia RF in general and also their compatibility with the Acenti devices. I thought others here might be interested, so here are my questions and their answers. Of course, this is somewhat paraphrased and is not a word for word transcript.
Q. Are Vizia dimmers compatible with Acenti, so I can have an Acenti dimmer at one end of a circuit and a Vizia dimmer at the other end?
A. No, these are not compatible. The electronics won’t allow for that.
Q. What about Vizia and Acenti three way switches?
A. No, not at all. There are still electronic issues. A Vizia must pair with a Vizia, an Acenti must pair with an Acenti and a Decora must pair with a Decora.
Q. Are there any plans to make Acenti devices Z-Wave compatible?
A. Currently, Acenti home automation plans involve the use of a wired, low voltage system. There may or may not be Acenti Z-Wave devices someday.
Q. Are the Monster Z-Wave devices exactly the same as the Vizia devices are there differences?
A. “I can’t comment on that.”
Q. It seems that the Leviton training materials and documents use the term “zone” and “area” interchangeably. How is a “zone” different that an “area”?
A.
The term “zone” refers to a geographical place, like a bedroom or a kitchen. It does not refer to any particular device or set of devices.
The term “area” refers to a group of actual Z-Wave devices to be controlled together. An area is a list of devices found in a zone, so all the switches and dimmers in your kitchen, for example.
Q. In a wired 3 way circuit, must I use Z-Wave enabled Vizia devices at both ends, or does just 1 end need to be Z-Wave?
A. Right now, in a wired 3 way circuit, one end is a master Vizia Z-Wave unit and the other end must be a “coordinating” slave Vizia unit. The coordinating unit is not a Z-Wave device and it has no LEDs. The “matching” slave device is also not a Z-Wave device but does have LEDs and should work, but the LEDs on it are interfering with the master dimmer in a way that creates unreliability. Engineering is working on this problem.
Q. Is this a problem in a virtual 3 way circuit?
A. This is not a problem in a virtual 3 way circuit (one that is RF only and has no wires directly between the switches). For a virtual 3 way circuit, use a Vizia master device on the load and a Vizia 1 button scene controller as the virtual other end of the circuit.
Q. What does a "virtual switch” need as far as power?
A. Just an unswitched 110VAC power feed.
Q. Are there any plans to have a battery powered virtual Vizia switch?
A. Marketing is evaluating the market for this. It has been requested.
Q. Will a Harmony 890 remote work with Vizia?
A. Yes, but all the support for the remote will have to come from Logitech. Leviton will still support the devices but not the remote.
Q. One of the issues raised with the Logitech remote is that it can only be a primary remote. Can the Leviton remote be secondary?
A. Yes, it can be primary or secondary
Q. Is the Leviton remote with timer capability available yet and if not, when will it be?
A. Not yet, a few months.