My conversation with Leviton tech support

[jarcher]

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.

 

[jarcher]

I wanted to add an update to this. Reading the Leviton docs that come with the devices, I saw that the docs for the 4 button zone controller explain that a "zone" is the loads which are controlled by 1 device, such as a single dimmer switch. The 4 button "area controller" allows up to 32 devices to be associated with a single button. So for my thinking, I am going to think of a "zone" as a single device.

Also, I meant to post this in the original message. In my home, I have an Acenti 3 way switch which controls an outlet. The other end of the circuit is an ordinary 3 way switch which has been in that wall for decades, since before I owned this house. It works fine. I have to admit, I am skeptical that, at least for the 3 way switches, the Vizia has to be paired with a Vizia. That makes no sense. A "slave" device would not be Z-Wave enabled and a switch is a simple device. Maybe there is an issue with the matching dimmers, due to the LEDs.

Anyhow, I will try it and post more when I see what happens.

 

[johnnynine]

Thanks for the update.

Leviton's nomenclature is very confusing, they do use different terms for what appear to be the same thing in several instances.

I have several Vizia RF switches installed but have had the master remote backordered for about a month. Where can I get a Vizia RF master remote that is in stock?

 

[shenandoah75]

I got mine (and most of my stuff) from asihome... i haven't found lower advertised prices anywhere- if it's not on the website, they usually stilll have the stuff (the elk Crystal receiver being latest example)

btw - the one i got is the original, not the timer one... I plan to automate with the pending Elk Serial firmware (not sure what i'll do with the zwave unit which will be worthless then - think you're in the same boat now too!)

-brad

 

[ASIHome]

We have the RZCPG-BSG's in-stock at ASIHome.

 

[johnnynine]

btw - the one i got is the original, not the timer one... I plan to automate with the pending Elk Serial firmware (not sure what i'll do with the zwave unit which will be worthless then - think you're in the same boat now too!)

The good thing is that I never even took the elk zwave module out of the box and I suppose still considered new (since I still don't have a master controller to program anything). So I'm hoping I can return it or in wort case sell it here or an auction site.

 

[jarcher]

I called Leviton again after noticing that the docs for the 15 amp switch say a neutral is required, even for a single pole application. I wanted to verify that. Yes, it's true. If you have a switch wired to merely open and close a hot wire, you can't use the Leviton Vizia Z-Wave switch. You can, however, use a dimmer, either 600W or 1,000W. A 15A circuit, I believe off the top of my head, is good for 1,440 watts max.

So now, I am running around opening switch boxes to see where I have a neutral and where I don't. Pain in the butt.

 

[Herdfan]

I called Leviton again after noticing that the docs for the 15 amp switch say a neutral is required, even for a single pole application. I wanted to verify that. Yes, it's true. If you have a switch wired to merely open and close a hot wire, you can't use the Leviton Vizia Z-Wave switch.

In case you were wondering why a dimmer doesn't require a neutral: incandescent and some ballast allow an electronic dimmer to bleed through a very small amount of cuurent to power the switch. There is not enough current to notice on a bulb, but it is flowing.

Flourescents and other ballast fixtures do not allow this bleeding of current, so the switch requires a neutral to bleed the current to power the switch. Lutrons are the same way.

 

[jarcher]

I called Leviton again after noticing that the docs for the 15 amp switch say a neutral is required, even for a single pole application. I wanted to verify that. Yes, it's true. If you have a switch wired to merely open and close a hot wire, you can't use the Leviton Vizia Z-Wave switch.

In case you were wondering why a dimmer doesn't require a neutral: incandescent and some ballast allow an electronic dimmer to bleed through a very small amount of cuurent to power the switch. There is not enough current to notice on a bulb, but it is flowing.

Okay, thanks for explaining that. But in the dimmer, if the dimmer is wired inline with the hot, where does the current bleed through to? If the dimmer takes a bit of current to power itself, it becomes a load. How is the current it uses return?

 

[johnnynine]

I called Leviton again after noticing that the docs for the 15 amp switch say a neutral is required, even for a single pole application. I wanted to verify that. Yes, it's true. If you have a switch wired to merely open and close a hot wire, you can't use the Leviton Vizia Z-Wave switch.

In case you were wondering why a dimmer doesn't require a neutral: incandescent and some ballast allow an electronic dimmer to bleed through a very small amount of cuurent to power the switch. There is not enough current to notice on a bulb, but it is flowing.

Okay, thanks for explaining that. But in the dimmer, if the dimmer is wired inline with the hot, where does the current bleed through to? If the dimmer takes a bit of current to power itself, it becomes a load. How is the current it uses return?

The 600w dimmer and 1000w dimmer put power through the load to power the leds and rf since there is no neutral - it just isn't enough power to illuminate the light, so for example you could not use one of these with an electrical outlet since the electric outlet breaks the circuit (when nothing is plugged in).

Edit: edited for accuracy

 

[jarcher]

The 600w dimmer puts power through the load to power the leds and rf since there is no neutral - it just isn't enough power to illuminate the light, so for example you could not use one of these with an electrical outlet since the electric outlet breaks the circuit (when nothing is plugged in).

The 1000w dimmer does use a neutral the power for the leds and rf go through the neutral and not the load.

Ug, so the 1000W dimmer also requires a neutral, but the 600W does not? I had planned to use 1000W dimmers all over to hopefully not have the buzzing problem, but since I don't have a neutral in one spot I guess I'll need a 600W dimmer for that :wacko:

Thanks very much,.

 

[johnnynine]

The 600w dimmer puts power through the load to power the leds and rf since there is no neutral - it just isn't enough power to illuminate the light, so for example you could not use one of these with an electrical outlet since the electric outlet breaks the circuit (when nothing is plugged in).

The 1000w dimmer does use a neutral the power for the leds and rf go through the neutral and not the load.

Ug, so the 1000W dimmer also requires a neutral, but the 600W does not? I had planned to use 1000W dimmers all over to hopefully not have the buzzing problem, but since I don't have a neutral in one spot I guess I'll need a 600W dimmer for that :wacko:

Thanks very much,.

NO, I'm sorry that wasn't correct. I double checked this tonight and the 1000w do not require a neutral. I saw that posted somewhere else and it does not appear to be correct. You can view the documentation at viziarf.com