Using a diffrent zwave controller with VRC0P

vc1234

Active Member
I am trying to find a replacement for the Leviton installer stick as the primary controller.  I am aware of the work done with the Smarthings hub.
 
My questions are:
a. Is the smartthing hub still the "best "alternative to the Leviton installer USB, or there is something better on the market ?
 
b. How well the smartthings hub transfer secure devices to VRC0P, such as locks ?  Maybe not at all ? This is critical to me because the primary motivation to have something else other than the leviton installer is ability to manage lock user codes.  Right now, I connect to the vrc0p serial port and do it from there which is pretty silly.
 
I wish I could abandon vrc0p but cannot due to elk that manages locks.
 
 
 
Replying to myself:
 
I was able to use a Sigma ACC-UZB3-U-STA UZB stick quite successfully:

I downloaded Sigma (Silicon Labs) PC Controller which is a new implementation of the old Zensys Tools ZWaveController application that can control USB sticks. Using the new application I successfully included the Sigma UZB as a secondary controller. What was very important was the fact that you could see the network key used for secure communication (16 hex bytes). Knowing the key, I was able to use the new secondary controller with Home Assistant, OpenZwave console and OpenHAB to control locks including access to user codes.

Then, I transferred the primary function from the Leviton installer to the new controller and could use it to update the VRC0P box.

I may write my own small python script to update user codes since there is a python OpenZwave library wrapper that Home Assistant relies on (but not OpenHAB that implements its own zwave library).

Perhaps, an Aeon Gen5 would work just as well. The Sigma UZB was cheaper at $25.
 
I also wanted to thank 'batwater' for information about the Smarthings hub as a primary controller alternative to Leviton.  I would probably use it if I was unable to implement a simpler approach.
 
Hi vc1234
 
After reading your entries I bought the ACC-UZB3-U-STA UZB stick  to see if i could replace the controlthink stick im using now.
 
Only problem I ran into was i'm not able to get the configuration parameter list from any of my devices.  It says retrieving the list was unsuccessfully done.
 
Just wondered if you had any success with that.
 
johnlaroux said:
Hi vc1234
 
After reading your entries I bought the ACC-UZB3-U-STA UZB stick  to see if i could replace the controlthink stick im using now.
 
Only problem I ran into was i'm not able to get the configuration parameter list from any of my devices.  It says retrieving the list was unsuccessfully done.
 
Just wondered if you had any success with that.
I am not sure what you mean by "the configuration parameter list".  As far as I know, he controller stores information about the device type and the command classes a node supports (https://www.silabs.com/documents/login/miscellaneous/SDS13781-Z-Wave-Application-Command-Class-Specification.pdf, search for NIF).  There seems to be no mention of a configuration parameter list.
 
The ControlThink USB controller is pretty old and may implement some proprietary extensions to zwave that are incompatible with the standard controller set of features. Fortunately, the Leviton installer stick seems OK in this regard.
 
What I did was to connect both sticks to the same windows 7 machine and run the Leviton installer software and the PC controller at the same time. Then, in the Leviton app I clicked on "Include" and in the PC Controller "Learn".  All the nodes including locks were transferred to the UZB stick (controlled by PC Controller). It took a dozen of seconds.  I could operate everything including locks directly from PC Controller to make sure it all worked.
 
vc1234 said:
I am not sure what you mean by "the configuration parameter list".  As far as I know, he controller stores information about the device type and the command classes a node supports (https://www.silabs.com/documents/login/miscellaneous/SDS13781-Z-Wave-Application-Command-Class-Specification.pdf, search for NIF).  There seems to be no mention of a configuration parameter list.
 
The ControlThink USB controller is pretty old and may implement some proprietary extensions to zwave that are incompatible with the standard controller set of features. Fortunately, the Leviton installer stick seems OK in this regard.
 
What I did was to connect both sticks to the same windows 7 machine and run the Leviton installer software and the PC controller at the same time. Then, in the Leviton app I clicked on "Include" and in the PC Controller "Learn".  All the nodes including locks were transferred to the UZB stick (controlled by PC Controller). It took a dozen of seconds.  I could operate everything including locks directly from PC Controller to make sure it all worked.
 
 
I was talking about the button on the bottom right in this pic.  Named configuration parameters, but thanks for your reply.
 
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:1163]
 
johnlaroux said:
I was talking about the button on the bottom right in this pic.  Named configuration parameters, but thanks for your reply.
 
Oh, I see now. You meant the Configuration Class command that you can use to set/read device specific hardware parameters.
 
I've never bothered to read/reconfigure node parameters myself, but when i get home I'll see if I can do that to one of my devices.
 
vc1234 said:
Oh, I see now. You meant the Configuration Class command that you can use to set/read device specific hardware parameters.
 
I've never bothered to read/reconfigure node parameters myself, but when i get home I'll see if I can do that to one of my devices.
So, I checked my devices.  Only one of them (a Gen5 switch, Node 25) responds to the Configuration Properties request (0x70/0xE).  Node 15 does not, although I can get its parameters(Toggle LED) in OpenZwave:
 
>>> for x in network.nodes[15].get_configs().values():print(x)
home_id: [0xxxxxx] id: [xxxx] parent_id: [15] label: [Toggle LED mode] data: [0]
 
The problem seems to be poor PC Controller implementation. According to a packet trace, PC Controller starts with the Version 4 Configuration Class command (0x70/0xE, Conf Properties) which is implemented  in the newest Gen5 devices.  Older devices implement 0x70/0x5 Get only (Version 1) and therefore do not respond to 0x70/0xE:
 
Good trace (node 25, controller 24):
2176983 [1093 14]home_id  18  51 09 0E  19  70 0E 00 01 A9 RSSI: -42
2176991 [1094 10]home_id  19  13 09 0A  18  90 RSSI: -79
2177048 [1095 17]home_id  19  51 01 11  18  70 0F 00 01 00 00 03 BC RSSI: -79
2177130 [1096 10]home_id  18  13 01 0A  19  98 RSSI: -41
2177189 [1097 14]home_id  18  51 0A 0E  19  70 0A 00 01 AE RSSI: -42
2177263 [1098 10]home_id  19  13 0A 0A  18  93 RSSI: -78
2177323 [1099 15]home_id  19  51 02 0F  18  70 0B 00 01 00 A6 RSSI: -78
2177400 [1100 10]home_id  18  13 02 0A  19  9B RSSI: -41
2177460 [1101 14]home_id  18  51 0B 0E  19  70 0C 00 01 A9 RSSI: -42
2177533 [1102 10]home_id  19  13 0B 0A  18  92 RSSI: -78
2177593 [1103 15]home_id  19  51 03 0F  18  70 0D 00 01 00 A1 RSSI: -78
2177669 [1104 10]home_id  18  13 03 0A  19  9A RSSI: -41
2177730 [1105 13]home_id  18  51 0C 0D  19  70 05 01 A4 RSSI: -43
2177800 [1106 10]home_id  19  13 0C 0A  18  95 RSSI: -78
2177859 [1107 15]home_id  19  51 04 0F  18  70 06 01 01 00 AC RSSI: -79
2177935 [1108 10]home_id  18  13 04 0A  19  9D RSSI: -41
2177996 [1109 14]home_id  18  51 0D 0E  19  70 0E 00 03 AF RSSI: -41
2178068 [1110 10]home_id  19  13 0D 0A  18  94 RSSI: -78
2178129 [1111 20]home_id  19  51 05 14  18  70 0F 00 03 09 00 02 00 00 00 B7 RSSI: -78
2178220 [1112 10]home_id  18  13 05 0A  19  9C RSSI: -41
2178281 [1113 14]home_id  18  51 0E 0E  19  70 0A 00 03 A8 RSSI: -41
2178353 [1114 10]home_id  19  13 0E 0A  18  97 RSSI: -79
2178414 [1115 26]home_id  19  51 06 1A  18  70 0B 00 03 00 4E 69 67 68 74 4C 45 44 53 65 74 E6 RSSI: -78
2178523 [1116 10]home_id  18  13 06 0A  19  9F RSSI: -42
2178584 [1117 14]home_id  18  51 0F 0E  19  70 0C 00 03 AF RSSI: -41
2178656 [1118 10]home_id  19  13 0F 0A  18  96 RSSI: -77
2178717 [1119 15]home_id  19  51 07 0F  18  70 0D 00 03 00 A7 RSSI: -79
2178793 [1120 10]home_id  18  13 07 0A  19  9E RSSI: -41
2178852 [1121 13]home_id  18  51 01 0D  19  70 05 03 AB RSSI: -42
2178922 [1122 10]home_id  19  13 01 0A  18  98 RSSI: -77
2178983 [1123 15]home_id  19  51 08 0F  18  70 06 03 01 00 A2 RSSI: -78
2179059 [1124 10]home_id  18  13 08 0A  19  91 RSSI: -42
 
Bad trace node 15:
2332708 [1130 14]home_id  18  41 01 0E  0F  70 0E 00 01 A7 RSSI: -41
2332715 [1131 10]home_id  0F  03 01 0A  18  9E RSSI: -74



 
 
Thank you  vc1234
 
I guess silicon labs pc controller software is not backwards compatible.  I can still use my vrcop for changing configuration parameters in my zwave devices.  Now I can stop being insane.  I hear the definition of insane is trying the same thing over and over  expecting a different outcome.
 
Thanks  John 
 
johnlaroux said:
I guess silicon labs pc controller software is not backwards compatible. 
 
I just checked if OpenHab (which I do not use) can change parameters.  It seems that the Habadmin in fact can but only for the devices it has in its database.  So, it can change my old devices but cannot change  node 25 which is unknown to its xml db.
 
My goal was to avoid using vrc0p to modify lock user codes.  Now, I can do it easily  with UZB as a secondary controller via a python openzwave wrapper script so I do not care much for UI although it's annoying that PC Controller cannot do that properly.
 
Back
Top