Using a Dummy Z-Wave Switch to control blinds via HAI

[mikeindustries]

Hey all. I have a Somfy ILT hardwired motorized blind system tied into my OmniPro II. It's worked great for several years, but the only interface for raising and lowering the blinds is issuing commands via the OmniPro (they are set up as individual units and as a group in PC Access). Generally this quick and easy using Haiku on the phone, but I want to add a dedicated wall switch as well.
 
Originally, I purchased some Leviton Vizia RF+ zone and scene controllers to do the job (rest of the switches in the house are all Vizia RF+) but I think when you use these, you are essentially just controlling other, actual switches as puppets... right? In other words, I can't just have the HAI listen for commands from these and then do some sort of macro with the blinds, correct?
 
If the above is correct, I'm thinking the best solution might be to just buy an actual switch and use it to issue on/off (raise/lower) commands. Something like this maybe: smarthome-products.com/p-329-intermatic-intouch-ca5100-accessory-wall-controller.aspx
 
That way, I can write an automation block that just looks for those commands and then issues the blinds commands.
 
... and finally, one last question: would a remote (non load-bearing) switch be sufficient for this? I know you generally never use these without a master paired to it, but I really just need this thing for its z-wave commands.
 
Thanks!

 

[pete_c]

Welcome to the cocoontech forum mikeindustries.
 
Here using the OmniPro 2 Z-Wave Leviton serial Z-Wave PIM as a secondary controller to a primary Z-Wave plus controller.
 
I manually turned on a Z-Wave switch and could see the switch on with both controllers (IE: Omni Pro 2 - Leviton ZWave PIM and Homeseer Z-Wave Plus).
 
What doesn't see to work right and doesn't make sense to me is if I turn on a Z-Wave switch via the primary controller I do not see the status of the switch with the secondary controller and vice versa.
 
You shouldn't have an issue though writing some automation lines that read the Z-wave switch status and work your blinds.
 
Doing this with UPB works better for me here (with multiple controllers on line).

 

[vc1234]

What doesn't see to work right and doesn't make sense to me is if I turn on a Z-Wave switch via the primary controller I do not see the status of the switch with the secondary controller and vice versa.

That's another of a multitude of brain-dead zwave "features" in the protocol, probably designed by dutch high-school dropouts. 
 
As I observed in my network,  when a controller sends a command to a device, the device merely sends an acknowledgment back (an empty packet with just an CRC as a payload).  When you manually operate a device, or the device changes its status, it sends an "unsolicited" packet to associated controllers and gets back a similar ack . It would have been trivial to implement a secondary/primary controller  notification in a similar manner. But, they did not.